The primary example of this retrospective reading of Genesis 1-3 is the Apostle Paul.
To see this, let's take note of a curiosity in the Old Testament. Specifically, there's not a whole lot of commentary or worry about Genesis 1-3 in the Old Testament. What happened with Adam and the Fall just isn't on the radar screen. The primary interests of the Old Testament are Abraham, Moses, and David. Land, Law and Kingdom. God makes three covenants in the Old Testament: the promise of land to Abraham's descendants, the giving of the Torah, and the promise of an everlasting throne to David's house. The drama of the Old Testament revolves around those plot points, each reaching a point of fracture in the experience of Israel's and Judah's exile. And as that grand drama unfolds, no one pays attention to Genesis 1-3. Not a peep about the primordial Fall. None of Israel's pain or trauma is traced back to Adam and Eve.
But all that changes with Paul. Seemingly out of nowhere, Paul goes back to the beginning, to Genesis 1-3, and draws out meanings and interpretations previously unrecognized. The meaning of Genesis 1-3 appears in Scripture retrospectively after Paul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
When Paul encounters the crucified Messiah he realizes that the issue facing Israel wasn't her obedience to God. That had been the main theme of the Old Testament, how the people of Israel lost the promises made to Abraham, Moses and David because they had failed to fulfill their covenantal obligations. Consequently, if Israel could be called back to covenantal purity and fidelity those promises would be restored. That was the aim of the Pharisees, of which Paul was one. And covenantal purity and fidelity was precisely why Paul was traveling to Damascus. His zeal for the Law was motivating him to cleanse Israel of the unclean heretics in its midst.
But on his way to Damascus, Paul encounters the risen Lord Jesus. And that encounter causes him to rethink the catastrophe that had befallen Israel. Facing the crucified Messiah, Paul realizes that Israel's problem was deeper than Torah observance. Fidelity to the Torah was what was causing Paul to persecute the Lord Jesus. So something deeper had gone amiss, something that had caused Israel to fail so miserably in fulfilling her covenantal obligations. Something had caused the People of God to crucify their own Messiah. Something had caused Paul to stand by and watch Stephen being stoned to death. What was this thing that had caused Israel, time and time again, to go so wrong?
After the revelation of Jesus Christ, Paul goes back to the beginning and locates the problem in Genesis 1-3. Suddenly, what happened with Adam, a story previously ignored, comes into view. This is one of Paul's most distinctive and peculiar theological moves, the recovery of Adam in salvation history. And this recovery happens retrospectively, after Paul's encounter with Christ. Grace brings Adam back into view.
As Paul expounds in Romans, Israel's deeper problem was sin and death. These ontological forces entered the world with Adam and held Israel and all humanity captive. This was why Israel went astray. This was why Israel killed her Messiah. This was why Paul stood by approving while Stephen was stoned. Sin and death. The primordial catastrophe.
As Paul describes, sin and death came into the world through Adam. These twin powers then "reign" over humanity, creating a helpless and hopeless predicament. A predicament revealed retrospectively in the encounter with Jesus Christ.
Okay, so how does this help us read Genesis 1-3 in light of scientific discoveries? I think we can take a cue from Paul.
Specifically, Paul turns to Genesis 1-3 to understand the human predicament. Paul's interest in Genesis 1-3 doesn't concern dinosaurs. When dinosaurs existed in relation to humans is irrelevant. Paul's interest in Genesis 1-3 is to understand why Israel crucified Jesus, and why Paul was persecuting Jesus, and what that might mean for all of humanity.
In light of the revelation of Jesus, Genesis 1-3 functions as an interpretive key. What's gone wrong with us? Why are we so stuck? Well, we are slaves to sin and death. In Paul's eyes, that's what is revealed in Genesis 1-3. Sin and death is the deep rot that needs to be dealt with. If you don't fix that nothing much else will matter or go right. And the revelation of that predicament isn't contingent upon anything science tells us about the history of the world. The Big Bang. Human evolution. It can all be true. But the predicament of that history comes into view on the road to Damascus. Genesis 1-3 isn't a historical timeline. Genesis 1-3, as it was for Paul, is the retrospective revelation of our predicament in our encounter with grace.
