GENESIS: Chapters 4 & 5

Chapter 4
Summary:	Adam and his wife Eve conceive their first child together, a child they name Cain (meaning "I have created") - Eve throws in a side note that "with God's help" she has created a man. She later has a second son and names him Abel. Abel becomes a shepherd while Cain becomes a farmer. At harvest time both sons make offerings to God: Cain offers a gift of his best crops and Abel offers up some fatty cuts of lamb. God shows his favoritism (and that he's not much for vegetarianism) by accepting Abel's lamb chops and rejecting Cain's crops. Cain feels dejected and pissed off by God's favoritism. God asks Cain why he's so angry and tells him that he could be happy if he just "does what he should". He warns Cain that if he doesn't obey God, sin is waiting for him. So, one day Cain lures his brother out to the fields and kills him. 4:8 "And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." God immediately asks Cain* where is Abel, to which Cain replies to the effect of "How should I know? I'm not my brother's keeper." God says that Abel's blood called to him from the ground, and hereby banishes Cain from the fields and curses the ground so that Cain will no longer be able to produce any crops. He tells Cain that he will now be a nomadic fugitive*. Cain complains that he's scared of the ramifications from the punishment, that he'll be hunted down and killed. God replies that if anybody kills Cain their punishment will be seven times worse(?) and puts a mark on Cain* leaving Cain to settle outside of God's presence* in the land of Nod (somewhere east of Eden). The story now jumps ahead to Cain having a wife and fathering his first child Enoch - to whom Cain founded a city after. The chapter jumps ahead farther now and lists a slew of Cain's descendants: Enoch (Cain's son) has a son named Irad (Cain's grandson) Irad has a son named Mehujael (Cain's great-grandson) Mehujael has a son named Methusael (Cain's great-great-grandson) Methusael has a son named Lamech (Cain's great-great-great-grandson) Lamech becomes the focus of the next paragraph, and we learn that: He had two wives - Adah and Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal (who becomes the first cattleman, and the first to apparently live in a tent) and Jubal (the first musician, who invented the harp and the flute*) Zillah gave birth to Tubal-cain (who becomes the first bronze and iron worker*) One day Lamech kills some kid who attacked him and claims to his wives that if anyone attacking Cain will be punished seven times, then anyone seeking revenge against him (for killing the kid) should be punished 77 times(?). The chapter closes off with mentioning that Eve had a third son named Seth (meaning "granted", as apparently she felt God granted her another son in place of Abel). When Seth grew up he had a son whom he named Enosh. It was during his lifetime that men first began calling themselves "God's people".
Notes:	1.) If God is omnipresent and omniscient, why is he asking where Abel is? 2.) From whom? At this point the only humans in existence are Adam, Eve, and Cain. 3.) Not specified what Cain's mark actually is. 4.) This is contradictory towards the notion that God is omnipresent. 5.) Being a musician myself, it is pretty well accepted that the first musical instruments were most likely drums and percussion based. Harps and flutes are complex instruments that have evolved from much simpler concepts. This is akin to claiming that the first mode of transportation was the bicycle (as opposed to horse riding). 6.) Perhaps Tubal-cain was inspired by that flaming sword guarding the Garden of Eden? 7.) How does Lamech come up with this figure of 77, and why does he think he's entitled to it? If he is indeed entitled to have anyone who seeks revenge against him doled out for a punishment that is 77 times worse than it should normally be is it because he's a direct descendant of Cain, or does this apply to all murderers? If the latter, what does this say about capital punishment?
