When discussing the topic of “Adam, Eve, and Evolution” at our last Catholic Study Group meeting, the topic of “monogenism” arose. The Church teaches definitively that the human race descended from one pair of original parents and rejects the notion of “polygenism”, that is, that the human race descended from a pool of early human couples. One participant noted that the propagation of descendants must have involved incest. We agreed that Cain must have married one of his sisters, although another member of our group reminded us that our early ancestors – according to the Sacred Scriptures, also lived a long number of years.
In his book, City of God, St. Augustine confirms our understanding. First, he emphasizes that the long lives of men and women allowed many people to be born in each generation:
Accordingly, when the divine Scripture, in mentioning the number of years which those men lived, concludes its account of each man of whom it speaks, with the words, And he begot sons and daughters, and all his days were so and so, and he died, are we to understand that, because it does not name those sons and daughters, therefore, during that long term of years over which one lifetime extended in those early days, there might not have been born very many men, by whose united numbers not one but several cities might have been built? Book 15, Chapter 8
St. Augustin then confirms that until an abundant population arose, which was rather soon, men took their sisters for wives. After that time, such practices were rightly considered to be an abomination:
As, therefore, the human race, subsequently to the first marriage of the man who was made of dust, and his wife who was made out of his side, required the union of males and females in order that it might multiply, and as there were no human beings except those who had been born of these two, men took their sisters for wives — an act which was as certainly dictated by necessity in these ancient days as afterwards it was condemned by the prohibitions of religion…there were no human beings but the brothers and sisters born of those two first parents. Therefore, when an abundant population made it possible, men ought to choose for wives women who were not already their sisters; for not only would there then be no necessity for marrying sisters, but, were it done, it would be most abominable. Book 15, Chapter 16
Work Cited
Augustine, Saint. City of God: Book XV. Translated by Marcus Dods, edited by Kevin Knight, New Advent, 2022, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120115.htm.
The Catholic Answers website replies to the question whether humanity descended from two people as follows:
The Catechism states, “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (CCC 390).
Treating the Eden Story literally insults its Divinely inspired beauty, wisdom, and acute insight into the problem with volition. Like any other event in the soul, saying no is metatemporal, beyond time. Perceiving the Creation, from the Big Bang (the most obvious Creation event one can imagine) to the evolution of complex life as marred by our cataclysmic “No” illuminates a powerful and compelling truth in our life with God, that the Incarnation, Passion, and Death of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ were eternally ordained necessities for the rectification and Renewal of Creation, that God always knew He would suffer for us.
Otherwise, the Tree Story far too closely resembles a Marge Simpson dialogue with Bart: “Now, don’t you eat any of those delicious chocolate chip cookes straight out of the oven!”
The Eden Story astonishes with its ancient memory. No other Creation story I know of remembers our primoridal nakedness or a paradisial life on a warm, verdant earth. Even Noah’s Ark recalls an event 12,000 years ago, Mesopotamia flooded with melt water from the last Ice Age, its human community taking to rafts witht their livestock, fighting to survive. Genesis deals counterintuitively even with the foundation of cities, not the great Bronowski leap forward, but a regression into dirt and superstition, disease and tyranny. God calls Abraham out of a city and sends him wandering as a shepherd. What could be truer or more beautiful?
The truth is we don’t know how the Faith narrative of humanity fits into humanity’s scientific narrative. Best to accept that it doesn’t and be tantalized by a vision of Almight God, walking among our early simply spoken or even non-verbal ancestors, guiding them to life in His Image. How did this happen? We just don’t know. Did it happen? Certainly!
Hello Arthur,
Thank you for your reply. I am quite open to interpreting much of Genesis figuratively, as allowed by the Church. See my two other posts on Genesis 1 for example:
The Six Days of Creation https://thoughtfulcatholic.com/?p=46882
On Eden and the Temple https://thoughtfulcatholic.com/on-eden-and-the-temple/
We are, however, commanded to reject polygenism and to hold to monogenism – that we are descended from one original and actual human couple. Pope Pius XII taught:
(Humani Generis 37).