Rob Bell Takes Question on Whether Adam and Eve Are Historical or Fictional Characters

Best-selling author and Christian minister Rob Bell has launched a Bible series on his Tumblr this week, and recently fielded questions about the historicity of Adam and Eve… and why he believes the question is irrelevant.

Here’s the beginning of Bell’s post:

What is the Bible? Part 9

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

All right, then, Adam and Eve.

Do you think they were real people? I don’t think that’s the point of the story.

Could they have been? Of course. But then you’d have to answer all sorts of questions about DNA and fossils and evidence for how old the earth is…

Editors Blog: Wrong…..(buzzer goes off) Scientists can now confirm the fact that we come from the ONE set of parents.

Rob Bell Continues ….Does anybody actually know for sure whether or not they were actual, real people? No. 

So debating whether or not they were actual, real people isn’t the point. Exactly. It’s actually dangerous, because in arguing one way or the other you may miss the point of the story.

But your answer that you don’t think that’s the point of the story seems like you’re avoiding the question– Absolutely not.

But your answer is clearly taking the Bible less seriously than if you simply said that you believe they were real people because the Bible says they were real people. Absolutely not. I give that answer because that’s the answer that takes the story the most seriously.

But some people say that if you don’t believe that Adam and Eve were real people, then you’re denying the truth of the rest of the Bible as well- That’s crazy. And demeaning to the scriptures as well.

Okay then, why don’t you think them being real people is the point of the story? Because the storytellers clearly have a much bigger point in mind…

So first, the bigger point. Then second, some details from the Adam and Eve story. Then third, some conclusions. Which will, of course, just be getting the discussion started. 

First, the Adam and Eve story is found in the first several chapters of the book of Genesis which is the first book of the Torah. The Torah (In Hebrew Torah means way, teaching, or instruction.) didn’t take the form we’re familiar with (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) until it was edited and assembled during the exile in Babylon. (Which is why Deuteronomy, often referred to as one of The Books of Moses, tells how Moses…died.)

During the exile, these writers and editors found themselves living not in Jerusalem, their home and the center of their faith, but miles away in a foreign land filled with strange people with strange customs who worshipped a host of other gods.

Read the rest here: http://robbellcom.tumblr.com/post/67088740020/what-is-the-bible-part-9

Editors Blog: Sure read on… but Rob Bell is like Gretel who leaves breadcrumbs in the forest only to have them eaten by crows, or ravens.

This is the blind leading the blind

Oh……one last thing. If Adam was only Allegorical, or a story just to help explain stuff, then we have a bit of a problem…..

Luke in his gospel shows us Jesus as come from Adam; Jesus is the Perfect Man (Luke 3:23-38).

Maybe for Rob Bell, Jesus is allegorical too!