Historical Adam
Historic orthodoxy
Adam and Eve were real people, created directly by God, from whom the whole human race descends and through whom sin entered the world.
Also called: historicity of Adam, Adam and Eve as real people
What it means
The church has always read Genesis 2 and 3 as telling what really happened: God formed Adam from the dust, made Eve from Adam, placed them in the garden, and gave them a command. When they disobeyed, sin and death came into the world, and every human being since has been born into that fallen condition.
This is not only a matter of reading Genesis. The rest of the Bible builds on it. Luke traces Jesus' family line back to Adam. Jesus grounds marriage in what God did "at the beginning." Paul rests his whole account of sin and salvation on a parallel between two real men: one man, Adam, whose disobedience brought condemnation, and one man, Jesus Christ, whose obedience brings righteousness and life.
Christians differ on many questions about the days of creation and the age of the earth. Those questions are open. But the historic confessions treat Adam as a real person and the fall as a real event, because the gospel's story of a second Adam needs a first one.
In Scripture
God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him.
God made every nation of mankind from one man.
Luke's genealogy of Jesus runs back through real generations to Adam, the son of God.
Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.
As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
Paul argues from the order of Adam's and Eve's creation and from Eve's deception as real events.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 4.2; WCF 6.1; LBCF 1689 4.2; LBCF 1689 6.1
On this site: Creation & the fall
Related terms
Denial of a historical AdamSerious error
The teaching that Adam and Eve were not real individuals, but a symbol, a myth, or a picture of humanity in general.
Original sinHistoric orthodoxy
Because of Adam's first sin, every person is born both guilty before God and corrupt in nature.
Theistic evolutionA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created life, including human bodies, through the long process of evolution that biologists describe.
The gospelHistoric orthodoxy
The good news that God saves sinners through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and freely forgives and accepts all who turn from sin and trust in Him.