Wyrdsmyth

I just reread Genesis, to try to enjoy it as a story, to see how it flowed. What struck me was that there are a lot of parts that just don't make any sense. Keep in mind, I'm not pulling quotes here, I read the whole book. If someone submitted this to me as a story, and I was an editor, I would have questions and points to make, such as:

[1] The Location of the Garden of Eden. We should be able to locate the Garden of Eden, considering a stream flowed out of it, to turn into the headwaters of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and two other rivers (Gen. 2:10).

[2] Cain founded the city Enoch named after his son, Enoch (Gen. 4:17). Who lived in this city? How could there have been enough people living at that time to make anything remotely what we would call a city? Is the word 'city' a bad translation here? Would a word like 'settlement' be a better translation?

[3] Certain descendents of Cain are cited as being the ancestors of people with certain skills. For example, Jabal was "father of those who live in tents and raise livestock" and Jubal was "father of all such who play the harp and flute" (Gen. 4:20-21). However, it is clear not much later on that everyone except Noah's family was wiped out by the Flood. So, none of Cain's descendents survived. What is the point, then, in mentioning Cain's descendents and the skills they developed?

[4] God decides that man is mortal and will only live no more than 120 years (Gen. 6:3). From where this passage is located, you would think it would apply either to Noah's sons, or the next generation born after this passage (perhaps Noah's grandchildren). But, in the listing of the descendents of Shem, it is clear that there still are humans living longer than 120 years afterwards (Gen. 11:10-32).

[5] Creating my own timeline, I came up with 1656 (from the date of Creation) as the year of the Flood, with it ending in 1657. So, the world had to be repopulated by the three sons of Noah, from that date going forward. Even with very large families, this doesn't seem very plausible. Such an in-bred population couldn't possibly have survived and flourished. The first few generations would have had to have been marrying sisters, aunts, nieces, first cousins, etc. Yuck. Extreme retardation and deformities would have been the result.

[6] Supernatural beings (angels? the sons of god?) mated with human females, and some of their descendents were giants and/or heroes (Gen. 6:4). This would indicate that the supernatural beings are not sexless, as some theologians would imply about angels. Maybe these "Nephilim-genes" were what helped the too-small gene pool to survive (per note 6, above).

[7] God's regret over creating humankind seems to indicate that he is not all-knowing (Gen. 6:5). Also, it is not clear why he had to flood the earth to get rid of mankind. Why did he have to wipe out the animals and most of the plant life, as well? Talk about using a hammer to crack a walnut. God doesn't seem so much like an infallible designer, as he does an experimenter ("I didn't think it would turn out like this, at all... I'm just going to scratch the whole project!").

[8] Nimrod is cited as being the first great conquerer (Gen. 10:8). Who did he conquer? Later in the same chapter, it is mentioned that his kingdom was made up of Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh in Shinar -- and also, that he went to Assyria, and founded more cities: Ninevah, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen. Really? There were that many locations, with people in them, that soon after the Flood? Nimrod is the son of Cush, the grandson of Ham, and the great-grandson of Noah. How many people could there possibly have been, two generations after the Flood wiped everyone out?

Rich Oliver

Good points. I think the best way to dish Christianity is by asking questions.

What is the standard line on Noah and Adam's children, did they their sons have sex with their sisters?

Juststeve

With respect to the question of who Cain married Clearance Darrow suggested to William Jennings Bryan that someone had pulled off another creation in the next county. Bryan as I recall replied that he left the agnostics to look for Cain’s wife. The best you can do when defending the indefensible.

Steve

show_no_mercy

This is what happens when you have four different authors from four different time periods cobbled together by a fifth author to make a narrative.

Wyrdsmyth

Since I posted this, I've read up on a lot of the weird and mostly unsupported beliefs that people have about Genesis. For example, a lot of people seem to think the earth populated with extreme rapidity both before and after the Flood, and also that the antediluvian civilizations may have been quite advanced. Bizarre.

I think my favorite is a book written by William Whiston and published in 1696. It has this wonderously long and pompous title:

A New Theory of the Earth, From its Original, to the Consummation of All Things, Where the Creation of the World in Six Days, the Universal Deluge, And the General Conflagration, As laid down in the Holy Scriptures, Are Shewn to be perfectly agreeable to Reason and Philosophy.

Some interesting ideas Whiston has are: the flood was caused by the earth passing through the tail of a comet (it being known that comets are mostly ice); earth itself was made from a comet; and (heresy!) God did not create the earth, but fashioned it into a habitable world. The last is supported by certain translations of the beginning of Genesis, with God "preparing" rather than "creating" the heavens and the earth, initially hovering over the waters of an earth with no atmosphere.

Joan of Bark

Another commentary that might interest you is Commentary on the Torah (or via: amazon.co.uk), by Richard Friedman (of Who Wrote the Bible? fame).

rhutchin

There is no reason to think that the garden existed after Noah's flood. The whole countryside was likely reconfigured during the flood. Given that the purpose for the garden ended once Adam/Eve were kicked out, it's destruction during the flood would have been OK.

rhutchin

One reading of this is that God was saying that destruction was to come in 120 years so God was warning people that He was going to destroy the world because of their wickedness. It has nothing to do with the lifespans of anyone.

rhutchin

There are different methods proposed to figure out the genealogies. One is to take the genealogies as being complete and one suggests that there are generations left out. You can get different numbers on this.

It is obvious that the children of Noah's sons intermarried. While that would present problems today, it was not necessarily so back then. Assuming that the whole account is true, the mutation load would not have been as great back then and this could allow for intermarriage without retardation and deformities.

rhutchin

Sons of God refers to those who obey God. Daughters of men would refer to those who did not obey God. Thus, believers were marrying atheists. There is no reason why this has to be talking about angels mating with humans.