The Two Adams

Recently, I heard an interview with New York Times Columnist David Brooks in which he referred to the idea of two Adams in the biblical stories of creation.  He noted how the two stories of creation in the book of Genesis give a very different picture of Adam and how humankind is still living out those different models of humankind.  Brooks noted that this idea was not original to him and it is one that I had not heard of before but on reflection it contains a great deal of truth.

First, let’s review what Genesis tells us about creation.  There are two accounts of God creating the world – the first in chapter 1, and the second in chapter 2, which, in my edition of the bible (the NRSV) is captioned ‘another account of creation’.  In both accounts, God creates humankind.  However, the accounts are very different for how those humans live after the creation.  In the first account, God creates humans in God’s image, male and female God created them.  In the second account, God creates ‘the man’ (Adam) from the dust of the ground – and, of course, later creates the first woman from the man’s rib. 

That is very different, however, the differences only get even more different.  In the first account, God gives Adam (and Eve actually) dominion over the earth, with the charge that they should be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over everything that God has created:

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1: 28)

In the second account of creation, God places the human couple in the Garden of Eden – first the Adam alone but then creating Eve as his companion, “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2: 15) 

The first account is one of domination.  Adam – humankind is to subdue the earth and all that is in it.  The world is to be used for humankind’s purposes.  Humans have been very good at this and continue to do it today.  We find new and improved ways of using the resources – both animal, vegetable and mineral – unfortunately, often to the detriment of the world God has created.  Admittedly, there have been benefits as well as detriments, but we are facing an ecological disaster of – well – biblical proportions, if we continue on the course we have set in conjunction with the first Adam.

We have the other option - humans (Adam and Eve) who were set in paradise and lived in harmony with nature.  That has not gone nearly as well as fulfilling the first account.  I must be honest and admit that I don’t see how that vision of humankind could be brought about in this world as it stands now.  We were, after all, expelled from paradise.  The best we can do is to take steps – small ones and perhaps not so small ones – to use that second vision of creation as a guide to how we should be living in harmony with creation.    That is something to consider in this season of Lent.