Bible Studies, Inspired by Faith and Science

Lesson 3: The First civilizations: Genesis 3-5 What if… neither faith nor science knows for sure how the numbers add up? Cain and Abel (Genesis 3): What if… Cain and Abel could be Adam’s great-great-grandsons? Since Adam also means “man” (and earth, and clay, from which Adam was formed), and Eve means “mother of the living,” Cain and Abel’s story could be interpreted as the tale of Adam and Eve’s first children, or else of man’s and woman’s, of their great-great-… great-grandchildren. Different cultures have interpreted it differently in different times. The details of the Cain and Abel story do seem to suggest a more settled world than the immediate escape from Eden; a world of farming, villages and religion; maybe even of meat and cooking grain. Since Cain leaves and marries someone else, at the very least the details suggest a world where Adam and Eve are not the only human beings. What if… father doesn’t always mean Dad? Of course, the Bible does (sort of) say Adam is the father...

Lesson 2: The First Human Beings: Genesis 2-3 What if… faith and science agreed that there really was an Eden? Adam and Eve: What if… Adam and Eve were two people chosen from the crowd? One man. One woman: Genesis 1 ends with the creation of human beings. “Male and female He created them,” is says, implying more than one person, and certainly not discounting the possibility of more than two. But Genesis 2 starts with one man, Adam, in the garden, and begs the question: Was he the only “man?” What if he was the only man tested by God? What if there were other “people,” but their generations would die out in time, and only Adam’s descendants would survive? Would that contradict Genesis 1 and 2, or could it be valid, if unconventional, interpretation? And which matters more, the interpretation, or continuing to read the word? Richard Dawkins describes research that shows all humanity to be descended from a single woman who probably lived in Africa. She would have been one member of a ne...