Genesis 3-4

(Read Genesis 3 and 4 here.)


Here we read about the fall of Man. The serpent piques the woman's curiosity, asking if they were really forbidden from eating the fruit of any of the trees in the garden. (Remember, they were allowed to eat from any tree they desired, except for those two.) The woman tells the serpent that God told them they would die if they even touched the fruit of the "tree that is in the midst of the garden." The serpent tells her that God just doesn't want them to eat that fruit because it will open their eyes for them to know good from evil--they will be like God. So she eats the fruit, and gives some to the man, who of course eats it, and suddenly they know that they're naked, so they make loincloths out of fig leaves. 

• I wonder what their mindset was like before their eyes were opened. Were they more like our domesticated animals, only more intelligent? 

Later, God comes walking through the garden, and the man and woman hide from him, and God can't find them. (This doesn't sound like the omniscient God that I usually think of.) When God calls out to the man, the man answers that he was hiding because he was ashamed of his nakedness. I guess this tips off God to the fact that the man has eaten from the tree of knowledge. The man passes the buck to the woman, and she passes the buck on to the serpent. So God says the serpent is cursed from now on. The woman will have painful childbearing, and the man will have to work the ground in order to eat. 


After all this, the man names his wife Eve, which sounds like the Hebrew word for "life-giver." Then God makes clothes of skins for them both. 

• Where did he get the skins? He must have slaughtered some animals to do this.

Then God says that the man has "become like one of us in knowing good and evil." 

• Who is "us?" Does God have some companions that are also gods, or at least higher than humans?

So God decides that the man and woman have to leave the garden before they also eat from the tree of life and live forever.

• I wonder what would have happened if the serpent had suggested that the woman eat from the tree of life, rather than the tree of knowledge.

In Chapter 4, Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain is a farmer, and Abel keeps a flock of sheep. At some point, Cain brings some of his harvest as an offering to God. Abel brings the firstborn of his flock for an offering. 


This next part confuses me: it says that God "had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard." Why was a lamb a better offering than the harvest that Cain produced? This seems very arbitrary to me. If they had been given some guidelines as to what was acceptable for an offering, at least it would be fair. From what we're told, though, this isn't fair at all. Cain was angry, with good reason.


Later on, Cain and Abel are in the field, and Cain kills Abel. We aren't told why. Is it out of jealousy over God's favoring Abel's offering, or did they have some other dispute? 


God asks Cain where his brother is, and Cain pretends not to know. So Cain gets cursed as well: he is to wander the earth as a fugitive. Cain fears that he will be killed while he is wandering, so God puts a mark on him and says that anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance sevenfold. (I'm not sure how that works, but it does sound bad.)


Cain goes off and settles east of Eden, and builds a city that he names after his son Enoch. Then we get the family tree. Interestingly, Cain's great-great-great grandson Lamech takes two wives. Apparently he is the first guy that's either brave or stupid enough to attempt this. Lamech tells his wives that he has killed a young man who struck and wounded him (self-defense, I guess?). He declares that if Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then his own revenge is seventy-sevenfold. 


Finally, Adam and Eve have a third son, Seth. When Seth has a son, Enosh, it says that "at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord." I wonder why they weren't doing so for the several previous generations.

Genesis 1 & 2

(Read Genesis 1 and 2 here.)

Genesis opens with the creation of the heavens and the earth. Apparently there were waters everywhere. First God creates light, then he creates an expanse called Heaven that separates “waters from waters.” Then he gathers together the waters that are under Heaven, and creates Land. So it seems that we’ve got the dry land and the seas here, then Heaven, then more waters above Heaven. 

I think it’s interesting that the order of creation roughly parallels the “big bang” and evolutionary theory. Basically there’s nothing but waters, and then we’ve got light and Earth. Then plants grow from the earth, and then there are creatures in the water, then birds, then the beasts of the earth, and finally Man.

God tells the birds and the sea creatures to multiply and fill the waters and the earth. He doesn’t tell the beasts of the earth to do this. Then he tells mankind to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth—and to subdue it and have dominion over everything. God also tells man that all the seed- and fruit-yielding plants on the earth are ours to eat. The birds and beasts of the earth get all the green plants for food. He doesn’t say anything about meat. I bet the vegan crowd likes that.

• What are the fish of the sea supposed to eat?

On the seventh day, God rests because he is done working. This makes the seventh day holy.

• Is this where we get the “Sabbath?”

Next we get a more in-depth version of the creation of Man. God makes a man out of the dust of the ground, and breathes life into him. Then God plants a garden, and in the middle of the garden are two special trees: the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Apparently a river flows out of Eden and splits into four rivers, all of which are described as going around or through lands for which we have no frame of reference. I suppose these places will be mentioned later in the book.

God puts the man in the garden and tells him he can eat the fruit of every tree except the tree of knowledge of good and evil—if he does, he will die.

• What about the tree of life? I guess it’s OK to eat from that one.

God observes that the man needs a helper, then he brings all the animals to the man to see what he will call them, and the man gives every living creature a name.

• Was he giving the animals species-type names, or nicknames?

Apparently God was trying to see if any of the animals would make a good helper for the man, but none of them are a good fit. So God puts the man to sleep, takes out one of his ribs, and creates a woman out of it. Lastly, we learn that the man and the woman were both naked, but weren’t ashamed of it.

The ESV uses the name “Adam” only once in Chapter 2; the footnotes say that “Adam” is the generic Hebrew term for mankind.

What's this about?

I grew up reading the King James Bible in a small church in east Alabama that I can best describe as a fundamentalist hybrid of Methodism and Baptist theology. In college, I became a United Methodist (although a relatively conservative one), and have been an active Methodist for the past decade. For a while now, I've been thinking about some of the things we believe as Christians, particularly here in the American South. Even though I was raised with a good foundation of Biblical teaching, I've wondered since reaching adulthood about some of the things that we just take for granted as being in the Bible - particularly some of our cultural mores that I suppose I've always just assumed came from the Bible.


So I decided recently to read the Bible (the English Standard Version) from cover to cover, with one qualification: I'll do my best to put aside everything I think I know about what it says, and see what the text actually does say. I'll post my thoughts, ideas, and questions here for you to consider. Perhaps you'll decide to join me to see what's really in the Bible.