Two Major Takeaways from Historical Adam Research

Dr. Craig shares two major insights from his book on the historical Adam.

The conclusions to which I came involved two claims. The first one is that Genesis chapter 1 to 11, which include the stories of Adam and Eve, belong to a literary genre or type that need not be interpreted literalistically. We're familiar with other types of literature of this sort. For example, the Psalms are poetry which will often use figurative or metaphorical language to describe God, or the last book of the Bible – the Book of Revelation – is Jewish apocalyptic literature which is filled with symbolism and should not be read in a literalistic way. And my contention that I argue in considerable detail is that Genesis 1 to 11 also belongs to a type of literature that is concerned with historical events but which should not be read in a literalistic way. It, too, is written in the colorful and figurative language that shouldn't be taken at just face value. Now, if that is correct, that means then that we can turn to modern science to ask about the question of human origins, as to when human beings came into existence on this planet. As a result of my study, I am absolutely convinced that Neanderthals were fully human, and that therefore if there was an Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve had to be prior to the divergence of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. And that would place them at the time of a human species called Homo heidelbergensis, or Heidelberg man, who was a human being that had a brain capacity comparable to modern Homo sapiens, a modern appearance, and yet who lived around 750,000 years ago. My proposal is that we identify Adam and Eve with two members of this species Homo heidelbergensis who were then the progenitors of subsequent human species so that every human being is descended from this primordial foundational pair. I would note that that is fully consistent with the evidence of population genetics and paleoanthropology. That's the position I defend in the book.