Genesis 1-3
Well, let's see... the creation of the universe and the fall of man all in one day's reading, eh? Just another bland day! I'll see if I can find something to write about!
It seems that the first thing God created out of nothing was water, as we see the Spirit of God hovering over the waters even before light hits the scene. And that light has no apparent source until Day 4. Yet there is day and night,evening and morning. On Day 2, God spearates the waters and inserts the sky in the midst of it. That means above the sky was a whole bunch of water. That will come into play when we hit the Great Flood. Plants and trees come in on Day 3 once dry land appears. Light, sky and sea, land and plants so far.
The sun and the moon show up in Day 4, although the moon isn't referred to by name. The purpose of these two are to separate day from night, to serve as markers for seasons, days and years and to give light. On Day 5 we get sea creatures and birds. The sea animals are instructed to be fruitful and multiply. Then on Day 6 the land animals appear just before man is made. Sun and moon, sea animals, land animals. A bit of symmetry between Days 1-3 and Days 4-6.
Man is created in God's image. Not a physical image, obviously as God is spirit. And both male and female are in His image. Man is also told to befruitful and multiply and all green plants are given as food to man and animals.
Day 7 is holy, not because God rested His tired bones, but because He stopped His creating.
Chapter 2 gives us more detail about man's creation and the Garden of Eden. It's rather amusing that we are told that God had planted a garden "in the east"like we would try to figure out where exactly east is. New York? Jerusalem? Tokyo? Obviously it's east of the setting for much of the Bible, and with the Tigris and Euphrates running out of it, Eden must have been somewhere around Northern Iraq.
The two trees mentioned in the garden are special trees. The tree of life gives some kind of life-sustaining fruit because the possibility of sinful man eating from this tree and never dying is the reasoning behind Adam and Eve's banishment and the guarded entrance to the garden mentioned at the end of chapter three. The tree of knowledge was the one with the tasty-looking fruit.
It is striking that Eve wasn't made like every other animal -- from dust. Perhaps she was taken from Adam's side (or rib) is so that Adam would seeher as an equal, not simply another animal, albeit a special one. It's pretty evident that God has a one woman - one man arrangement based on 2:24.
Chapter three reads like a bizarre story. Talking snakes will do that.
Eve exaggerates what God told them about the fruit of the tree of knowledge. God didn't ban them touching the fruit, although it would have been a good idea based on what happened. Satan's lie is a contemporary one. We all want to be like God. How different our life would be if we didn't have to worry about good vs. evil!
The first thing the couple realized when their eyes were opened was their nakedness. They felt shame, apparently about their differences physically? Why do we have an inherent shame over our bodies? For Adam and Eve it wouldn't have been lust, I wouldn't think. What is immediately shameful about a naked body in that context?
I wonder what the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day sounded like.
Adam, then Eve play the blame game.
Adam: Well it was that woman you put here with me.
Eve: Well, it was that serpent.
The serpent didn't have anyone to blame it on.
Man's punishment is the curse of the ground. Woman's punishment is the pain of childbirth and being "ruled over" by the husband. The snake's punishment is interesting. Did the snake have legs originally? Or just the talking ones?
The protoevangel in 3:15 is the reminder of Jesus' eventual victory. It was the scene in The Passion of the Christ preview where we see Jesus' foot crush the snake when I began to take that movie seriously. That's what it's all about and here we see just a whisper of the plot of salvation.
Adam and Eve's clothes were provided by God, assumedly from the skins of animals which gave their lives at this point. Death has entered the picture.
It seems that the first thing God created out of nothing was water, as we see the Spirit of God hovering over the waters even before light hits the scene. And that light has no apparent source until Day 4. Yet there is day and night,evening and morning. On Day 2, God spearates the waters and inserts the sky in the midst of it. That means above the sky was a whole bunch of water. That will come into play when we hit the Great Flood. Plants and trees come in on Day 3 once dry land appears. Light, sky and sea, land and plants so far.
The sun and the moon show up in Day 4, although the moon isn't referred to by name. The purpose of these two are to separate day from night, to serve as markers for seasons, days and years and to give light. On Day 5 we get sea creatures and birds. The sea animals are instructed to be fruitful and multiply. Then on Day 6 the land animals appear just before man is made. Sun and moon, sea animals, land animals. A bit of symmetry between Days 1-3 and Days 4-6.
Man is created in God's image. Not a physical image, obviously as God is spirit. And both male and female are in His image. Man is also told to befruitful and multiply and all green plants are given as food to man and animals.
Day 7 is holy, not because God rested His tired bones, but because He stopped His creating.
Chapter 2 gives us more detail about man's creation and the Garden of Eden. It's rather amusing that we are told that God had planted a garden "in the east"like we would try to figure out where exactly east is. New York? Jerusalem? Tokyo? Obviously it's east of the setting for much of the Bible, and with the Tigris and Euphrates running out of it, Eden must have been somewhere around Northern Iraq.
The two trees mentioned in the garden are special trees. The tree of life gives some kind of life-sustaining fruit because the possibility of sinful man eating from this tree and never dying is the reasoning behind Adam and Eve's banishment and the guarded entrance to the garden mentioned at the end of chapter three. The tree of knowledge was the one with the tasty-looking fruit.
It is striking that Eve wasn't made like every other animal -- from dust. Perhaps she was taken from Adam's side (or rib) is so that Adam would seeher as an equal, not simply another animal, albeit a special one. It's pretty evident that God has a one woman - one man arrangement based on 2:24.
Chapter three reads like a bizarre story. Talking snakes will do that.
Eve exaggerates what God told them about the fruit of the tree of knowledge. God didn't ban them touching the fruit, although it would have been a good idea based on what happened. Satan's lie is a contemporary one. We all want to be like God. How different our life would be if we didn't have to worry about good vs. evil!
The first thing the couple realized when their eyes were opened was their nakedness. They felt shame, apparently about their differences physically? Why do we have an inherent shame over our bodies? For Adam and Eve it wouldn't have been lust, I wouldn't think. What is immediately shameful about a naked body in that context?
I wonder what the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day sounded like.
Adam, then Eve play the blame game.
Adam: Well it was that woman you put here with me.
Eve: Well, it was that serpent.
The serpent didn't have anyone to blame it on.
Man's punishment is the curse of the ground. Woman's punishment is the pain of childbirth and being "ruled over" by the husband. The snake's punishment is interesting. Did the snake have legs originally? Or just the talking ones?
The protoevangel in 3:15 is the reminder of Jesus' eventual victory. It was the scene in The Passion of the Christ preview where we see Jesus' foot crush the snake when I began to take that movie seriously. That's what it's all about and here we see just a whisper of the plot of salvation.
Adam and Eve's clothes were provided by God, assumedly from the skins of animals which gave their lives at this point. Death has entered the picture.
posted by rev-ed @ 8:04 PM
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