Approaches to Adam and Eve

Having grown up going to catholic school, I have heard the story of Adam and Eve (many, many times.) I have heard the story of the creation of the world in classes almost every year. However, I had not enjoyed listening to the story as much as I have with while listening to Goldstein's interpretation. His gets deeper into these characters and examine motives and undertones, and feelings (that in all honesty they may have had.) This personification was supposedly to have been done by the reader in prayer and heavy thought, but as someone who is not deeply religious, it is nice to have a somewhat modern style explaining these characters and the story itself. It is thought by some Theologists and some Catholics in general, that this story is just a metaphorical explanation of the development of the earth and the human being. (such as "let there be light" being an explanation of the big bang" the creation of the "firmaments" being the creation of the planets in the "water" or the galaxy etc.) It is also thought that Adam and Eve might just be symbolic of the early humans in their lack of understanding of good and evil (such as a human who had just evolved from animal) and that something happened to show them this concept of evil, such as evolving higher throughout generations until they are able to think of the idea of selfishness. Which would mean that Adam and Eve were not individuals but generations of humanoid creatures. Either way, it helps the metaphorical aspect of the story, that Goldstein has personified them in a deeper way, so that we can relate easier to the characters and therefor understand the meaning of the story without deep thought or prayer.

Goldstein's interpretation reminded me of a book I have read called "Lamb: The gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood friend" by Christopher Moore, which explores the 30 missing years in the gospels while joking about experiences of Jesus. For instance, was Jesus ever romantically in love, did he ever let his human temperament overwhelm his godly "forgiveness." These interpretations which incorporate biblical stories, a modern style of story telling and language, deeper personification of a well known (or thought to be well known) person, and a little bit of humor, to create a truely interesting experience.