Doctrine on Adam and Eve?

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cymisgreat

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So I was taught in high school that the Church allows for multiple interpretations of Scriptures. One for example is the story of Adam and Eve.

It is perfectly acceptable to believe that there was one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve, who actually existed and were our first “parents” so to speak. That is what the Scripture says, so of course it’s okay by the Church’s standards.

Also, it is perfectly acceptable for a Catholic to believe that Adam and Eve are symbols of man and woman. The importance is to recognize the underlying Truth (as with any Scripture), which is that God created all things, including mankind.

I brought this up to a Catholic friend of mine and they told me it is required for Catholics to believe in a physical Adam and Eve. Is this so?

Thanks!
 
cymisgreat said:
So I was taught in high school that the Church allows for multiple interpretations of Scriptures. One for example is the story of Adam and Eve.

It is perfectly acceptable to believe that there was one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve, who actually existed and were our first “parents” so to speak. That is what the Scripture says, so of course it’s okay by the Church’s standards.

Also, it is perfectly acceptable for a Catholic to believe that Adam and Eve are symbols of man and woman. The importance is to recognize the underlying Truth (as with any Scripture), which is that God created all things, including mankind.

I brought this up to a Catholic friend of mine and they told me it is required for Catholics to believe in a physical Adam and Eve. Is this so?

Thanks!
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Yes. Your friend is correct.

The Catholic teaching requires that Adam and Eve be actual persons.
“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 either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parents 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 that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own”
(Humani Generis, 37, Pope Pius XII)​
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Hope that helps 🙂

God Bless 🙂
 
Romans 5:12 "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.

14 But death reigned from Adam unto Moses, even over them also who have not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, who is a figure of him who was to come.

17-19 For if by one man’s offence death reigned through one; much more they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice, shall reign in life through one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offence of one, unto all men to condemnation; so also by the justice of one, unto all men to justification of life. For as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one, many shall be made just."

The above is pretty clear, As is:
1 Corinthians 15:22 “And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.”

1 Timothy 2:13 “For Adam was first formed; then Eve.”

CCC 375 The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original “state of holiness and justice”. This grace of original holiness was “to share in. . .divine life”.

And yes they are symbols of all men, but all scripture is based on the literal interpretation and has other meanings based on the senses of scripture: moral, analogical, etc.
 
ddarko said:
Yes. Your friend is correct.

The Catholic teaching requires that Adam and Eve be actual persons.

Hope that helps 🙂

God Bless 🙂
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Which fact gets entangled with the question of the “historicity” of the Creation stories, in the minds of both believers and infidels. They are quite different from the Creation stories of Babylonia, but especially in their depiction of mankind to the Creator. Adam and Eve are son and daughter of God, almost divine beings themselves. Mirrors of God Himself. But then disobedience, exile and death, but not without the promise of return. The story of man, of Israel, of the Church herself.
 
cymisgreat said:
So I was taught in high school that the Church allows for multiple interpretations of Scriptures. One for example is the story of Adam and Eve.

It is perfectly acceptable to believe that there was one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve, who actually existed and were our first “parents” so to speak. That is what the Scripture says, so of course it’s okay by the Church’s standards.

Also, it is perfectly acceptable for a Catholic to believe that Adam and Eve are symbols of man and woman. The importance is to recognize the underlying Truth (as with any Scripture), which is that God created all things, including mankind.

I brought this up to a Catholic friend of mine and they told me it is required for Catholics to believe in a physical Adam and Eve. Is this so?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
You are correct and your friend’s school not. Read the Vatican II, Dei Verbum (The Word of God, Who is Jesus) and you’ll hear tlk about “literary forms”, which is exactly what you said. To say that God created Man, you may in one thousand of different literary forms and you do not need to say that Adam and Eve existed. The “literary forms” are much more beautiful than the “literal” interpretation. It is beautiful to hear that God walked through Paradise enjoying the fresh breeze (meaning: “life is good, God is with us even in the commonest moments of life”) without interpreting it Literally which would be a bit ridiculous, for what would be God, Who is a Spirit, doing there, what why would He need to enjoy the breeze.

It is marvelous to read how the Pentateuch was built. I recommend the reading to any person who likes to deepen his Faith. Wikipedia has a lot of articles about it, difficult reading but comforting. I gathered a lot of links for a Lady who just threw them aside, as if saying that there were “literary forms” as the Council says would be a “mortal sin”. It makes me sad.
 
cymisgreat said:
I brought this up to a Catholic friend of mine and they told me it is required for Catholics to believe in a physical Adam and Eve. Is this so?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
No. Even a Pope in an encyclical is not necessarily speaking infallibly. I can’t remember where I read then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s statement that the first 23 chapters of Genesis are “mythological in nature.” Must be in my Vat 2 documents someplace. Nor do you have to believe the whole earth was ever flooded.
 
We are assured that we all descend from one set of original parents, and inherit from them the effects of their original sin.
390 The account of the fall in *Genesis *3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man.264 Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.265
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Catechism of the Catholic Church

Interestingly enough, science has now agreed that we all descend from one woman.
 

