1. Why did God say Adam and Eve would die if they ate from the tree but they didn't?
Well actually, they did, just not immediately. Some people take this to mean that they died in a spiritual sense - separation from God. Considering that in the garden they could eat from the tree of life, I think that the death was both physical and spiritual - they died physically eventually, when they wouldn't have before, and they died spiritually, due to their sin they could not have eternal life with God. Also, someone commented that the Hebrew word for 'would' (from 'would die') was continuous, and that is why it meant more of a 'would eventually' rather than immediate death.
2. The woman was made as man's 'helper' does this mean women are not equal to men?
No, the word translated as 'helper' is from the Hebrew word 'ezer' which does not mean helper in the sense we think of it as. It was used several times later in the bible to describe God (e.g. helping Israel). One person described it as 'warrior/protector/fearless helper' on the blog, which I thought gives a bit of an idea of how it's not quite what we think of as a helper.
Note - the last posts on day 2 have quite a few on the issue of sexism with the biblical male/female descriptions - worth a bit of a look.
3. Who is Satan?
Lucifer, a fallen angel, mentioned in various places including Revelation 12:7-12.
4. Why did God like Abel's offering and not Cain's?
Abel gave his offering as part of his worship, giving the best - the fat of the firstborn of the flock. Whereas Cain gave 'some' of his fruit, which suggests that it wasn't the best of it, or the first of it. His attitude towards the giving was what God didn't like, he did not have the correct motivation.
I liked what one person said about how people notice our 'worship' more than our 'witness' - sometimes what we do can be like a chore, rather than doing things as an act of praise to God, as they should be.
5. Why did Cain kill Abel?
He was jealous of God's preference of Abel, instead of recognising what he was doing wrong and changing it, he became so jealous that he killed his brother.
6. If Adam and Eve were the first people, then who was Cain afraid would kill him?
Adam and Eve lived a long time (Adam lived 930 years), and in that time they had many children, so it is quite possible that they lived in separate groups, and Cain may have come across other relatives.
7. If his parents were the only people, who did Cain reproduce with?
At the time, the genetic pool was pure, some people on the blog suggested that there were more genes, or fewer genes than humans have now (if there were more, that helps to explain different races). Therefore, it would have been possible to have children with a sibling or close relative and not have problems genetically. Basically, at the time it would have been fine for that to have happened, and Cain would have had children with a sister or niece. One person suggested that God did not condemn these relationships because they were not harmful at the time (due to the genetics).
Other people have suggested that God created people other than Adam and Eve that are not recorded in the bible, this mainly comes down to whether you believe the bible literally or metaphorically.
Personally, the idea of God creating other people hadn't ever crossed my mind before, and now it has, I really don't believe in it, I'm more of a literal bible believer, and this feels too much like picking and choosing...
Matthew 2:1-18
1. What is Ramah?
It is a place, referred to in Jeremiah 31:15.
2. Who was Rachel?
She was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, 2 of the 12 sons who make up the tribes of Israel (her sister Leah was the mother of the others). She was desperate for children, and some consider her the patron saint of children.
Psalm
1. What/Where is Zion?
Zion is generally considered to be 'the ideal place', though at the time, geographically, it would have referred to Jerusalem (which the Jews considered to be 'the perfect/holy place').
2. It says God's 'wrath can flare up at any moment' - doesn't this conflict with the scripture that God is 'slow to anger'?
Several people have said that they think it's more about how God's judgement can rain down on the wicked at any time - his power has no limits.
3. What's this about 'fearing' the Lord? I thought he was supposed to be loving?!
The fear described here is not meaning that you should be afraid that he is going to do something horrible to you or anything, it's more about giving him the respect he deserves and being in awe of him and his amazing power.
Disclaimer: This information was gathered from various people's comments on the BIOY blog and do not necessarily all reflect my point of view. Also, I am not necessarily sure about historical/translation facts quoted here - please let me know if you see anything incorrectly quoted etc.
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Transferred comments:
"More genes" / "fewer genes" sounds to me like people don't know their biology. I've heard the fewer gene mutations argument before (which is probably what they mean) though, and that one seemed to make sense (bear in mind I only have biology GCSE), and I think that if you are going that way "incest was not outlawed until Moses because it wasn't genetically problematic until then" is probably gairly logical.
Also, I belive that the biology of "race" (a hard term to define) is interesting and complicated and needs looking at - more genes =/= more races (if we could even talk about what a 'race' is in a sensible genetic way, which I believe we can't).
As you are probably aware I no longer believe in a literal Adam and Eve ... I now think that this part of Genesis brings us truth through its stories of God being reasonable and loving humanity (unlike stories of other gods in the ancient world) and humanity going its own way, rather than God loving two specific human being and two specific human beings messing up and dooming us all.
Given that I believe that (which I think is what people would call the more metaphorical view) I don't really see any reason to say "God made Adam and Eve (two specific people) and some other specific people" - the whole point of my change of view is that I am now seeing it as "God made humanity".
I think that Adam and Eve are pretty clearly used in the Bible to represent us all, so the idea that God made a bunch of specific people of whom two were literal Adam and literal Eve seems to be pretty weird. Why would they represent us and these other specific people wouldn't even get a mention? (I suppose Cain could have reproduced with an alien. But I think this is a bad line of argument to go down :).)
Posted by: Jingle Bella
Note - it wasn't the same people who said 'more genes' and 'fewer genes'. I still don't know whether I believe the literal or metaphorical view. Talked to dad a bit and he seems to be pretty literal about it all... *shrug*
Posted by: Hazelnut
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