There are two accounts of their creation in the Bible. According to priestly history from the 5th or 6th century BC, God, on the sixth day of Creation, created all living creatures and, “in His own image,” man, both “male and female “.
God then blessed the couple, told them to be “fruitful and multiply,” and gave them dominion over all other living things.
According to the 10th-century BC Yahwist narrative, God, or Yahweh, created Adam at a time when the earth was still empty, forming him from the dust of the ground and blowing “into his nostrils the breath of life “. Then, God gave Adam the primordial Garden of Eden to tend to, but, under penalty of death, commanded him not to eat the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Later, so that Adam would not be alone, God created other animals, but, considering them insufficient, he put Adam to sleep, took a rib from him and created a new companion, Eve. The two were innocent persons until Eve succumbed to the temptations of the evil serpent and Adam joined her and ate the forbidden fruit with her, at which time they both recognized their nakedness and put on fig leaves as clothing.
There are two accounts of creation in the Bible
Immediately, God recognized their iniquity and proclaimed their punishments—for the woman, the pains of childbirth and subordination to the man, and for the man, banishment to a cursed ground with which he must toil and sweat for his sustenance.
Their first children were Cain and Abel. Abel, the shepherd of the sheep, was highly valued by God and was killed by Cain out of envy. Another son, Seth, was born to replace Abel. Adam and Eve also had “other sons and daughters” and death came for Adam at the age of 930.
The Hebrew Bible, or the Christian Old Testament, nowhere else refers to the story of Adam and Eve, except in purely genealogical reference. Allusions appear in the apocryphal books (highly regarded but non-canonical books for Jews and Protestants; books for Roman Catholics and Orthodox).
The story was more popular among writers of pseudopigraphas (non-canonical books for all traditions), which include the highly embellished Life of Adam and Eve.
The first children of Adam and Eve
In the Christian New Testament, Adam is a figure of some theological importance in the Pauline writings. Paul sees Adam as a forerunner of Christ, “a type of the One who was to come”. As Adam initiated human life on earth, so Christ initiates the new life of mankind.
Because of Adam’s sin, death came upon all. Because of the righteousness of Christ, life is given to all. Thus, in Paul’s theology, it was the sin of Adam, and not the disobedience of the Law of Moses, that made men sinners.
In later Christian theology, the concept of original sin prevailed—a sin in which mankind had been held captive since the Fall of Adam and Eve. The doctrine was based on Pauline Scripture, but was not accepted by a number of Christian sects and interpreters, especially among those Christians who consider the story of Adam and Eve less of a fact and more of a metaphor for the relationship between God and man .
Was Adam’s sin his alone?
In the Qur’anic version of the story of Adam and Eve, Allah (God) created Adam from clay, but raised him with such knowledge that the angels were commanded to prostrate before him. However, Iblīs (Satan) tempted both Adam and his “wife” in the Garden to eat the forbidden fruit, writes Britannica.
Allah then sent them to the earth, where their descendants were condemned to live as enemies, but Allah, being merciful, offered Adam and his descendants eternal guidance if they would only follow him and not Satan.
According to Qurʾānic teachings, Adam’s sin was his alone and did not make all people sinners. Adam was responsible for his own actions, just as his offspring were for theirs.