Question 41: Is it absolutely necessary to believe the Genesis story of Adam and Eve being the first man and first woman, and that the entire human race came from them?

Answer: Yes. A denial of this belief would be a rejection of the knowledge revealed by God to Moses, as it is recorded in Genesis. This knowledge was set forth and expanded upon by St. Paul, who said that "He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth" (Acts 11:26), which included Eve who came from Adam. To deny this truth is to deny Christ who quoted Genesis approvingly to enforce the fact that Christian marriage is monogamous and indissoluble. To the Pharisees Christ said: ""Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one"? (Matt. 19:3-5). At the time when Rationalism, Modernism and other anti-Christian so-called sciences came into popular vogue, the Pontifical Biblical Commission of the Church declared (Rome, July 30, 1900) that to doubt the literal story of Adam and Eve being "our first parents" would be a denial of the Christian faith.