The historicity of Adam is definitely an interesting subject, but that is not the issue I am struggling with in the OP.
I am convinced that Adam was a historical person who lived in 5000 to 6000 BC in Mesopotamia.
It is the implications of the when (5000 to 6000 BC) that is causing me to reevaluate some traditions that I have previously held, especially when I consider that real live humans (homo sapiens sapiens) had occupied the whole world tens of thousands of years before the time of Adam and Eve and the Fall.
So let me throw out some of the questions that I am working my way through.
1. Were Adam and Eve the progenitors of all human beings?
Right now I'm convinced the answer is no. If Adam and Eve lived in Mesopotamia in 5000 to 6000 BC then humans were in such remote places as the Americas and Australia tens of thousands of years before the time of Adam and Eve. So the historic Adam and Eve could not possibly have been the physical progenitors of all mankind.
2. Was Adam mortal before the Fall?
Here's one I have changed my mind on. Right now I would say yes. Before God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden man/mankind was "formed from the dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7). Elsewhere in Scripture the concept of being "formed from dust" is used as a reference to mankind's mortality (eg Psalm 103:14). I am coming around to the perspective that one of the implications of Genesis 2:7 is that man/mankind was mortal before Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden. Another Biblical principle that supports this conclusion is the existence of the "Tree of Life" in the Garden of Eden. If Adam was already physically immortal before being placed in the Garden then what was the purpose of the "Tree of Life" and why was Adam encouraged to eat from it prior to the Fall?
3. What was the spiritual state of those humans in the rest of the world prior to the Fall?
Still struggling with that one... Ideas would be appreciated. According to Romans 5:12 mankind had not experienced sin prior to the Fall, but Genesis 3 gives us some additional insight. The tree in question was not "The Tree of the Knowledge of Evil" the tree was the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil". Evidently mankind prior to the Fall did not know either good or evil... Still trying to understand what that even means.
4. What happened to humans in the rest of the world at the time of the Fall?
Struggling with this one too... According to Genesis 3:7 after Adam and Eve sinned their "eyes were opened" to know good and evil. Would this "eye opening" experience have extended to all humans across the globe at the same time? Don't know
5. Original Sin.
This one's a doozie! Scripture teaches us that all humans have an inherent tendency to sin, and observations of any person or persons for any length of time validates this Scriptural teaching. Is this inherent tendency to sin in humans a result of the Fall or did it predate the Fall possibly as a natural function of human free will and actually contribute to the Fall? One note here... I definitely draw a distinction between an inherent tendency to sin and consciously sinning. An infant has the inherent tendency to sin, but it is not guilty of sin until at some point in its life the infant develops to a state where that inherent tendency expresses itself in willful sin.
OK... that should be enough to stir some things up... In my OP I expressed how I was struggling with the implications of placing the historical Adam and Eve in the 5000 to 6000 BC time frame. Hopefully this post gives a little insight into some of the implications that I'm struggling with and why they are important... well at least to me they're kind of important.
Fire away!
In Christ
