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Discussion: Interpretations of the Genesis Creation Stories

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rmcdra
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:50 am
What are your interpretations of the Genesis Creation Stories? (Yes there are two creation accounts in Genesis) What do the stories mean to you? Do you take them literally or allegorically? If you take them allegorically, what is the message of the stories and how do you get that message?  
PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 3:13 pm
Just so people, who are confused, can tell the two apart.


First Creation Story.
001:001 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

001:002 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

001:003 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

001:004 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

001:005 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

001:006 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

001:007 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

001:008 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

001:009 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

001:010 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

001:011 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

001:012 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

001:013 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

001:014 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

001:015 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

001:016 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

001:017 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

001:018 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

001:019 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

001:020 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

001:021 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

001:022 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

001:023 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

001:024 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

001:025 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

001:026 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

001:027 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

001:028 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

001:029 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

001:030 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

001:031 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

002:001 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

002:002 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

002:003 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.




Second Creation Story... as far as I know
002:004 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

002:005 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

002:006 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

002:007 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

002:008 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

002:009 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

002:010 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

002:011 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

002:012 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

002:013 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

002:014 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

002:015 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

002:016 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

002:017 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

002:018 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

002:019 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

002:020 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

002:021 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

002:022 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

002:023 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

002:024 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

002:025 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.


To me the first is the cause of much the ... headbutting... between science and hardcore stubborn followers.

Where the second seems to be talking of a real place, almost like you could actually visit, or find it's location today. Still sounds far fetched, but it gives coordinates and actual names of rivers and things to look for. It would probably been cut down by now, but still evidence is there to find this Eden. And to me this one paints a different picture, than the first, of "god" and Adam and Eve...

I think, I read somewhere that the first part was added later while the second was the original works... or something like that.  

glitterboypilot


rmcdra
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 5:22 pm
glitterboypilot

To me the first is the cause of much the ... headbutting... between science and hardcore stubborn followers.

Where the second seems to be talking of a real place, almost like you could actually visit, or find it's location today. Still sounds far fetched, but it gives coordinates and actual names of rivers and things to look for. It would probably been cut down by now, but still evidence is there to find this Eden. And to me this one paints a different picture, than the first, of "god" and Adam and Eve...

I think, I read somewhere that the first part was added later while the second was the original works... or something like that.

From what I understand there were two groups of Hebrews that had two creation stories. Rather than picking one over the other, both stories were put together and woven in a way so it was hard to pick out that there were two stories.  
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