codgenesis

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The long lifespans of Genesis 5

The genealogy in Genesis 5 has people living hundreds of years. Are these literal? Or represent a span of time between individuals who weren’t strictly parent and child? Is it a modification of the Mesopotamian kings list? Are the numbers symbolic? Lots of options have been proposed. Continue reading Untitled

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The translation of Romans 5:12 - Moyise

Much of the debate on Romans 5:12 is due to the translation of “eph ho”. Original sin, adamic condemnation, defiled nature all of these ideas lean heavily on a faulty translation in the Latin tradition. Moyise has an interesting new(ish) book out which touches on the passage: “In Romans 5:12, Paul says that death entered the world through Adam’s sin and so death came to all because (eph ho) all…

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Wrestling with Genesis and Revelation

Wrestling with Genesis and Revelation

The inability of Christians to grasp the meaning and message of both Genesis and Revelation create a great divide in America. Christians struggle with both the beginning and culmination of the Scriptures — the Alpha and the Omega as they might be called. Both Genesis and Revelation bring a lot of baggage with them to the American religious scene.We have great division on end-times views stemming…

[codgenesis]

Gen 3:21 God clothing Adam & Eve

Gen 3:21 God clothing Adam & Eve

“The stark reality is that beings who possess free will don’t always hew to the hopes and expectations of their creators. If this is so with us in respect to God, it is no less so with our children in respect to us…when our children disappoint us, when they make choices we don’t approve of; when they exchange the world we have carefully crafted for them for a dubious world of their own making –…

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The Diffusion of Death: Romans 5:12 and Original Sin

The Diffusion of Death: Romans 5:12 and Original Sin

“This interpretation leads to a reading of πάντες ἥμαρτον (“all sinned”) that is itself improbable. In the Augustinian interpretation, this refers to the whole human race sinning in Adam in a collective and participatory way. As Augustine himself puts it, “all have broken God’s covenant in that one man in whom all sinned.” The idea is that Paul speaks of an involuntary participation in Adam’s sin…

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The very good creation included conflict/violence

People have a rose coloured view of what very good in Gen 1:30 means – thanks in no small part to Catholic father Augustine. But God’s words show the order of Genesis 1 included a forceful putting down of opposition and rule by humanity over the beasts. not only meat eating but conflict. Not what most literal creationists following a form of Augustine’s The Fall theology think. Continue reading

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Are the 7 days of Genesis 1 a list or a chronology?

Are the 7 days of Genesis 1 a list or a chronology?

I ran into an interesting article by Sterchi in JETS who argues based on the Hebrew grammar the 7 days are NOT in chronological but theological order. His argument (of which below is a very small snippet) is pretty interesting. It certainly makes more sense of the evening & morning being time markers for days 1-3 before the sun and moon are made on day 4. Not such a good read for literalists who…

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The general point is sound

The general point is sound

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Why was Cain's offering rejected?

Why was Cain’s offering rejected?

Why was Cain’s sacrifice rejected in Genesis 4 and what are we meant to learn from this event?  We are not told what was missing from the offering.  There are no explicit revealed pre-existing criteria.  All we have is the comparison to Abel’s accepted offering.  Abel’s offering was his best, Cain’s perhaps not.  What the incident revealed was an underlying issue with Cain’s pride, which led to…

[codgenesis]

Before sin Adam was?

Before sin Adam was?

“La mortalité est sa condition, mais sa mort est cependant conditionnelle” Humbert [1] Sometimes the French say it best? [1] Van Ee, J. J. (2013). Death and the Garden : : An Examination of Original Immortality, Vegetarianism, and Animal Peace in the Hebrew Bible and Mesopotamia. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qm3n0mt.

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Augustine on over enthusiastic "purists"

Augustine on over enthusiastic “purists”

there are some men who see in Scripture nothing else except those passages which admonish us to be strict, to rebuke the unruly, not to give what is holy to dogs, to regard as a heathen any man who does not heed the Church, to cut off from the body any member that gives scandal. Such persons only make trouble for the Church; they try to separate the cockle from the wheat before the appointed…

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Rewriting the chronology of Genesis 5

Rewriting the chronology of Genesis 5

So some evangelicals are now claiming the Gen 5 is missing some years. Based on the LXX and Samaritan Pentateuch they place Adam at 5500bc. Smokes the 7000 year plan but means a few less archaeological problems can be ignored. Wonder if this will eventually leach into our community…

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Pouring cold water on theistic chemists?

Pouring cold water on theistic chemists?

The Lampstand Magazine March 2021 issue tries to discredit evolution by asking where Earth’s water came from. This is a question for those pesky chemists and geologists, not evolutionists. The article misrepresents the state of the science, makes a nonsense assertion about Genesis and then selectively quotes and misreads Proverbs 8. Seems like they are lurching towards young earth creation rather…

[codgenesis]

The oldest wooden artefacts found

The oldest wooden artefacts found

Shigir Idol in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum A 12,500 year old wooden installation – probably an idol? – was found in Russia in the 1890s and made the news when more dating work was recently published. While we have some amazing examples of rock art, perishable material rarely survived. In this instance we were lucky – our ancestor’s work was preserved by peat bog. Clearly humans have long had…

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Today is the anniversary of James Ussher's death

Today is the anniversary of James Ussher’s death

James Ussher died on 21 March 1656. His timeline of biblical history is beloved of 7,000 year plan types. The 7000 year plan is to Christianity what QAnon is to politics…beloved by loud uncles, disconnected from reality and continually reinventing dates as predictions fail. Yet both seem to continue in some quarters.

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2,000 year old Bible fragments found (great) with a 10,000 year old basket (bad)

2,000 year old Bible fragments found (great) with a 10,000 year old basket (bad)

photo credit: SHAI HALEVI / ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY Archaeologists have found some fragments of OT prophets written in Greek which they dated back 2,000 years. In the same location a 6,000 year old skeleton was found (a young child carefully buried in their blanket) and a 10,000 year old basket. Guess which date is accepted cheerfully by literalists and which two are rejected as a…