Interns' Blog

From the “desk” of Sam:

In chapter two of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together,” Bonhoeffer offers a model of what it looks like to come together daily for devotional time. In his model there is prayer, singing, and the reading of God’s word. Although we don’t experience this kind of devotional together daily, we do get the opportunity to come together on Sunday morning and share in this. This morning we celebrate what it is to be in community– to come together as a body and worship God.

Mr. Joe was up early singing hymns this morning too:

Mr. Joe singing out of the UM Hymnal

An answer from the “desk” of Sam:

This is a great question. In the book of Genesis Adam and Eve “know each other” and Eve bears Cain and Abel. Next thing we know, Cain kills Abel, runs off to the land of Nod and then “knows” his wife. Where the heck did this lady come from. If Adam and Eve are the first humans and the next humans are Cain and Abel, how can there be this woman that Cain finds in the land of Nod?

Unfortunately there is no good answer for this. Some people try to say that Adam and Eve were the first humans God created, but not the only humans. This is purely speculation without any grounds. So what’s another option? It’s possible that the story of Adam and Eve isn’t meant to be a literal representation of the first humans. Perhaps the story of Adam and Eve is an important narrative written to remind the Hebrews who they are and where they came from– to remind them that they are a people created by God.

Biblical narrative is difficult because there wasn’t anyone sitting around writing the history of Cain and Abel when they were alive. These stories were passed down orally and weren’t written down until hundreds of years after they happened. They are part of a rich oral tradition that is vitally important to our faith but also troublesome when we try to look at it the same way we look at a history book.