Article
Anabaptists for a Historical Adam
February 18, 2012
To the Assembly of the Peasantry (1525):
In sum, as soon as the Romans fell from a communal [i.e. republican] government to emperors, all their miseries began and remained among them until they became poor serfs, they whose power had previously ruled mightily over the world. I am showing all this here only because all the great lords usually pride themselves on their ancient, preeminent descent from Rome. Yes, they pride themselves on an ancient, heathen descent. And thy do not consider that we are all descended from God, and that nobody is a minute older in his lineage than anyone else, be he king or shepherd, etc. This [concern about descent] is only a poisonous puffing up of a clod of earth [from which Adam was created]. Adam is the father of us all, and we will all, certainly, in one part of us [i.e. the body], fall apart again into rotten pieces of earth. (The Radical Reformation, 114 [emphasis added])
The author of this anonymous tract was once thought to be Andreas Karlstadt, but now it is believed the thought is closer to the views of Thomas Müntzer. No one knows for sure who the author was but it comes out of the “Radical Reformation” and was addressed “To the Assembly of the Common Peasantry which has come together in revolt and insurrection in the high German nation and in many other places.” I highlight this paragraph as example of the Christian consensus in previous centuries, across the theological spectrum, that Adam was a real historical person from whom every person was physically descended.
This content was originally published on The Gospel Coalition