When discussing “Adam,Eve, and Evolution” in our Catholic Study Group meetings recently, our text presented two interpretations of the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis: the “chronological reading” and the “topical reading.” The latter interpretation is based on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas as found in his classic Summa Theologiae. Here is an overview of that perspective, also called the “framework interpretation”:
St. Ephrem the Syrian, a 4th century Doctor of Church, had another perspective on Eden which complements that of St. Thomas Aquinas very well. St. Ephrem held Eden to be the Holy of Holies of God’s cosmic temple. Read about it here:
When these two complementary perspectives are combined, one sees that the first chapter of the Book of Genesis could be a compelling description of God building His cosmic temple, with Eden as the Holy of Holies and Adam as the first priest. (Bergsma and Pitre 98)
Work Cited
Bergsma, John Sietze, and Brant James Pitre. A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament. Ignatius Press, 2018.
