N.T. Wright on Adam and Eve

Bishop of Durham and leading New Testament scholar N.T. Wright offers his thoughts on how we should read the first two chapters of Genesis, and why myth does not mean the same thing as "not true".

[MisterNbdy]

My question to anyone who reasons that a literal Adam and Eve aren’t necessary to understanding the “real” meaning of Genesis is this: the New Testament provides the lineage of Jesus going right back to Adam. At what point does Jesus’ lineage become figurative or allegorical?

[protochris]

Genesis is not about what's true, but what is truth. If the bible was a science book, it would have been discarded thousands of years ago, but it's something more, that's why it's still relevant today.

[jvusich]

Wright says, "I do think it matters that something like a primal pair getting it wrong did happen." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the historicity of the fall of Adam and Eve. I'm amazed that someone with Wright's reputation for Christian orthodoxy would use such weaselly and equivocating language to describe an episode of Biblical history that is so fundamentally crucial to Christian theology.

[aidanbenbow]

I agree that we need to analyse the meaning of the text, but I still think we should interpret Adam and Eve literally, otherwise everything else doesn't make sense!

[kevimah]

I love the fly on the screen in the background! lol!

[caonexpeguero]

1:43 "Genesis is like a Shakespeare play or a Beethoven Symphony". It's all myth. Why then not the whole rest of the Bible? "The six days of creation simply describe how you make a temple, a tabernacle, " And these are the words of a Bishop and a leading NT scholar. No wonder why the church is in such disarray now a days.

[coreyfriend]

He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, - Matthew 19:4

[davidahn]

you cannot separate a function creation or a material creation. That separtion is modern

[DanPrinMan]

Literalism, I would also add, limits the imaginative nature of mankind. This is an art that has been lost in America.

Just a thought.

[dionsanchez]

It is helpful to see Genesis in light of Revelation and the symbolic communication of that book. Paradise lost, paradise gained...

[MikeWinger]

Having open and thoughtful discussions is good! But I don't think this is what is happening here. Here's my takeaway, sad as it is.

"I want a nuanced and thoughtful view of the text that doesn't force false dichotomies or cause us to assume that one interpretational point forces a whole worldview on me. To defend this position I will characterize those who disagree with my nuance as having no nuance of their own. I'll represent them as foolish thinkers who are themselves pushed into one side of my own false dichotomy. I will assume that if they make one interpretation all point (6 day creation or literal Adam and Eve) that they automatically represent a shallow worldview and eschatology."

It comes off as hypocritically painting other with the brush you deny them.

[CP-qnmn]

When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
4After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.
5Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died. Genesis 5: 3-5 If Adam was not a literal person why does God go out of his way to give us this detail.

[jasonreformedbaptist]

Why question the historicity of Genesis? What biblical reason would you not take it literally?

[SolaScriptura]

I like NT Wright's insight on how there is a structural framework to the beginning of Genesis, but at the same time there was a heartfelt way of explaining these events that took place. Like adding notes to the staff, there are highs and lows, and even though those highs and lows are not exactly clear, there is still music!!

[kenbro]

elsewhere NT Wright follows the principles of exegesis and hermeneutics carefully. Why does he not do the same in Genesis 1-3. Is it because he wants to mould the meaning to meld with the ruling evolutionary paradigm?

[goosemastermillion]

This was a super thought provoking video, though I still don't know what to think about Adam and Eve. You've shown me I wasn't thinking enough! XD

[DanielDeVito]

When would you use the word myth to describe something that actually happened?

[allnations]

I don't see why it follows that we must think the six days of creation might not have been literal just because we grasp that the creation story tells us that God wants to fellowship with man

[mikki]

He says "We need to lighten up, we need to uncouple these issues". So we can take God's wonderfully integrated body of truth and break it up and then pick and choose what we want and reject what we don't like? And having done this, do we think it will have no impact on the rest of what God is saying to us?
This man is more impressed with himself than he is with God.

[beafybeaverman]

I think about something similar to this with the youth kids that I sponsor. "How can I help lead these kids in truth to know Christ?" I've found that there is no easy answer, but it involves hard work, prayer, fasting, and relationship building. The axiom "people don't care how much you know till they know how much you care" is true. Be relational, speak the truth, and confront errors when they come up in a gentle and respectful way. (1Pet. 3:14-17; 2Cor. 10:4-6) Love opens ears/hearts/minds.