DID ADAM AND EVE REALLY EXIST?
By C. John Collins
IVP. 192 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 1 844 745 258
John Collins is Professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, USA. He writes in defence of the traditional view, namely that Adam and Eve were real people, the original human couple, through whom sin and death came into the world.
Collins begins by considering the overall shape of the biblical story from creation to consummation. He argues that this overarching story is presented as a coherent historical account (recording real events, including the Fall) and that these historical events underlie and make sense of present human experience. So, for example, accepting the historicity of Genesis 3 implies that sin is not inherent in being human — sin is unoriginal, it is an alien intruder into creation — and that sinful humanity is in need of redemption.
