But then how were Cain’s wife’s ancestors created (in Nod?), if not from Adam? Is there at least one other act of creation? I get if it’s not mentioned, but surely someone has written fanfic to fill in the gaps.
Again, Adam and Eve weren’t the first people, they were the first Jews. It makes more sense if you catch the proper tense of the first line of Genesis:
In Hebrew:
א בְּרֵאשִׁית,
בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים,
אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם,
וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.
In Latin:
in principio creavit Deus caelum et terram.
The English you know:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The English you don’t know:
In the beginning the Gods created the heaven and the earth.
Latin picks up the plural correctly. The King James version does not.
So you might ask, well, wait, if there are other Gods and other people, why aren’t they mentioned?
Surprise! They ARE:
Exodus 20:2-3:
"2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
In other words, there ARE other Gods, but I am yours and you are mine and we are all together, goo goo gajoob!
Deus is translating “elohim” which is plural. Note the -im suffix for plurals. Modern Arabic has a similar suffix.
Elohim is frequently translated into a singular form to support monotheism. But it’s definitely not a grammatical construct, like English’s royal we.
Now, plural gods in Genesis 1 do not imply that the Genesis 1 creation only covered Jews. I don’t understand that part.
In any case, I was really asking what modern biblical literalists say to resolve this “Seth picking up a wife in Nod” issue. I’m sure they have some kind of story or explanation, and frequently I find those kind of hilarious.
Wrong… God created the beings in heaven… Angeles etc… he made some princes etc… He made them rule over certain parts of the heaven the earth and so on… god Dosen’t want you worshiping g them he wants to be worshipped that’s why he said you shall have. No other gods before me…
Greatest commandment is Hear O Israel the lord is one god!
But then how were Cain’s wife’s ancestors created (in Nod?), if not from Adam? Is there at least one other act of creation? I get if it’s not mentioned, but surely someone has written fanfic to fill in the gaps.
Again, Adam and Eve weren’t the first people, they were the first Jews. It makes more sense if you catch the proper tense of the first line of Genesis:
In Hebrew:
א בְּרֵאשִׁית,
בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים,
אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם,
וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.
In Latin:
in principio creavit Deus caelum et terram.
The English you know:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The English you don’t know:
In the beginning the Gods created the heaven and the earth.
Latin picks up the plural correctly. The King James version does not.
So you might ask, well, wait, if there are other Gods and other people, why aren’t they mentioned?
Surprise! They ARE:
Exodus 20:2-3:
"2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
In other words, there ARE other Gods, but I am yours and you are mine and we are all together, goo goo gajoob!
Wait, that’s not right. ;)
There is no plural in Latin either. Deus and creavit are both singular.
I may have misremembered the Latin angle, but the Hebrew is solid. From the excellent “Asimov’s Guide to the Bible”:
Asimov is also the guy who makes the “Begats” chapter make sense:
Deus is translating “elohim” which is plural. Note the -im suffix for plurals. Modern Arabic has a similar suffix.
Elohim is frequently translated into a singular form to support monotheism. But it’s definitely not a grammatical construct, like English’s royal we.
Now, plural gods in Genesis 1 do not imply that the Genesis 1 creation only covered Jews. I don’t understand that part.
In any case, I was really asking what modern biblical literalists say to resolve this “Seth picking up a wife in Nod” issue. I’m sure they have some kind of story or explanation, and frequently I find those kind of hilarious.
Roll forward to Exodus 1:1
“1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.”
Genesis - The creation of the people of Israel.
Exodus - The Israelites who went to Egypt.
It’s a throughline.
Wrong… God created the beings in heaven… Angeles etc… he made some princes etc… He made them rule over certain parts of the heaven the earth and so on… god Dosen’t want you worshiping g them he wants to be worshipped that’s why he said you shall have. No other gods before me…
Greatest commandment is Hear O Israel the lord is one god!
Until you get to the Gnostics, who claim that the Jews had been tricked into worshiping one of the lesser gods. Jesus was sent to fix this.
Prove them wrong.
Sparkly vampires
Is this a sneaky VtM reference disguised as a Twilight reference?