What was thought to be a Flash-in-the-Pan short lived heresy of 2 to 3 hundred years ago---is again--through the internet--making a small come back among those who want their intellectual senses tantalized by what they think is something new and exciting....
"Arguments from Biblical scholars that find ways of reading ancientnear Eastern or evolutionary ideas into the text of Genesis are becoming popular amongst lay people and Christian apologists. .... theistic evolutionist Michael Jones (Inspiring Philosophy) has used several of these arguments to try and refute “young earth creation” (Biblical creation). Based on the work of Old Testament scholars John Walton and Michael Heiser, Jones argues that Genesis 1 implies there were more people around than Adam and Eve (i.e., pre-Adamites) and that, therefore, in Genesis 2, which he believes is a sequel to Genesis 1,2 God elects Adam and Eve out of that group of people...
 |
HERETIC Michael Jones looking for weak minded Christians
in the dark corners of cyberspace
|
While this view may seem appealing to those who want to accommodate evolutionary thinking with the Bible, there are several problems with it:
Genesis 1 gives us a historical account of the creation of the world that teaches God created all things in six 24-hour days (For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Exodus 20:11). The flow of the creation account in Genesis 1 leads us to thepinnacle of God’s creation on day six, when He creates man in His own image (Genesis 1:26–28).
Q: Do these verses suggest there were more than two people on earth at this point?
A: No, since this is day six, mankind was the first couple (Adam and Eve).
---In Genesis 1:26, “man” (ʾādām, is without the article, i.e., anarthrous) refers to mankind because, after using the singular “ʾādām,” it says “let them (plural) have dominion . . .”
---Then in Genesis 1:27, “the man” (hāʾādām, with the article, i.e., arthrous) is used,
--------which is followed by “ . . . in the image of God He created him (singular),”
--------then “male and female, He created them (plural).”
---Then in Adam’s genealogy, Genesis 5:1–5, it is always anarthrous “ʾādām.” In Genesis 5:1, “ʾādām” (twice) refers to the first man because it refers to “him.”
---In Genesis 5:2, it refers to “male and female . . . them,” who were “called “ʾādām” when they were created. So “ʾādām” refers to both male and female, but they were the first two humans (Adam and Eve).
---In Genesis 5:3–5, “ʾādām” clearly refers to the first man, Adam, who fathered Seth and had other sons and daughters.
---The key to understanding 2:4 is in the opening Hebrew phrase tôlĕdōt (“This is the history of”), as it formulates the structure of the book of Genesis. A number of scholars recognize that here tôlĕdōt serves as a heading that introduces a new section of the narrative. Interestingly, this is the only time the phrase tôlĕdōt occurs without a personal name, the reason being that “Adam had no human predecessors.”
---Like a craftsman who shapes his material, the LORD God “formed”(yāṣar) the man from the “dust” (ʿāpār) of the ground. The word “dust” is not a metaphor. It can only mean literal dust in the context of Genesis 2–3 because it is to dust that Adam will return due to his disobedience (Genesis 3:19; cf. Job 34:14-15).
---After the formation of man from the dust of the ground, he is given human life when the LORD God breathes into him the breath of life (cf. Genesis 6:17, 7:15, 22), which is a clear indication of life and thereby the lifeless body became a living soul, a living being.
---Adam consists then of the material (dust) and immaterial (breath of life).
---It was not until the LORD God breathed into Adam that he became a living creature (as Paul also indicates in 1 Corinthians 15:45: “the first man Adam became a living soul”)."
AIG
