I am seven days into reading the Bible and I have finished the Book of Genesis. I always thought the Book of Genesis was about the beginnings. Specifically, the beginning of man and the world, but it is truly about the ancestry of Moses and the origin of the Israelites.
The stories are all over the span the interest. There are boring ones, sad ones, scary ones, and a great one. The book ends well and, as much as I didn’t expect it, it is very inspirational. It is one of those books that make you glad to be a human. Probably even more glad to be an Israelite.
The first five books of the Bible are supposed to be written by Moses. I always thought that was just speculation, but in reading, it makes sense. The Book of Genesis is a family tree of sorts. I have personally enjoyed making a family tree and collecting stories of my own ancestors and that is what this is. Moses has recorded the stories of his family. All the “begat”s make sense because he is recording the tree.
My views have not changed drastically. I have not had a bad day since I started reading though. I still question if God exists. I still feel there is a great possibility that the earlier stories in the Bible are old word of mouth myths. But I’m starting to think that only is true of the first half of Genesis.
Adam and Eve seem to me to be the Big Bang Theory or the Theory of Evolution of its time. I am currently thinking it is a theory that was generally accepted over a large period of time over a large consensus of people. The stories of Noah probably refer to real events that were manipulated incidentally by the story coming down over years and years. But as you get closer to the years of the author himself, the stories are closer to first and have had less time to skew from memory.
I am enjoying the journey and hope that it continues to surprise me. I also hope there is a little more explanation about a couple things.
1. Why God seems to refer to himself as we at times.
2. Who are the Nephilim
Bible Read: Genesis
To help with your questions, God refers to himself as We at some points because of the translation from Hebrew. The word for God in that context is actually plural and doesn’t change to the singular until later. The word used is Elohim (www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d is a really nice quick reference).
As far as the nephilim are concerned, there is quite a bit of speculation. However it seems that they are a classification of angels “sons of God” that had children by mortal women. Many people take this to be comparable to the gold or silver age mentioned in Greek or Roman mythology.
Loving your posts and hoping the answers are useful!
Thank you. That does shed some light on those things. And that link is quite interesting. Looks like something else to take up my time, lol.