Thoughts:	It is perhaps around this chapter that I would assume that most people stop attempting to read the bible from cover to cover. The narrative makes wide jumps in time, lists a lot of names that are virtually irrelevant to the story, and introduces characters only to leave a lot of loose ends. The most bothersome aspect of this chapter is how male-centric it is. Eve is mentioned almost solely as a "baby-making machine" and none of her daughters are named - as we have to assume that she had at least two, to provide both Cain and Seth with wives. The only other two women we hear about are Adah and Zillah, whom much like their great-great-great-great grandmother are relegated pretty much to the status of "baby-making machines" as well (although they do get to hear their husband Lamech's tale of killing a kid who attacked him). Furthermore the polygamy of Lamech is not addressed either, which seems odd in contrast to chapter 2 which puts emphasis on (I'm assuming, monogamous) marriage making a man feel "complete again" with a woman by his side. Furthermore we have to assume that these first generations of people (possibly within approximately 100 years, but which we'll get more into in the next chapter) were able to develop inventions such as bronze and iron working as well as complex musical instruments such as the flute and harp. Also of note we also get our first glimpse of animal sacrifices (that God will later demand much more of) from the story of Cain and Abel.
Chapter 5
Summary:	This chapter is more of a genealogical listing of Adam's descendants, and their radically astronomically old ages. We learn that: Adam: was 130(!) years old when his son Seth was born. Died at age 930*. Seth: was 105* years old when his son Enosh was born. Died at the age of 912*. Enosh: was 90* years old when his son Kenan was born. Died at the age of 905*. Kenan: was 70* years old when his son Mahalalel was born. Died at the age of 910*. Mahalalel: was 65* years old when his son Jared was born. Died at the age of 895*. Jared: was 162* years old when his son Enoch* was born. Died at the age of 962*. Enoch*: was 65* years old when his son Methuselah was born. Kept in constant contact with God. Disappeared at the age of 365* because God took him. Methuselah: was 187* years old when his son Lamech* was born. Died at the age of 969* 5:27 "And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died." . Lamech*: was 182* years old when his son Noah was born Lamech named Noah (meaning "relief") because he believed that Noah would bring the people relief from the hard work of farming of the ground which God cursed. Died at the age of 777*. Noah: Was 500* years old and had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth
Notes:	1.) These are not typos. These are the actual ages listed in the bible. 2.) Not to be confused with Cain's son Enoch from chapter 4. 3.) Not to be confused with Cain's great-great-great-grandson Lamech, the son of Methusael from chapter 4.
Thoughts:	I really don't know where to begin with this chapter. I think any rationally sane person who has made it this far into the bible should begin to start having doubts towards the bible's historical accuracy at this point. The idea that human beings had at one time lived to ripe ages of up to 969 years old is silly and unfounded, and outside of the bible (and other mythological texts) has never been documented. It becomes even harder to swallow when we notice that these men both seem to procreate and finally die all on either rounded ages (ending in a zero) or ending in the numbers 2, 5, and 7 (excepting Methuselah who dies at 969, but is still obviously a patterned number). Personally, I don't think these numbers are coincidental and most, if not all, probably have significant meanings in numerology (such as Methuselah's death at 969, Enoch's disappearance at age 365 - coincidentally the number of days in a year, and Lamech's curious age at death of 777). In the days of the bible's authorship numerology and astrology dominated people's beliefs, prophecies, and superstitions, and I think it's very clear to see that these numbers are not natural ages of death, but carefully selected numbers of mystical importance to the people of the time - which would ease the transition of adapting people's beliefs from pagan religions rooted in numerology and astrology into Judaism (and later Christianity and Islam). Again, there is absolutely no credible evidence archaeological or otherwise documented (outside of religious and mythological texts) that correlate to any human being ever having lived much longer than 100 years of age. While some may argue that lack of evidence doesn't prove that people didn't at one time perhaps live several centuries long lives, the burden of proof lays upon the ones making an outlandish claim such as this, and it is foolish to accept this possibility as plausible without additional evidence. Particularly amusing to me however, is that Enoch just "vanishes into thin air" after 365 years.