  1. *] The first man was created by God. (De fide.)
    *] The whole human race stems from one single human pair. (Sent. certa.)
    *] Man consists of two essential parts–a material body and a spiritual soul. (De fide.)
    *] The rational soul is per se the essential form of the body. (De fide.)
    *] Every human being possesses an individual soul. (De fide.)
    *] Every individual soul was immediately created out of nothing by God. (Sent. Certa.)
    *] A creature has the capacity to receive supernatural gifts. (Sent. communis.)
    *] The Supernatural presupposes Nature. (Sent communis.)
    *] God has conferred on man a supernatural Destiny. (De fide.)
    *] Our first parents, before the Fall, were endowed with sanctifying grace. (De fide.)
    *] The donum rectitudinis or integritatis in the narrower sense, i.e., the freedom from irregular desire. (Sent. fidei proxima.)
    *] The donum immortalitatis, i.e.,bodily immortality. (De fide.)
    *] The donum impassibilitatis, i.e., the freedom from suffering. (Sent. communis.)
    *] The donum scientiae, i.e., a knowledge of natural and supernatural truths infused by God. (Sent. communis.)
    *] Adam received sanctifying grace not merely for himself, but for all his posterity. (Sent. certa.)
    *] Our first parents in paradise sinned grievously through transgression of the Divine probationary commandment. (De fide.)
    *] Through the sin our first parents lost sanctifying grace and provoked the anger and the indignation of God. (De fide.)
    *] Our first parents became subject to death and to the dominion of the Devil. (De fide.) D788.
    *] Adam’s sin is transmitted to his posterity, not by imitation, but by descent. (De fide.)
    *] Original Sin consists in the deprivation of grace caused by the free act of sin committed by the head of the race. (Sent. communis.)
    *] Original sin is transmitted by natural generation. (De fide.)
    *] In the state of original sin man is deprived of sanctifying grace and all that this implies, as well as of the preternatural gifts of integrity. (De fide in regard to Sanctifying Grace and the Donum Immortalitatus. D788 et seq.)
    *] Souls who depart this life in the state of original sin are excluded from the Beatific Vision of God. (De fide.)
 
Interestingly enough, science has now agreed that we all descend from one woman.

have a source for this?
thanks.
 
leftprotected said:
Interestingly enough, science has now agreed that we all descend from one woman.

have a source for this?
thanks.
Click to expand...
Just remember reading it several years ago. It was hot in the popular press for a while. They traced DNA back to a common ancestor, somewhere in Africa if I remember rightly.
 
Pfaffenhoffen said:
You are correct and your friend’s school not. Read the Vatican II, Dei Verbum (The Word of God, Who is Jesus) and you’ll hear tlk about “literary forms”, which is exactly what you said. To say that God created Man, you may in one thousand of different literary forms and you do not need to say that Adam and Eve existed. The “literary forms” are much more beautiful than the “literal” interpretation. It is beautiful to hear that God walked through Paradise enjoying the fresh breeze (meaning: “life is good, God is with us even in the commonest moments of life”) without interpreting it Literally which would be a bit ridiculous, for what would be God, Who is a Spirit, doing there, what why would He need to enjoy the breeze.

It is marvelous to read how the Pentateuch was built. I recommend the reading to any person who likes to deepen his Faith. Wikipedia has a lot of articles about it, difficult reading but comforting. I gathered a lot of links for a Lady who just threw them aside, as if saying that there were “literary forms” as the Council says would be a “mortal sin”. It makes me sad.
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Um I think you might have misread the document Dei Verbum.

While the Genesis story can be chronologically out of order and literary devices used, Adam and Eve are REAL people. It has always been held in Tradition and taught by the Church. Thus infallible.

So the Teachings are clear and I cited in my first post on the thread the document which settles this matter.

God Bless 🙂
 
Pfaffenhoffen said:
It is marvelous to read how the Pentateuch was built. I recommend the reading to any person who likes to deepen his Faith. Wikipedia has a lot of articles about it, difficult reading but comforting. I gathered a lot of links for a Lady who just threw them aside, as if saying that there were “literary forms” as the Council says would be a “mortal sin”. It makes me sad.
Click to expand...
Oh really, I don’t ever recall saying that. It is very wrong of you to attribute or make a judgement regarding my actions when you do not know my actions nor what motivates them. And just so you know, I did read through those documents as well. But when it comes to choosing between Wikipedia or the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, by God’s grace I will choose the Magisterium of the Church, with Church Tradition, and Sacred Scriptures, and not some modern exegetes who wish to say that everything is a literary device.

The day that the Magisterium of the Catholic Church starts using Wikipedia documents as their source documents, I will be more than happy to give Wikipedia credibility then in matters of Faith and Morals. Why turn to Wikipedia when you can turn to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

I noticed that Humani Generis was quoted earlier, are you throwing that document out, seeing that it does not agree with your “literary device” theory?
Pfaffenhoffen said:
And I do not want to win discussion. I have not patience for arguments that lead nowhere. I surrender.
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And what a surprise to see this thread, and I just thought on the off-side to see if you were in this thread and lo and behold you were. And the discussion is continuing, albeit in another thread.

