Transcript nd The Creation Story and the Question of Human Origins GENESIS 2:4B-3:24 Who wrote the 2nd creation story? Yahwist Author: 10th BC Priestly Author: 6th BC 

nd
2
The
Creation Story and the
Question of Human Origins
GENESIS 2:4B-3:24
Who wrote the 2nd creation story?
Yahwist Author: 10th BC
Priestly Author: 6th BC
 Genesis
 2
 3
 4
 6-9
 10
 11
 Genesis
 1
 5
 6-9
 11
What is the “literal” meaning?
Fundamentalist meaning
of “literal”

“What its bare words signify” (Galileo)

“Unadorned grammatical meaning”
(Galileo)

“The bare and restricted sense of its
words” (Galileo

“…they will try to call upon Holy
Scripture for proof and even recite from
memory many passages which they
think support their position…”
(Augustine)
Catholic mean of “literal”

“…the interpreter must, as it were, go back
wholly in spirit to those remote centuries
of the East and with the aid of history,
archaeology, ethnology, and other
sciences, accurately determine what
modes of writing, so to speak, the
authors of that ancient period would be
likely to use, and in fact did use” (Pope
Pius XII)

“In order to discover the sacred author’s
intention, the reader must take into
account the conditions of their time and
culture, the literary genres in use at that
time, and the modes of feeling, speaking,
and narrating then current.” (CCC110)
History, Myth and the PBC
 1909 PBC document:

Fables, allegories, legends in part historical and in part fictitious? NO!!!

“In particular may the literal historical sense be called in doubt in the
case of facts narrated in the same chapters which touch the foundations of the
Christian religion?” NO!!!

“Must each and every word and phrase occurring in the aforesaid
chapters always and necessarily be understood in its literal sense, so
that it is never lawful to deviate from it, even when it appears obvious
that the diction is employed in an applied sense, either metaphorical
or anthropomorphical, and either reason forbids the retention or necessity
imposes the abandonment of the literal sense?” NO!
PBC Letter to
Cardinal
Suhard
 “If, then, it is admitted that in these
chapters history in the classic and
modern sense is not found, it must
also be confessed that modern science
does not yet offer a positive solution to all
the problems of these chapters. . . . If
anyone should contend a priori that their
narratives contain no history in the
modern sense of the word, he would
easily insinuate that these are in no sense
of the word historical, although in fact
they relate in simple and figurative
words, which correspond to the capacity
of men who are less erudite,
fundamental truths with reference to
the economy of health, and also describe
in popular manner the origin of
humankind and of an elect people.”
“This letter, in fact,
clearly points out that
the first eleven chapters
of Genesis…do
nevertheless pertain to
history in a true
sense, which however
must be further
studied and
determined by
exegetes; the same
chapters,… both state
the principal truths
which are fundamental
for our salvation, and
also give a popular
description of the
origin of the human race
and the chosen people.”
Humani Generis on the PBC Letter
Cardinal
Ratzinger on
the PBC
The PBC was
restructured and
given a purely
advisory role in
1971 by Pope Paul
VI
 Donum Veritatis states – perhaps for the first time
with such candor – that there are magisterial
decisions which cannot be the final word on
a given matter as such but, despite the
permanent value of their principles, are chiefly also
a signal for pastoral prudence, a sort of provisional
policy …. In this connection, one will probably call
to mind the pontifical statements of the last
century, especially the decisions of the then
Biblical Commission. As warning calls against
rash and superficial accommodations, they remain
perfectly legitimate. Nevertheless, with respect to
particular aspects of their content, they
were superseded after having fulfilled their
pastoral function in the situation of the
time.”
John Paul II in
the TOB: Part
I, Ch. 1
 “The second chapter of Genesis constitutes, in a
certain manner, the most ancient description
and record of man's self-knowledge. Together
with the third chapter it is the first testimony of
human conscience. A reflection in depth on this
text—through the whole archaic form of
the narrative, which manifests its
primitive mythical character(4)…”

Includes an important footnote (4) on the
nature of myth:



