Genesis, the creation story

wil

wil

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a figment of your imagination
I haven't put this in Christianity becuase I'd like to hear Islamic, Christian and Judaic thought on the matter. I haven't put it in Abrahamic as I'd like those that have even more varied thoughts to be able to discuss their concepts as well.

What I am contemplating is the vagaries in the creation story not only the differences between Gen 1 and Gen 2 the two creations of heaven and earth and all the ammenities in differing orders, and the differing orders of the creations of life forms, and the differing creations of man (and woman), but also I contemplate the creation of light and dark, day and night, on both the first and the fourth day in Gen 1 but no mention in Gen 2....

I read where some of the issue is combinations of thought from the various writers of Genesis (Yahwists, Elohimists, Priestly...) all edited together.

And then some that the Gen 1 was contemplation, creation in the ethers, and Gen 2 manifestation, creation in matter.

All thoughts are welcome and entertained. Not right or wrong here, interpretations and thoughts on the story.
 
This one web site has both stories & more but has them as 2 different stories
14) Yahwah
15) The Elohim
can not put the URL down, sorry.

Also they have changed it but God in Genesis was in plural form & at one part God is talking to another God.
Adam come from a Hebrew word meaning man as in mankind (also earth) & Eve means Life, the snake & trees are old symbols of knowledge - through life man learned the knowledge of life & death & etc. (no Evil here)
Abel & Cain to me is were they changed from nomadic life style to a sedentary life style. Abel watched the sheep & Cain was a tiller of the ground - farming destroyed the nomadic life style.

Nomadic or hunting & gathering had a animist belief so it also changed the belief in the people when they changed life styles.



Mathghamhain
 
A while ago Harold Bloom wrote a great book about all this titled, The Book Of J.

He posits that the Jahwist, the redactor who wove the separate threads of Genesis into a single cohesive myth, was likely a female member of King Solomon's court. A very interesting and informative read.

I find it interesting that the two main threads of the creation stories, written from the aspect of those who believe that nature should be controlled and subdued as opposed to those who believe that humans should respect and live in harmony with nature, seem to be one of the primal polarizing divisions in human society emerging since the 60's. As Yogi would have said, "deja vu all over again" ?

flow....:)
 
1. Light: Day divided from night.
2. Firmament: Heaven divided from earth.
3. Dry land: Water Divided from land. Earth brings forth vegetation.
4. Sun and Moon.
5. Waters bring forth fish and fowl.
6. Earth brings forth animals and insects. God creates man.
7. Sabbath.

A couple of interesting things:

1. Vegetation before sunlight means the myth cannot be literal.

2. There is a double elemental pattern here: Fire (light), Air (heaven seperated from earth implies atmosphere), Water, Earth, then: fire (heavenly lights), air and water: fish and fowl, and earth (animals, insects, and man). It's interesting from an evolutionary standpoint that the Water brings forth both fish and fowl.

3. The idea that God is mostly seperating things: Day from night, heaven from earth, water from land, and that once seperated the terrestial elements "bring forth" the plant and animal life.

Chris
 
hi;

if i didn't have a hand injury i would have a lot more to add about this, but suffice it to say that not *everyone* believes that the Torah (the first 5 books of the bible) is a composite document edited together. i don't - and there are many, many others, of whom i can at least add every religious jew up until the "enlightenment". the great Torah commentators, such as rashi, maimonides, nachmanides and ibn ezra, were far more expert with both language and text than any of us and they didn't see any reason to assume that apparent contradictions meant separate authors. where the text gives us reason to ask such questions is meant to be a spur to learning, to impel us to ask what the Torah wishes to teach us.

if you feel disinclined to consider the merit of the traditional point of view, ask yourself something. do you write the same way in your posts here as you do in emails? what about emails to different people? friends? family? work colleagues? do you write business letters or documents differently? school or academic essays? do you always use the same voice and tone?

no?

than why should G!D?

on the question of the so-called "J" and "E", ask yourself something else. does your mother have a name? is she someone's wife? someone's sister? someone's aunt, cousin, daughter or grandmother? someone's boss or employee? all these roles will condition how she is referred to or how she refers to herself - yet at the same time she remains herself, just one person.

this is the key to understanding the different actions, tones, descriptions, names and attributes of G!D in the Torah. and, believe me, it wasn't news to the sages and the great rabbis either.

the ma'aseh bereishit or account of Creation in the Torah is one of the most sublime and beautiful descriptions of how things came to be a certain way. it is acknowledged by the experts (and i don't mean these academic hucksters) to be also the most difficult and mystically rich part of the Torah. if you are unaware of the traditional ways of exploring the Text, such as commentaries (rashi's a good place to start - see this page on genesis http://www.chabad.org/parshah/default.asp?AID=7781 run by the chasidic group known as the lubavitch - and there are many more opinions than this one!) then you are really not approaching it in any meaningful fashion. it's like listening to a beatles song and trying to work out what john lennon and paul mccartney each contributed to it; interesting perhaps, but rather missing the point!

b'shalom

bananabrain
 
Namaste BB,

Thank you for your response, knowing your healing is proceeding nicely, I look forward to that much more to add when the head injury no longer takes up time and space.

Thank you for the link...tis exactly the type of info I am looking for....all the ideas and possibilities.
 
bananabrain said:
hi;
the ma'aseh bereishit or account of Creation in the Torah is one of the most sublime and beautiful descriptions of how things came to be a certain way. it is acknowledged by the experts (and i don't mean these academic hucksters) to be also the most difficult and mystically rich part of the Torah.

if you are unaware of the traditional ways of exploring the Text, such as commentaries (rashi's a good place to start - see this page on genesis http://www.chabad.org/parshah/default.asp?AID=7781 run by the chasidic group known as the lubavitch - and there are many more opinions than this one!)
Click to expand...

Hey BB. Thanks for this link. Awesome.
 
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