What is the Jewish interpretation of Adam and Eve?

Answer 1

Christian Answer:

According to Jewish belief, Adam and Eve were the direct ancestors of all mankind. Additionally, they were the direct ancestors of the Hebrew people. Indeed, the Old Testament traces the lines of descent from Adam and Eve, to Heber, in honor of whom the Hebrew people are named. The lines of descent in fact are traced beyond him and include among others Abraham, as the first world famous Hebrew.

Jewish Answer:

According to Jewish tradition, they were the first people God created. However, most Jews recognize this as a traditional story, and do not take it literally. Furthermore, The story was meant to explain God's role in creation and where the Sabbath came from, and NOT the concept of original sin, or the scientific explanation of creation.

The snake is not Satan (Satan isn't even mentioned once in the book of Genesis), and we didn't inherit any sin from Adam & Eve.

Answer 2

No, Adam and Eve may not be considered Jewish, in terms of the religion's practices. Judaism as a distinct religion originated with Moses, who may have flourished in the 15th and 14th centuries B.C.E. But yes, they may be considered Jewish, in terms of their role as Moses' ultimate ancestor.

Answer 3

Jewish traditions

The Sibylline Oracles, dating from the centuries immediately around the time of Christ, explain the name Adam as a notaricon composed of the initials of the four directions; anatole (east), dusis (west), arktos (north), and mesembria (south). In the 2nd century, Rabbi Yohanan used the Greek technique of notarichon to explain the name אָדָם as the initials of the words afer, dam, and marah, being dust, blood, and gall.

According to the Torah (Genesis 2:7), Adam was formed from "dust from the earth"; in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b) of the first centuries of the Christian era he is, more specifically, described as having initially been a golem kneaded from mud.

Even in ancient times, the presence of two distinct accounts of the creation of the first man (or couple) was noted. The first account says male and female [God] created them, implying simultaneous creation, whereas the second account states that God created Eve subsequent to the creation of Adam. The [Midrash Rabbah - Genesis VIII:1] reconciled the two by stating that Genesis 1, "male and female He created them", indicates that God originally created Adam as a hermaphrodite, bodily and spiritually both male and female, before creating the separate beings of Adam and Eve. Other rabbis suggested that Eve and the woman of the first account were two separate individuals, the first being identified as Lilith, a figure elsewhere described as a night demon.

Genesis does not tell for how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, but the 2nd century BC Book of Jubilees, provides more specific information. It states (ch3 v17) that the serpent convinced Eve to eat the fruit on the 17th day of the 2nd month in the 8th year after Adam's creation. It also states that they were removed from the garden on the new moon of the fourth month of that year (ch3 v33). Other Jewish sources assert that the period involved was less than a day.[citation needed]

According to traditional Jewish belief Adam and Eve are buried in the Cave of Machpelah, in Hebron.

Christianity

The story of Adam and Eve forms the basis for the Christian doctrine of original sin: "Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned," said Paul of Tarsus in his Epistle to the Romans,[6] although Chapter 3 of Genesis does not use the word "sin" and Genesis 3:24 makes clear that the couple are expelled "lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever". St Augustine of Hippo (354-430), working with a Latin translation of the epistle, understood Paul to have said that Adam's sin was hereditary: "Death passed upon (i.e. spread to) all men because of Adam, [in whom] all sinned".[7] Original sin, the concept that man is born in a condition of sinfulness and must await redemption, thus became a cornerstone of Western Christian theological tradition through Augustine's misunderstanding of Paul's Greek - the belief is not shared by Judaism or the Orthodox churches,[8] and has been dropped by some post-Reformation churches such as the Congregationalists and the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Because Eve tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit, some early Fathers of the Church held her and all subsequent women to be the first sinners, and especially responsible for the Fall. "You are the devil's gateway," Tertullian told his female listeners in the early 2nd century, and went on to explain that they were responsible for the death of Christ: "On account of your desert (i.e. punishment for sin) - that is, death - even the Son of God had to die."[9] In 1486 the Dominicans Kramer and Sprengler used similar tracts in Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches") to justify the persecution of "witches". Over the centuries, a system of uniquely Christian beliefs has developed from the Adam and Eve story. Baptism has become understood as a washing away of the stain of hereditary sin in many churches, although its original symbolism was apparently rebirth. Additionally, the serpent that tempted Eve was interpreted to have been Satan, or that Satan was using a serpent as a mouthpiece, although there is no mention of this identification in the Torah and it is not held in Judaism

Answer 4

As the Jews follow the Torah (a.k.a. old testament) they have Adam and Eve , in the book of Genesis.

Answer 5

yes. refer the old testament