Hi,"book of Genesis" questions. (Jesus, moral, Moses)

[SoulTYPE]

Hi um here is my topic for today. I haven't really started posting again, but I would like to understand these passages in the book of GENESIS. I can still read


1 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,
Please define where the rest of the universe came from.

4 Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground."
God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them, saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds
of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth."

Who is he refering to whence he says "Let US make man in OUR own image"?

Now we shall move on to chapter 2..

2 the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the
breath of life, and so man became a living being."

What was the man he created BEFORE this?

And had God not already made man, as stated in Chapter 1, as in HIS image? How can he remake another man, if he had already made one?

[Jayhawker Soule]

As mentioned often, the refernces to Gods is standard West Semitic polytheism out of which the Israelite theology grew. If you can ignore the adds, ReligiousTolerance.org has a good introduction to the creation narrative.

[robtex]

Great you are reading the good book. Keep going. Um which version so we are all on the same page? (sorry about the pun).

[jewscout]

Great questions Soul! I'll see if i can help a little....

1 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,
Please define where the rest of the universe came from.

Another version given is, "In the beginning of HaShem's creating the...." blah blah blah. This was a version given by Rashi, a great Torah scholar. Now when i first read this i had the same question you did, so i thought about it for a while and this is my personal theory on it and i like it personally. What if the Torah, if we are to assume the stories and traditions in orthodox judaism are true, is the Torah for this world alone. That's sort of the way i interpret it. What if this is simply a story of the creation of our little corner of the vast universe...what if G-d was busy doing and creating other things before us and after us? Just a thought....

Who is he refering to whence he says "Let US make man in OUR own image"?

The Sages believe that HaShem was speaking the ministering angels and getting their opinion when He was creating man.

[anders]

Yet another, rather common version goes something like "When God began creating..."

I would like to read it as "When God, in one of the beginnings, started...", which would make it easier to harmonize the OT with Hinduism, but my Bible Hebrew teacher, although not directly saying from where I was talking, didn't quite seem to approve. At least, she and the class had a farly good laugh. I still think that I might have a point here though, as b'reshith (the very first word in the TaNaK) clearly does not have a definite article, which would have made it behabbereshith.

The "plural of majesty" we/us/our etc. has also been interpreted in numerous ways. I think it is acceptable to most people to regard it as the sovereign's referring to itself only. I must say that I find it more difficult not to react against the mentioning of "heavens". The notion of plural of majesty doesn't quite apply here, I think.

Well, the conclusion is that even if you know how to read the oldest fragments of the Scriptures, there will always be difficulties when you try to explain what the words mean.

Trying to revert to my reasoning in my Christian days, I'd say that the morale of all this is that you shouldn't rely on the separate words of any scripture, sacred or not, or anybody's interpretation of them, but try to get the message behind those words. Here, Buddhism is clearly one of the most sensible religions (I pesonally think that classical Daoism is unsurpassed in that respect). According to Buddhist scriptures, even the Buddha himself said that you shouldn't rely on his words alone, but look into them to see if they made sense.

[Scuba Pete]

More importantly, what do YOU think it means?

[Ronald]

Originally Posted by SoulTYPE01

Hi um here is my topic for today. I haven't really started posting again, but I would like to understand these passages in the book of GENESIS. I can still read


1 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,
Please define where the rest of the universe came from.

Bereshis bara Elohim et- In the beginning created, God, Aleph Tav/Alpha Omega/the first born of all creation/the word of God/the image of the unseen God.(New Testament)
By Him all things were made that were made.(Universe and all that that implies)

Originally Posted by SoulTYPE01

4 Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground."
God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them, saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds
of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth."

Who is he refering to whence he says "Let US make man in OUR own image"?

Aleph Tav the firstborn of all creation!

Originally Posted by SoulTYPE01

Now we shall move on to chapter 2..

2 the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the
breath of life, and so man became a living being."

What was the man he created BEFORE this?

And had God not already made man, as stated in Chapter 1, as in HIS image? How can he remake another man, if he had already made one?

I can see you are not happy with Moses' style of writing. The very next time I see him, I shall convey your displeasure.

Well, Moses was a decendant of Israel, therefore a Hebrew and maybe Hebrew parallelism has something to do with the retelling of the creation of Adam. Beautiful to other Hebrews, but irritating to Westerners.

The NT comes and tells us that Yeshua/Jesus is the First Born of Creation/the word of God/the image of the unseen God. Jn. 1:1 bereshis bara Elohim et/in the beginning was the Word. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

[retrorich]

In my opinion, the whole Genesis creation thing is total nonsense, not to be taken seriously.

[may]

Originally Posted by SoulTYPE01

[


Who is he refering to whence he says "Let US make man in OUR own image"?

"Let us make man in our image." (Genesis 1:26) Some have claimed that the "us" and "our" in this expression indicate a Trinity. But if you were to say, ‘Let us make something for ourselves,’ no one would normally understand this to imply that several persons are combined as one inside of you. You simply mean that two or more individuals will work together on something. So, too, when God used "us" and "our," he was simply addressing another individual, his first spirit creation, the master craftsman, the prehuman Jesus.

[robtex]

Originally Posted by may

"Let us make man in our image." (Genesis 1:26) Some have claimed that the "us" and "our" in this expression indicate a Trinity.

Genesis is the first book of the Torah which is a Jewish text. The Jewish religion has never acknowledged a trinity.