Other Human Beings?
by
Jason Dulle
JasonDulle@yahoo.com
Question:
I have heard it said that God might have created other human beings besides Adam and Eve, who would have existed side-by-side to Adam and Eve. What do you think about this?
Answer:
I do not believe that there were other humans created at the same time as Adam. The first reason I do not think there were any others created besides Adam and Eve is that the Genesis passage does not mention anymore humans besides them who were created.
The second reason I do not think there were others created besides Adam and Eve is for theological reasons. If there were several people created, then Adam’s sin would not be communicated to the entire human race, but only to Adam’s progeny. This would mean that there would have been a sinless race and a sinful race coexisting side by side. The teaching of Romans 5 and I Corinthians 15, however, is that all of humanity sinned in Adam.
Romans 5:12 says, "So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned" (NET Bible). Adam is responsible for the sin of the human race. That sin produced death, which spread to all men because of Adam. Through him it is said that all people sinned. Verse 15 teaches that "the many" died because of one man’s sin. Verse 16 likewise teaches that judgment came to the human race from one man’s sin. Just as the human race became sinful through one man, Jesus came as one man to reverse that effects brought to the human race by that one man, Adam. Verse 17 brings the point home well, saying, "For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!" (NET Bible).
Paul made a similar statement in I Corinthians 15:20-21: "For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also all will be made alive in Christ" (NET Bible). Notice that in Adam all die, not just some. This is an all-inclusive statement, enobody excluded. If, however, there were others who were created alongside of Adam, their sin would not be connected to Adam’s, and therefore it could not be said that all die in Adam, for not all would have sinned in Adam.
According to Scripture, then, there is not one human being who has not sinned, and all who have sinned have Adam as their father. Now there is a disagreement as to how all sinned through Adam (some say he was appointed as humanity’s representative head, and God counted his sin as the sin of all of humanity; others say that we receive the sin nature by virtue of being born in Adam’s lineage), but either view which is adopted still makes Adam the source of all humanity’s sin. If there were other people who were created at the same time as Adam and Eve who did not sin, their sinfulness could not be attributed to Adam in anyway. Since Jesus came to reverse the death brought into the world by Adam, those individuals who did not sin through Adam would not be included in the redemption Christ provided.
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