GENESIS 2:4B-3:24

The 2nd Creation Story and the Question of Human

Origins

Yahwist Author: 10th BC Priestly Author: 6th BC

Genesis 1 5 6-9 11

Who wrote the 2nd creation story?

Genesis 2 3 4 6-9 10 11

Fundamentalist meaning of “literal”

Catholic mean of “literal”

“What its bare words signify” (Galileo)

“Unadorned grammatical meaning” (Galileo)

“The bare and restricted sense of its words” (Galileo

“…they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position…” (Augustine)

“…the interpreter must, as it were, go back wholly in spirit to those remote centuries of the East and with the aid of history, archaeology, ethnology, and other sciences, accurately determine what modes of writing, so to speak, the authors of that ancient period would be likely to use, and in fact did use” (Pope Pius XII)

“In order to discover the sacred author’s intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking, and narrating then current.” (CCC110)

What is the “literal” meaning?

History, Myth and the PBC

1909 PBC document:

Fables, allegories, legends in part historical and in part fictitious? NO!!!

“In particular may the literal historical sense be called in doubt in the case of facts narrated in the same chapters which touch the foundations of the Christian religion?” NO!!!

“Must each and every word and phrase occurring in the aforesaid chapters always and necessarily be understood in its literal sense, so that it is never lawful to deviate from it, even when it appears obvious that the diction is employed in an applied sense, either metaphorical or anthropomorphical, and either reason forbids the retention or necessity imposes the abandonment of the literal sense?” NO!

PBC Letter to Cardinal Suhard

“If, then, it is admitted that in these chapters history in the classic and modern sense is not found, it must also be confessed that modern science does not yet offer a positive solution to all the problems of these chapters. . . . If anyone should contend a priori that their narratives contain no history in the modern sense of the word, he would easily insinuate that these are in no sense of the word historical, although in fact they relate in simple and figurative words, which correspond to the capacity of men who are less erudite, fundamental truths with reference to the economy of health, and also describe in popular manner the origin of humankind and of an elect people.”

Humani Generis on the PBC Letter

Click icon to add picture“This letter, in fact, clearly points out that the first eleven chapters of Genesis…do nevertheless pertain to history in a true sense, which however must be further studied and determined by exegetes; the same chapters,… both state the principal truths which are fundamental for our salvation, and also give a popular description of the origin of the human race and the chosen people.”

Cardinal Ratzinger on the PBC

The PBC was restructured and given a purely advisory role in 1971 by Pope Paul VI

Donum Veritatis states – perhaps for the first time with such candor – that there are magisterial decisions which cannot be the final word on a given matter as such but, despite the permanent value of their principles, are chiefly also a signal for pastoral prudence, a sort of provisional policy …. In this connection, one will probably call to mind the pontifical statements of the last century, especially the decisions of the then Biblical Commission. As warning calls against rash and superficial accommodations, they remain perfectly legitimate. Nevertheless, with respect to particular aspects of their content, they were superseded after having fulfilled their pastoral function in the situation of the time.”

John Paul II in the TOB: Part I, Ch. 1

“The second chapter of Genesis constitutes, in a certain manner, the most ancient description and record of man's self-knowledge. Together with the third chapter it is the first testimony of human conscience. A reflection in depth on this text—through the whole archaic form of the narrative, which manifests its primitive mythical character(4)…”

Includes an important footnote (4) on the nature of myth:

Formerly used to indicate what was not contained in reality

Now indicates “the structure of the reality that is inaccessible to rational and empirical investigation”

Does quote H. Schlier: “myth does not know historical facts and has no need of them, inasmuch as it describes man's cosmic destiny”

What are the “mythical” parts of the 2nd story?

Mesopotamian “Legend of Adapa”

“Tree of Life” found in Babylonian circles

Paradise garden in the East found in Sumerian poems/Enki and Nin-ti

Mystical powers of Tigris and Euphrates in Gan-Eden found in Babylonian poems

Finds echoes in early Upanishadic and Greek stories of lonely human persons split in two

Snake Canaanite/Sumerian (Ningishzida) fertility symbols

The Epic of Gilgamesh

What is the “Truth” of Eden?

Written during Solomonic Reign of the 10th century

Creation myths often linked to temple construction

“Eden” modeled on the Temple in Jerusalem River Gihon in Eden and flows from Temple

Mount Jewels in Eden are found on the High Priest’s

breastplate Adam’s task to “abad” and “shamar” are the

Hebrew words for the duty of the High Priest in the Temple

The Temple was a microcosm of the world, and the work of the priest an image of the common priesthood and its work of stewardship over creation

Eden is, like the Temple, where God meets his people in a perfect way. It is an image of God’s desire to dwell with his people.

What is the “Truth” of Adam and Eve?

adam – “human being from the earth” Not used as a proper

name until Genesis 5:1

Awakes from sleep as Iss – male Issa – female

When human beings live in a proper worship relationship with God expressed in the Temple, they also live in a proper relationship with One another as male and

female expressed through marital love

Nature in the role of priests over creation, serving and caring for it

Did Adam and Eve exist?

No

Mythical characters representing humanity as a whole and men and women in particular

Is “adam” two individuals or a population?

Pius XII in Humani Generis: 1950

“37. When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own.”

Is “adam” two individuals or a population?

“It is evident that you will not consider as reconcilable with the authentic Catholic doctrine those explanations of original sin, given by some modern authors, which start from the presupposition of polygenism which is not proved, and deny more or less clearly that the sin which has been such an abundant source of evils for humankind has consisted above all in the disobedience which Adam, the first man and the figure of the future Adam, committed at the beginning of history.

“As to the theory of evolutionism, you will not consider it acceptable if it is not clearly in agreement with the immediate creation of human souls by God and does not regard the disobedience of Adam, the first universal parent, as of decisive importance for the destiny of humankind.”

Paul VI – 1966Address to Theologians at the Symposium on Original Sin

Is polygenism still prohibited?

Have exegetes “studied further,” and now adequately, the question of history vs. myth in Genesis 2-3? (Pius XII, Humani Generis)

Is it now “apparent” how we can move forward? (Pius XII, Humani Generis)

Has polygenism “been proved?” (Paul VI)

Is the silence on the Magisterium since 1966 on polygenism an indication of a shift?

2009 International Theological CommissionCommunion and Stewardship

“In its original unity – of which Adam is the symbol – the human race is made in the image of the divine Trinity.”

“While the story of human origins is complex and subject to revision, physical anthropology and molecular biology combine to make a convincing case for the origin of the human species in Africa about 150,000 years ago in a humanoid population of common genetic lineage.”

“Catholic theology affirms that that the emergence of the first members of the human species (whether as individuals or in populations) represents an event that is not susceptible of a purely natural explanation and which can appropriately be attributed to divine intervention. Acting indirectly through causal chains operating from the beginning of cosmic history, God prepared the way for what Pope John Paul II has called ‘an ontological leap...the moment of transition to the spiritual.’”