GENESIS: Chapter 3

Chapter 3
Summary:	First we encounter a "talking snake"*, who is explained to be the craftiest creature God had made. The snake asks the woman about God's rules over the fruit in the garden, while the woman replies that it's only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that is forbidden to eat (she further embellishes that they may not even touch it either) or they will die. The snake tells her that it's all a big fib and that eating the fruit will cause her to have a conscience and become God-like. So she decides to eat the fruit and gave some to her husband. While they eat the fruit they suddenly develop shame* over their nakedness and decide to cover their genitals with fig leaves. In the evening God is apparently walking around in the garden* making enough noise to warn Adam and his wife of his presence, so they both hide from God. God asks why they hid, and Adam explains that he didn't want God to see him naked. God then asks if Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit, and while Adam admits to this he continues on to tell God that it was the woman God made for him that brought him the fruit. God now turns to the woman asking her how she could do such a thing, and she blames the talking snake claiming that the snake tricked her. 3:16 "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." So God curses the serpent to slither around on his belly and declares the woman and the snake enemies for generations to come. God curses the woman with intense pain during childbirth, but also tells her that she will be obedient to her husband's affections and makes her husband her "master"*. He curses Adam by actually instead cursing the soil making it harder for him to harvest crops from, and also tells him that he is now mortal and will now eventually die. As a parting gift, God gives Adam and his wife (now named Eve) garments made from animal skins. God banishes them both from the garden and places mighty angels armed with a flaming sword* to guard the entrance to the garden.
Notes:	1.) Snakes do not possess the intelligence to communicate, nor do they have any method of vocalizing. While we can possibly suspend belief for the sake of the story that perhaps God had once made talking snakes, this is neither explained or eluded to, nor is the removal of the snakes ability to communicate. 2.) This implies that there was something about nudity to be shameful of, and this shame (in the context of this story) comes from God. If God considered nudity shameful and embarrassing then why didn't he provide Adam and his wife with clothing when he created them? 3.) With God's alleged omnipotence and omnipresence (as we are taught to believe) this is confusing as to why he is "walking around", making noise while he does so, why he has to call out for Adam, and why he has to ask these questions when with his alleged attributes he would have witnessed the entire event unfold. The only logical conclusion is that God allowed this to happen - but if he wanted things to be this way why not create life this way to begin with? It can only be surmised that God had intended to guilt trip Adam and his wife into "making a mistake" to absolve himself from the responsibility. 4.) This is misogynistic, devalues the female gender as "inferior", and is contrary to a just punishment from an all-loving God. 5.) This is very obviously an embellishment from a human writer of the past to embody a sense of deadly force, as obviously iron swords had yet to be invented, and by the angels possessing these instruments it is meant to convey to the terms of the time of writing the deadly force they possessed. The presence of "flaming swords" seems redundant when God has infinite power to guard the garden with whatever force or object he deemed necessary.
Thoughts:	It appears very obvious that this chapter borrows from and is inspired by many other mythologies: talking animals, a grand and improbable explanation to questions of the time (why women must endure pain while giving birth, trying to explain mortality, etc.), placing the blame for these "punishments" on early man, explaining why to condone sexism, and invoking objects (such as the flaming sword) which very obviously didn't exist back then - but could be related to in their writers contemporary time. Quite frankly, this chapter is rather ridiculous in playing a "blame game" among Adam, Eve, and the talking snake while absolving God from the equation. Put into the perspective of the story, both Adam and Eve lack the ability to distinguish right and wrong - or good and evil - much like a young child. God however does know this difference and the talking snake's motives are not clear. Compare this to the following modern day scenario: A father puts a glass of wine in the middle of his dining room table amongst glasses of other non-alcoholic beverages. He tells his two children they can have any drink they want - except for the glass of wine at the center of the table, and that if they drink from that glass they will die. The children's cousin drops by while their father is away and tells them that the glass of wine isn't poisonous, but will simply make them drunk. The daughter takes a drink of wine and offers it to her brother. When dad gets home from work he finds his kids hiding behind the couch and wants to know why. The kids tell him that they drank the wine and are ashamed and scared that they are now drunk, so the father gets angry. He tells the cousin that he is disowned, takes away the cousin's bicycle, and proclaims that the cousin and his daughter are now enemies and will be forced to physically fight when they see each other from now on. He then tells the daughter that her punishment will be to become her brother's slave and that she will have to endure intense pain every few years by sitting on a chair littered with tacks. He finally tells his son that he will have to mow his fathers lawn for the rest of his life with a push-mower, and that the father will put rocks in the yard to make the mowing more difficult. He then throws both children out of the house with the clothes on their backs and changes the locks. As rational and modern people we can see that this contemporary analogy to the third chapter in Genesis is sadistic and extreme, and that obviously the father is partially responsible for what happened and negligent for the outcome of the situation. Regardless of his children's wrong doings in drinking the wine, we have to ask what the wine was doing there in the first place - and the only rational answer is that it is there to test his children - who lack a clear sense of right and wrong - and their obedience to him. The father's threat of "death" for drinking the wine, and the eventual punishments he doles out are both excessive and extreme and not evenly dished out to the parties responsible (both of his children and their cousin, and the negligence of the father).