Formerly used to indicate what was not contained
in reality
Now indicates “the structure of the reality that is
inaccessible to rational and empirical
investigation”
Does quote H. Schlier: “myth does not know
historical facts and has no need of them,
inasmuch as it describes man's cosmic destiny”
What are the
“mythical” parts
of the 2nd story?
 Mesopotamian “Legend of Adapa”
 “Tree of Life” found in Babylonian circles
 Paradise garden in the East found in Sumerian
poems/Enki and Nin-ti
 Mystical powers of Tigris and Euphrates in Gan-
Eden found in Babylonian poems
 Finds echoes in early Upanishadic and Greek
stories of lonely human persons split in two
 Snake Canaanite/Sumerian (Ningishzida)
fertility symbols
 The Epic of Gilgamesh
What is the
“Truth” of
Eden?
 Written during Solomonic Reign of the 10th century
 Creation myths often linked to temple construction
 “Eden” modeled on the Temple in Jerusalem




River Gihon in Eden and flows from Temple Mount
Jewels in Eden are found on the High Priest’s
breastplate
Adam’s task to “abad” and “shamar” are the
Hebrew words for the duty of the High Priest in the
Temple
The Temple was a microcosm of the world, and the
work of the priest an image of the common
priesthood and its work of stewardship over
creation
 Eden is, like the Temple, where God meets his people
in a perfect way. It is an image of God’s desire to
dwell with his people.
What is the “Truth” of Adam and Eve?
 adam – “human being from the
earth”
 Not used as a proper name
until Genesis 5:1
 Awakes from sleep as


Iss – male
Issa – female
 When human beings live in a
proper worship relationship
with God expressed in the
Temple, they also live in a
proper relationship with
 One another as male and
female expressed through
marital love
 Nature in the role of priests
over creation, serving and
caring for it
Did Adam and Eve exist?
 No
 Mythical characters
representing humanity
as a whole and men and
women in particular
Is “adam” two individuals or a population?
 Pius XII in Humani Generis: 1950

“37. When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion,
namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such
liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that
either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their
origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of
all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents.
Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with
that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching
Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds
from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through
generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own.”
Is “adam” two individuals or a population?
Paul VI – 1966
Address to Theologians at the Symposium on Original Sin
 “It is evident that you will not consider as reconcilable with the authentic
Catholic doctrine those explanations of original sin, given by some modern
authors, which start from the presupposition of polygenism which is
not proved, and deny more or less clearly that the sin which has been such an
abundant source of evils for humankind has consisted above all in the
disobedience which Adam, the first man and the figure of the future Adam,
committed at the beginning of history.
 “As to the theory of evolutionism, you will not consider it acceptable if
it is not clearly in agreement with the immediate creation of human
souls by God and does not regard the disobedience of Adam, the first
universal parent, as of decisive importance for the destiny of
humankind.”
Is polygenism
still
prohibited?
 Have exegetes “studied further,”
and now adequately, the question of
history vs. myth in Genesis 2-3?
(Pius XII, Humani Generis)
 Is it now “apparent” how we can
move forward?
(Pius XII, Humani Generis)
 Has polygenism “been proved?”
(Paul VI)
 Is the silence on the Magisterium
since 1966 on polygenism an
indication of a shift?
2009 International Theological Commission
Communion and Stewardship
 “In its original unity – of which Adam is the symbol – the human race
is made in the image of the divine Trinity.”
 “While the story of human origins is complex and subject to revision,
physical anthropology and molecular biology combine to make a
convincing case for the origin of the human species in Africa
about 150,000 years ago in a humanoid population of common
genetic lineage.”
 “Catholic theology affirms that that the emergence of the first
members of the human species (whether as individuals or in
populations) represents an event that is not susceptible of a purely
natural explanation and which can appropriately be attributed to divine
intervention. Acting indirectly through causal chains operating from the
beginning of cosmic history, God prepared the way for what Pope John
Paul II has called ‘an ontological leap...the moment of transition to the
spiritual.’”