Well, many people believe that Genesis is partially literal and that there was historical adam and eve but the process of creation took place over a longer period. Others believe that the genealogies are basically literal but contain gaps in them. Others believe that the characters adam and eve are symbolic and the genealogies are metaphorical. Peter Eens is one scholar who has written about a non historical adam. Honestly, I don't know that much about it. I don't have any specific position on whether adam is a literal character or not, I don't know that much about it. It does seem like there are problems with genealogies that are non-literal, but at the same time, the hebrew word av for father does not necessarily refer to a single biological father, Abraham is referred to as the father of Israel. Some people might understand the genealogies to refer to a metaphorical series of fathers who existed in the past that represent mythical pre-history, similar to understanding abraham as the av of many nations, though he was not the biological father.
Honestly, this doesn't completely satisfy me because it seems like Genesis is historical. But I really couldn't say. It is worth studying more, I could not say whether Adam and Eve were intended to be taken as literal people. The culture of the ancient world is also different from ours and Genesis is not written at all the same way that modern histories are.
To say that Genesis is mythical or allegorical does not imply that it is of the literary genre of fiction though. Genesis could be a spiritual history of the world that has literal and non-literal components. This does not mean it is false, and would make it consistent with a lot of the literature of the ancient world. Again, I could not say whether it is intended to be a literal history or not.
Here is one article about it: http://biologos.org/blog/a-historical-adam
Honestly, this doesn't completely satisfy me because it seems like Genesis is historical. But I really couldn't say. It is worth studying more, I could not say whether Adam and Eve were intended to be taken as literal people. The culture of the ancient world is also different from ours and Genesis is not written at all the same way that modern histories are.
To say that Genesis is mythical or allegorical does not imply that it is of the literary genre of fiction though. Genesis could be a spiritual history of the world that has literal and non-literal components. This does not mean it is false, and would make it consistent with a lot of the literature of the ancient world. Again, I could not say whether it is intended to be a literal history or not.
Here is one article about it: http://biologos.org/blog/a-historical-adam
