manwithdream

I think that the creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2 are really one story that is possibly misunderstood.

Genesis 1:11-12 says that G-d created the plants, but Genesis 2:5 says that the plants did not grow because it did not rain yet. Maybe the plants that grew in Genesis 1:11-12 were in the seas or on the edges of the seas like seaweed, sea grass, and mangroves. Maybe after it rained the land plants started to grow in Genesis 2.

Maybe the creation of the animals happened before Adam was created in Genesis 1:24-25, but they were created a second time after Adam was created, but this time to find a mate for Adam. I don't think Adam wanted any of them, so Eve was made from his rib.

I think the Hebrew is translated wrong in Genesis 2:19. It is translated as saying that G-d made the animals from the ground ,and then He brought them to the man to see what he will call them, and whatever he called every living soul that would be its name.

I think it could say that G-d made the animals from the ground "...and He brought (He came) to the man to see what he will declare is his (is for him), and all that he will declare is his (is for him), a living soul He gave it (He is giving it)." Maybe the man chose which animals would be domesticated like cows and dogs.

Or maybe it says "...and He brought (He came) to the man to see what he will declare is his (is for him), and all that he will declare is his (is for him) is a living soul He gave him." Maybe the man did not want any of the animals for a mate, so he only declared the soul G-d gave him in Genesis 2:7 to be his. Maybe that is why G-d had to take his rib to make Eve later.

Those are my wild guesses.

Amedeo

Wild guesses, indeed!

Without having to guess, you can see that the Elohim of Gen. 1 created [caused -- in the way you cause words] a man AND a woman in their own image: one male and one female. The Yahweh elohim [the divine Yahweh] of Gen. 2 fashioned a male out of dust or clay. After fashioning a few more animals, he produced a woman out of Adam.

And the name of the Elohim is from a proto-Arabic language; the name of Yahweh is from a Caucasian language [which has counterparts outside Hebrew].

The ONE GOD is the one Moses required Israel to accept and believe: Yahweh the legislator, the Lord Sabaoth, lord of the hosts [armies].

[The above is not a rabinical teaching.]

Toto

What's the point in trying to make a wild guess as to how the Hebrew Scriptures could be tidied up and made presentable?

And the idea that YWHW is from a "Caucasion" language is a few steps less credible than a wild guess.

Amedeo

Please do tell us what the true interpretation is and what the words Elohim and Yahweh [without the rabinical guess about the verb "to be") MEAN, and all about the weeds and the plants, the created humans and the cloned man, etc.

Just wishing to learn!

manwithdream

If people are going to say that the Hebrew Bible has certain mistakes that show that it is false, but those quotes are just misunderstood, then people should try to figure out what those quotes really say. This forum is about the text of the Bible, and I am trying to see if the text can be understood better.

Why would you want to misunderstand the Bible if there was a way to understand it better?

GenesisNemesis

What's the way to understand it better? To read it? That's mostly why we don't understand. Not because we haven't read it, but because we have read it.

manwithdream

Toto asked me why I am trying to tidy up the Hebrew Bible and make it more presentable, and I was answering that question. I think some quotes in the Bible are confusing because they are translated bad, and some are just confusing even if they are translated right. I think some possible explanations and translations have not been tried by biblical scholars, and I want to try and see if I can think of some that might be useful.

Toto

What is the basis of your new translations? Just that they make more sense to you? Do you read Hebrew? Have you studied the language?

Dlx2

This is a very good question. However, if he does, he'd have noticed the difference in dialects and style between the first and second chapter of B'reisheet.

David B

Wasn't it Twain who said 'I ain't what I don't understand about the bible that bothers me, it's the bits I do understand'

David B (hopes against hope that he has done it verbatim, but probably paraphrases)