sschlichter

When the bible says the great and terrible day of the Lord, do you think it is referring to one 24 hour period?

or how about something like the day of the gentiles. is this one day?

or, in modern English, if you prefer. it could be a phrase like "I was young back in the day". What 24 hour period am I referring to?

Sorry, if you want to catch God in a lie, you have to learn Hebrew for yourself.

~Steve

Joan of Bark

In other words, God writes in a vague and ambiguous manner in order to drive everyone crazy while trying to interpret Him.

sschlichter

I don't know. Are any of the examples I gave unclear to you as to whether I am referring to a 24 hour day or a space of time? They seem clear to me. Many words have multiple meanings and their context is what you use to determine the meaning. It is just the nature of all languages.

bye the way, the definition I gave came from a Hebrew dictionary. there is nothing particularly theistic about it.


~Steve

aa5874

So, Adam might still be physically alive since we really do not know what the author of Genesis means he uses the words "day" and "die".

And, in retrospect, we have no idea what many things in the Bible really mean.

What is a "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"?

mg01

They were doomed from the moment they appeared in the garden. "Whatever you do, do not press the red button." Where's the story going to go if the button never gets pushed? Typical "one forbidden thing" motif.

Besides, had the two obeyed, the Bible would only be two chapters long.

Salam

There would be no bible if the two obeyed.

aa5874

Those who believe in Gods can always fabricate their bibles. Whatever they believe about any God is "bible".

mg01

One common metaphorical interpretation is that "good and evil" is a euphemism for "everything", as in "all knowledge". As God's pets, they had access to the tree of life which gave them immortality, but if they also partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would essentially be gods, having both all knowledge and eternal life. So god was basically holding out on them, until the serpent clues them in. At that point, god "kills them" or more precisely, condemns them to mortality by denying them access to the tree of life with the cherubs (monstrous lion-birds, not chubby baby angels) and flaming swords.

The blame on the "dual conspiracy" falls on the serpent and the woman, both of these are fertility/earth symbols representing the naturalistic religion (a la Asherah). On the other side you have patriarchal YHWH/Adam relationship which we are being told we should be following. So part of the lesson here is that "back in the good old days" everything was great until the WOMAN went wayward and went against YHWH and followed the advice of a symbol of the "old ways".

Solo

Not everyone, Joan, only the obsessive ones.

Jiri

sschlichter

I think the meaning of both day and die were clear enough. I think the assumption that this book is there to prove God's existence is a mistake. The author is explaining how man was originally created and what happened to get him all screwed up.

In that purpose, why would the author bother with clarifying death since everyone reading it is quite familiar with what happens to people when they get old.

I think the answer to your question lies in what would have the tree meant to the original audience. The theme of trees and rivers in Genesis is interesting (IMO) because of what they would have symobilized to people that wander around in the desert for a generation. The theme of trees and rivers (and their meanings) are restored in the book of revelation (21 or so).

I imagine that you did not really care about all that, but I think it is much more interesting than the meanings of the word for "day". What was intended to be communicated was communicated plenty.