When reading the Bible it is important to understand that everything in it was written by men. In the case of the old testament this would be following many hundreds or thousands of years of oral story telling. In the case of the new testament usually through professional scribes which was the custom of the day. Scribes were literate men, fluent in many languages, especially greek. The Bible, I might ask which Bible because there are so many versions and editions, and it is a great mistake to ignore the Catholic text in which there are two stories of creation, that we see today is the complex result of the influences of men over the years. Better to trust the "spirt of the text" than to get trapped in a maze of questions.
There really is another way to determine at least a hint of what the story is really saying. To make sense of any religious text it is necessary to develop the ability to look behind to understand the author. Another way to put it is to realize the esoteric beneath the exoteric.
The story of Adam and Eve is very much like those instances in the new testament where we see the authors using parables to illustrate a teaching. If you read carefully you will see that on the sixth day God created man.... man and woman he created and told them to go forth and dominate the Earth. On the seventh day we hear about Adam and Eve and the fall. Plainly the Earth was well populated with humans before Adam and Eve left the garden. This is why Cain was able to go the land of Nod to find a wife.
Consider again the story of A&E and the garden. This is a parable . It's purpose was to relate the advent of the first true humans, the first in God's image, on Earth. All those other people were the results of the long years of evolution. When God saw they were ready, meaning the physical humans were evolved enough, His Spirit was infused in them. This began the sons of god on Earth and was the beginning of the end of the sons of men. Human souls do and have always existed separately from the bodies. They do not reside in our bodies, they are only connected to them, nor are they subordinate to the personality. Personalities are almost strictly temporal. If a man suffers injury which has a negative effect on his personality it is known by God because God looks to the soul to make the permanent and true judgement of the character of the man, and salvation is a word which describes the goodness of a man as told by the repository of his history. His soul! The soul is the part of us which is eternal, made in the image of God. The body is of no consequence beyond this life. This is the true meaning. The references to the vengefullness of God is only the best interpetation of the mysterious stories by men of the day. They spoke with conviction but a man to them was just what they saw in others. And God who they knew inately and through tradition, was an authority figure to be feared and obeyed. These attributes where common in those days of people living in family groups and to view the world in those same terms was for them quite normal.
Now if we take a look at that A&E story again perhaps we can see that the story recounts truthful events cloaked in the filters of understandable ignorance. We run into difficulties when we study God's creation without the ability to really see the events unfold. To do this it is only necessary to look behind the words. The Bible is true, but there are many layers to penetrate. At a certain point, deep inside the externals, there are no contradictions and the Word of God is clear.
I've learned over the years that we humans have a talent for making easy things complicated.
Brian there are many who know more than they say. If a preacher was to depart too far from the expected parameters he or she might suffer as a result. It is also true, very true that most people do not need to be concerned. It's really not necessary to have a successful and meaningful life. When a man wants to know however, he deserves to have the opportunity to hear more so he can decide on his own.
I preach a lot but I don't care much what others say or how they react. You may be sure that I believe what I say and that my deductions are the result of decades of study.
Jacob
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