And because this thread has to do with what I was saying in the other thread, I am posting the relevant points.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church which Blessed Pope John Paul II said 'It is a sure norm for teaching the Catholic faith."
#375 The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original “state of holiness and justice”. 250 This grace of original holiness was “to share in. . .divine life”. 251
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250 - Council of Trent [1546]: DS 1511
251 - Cf. LG 2
#417 Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called “original sin”.
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And I have a question for you Pfaffenhoffen, did you see Buffalo’s post. Those my friend are dogmas of the Catholic Church. They are truth. How can a “literary device” transmit orginal sin down to all humans? If Adam is only a “literary device” what need do we have of Christ?

God bless.
 
Julia_Mae said:
No. Even a Pope in an encyclical is not necessarily speaking infallibly. I can’t remember where I read then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s statement that the first 23 chapters of Genesis are “mythological in nature.” Must be in my Vat 2 documents someplace. Nor do you have to believe the whole earth was ever flooded.
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The then-Cardinal Ratzinger taught that Adam and Eve are actual people and Adam committed an actual sin which is known as Original Sin. What you probably read is that figurative language is sometimes used in *Genesis *to signify an actual event or actual Divine Revelation.

Blessings,
Genesis 1:1
 
cymisgreat said:
So I was taught in high school that the Church allows for multiple interpretations of Scriptures. One for example is the story of Adam and Eve.

It is perfectly acceptable to believe that there was one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve, who actually existed and were our first “parents” so to speak. That is what the Scripture says, so of course it’s okay by the Church’s standards.

Also, it is perfectly acceptable for a Catholic to believe that Adam and Eve are symbols of man and woman. The importance is to recognize the underlying Truth (as with any Scripture), which is that God created all things, including mankind.

I brought this up to a Catholic friend of mine and they told me it is required for Catholics to believe in a physical Adam and Eve. Is this so?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Catholics must believe that there were an original man and woman whether you think they were named Adam and Eve or not (monogenism). Having said this I see no reason to not take Gen 1-2 at face value.
 
=cymisgreat;8259041]So I was taught in high school that the Church allows for multiple interpretations of Scriptures. One for example is the story of Adam and Eve.
Click to expand...
It is perfectly acceptable to believe that there was one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve, who actually existed and were our first “parents” so to speak. That is what the Scripture says, so of course it’s okay by the Church’s standards.
Click to expand...
Also, it is perfectly acceptable for a Catholic to believe that Adam and Eve are symbols of man and woman. The importance is to recognize the underlying Truth (as with any Scripture), which is that God created all things, including mankind.
Click to expand...
I brought this up to a Catholic friend of mine and they told me it is required for Catholics to believe in a physical Adam and Eve. Is this so?
Click to expand...
Thanks!
Click to expand...
It IS a REQUIRED Belief, dspite liberal interpertaions that are taught:thumbsup:

From the Catholic Catechism

1: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 417 preview document matches
7 Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called …
URL: scborromeo.org/ccc/para/417.htm

2: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 399 preview document matches
9 Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness. They become afraid of the God of whom they … URL: scborromeo.org/ccc/para/399.htm

3: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 375 preview document matches
in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original “state of holiness and justice”. This grace of …
URL: scborromeo.org/ccc/para/375.htm

4: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 404 preview document matches
But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve …
URL: scborromeo.org/ccc/para/404.htm

5: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 635 preview document matches
Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their … URL: scborromeo.org/ccc/para/635.htm

6: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 766 preview document matches
upon the cross that there came forth the ‘wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.’" As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart … URL: scborromeo.org/ccc/para/766.htm

7: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 411 preview document matches
for the disobedience, of Adam. Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the “new Eve”. … URL: scborromeo.org/ccc/para/411.htm

8: CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2361 preview document matches
Tobias began by saying, "Blessed are you, O God of our fathers. . . . You made Adam, and for him you made his wife Eve as a helper and support. From the two of them the race of … URL: scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2361.htm

God Bless,
Pat
 
grannymh said:
May I respectively suggest that your link be read down to the heading,
Common Fallacies
Not the only woman
One of the misconceptions of mitochondrial Eve is that since all women alive today descended in a direct unbroken female line from her that she was the only woman alive at the time.%between%
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You are correct. Mitochondrial Eve is most accurately described as the most common recent ancestor of all humans alive. This is silent as to wether or not there were other women alive at the time. So this neither necessarily confirms or rejects Eve as being scientifically possible.

God bless,
Chris
 
ChrisB103 said:
You are correct. Mitochondrial Eve is most accurately described as the most common recent ancestor of all humans alive. This is silent as to wether or not there were other women alive at the time. So this neither necessarily confirms or rejects Eve as being scientifically possible.

God bless,
Chris
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Out of respect for the ban on evolution discussion in this forum, I cannot explain what the actual 1987 research paper reports. The Catholic doctrine that two human parents founded all of humanity is correct
 
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