GENESIS: Chapters 1 & 2

Chapter 1
Summary:	Genesis begins by telling us how God* begins to create both heaven and earth from a shapeless mass in the dark in seven days. Day One: God creates light* by simply exclaiming "Let there be light". He lets the light shine for a while and calls it "daytime", and when the light stops he calls it "nighttime". Together they form the first day. Day Two: God "separates the vapors" to create the sky and the oceans. Day Three: God has a much busier day: he commands the water on the earth to gather into oceans so that dry land will emerge and calls the land "earth" and the water "seas" (it's then noted that he's apparently pleased with this work); next he creates every grass, seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees. (It is again noted his pleasure with his work). Day Four: Now here's where things start to get a bit weird. 1:16 "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also." Despite spending day one creating "daytime" and "nighttime", it takes until day four to create "bright lights in the sky" to identify the night and the day (which he also did on day one) in order to create seasons and to mark days and years. He makes two "huge lights", the sun and the moon(!) to shine down on the earth and reading almost as an afterthough "he also made stars"*. He sets them both (the sun and the moon) in the sky to divide the light from the darkness. Day Five: God creates fish and sea creatures in the water and birds* of all kinds in the sky. He blesses them and tells them to procreate and fill the earth. Day Six: God creates every other kind of animal - including cattle, reptiles, and wildlife (again it's noted his pleasure in doing so). Then God decides to make a human in "his own image", someone like himself, to be the master over all life on earth, the sky, and the sea. He makes the man and later a woman (which we get to in the next chapter) and tells them to procreate, makes them masters over the other animals, and tells them that he made the fruit trees and seeded plant for them, and has given the grass and plants to the animals and birds for their food. God looks over his creations and declared it excellent in every way.
Notes:	1.) "God" is not defined, other than we are to assume he is a creator of some sort. 2.) The source of light, how long it is allowed to shine, why and what causes it to stop, are all not specified 3.) The moon is not a light, or a source of light. It simply reflects light from the sun. 3.) The sun as we now know is a star itself, and is not the largest of them. The moon is quite smaller than a star, yet both the sun and moon are referred to as "huge lights". 4.) Although the bible often misclassifies winged mammals as "birds" (e.g. the bat) and that we can probably chalk this up to the Hebrew language (meaning that the Hebrew word for "bird" may simply mean "flying animal" which would include bats, etc.) - the bible is making it clear here that animals of the sea and the air were created first, whereas science and fossil records show that in addition to sea life, reptiles (which have yet to be created) predate birds and are the earliest known forms of life.
Thoughts:	Already in the first chapter we come at odds with modern science and archaeological evidence. The earliest fossils that we have found tell us that life most probably began in the sea, and evolved into reptilian life, contrary to Genesis claiming that birds predate reptiles - discarding the time frame of a "day". Now while it is simply *possible* that we just may not have found fossils to support that birds predate reptiles, the problem is that there is no evidence outside of the written word of the bible to support that claim. Lack of evidence is certainly cause for skepticism. Secondly, we have an obvious paradox with the creation of light, "daytime", and "nighttime" three days before the creation of the sun (and stars). Perhaps God created a simple mythical flashlight and modeled the sun after it, but the bible doesn't explain this and guessing is subjective at best. Also, without the heat of the sun, the waters would be frozen by the lack of heat and would prove a hindrance in "separating the vapors" to make the sky. The plants, grass, and fruit trees made on day three would also die without the sun, making "God's flashlight" pretty much a necessary substitution for this story to hold true. It could be possible that God is holding this all together in some sort by his boundless supernatural powers, but this is not explained or mentioned and is again subjective. Another problem with the story versus modern science is the creation of reptiles on the same day as human beings, as once again our fossil records don't support this. Again, while it could be *possible* that we simply have not found human fossils dating as far back as our reptilian fossils, we lack that evidence to support the claim as made here in Genesis.
