Learning Genesis

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Any version you like to name removes any ambiguity from the passage. You claim to be an engineer of some sort or other.
Would you jump on an introductory note to the exclusion of the rest of the material supplied as you did and have been doing?
Would you encourage a student of engineering to neglect the content of a chapter in a text book and just ask silly time wasting questions that could / would be answered by reading the chapter or paragraph themselves?
That is how you are treating "Learning Genesis'.
Your choice of heading here, BTW.....nobody else's.
You will learn nothing the way you are going and you are just wasting your own time and ours.(which is likely otherwise more productive)
Let's see they say one picture is worth a thousand words, so...
Lecturer :Today we begin studying Calculus, class read through chapter 11"
"In our previous chapters we learned about functions and differentiation, now we will follow on with our study of calculus,we can now look at integration ............
integrals.gif
............the integral sign tells us......."
Tubby Tubby "So that 'S' is squashed up to save line space?
Lecturer "Tubby Tubby do you have an attention deficit disorder or something? Read the chapter"

Tubby Tubby if you insist on acting like a dummy, don't squeal if you are treated like one.
 
Gen 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Not too many questions about this other than the 'tunics of skin'. Presumably some sort of animal skin that God had killed to make clothes?
 
Gen 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

No questions here, I'll find out why an offering from the ground is no good later I guess.
 
Gen 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Not too many questions about this other than the 'tunics of skin'. Presumably some sort of animal skin that God had killed to make clothes?

Indeed. However it's also a play on words. "Skin" and "light" have the exact same phonetic sound. When they sinned they no long bore the light of God, so God made them "light" - i.e. skins.

אוֹר 'owr (ore) n-f.
1. illumination
עוֹר `owr (ore) n-m.
1. skin (as naked)
2. (by implication) hide, leather

Both alef (א) and ayin (ע) are silent letters. It was a poor substitute for what they had lost.

P.S. alef's letter meaning is strength, first, sacrifice and ayin's letter meaning is see, experience.
 
Gen 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

No questions here, I'll find out why an offering from the ground is no good later I guess.
God cursed the ground, anything from it was cursed. Blood is the only thing that covers sin, hence the requirement for a sacrifice and the understanding of the difference between the two. This is important if you're going to understand what happened to Cain later.
 
Gen 4:6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother;[a] and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”

He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”

Cain is obviously insecure and jealous that his offering was not as good as his brothers was. Not the most forgiving type at that time were they but I understand.
 
Gen 4:13 And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”

15 And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.

Whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance?

Why didn't God just finish him off himself?
 
Gen 4:16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.

Where did Cains wife come from? I see no mention of her before this part. So far I can see the world population is 4, Adam, Eve, Cain and his wife and Cain decides to build a city! He built an entire city just for his immediate family?

Where are all the wives of Enoch, Irad etc.. coming from?
 
Gen 4:16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.

Where did Cains wife come from? I see no mention of her before this part. So far I can see the world population is 4, Adam, Eve, Cain and his wife and Cain decides to build a city! He built an entire city just for his immediate family?

Where are all the wives of Enoch, Irad etc.. coming from?

This has always been my question as well. Not so much the wife issue but the fact that there is already a settlement somewhere else, which would imply at least a couple of families. It's kind of hard to tell since we aren't really given a time frame for when this is happening. maybe it had already been 400 years since Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden? I don't know since the Bible doesn't tell us.
 
I don't know, that's why I ask. I thought God only made Adam and Eve, didn't realise he made several others as well.

Though it is not specifically mentioned because of the focus being placed on the Cain and Abel scenario, the boys (though the first two born to them) are grown here (speculatively could be 20 or 30...who knows?) and as you can see Cain as already married (so Cain, Abel, and younger offspring may also have had children but in the teaching they are at this time insignificant)....Adam and Eve were blessed to be fruitful and multiply...it is reasonable that would have had children every year of two (more twins? some triplets? some singles)... and then beginning as teens, these offspring all may have mated..and so on...the numerical possibilities are staggering...

Here is another thing that probably is not realized...I'll bet in most minds Adam and Eve is seen as euro/caucasian! Where for the eventuality of all possible variation they would have to have been a variety from which all possible anthropomorphic characteristics and all levels of melanin could have been reinforced...think about it...
 
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This has always been my question as well. Not so much the wife issue but the fact that there is already a settlement somewhere else, which would imply at least a couple of families. It's kind of hard to tell since we aren't really given a time frame for when this is happening. maybe it had already been 400 years since Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden? I don't know since the Bible doesn't tell us.

I do not see where that is difficult for some but I know it is...however, once Adam and Eve were outside the garden, why would their offspring having families of their own not have separated? This never was something I questioned as this is so logical...also when Cain is cast out into the land of Nod he is already with his wife...

I think the problem comes (JMO) because as young Christians (and sometimes by being taught by literalists with a small view of scripture, not that all literalists have a small or restricted view) we are allowed to continue to think there is allegedly only Adam, Eve, Can, and Abel at this point but the scripture itself never says this...it only concentrates on Cain and Abel for the many important teachings there...
 
I do not see where that is difficult for some but I know it is...however, once Adam and Eve were outside the garden, why would their offspring having families of their own not have separated? This never was something I questioned as this is so logical...also when Cain is cast out into the land of Nod he is already with his wife...

I think the problem comes (JMO) because as young Christians (and sometimes by being taught by literalists with a small view of scripture, not that all literalists have a small or restricted view) we are allowed to continue to think there is allegedly only Adam, Eve, Can, and Abel at this point but the scripture itself never says this...it only concentrates on Cain and Abel for the many important teachings there...

(Gen 4:16 ESV) Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

(Gen 4:17 ESV) Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.


Unless I missed something, it doesn't look like he was with his wife before he moved to Nod. Did I miss something?
 
(Gen 4:16 ESV) Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

(Gen 4:17 ESV) Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.


Unless I missed something, it doesn't look like he was with his wife before he moved to Nod. Did I miss something?

Read it again...does it say he met her IN nod or that she was a Nodian? When Cain went away from the presence of the Lord he made love to his wife...so what does that tell you (that he had a wife)...NO?
 
Read it again...does it say he met her IN nod or that she was a Nodian? When Cain went away from the presence of the Lord he made love to his wife...so what does that tell you (that he had a wife)...NO?
You could assume either way because it isn't stated. Those two verses could take place years apart from each other.
 
So true...this is why determining specific timelines is so unreliable...it like not knowing how old Cain and Abel were when their encounter is discussed. I think we would agree these details are not important and certainly irrelevant to what God is trying to show us (else He would have told us)
 
So true...this is why determining specific timelines is so unreliable...it like not knowing how old Cain and Abel were when their encounter is discussed. I think we would agree these details are not important and certainly irrelevant to what God is trying to show us (else He would have told us)
I agree that they are irrelevant but it's still interesting to discuss. Pretty much nothing in Genesis bothers me even if I don't understand it.
 
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