The Lost World of Adam and Eve

Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate

By: John H. Walton, N.T. Wright

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

For centuries, the story of Adam and Eve has resonated richly through the corridors of art, literature, and theology. But for most moderns, taking it at face value is incongruous. And even for many thinking Christians today who want to take seriously the authority of Scripture, insisting on a "literal" understanding of Genesis 2-3 looks painfully like a "tear here" strip between faith and science.

How can Christians of good faith move forward? Who were the historical Adam and Eve? What if we've been reading Genesis - and its claims regarding material origins - wrong? In what cultural context was this couple, this garden, this tree, this serpent portrayed?

Following his groundbreaking Lost World of Genesis One, John Walton explores the ancient Near Eastern context of Genesis 2-3, creating space for a faithful reading of Scripture along with full engagement with science for a new way forward in the human origins debate. As a bonus, an illuminating excursus by N. T. Wright places Adam in the implied narrative of Paul's theology.

The Lost World of Adam and Eve is a must-listen book for anyone seeking to understand this foundational text historically, and theologically, and wondering how to view it alongside contemporary understandings of human origins.

©2015 John H. Walton (P)2018 Tantor

Mixed feelings

Overall I truly loved the content of the book. It was gruelingly difficult to stay engaged with the reader though. Very flat and monotone. I would love to get a hard copy and read through it again as it has lots of information in it, and comes off really unbiased which is what I like. It is written in a way that visually reminds me of a dinner table set with all the fixings. The call to action in the end left me encouraged and challenged to do better.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Very good read

I appreciate John Walton and while I don’t agree with everything he put forth in this book he did help me to think in ways that can better shape my theology.

𝓓𝓮𝓮𝓹 𝓭𝓲𝓿𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓸 𝓼𝓱𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀 𝔀𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓼

𝓘𝓷𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓶𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓳𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓶𝔂 𝓸𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓦𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓲𝓼 𝓪𝓷 𝓮𝔁𝓪𝓶𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓭𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓼𝓸 𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓮𝓼 𝓼𝓲𝓶𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓷𝓼 𝓲𝓽 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓹𝓵𝓮𝔁. 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓮 𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓭 𝓱𝓾𝓶𝓪𝓷..

Excitingly Informative

Many interesting points. Good explanation. Narrator sometimes a bit monotone. Otherwise, good read and worth repeating.

Excellent biblical Christian thinking on origins!

Walton does a great job of explaining what the Bible actually teaches, in context, regarding origins

Excellent treatment

For faithful Bible readers, exegetes, pastors and lay-leaders, Walton gives some excellent food for thought.

The current (and historically novel) cultural war of "Bible vs science" is in plain view here, and the listener is encouraged to reconsider the Bible in light of its own cultural context.

I have read the entire series in print, and now am listening back. I highly recommend the Lost World series for anyone seriously reading or teaching the Bible.

Helps see the true wisdom (not science) in adam and eve

I feel like you must read "lost world of Genesis one" before this book... This seems like a more accurate view of the scripture and what the ancient authors motives were. I always felt slightly ignorant thinking the ancients view of the world were just older, less sophisticated views of the west. It makes so much more sense that they thought about things different and maybe even more profitably? But I also argue that when the west (science) and east (religion) are working in harmony so groundbreaking wisdom is attained that makes the believer relevant in all circles. And John Waltons interpretation of these scriptures has personally helped me be that.

Great treatment of the subject. So-so performance.

I really appreciated that the author's goal was to find common ground on the essence of the text, taking a very high view of Scripture, rather than trying to argue that there's only one right way to interpret the creation account. This could have devolved into an argument FOR evolution from the Bible, but instead makes a convincing argument that the Bible is not primarily concerned with material origins and thus there is room for many opinions.

Simply Fantastic

This book is like a drink of cold water for Christians wandering through the soft sciences. Simply fantastic

`Acient History

This book takes you back in Acient History and references back to the Bible on almost all of the History discribed in the bible.
This book has some very good history lesens and a lot of thoiught on bible verses described in the bible. This book has a very
different look at history and the Bible. It is a very good lisen.