Chapter 2
Summary:	Day Seven: God declares his work finished, blesses this seventh day, declares it holy and rests. The chapter continues on to give a summary of the past 7 days of creations, which in actuality is more of an elaboration. It claims: That there weren't any plants or grain sprouting across the earth initially, as God hadn't sent any rain, nor was man yet created to farm the soil*. God created man using dust from the ground and breathed life into the body made of earth. God plants a garden in a place he called Eden and placed the man in the garden. He creates a bunch of exotic fruit trees and also a tree called the "Tree of Life" in the middle of the garden. 2:17 "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." God gives the man his first set of rules telling him he's got full reign to eat whatever fruits he wants from any of the trees, except from the "Tree of Life". He goes on to tell the man that if he eats fruit from the "Tree of Life"* he will become aware of his conscience and know right from wrong - and he makes his first threat to the man, that he will be doomed to die if he eats the said fruit. In variation from the order in chapter one*, God creates animals from the dust of the earth and brings them to the man to see what he'd name them. God then wants to create a "helper" for the man, but instead of creating from the dust on the ground*, he elects instead to put the man into a deep sleep and yanks out one of his ribs and makes a woman from the rib The chapter finishes off by explaining that a woman is "taken out of a man" and therefore future generations of men are "incomplete" until they leave home and become married to a woman to become "one flesh" again. The man (who is inexplicably named Adam) and his new wife are explained to be naked, yet unashamed(?) or embarrassed(?)
Notes:	1.) It's also worth noting again that the sun (which has yet to be created) isn't mentioned as a factor. 2.) The problem here is that man yet to grasp the concept of "right or wrong" and has only God's threat of being "doomed to die" as reasoning to avoid the fruit from the tree. God seems to be tempting and/or coaxing the man to disobey him by explaining what knowledge will be gained (a conscience of right and wrong) and by placing this tree in the garden to begin with. 3.) In chapter one, it seems clear that God had made the animals first, then man (and woman) to be masters over the animals. In this chapter God makes man from the dust, and then makes the animals from the dust to bring to the man to see what he would name them. 4.) Why God resorts to creating the woman from the man's rib and not the dust from the ground is not specifically explained - unless we assume that it was God's intention to make marriage seem like the man is "complete" again. 5.) Here we have to infer that there would be some reason for the man and his wife to be ashamed and embarrassed of their nudity. In the context of the story there is no reason for this other than to imply that nudity is simply "wrong" in the first place.
Thoughts:	Already we have a contradiction with the first chapter (the order of the creation of man versus animals), we have God placing Adam (and his wife) in a tempting and unnecessary situation and threatening him with death as a way to coerce him into obeying, and already (unbeknownst to the man and his wife) making nudity a shameful idea - despite man (and presumably woman) being modeled after God's own image. To me, even so far, it seems quite apparent that this story was concocted by men of a later age where nudity was shameful and who were ignorant of the actual roles and characteristics of the sun, the moon, and stars - rather than divinely inspired, or divinely written. It's also hard to think of God's characteristics as being all loving and compassionate when he's already threatening Adam with death for disobeying him (and basically entrapping him to do so) instead of simply giving him the ability to discern right from wrong. With Adam's lack of experience and young age (yet presumably an adult) it is natural that we should probably think of him more on terms with a child, and threatening a child with death for disobeying something he does not fully comprehend or understand is not compassionate but cruel and excessive punishment.