Whether you're a believer or not, you're probably familiar with the story of Adam and Eve. But, despite being thousands of years old, there are several aspects of the first humans' tale that still attract a ton of debate among theologians and believers.
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00:00You're probably familiar with the story of Adam and Eve. You know, the apple, the rib,
00:04and could it be Satan? Those are just three examples of items of debate about the first
00:09humans.
00:11Genesis appears to suggest that Eden was an actual place on Earth. Its potential location
00:16is vague and still a matter of debate. What we do know from the scriptures is that the
00:19Garden of Eden was planted in the east, with the Bible naming four rivers that flow into
00:23the region from a single head, including the Euphrates and Tigris, referred to in the scriptures
00:29Though these streams both exist in the Middle East, modern-day Iraq for the most part, there
00:32is no position on Earth in which they meet as described in the story. Also, east is a
00:37relative direction. Yes, they are east of modern-day Israel, but they are also west
00:42of a lot of places.
00:43John Calvin, the French theologian, spent a lot of time trying to find Eden. One complication
00:47that Calvin goes into is the fact that the Great Flood, as in the story of Noah, would
00:51have overhauled the face of the planet. Indeed, it likely changed the land to such a degree
00:55that it no longer resembles how it did during Adam and Eve's fell in Eden, but the Bible
00:59does not directly address this scenario.
01:02Want to hear about a place seldomly mentioned as a location? Armenia. When I said Iraq for
01:07the most part for the Tigris and Euphrates, that's because the headwaters are actually
01:11in Turkey. But because rivers are complicated, there are a few researchers that want to push
01:15the starting point further north into Armenia. It's just another twist to the location plot.
01:20Out of dust, God creates the first man, Adam.
01:24So the Adam creation story is pretty clear-cut. Eve? Not so much.
01:29The idea that Adam's wife, Eve, was created from one of Adam's ribs after God put him
01:33to sleep is one of the most memorable images in the Bible's creation story. The tale is
01:37so well-known in the West that it is likely responsible for the myth that men have fewer
01:40ribs than women. All sexes typically have 12 pairs.
01:44Catholic theologists have claimed that Eve being made from Adam's rib rather than the
01:48dust of the Earth like Adam himself is a symbolic mirroring of the Holy Trinity. In Judaism,
01:53the selection of the rib, rooted linguistically to wisdom in Hebrew, is said to suggest modesty
01:58in that it is found in a, quote, concealed place within man.
02:01So what does concealed within a man mean? Aren't all bones like that?
02:06There's a new theory out there that suggests that the Bible may in fact have been referring
02:09to the baculum, a bone found in the, uh, nether regions of most male mammals, but not as humans.
02:16Before you dismiss this as just naughty talk, the basis for this theory has to do with
02:20the original Hebrew translation. In short, the theory says that the word used for rib
02:25should really mean something that is one of the lateral limbs or branches or appendages.
02:29If you've never heard that theory, it's because the controversial theory has failed to become
02:33mainstream.
02:35Adam and Eve's downfall and banishment from the Garden of Eden is commonly said to be
02:39the root of humanity's separation from God and the origin of the difficulties that plague
02:43human life. Their loss of earthly paradise and the immediacy of God's love is precipitated
02:47by their fateful meeting with a serpent, who tricked Eve into eating from the Tree of Knowledge
02:52of Good and Evil. It's that cunning serpent that's led to a theory, that the serpent was
02:56Satan in disguise, whose objective is the disempowerment of heaven and then, by default,
03:01the devalue of human souls.
03:02The whole Satan-slash-serpent thing's been around for a very long time, but it really
03:06took off when John Milton penned Paradise Lost in the 1600s. But way back before Paradise
03:12Lost, people were already pooh-poohing the Satan theory. Jewish philosopher Philo, who
03:16lived around 2,000 years ago, claimed that the serpent and Satan were not connected,
03:20and modern theologists don't believe the serpent was special in being able to speak. All animals
03:24in Eden could.
03:25Ah, yes. Of course.
03:28Of course!
03:30Two of the most miraculous objects to appear in the Book of Genesis are the Tree of Life
03:34and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. All of humanity's woes, the story suggests,
03:38can be attributed to Adam and Eve's thoughtless bite of the forbidden apple. But what evidence
03:43do we have that the fruit was actually an apple, as is typically rendered in artworks
03:47depicting Adam and Eve? Right now, we have none.
03:50The Bible refers only to forbidden fruit, going into no greater detail. In Hebrew, Genesis
03:54uses the generic word for fruit, peri. Down the centuries, scholars have suggested various
03:59fruits as the fateful piece, including citron, grapes, and figs. However, the Latin translation
04:04of the Hebrew word peri is mawa, which has historically been translated into English
04:09as apple, once a generic word for seed-bearing, fleshy fruit. This is likely the origin of
04:14the apple in artwork depicting Adam and Eve.
04:16One of the more semi-popular theories is that it was a pomegranate. You know where pomegranates
04:20grow? Well, a lot of places, but also Armenia. Just saying.
04:26According to the Bible, all human beings share common ancestors in Adam and Eve. Having been
04:30banished from the Garden of Eden, they were said to have set forth into the harsh world.
04:34They would share a bim with flaming swords, preventing them from ever entering the Garden
04:37again.
04:38In exile, the guilt-ridden Adam and Eve were condemned to a life of work and toil, and
04:44had to conceive children through the painful process of birth.
04:46The Bible tells the story of their two sons, Cain and Abel. The latter is brutally murdered
04:51by his brother, and of a third son, Seth. All but Abel had children of their own, and
04:55the scripture briefly notes that Adam and Eve also had daughters. None of them are named
04:59in the mainstream biblical canon, though, and details of their lives and whether they
05:03survived to have children of their own is missing from Genesis.
05:06In case you're wondering who humans are all related to Adam and Eve through, the answer
05:10is Seth. Genesis 5 puts Noah nine generations from Adam via Seth. Since a great flood wiped
05:16everyone else out, the biblical line runs directly through that forgotten son.