 | Fr. Paul O'Callaghan has been Dean of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral since January 1, 1993. Fr. Paul is a graduate of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA, and was ordained to the priesthood of the Orthodox Church in 1979. Fr. Paul and his wife Jeannie were married in 1978 and have four children. He is the author of The Feast of Friendship and a number of articles. Fr. Paul can be reached at St. George Cathedral at (316) 636-4676, by E-mail at vrev@stgeorgecathedral.net. Web site is at www.stgeorgecathedral.net |
Religion
2003-01-01 11:18:00
Did all of mankind descend from just two people?
: The Bible says God made Adam by breathing life into a handful of clay; then He made Eve by taking a rib from Adam's side. Are these the only two people He made in this fashion? If so, did all mankind evolve from sons and daughters of Adam and Eve?
ANSWER: Answers to these kinds of questions depend on how one interprets the book of Genesis. Some Christians read Genesis very literally, like a blow-by-blow report from the scene of creation. Other Christians view Genesis as more of a symbolic account that sets forth theological truths about the relationships between God, humanity, and the world. I am going to follow the latter approach in answering your questions. In portraying man being formed from a lump of clay, Genesis shows us that our earthly, physical nature is an essential aspect of being human. In this respect, human beings are of a kin with the rest of the material world; we have material bodies that are formed from the same elements as all other creatures, whether living or inanimate. The formation of humanity from "a lump of clay" reveals us as belonging essentially to the material universe. God's "breathing" of life upon the lump of clay is understood by the Church Fathers to refer to God's gift of a rational soul to man, or alternately, as the gift of his own Holy Spirit. In any case, the "breath of God" is a spiritual reality that gives humanity a spiritual nature. Thus the book of Genesis shows man to be composed of an earthly, physical nature on one hand, and a spiritual nature on the other. It is this two-fold nature that distinguishes him both from angels, who do not a have a physical body, and animals, which do not have a spiritual soul. In this sense, the answer to your first question is "yes." The creation of mankind with a dual nature is absolutely unique in the process of creation. The formation of Eve from Adam's rib represents the fact that man and woman share the same nature - Eve is made of the exactly same stuff as Adam. This is a dramatic picture of the principle laid out in Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them." The two genders share equally the one human nature created in the image and likeness of God. The splitting of Eve from Adam's original unity also provides the biblical rationale for marriage. "Therefore shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). Men and women seek marriage to recover the unity of human nature that originally existed in Adam. To put it another way, the fullness of humanity exists in the unity of man and woman.This provides the answer to your second question. The formation of humanity is a special creative act of God, and the nature given to the first humans is the same nature all of us share. All human beings of both genders and whatever race or nation are part of the one human family. In this sense, yes, we are all descendants of our first parents, or, as you put it, we have "evolved" from the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.
