When I started this post, I never thought it would develop into the structure that it has or continue on for this lengthy a stretch. And despite a few somewhat slightly “testy” moments, it’s been quite interesting and informative. After reading and considering all these posts, as well as doing quite a bit of prayer, contemplation, and of course some research inside and out of Scripture, I thought I’d interject the elements that have come into the light from my perspective:
First of all, Adam and Eve were absolutely not the first humans to walk the face of the earth. Of that, I am now certain.
Were they real? Were they an allegory? A metaphor? Is the whole account “just” another a parable? Well someone had to breed children and flesh out the lineage leading to our Lord and Savior. And that genealogy, in my opinion, is laid out in too much detail to be a pure parable. And, obviously, there had to be a first man and woman somewhere along the line. With that being said, like so many other dualities contained in Scripture, Adam, while genealogically correct, could still be considered “humanity,” according to his name, whereas the more direct line leading to Jesus could begin with Seth whose name means Anointed.
But now I see a more symbolic lesson in who or what Adam and Eve really are—a deep spiritual lesson—a parable. Adam and Eve are types. They are the human paradigm of God and the Word. The first example of what human relationships and family really represent:
Who was Jesus before he was a man? He was the Word:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth.
Before the Word became flesh, the Word was God’s Helper (Helpmate?) through whom all things came into being. And where did Jesus say He originally came from?
Joh 16:27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God.
Joh 16:28 I came out from the Father and have come into the world; I leave the world again and go to the Father.
Joh_10:30 I and the Father are One!
And where did Eve come from? Eve came out from Adam:
Gen 2:18 And Jehovah God said, It is not good, the man being alone. (Was it good for God to be alone? Apparently not.) I will make a helper suited to him.
Gen 2:22 And Jehovah God formed the rib which He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.
Gen 2:23 And the man said, This now at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh. For this shall be called Woman, because this has been taken out of man.
I’m going to use gender here; and that may seem strange to some, but I see no other proper way to describe it. Spiritual aspects can only be expressed by humans in human terms.
Eve’s name means “mother” …and as Prune pointed out… it also means “starting point.”
Adam and Eve are a parable based in spiritual truth with what I believe to be some historical facts sprinkled in. And the “real Eve” is the Word, the Starting Point, the Helper who came out from God, the Creator of all that exists in the Universe, the “Mother” of all living.
Gen_3:20 And the man called the name of his wife, Eve; because she became the mother of all living.
And the Word, divested of glory, became flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus, the Son of god.
Php 2:5 For think this within you, which mind was also in Christ Jesus,
Php 2:6 who subsisting in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
Php 2:7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men
Php 2:8 and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross.
Php 2:9 Because of this also God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name,
Php 2:10 that at the name of Jesus "every knee should bow," of heavenly ones, and earthly ones, and ones under the earth,
Php 2:11 and "every tongue should confess" that Jesus Christ is "Lord," to the glory of God the Father.
Mike