How was Eve formed?

Several places in the Book of Mormon and the Bible indicate that Eve was formed from the literal rib of Adam. But page 101 of the Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual - Religion 430 and 431 says, "speaking of the creation of Adam and Eve, the story of the rib, of course, is figurative".

This teaching should be cleared up otherwise confusion will persist.

Were Adam and Eve created in the image of God?

Only the bodies of Adam and Eve were created in the image of God because it is believed they always existed as eternal intelligences. "Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy" (Doctrine and Covenants 93:29,33).

"Howbeit that he made the greater star; as, also, if there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other, yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal" (Abraham 3:18).

Intelligences are eternal spirits.

According to the Pearl of Great Price, Adam and Eve did not have a body of flesh and bones originally when they were created in the Garden of Eden. “And man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also” (Moses 3:7). It is unclear what type of body the animals had who were created before Adam and Eve?

Did Adam and Eve sin in the Garden of Eden?

I have spoken to several Latter-day Saints. Some believe Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden while others do not view it as a sin.

How do you explain their differing opinions?

Well, it is because they are taught conflicting things throughout their history.

Joseph F. Smith said, "He [mankind] dies in consequence of the sin of Adam" (Teachings of Presidents of the Church - Joseph F. Smith, p. 89).

Then Joseph Fielding Smith, tenth LDS president, said, "I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor do I accuse Adam of a sin … This was a transgression of the law, but not a sin ... for it was something that Adam and Eve had to do" (Pearl of Great Price Student Manual, p. 13).

Elder Bruce R. McConkie said, "It is proper and according to the scriptural pattern to speak of the transgression of Adam, but not the sin of Adam" (Mormon Doctrine, p. 804).

If you study the Pearl of Great Price, both Adam and Eve glorify God for their transgression (see Moses 5:10-11).

And now you have this teaching in the March 2008 edition of Ensign calling Adam and Eve's transgression a sin:

"His ransom for Adam’s original transgression so that no member of the human family is held responsible for that sin ... while all members of the human family are freely given a reprieve from Adam’s sin through no effort of their own, they are not given a reprieve from their own sins unless they pledge faith in Christ ... and press forward in faithful endurance the remainder of life’s journey" (The Atonement of Christ, p. 35).

In the end, LDS theology all boils down to this - the Mormon Heavenly Father really wanted Adam and Eve to disobey Him so that He could give them great blessings (as Gospel Principles refers to on page 33). Strangely enough, Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21 says that all blessings are predicated on obedience.

Evangelical Christians are unanimous - Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. ""For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Romans 5:19).

In Mormon theology, Adam and Eve could not have children before the Fall

2 Nephi (2:25) - "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy".

Moses (5:11) - "And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had aseed, and never should have bknown good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient".

"When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, they were not yet mortal. They were not able to have children" (Gospel Principles, page 32).

"Because Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ... they were able to have children" (Gospel Principles, page 33).

"The lives of Adam and Eve changed after they ate the fruit our Father in Heaven had told them not to eat ... Their bodies changed. Now they could have children" (Gospel Fundamentals, page 23).


In Mormon theology, Adam and Eve were created with no blood in their veins

This is from http://scriptures.lds.org/bdf/fllfdm :

“The process by which mankind became mortal on this earth. The event is recorded in Gen. 2, 3, 4; and Moses 3, 4. The fall of Adam is one of the most important occurrences in the history of man. Before the fall, Adam and Eve had physical bodies but no blood. There was no sin, no death, and no children among any of the earthly creations. With the eating of the “forbidden fruit,” Adam and Eve became mortal, sin entered, blood formed in their bodies, and death became a part of life”.

Some material shows another idea.

Gospel Principles Chapter 5 page 28 states, "Our spirits would be given bodies of flesh and blood so they could live on earth".

Moses (6:59) - Adam and Eve were "born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so of dust a living soul".

Mosiah (7:26-27) - "And a prophet of the Lord have they slain ... prophesied of many things ... And because he said unto them that Christ was the God, the Father of all things, and said that he should take upon him the image of a man, and it should be the image after which man was created in the beginning; or in other words, he said that man was created after the image of God, and that God should come down among the children of men, and take upon him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth".

The passage states that Jesus took upon him the image of a man and that he also took upon him flesh and blood.  This is the same image after which man was created in the beginning, according to the Book of Mormon prophet Mosiah.

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