Messianic prophesies 2 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

The first human beings had chosen to go their own path. As any good father would do when his children had done something wrong, God punished them. But as a loving Father He in His great mercy promised for a solution and preserved David’s bloodline and the Messianic promise.

Mankind had chosen Yet, we each must recognize the adversary’s strategy to lure us into desiring and acquiring pride, glory, power, anything more than God Himself — and understand the dire consequences of choosing to follow those desires.

In Scriptures we can find sayings which should come to recognise the one who God sent to the world to show the Way to God and to brake the curse of death which came over Adam and Eve. God provided some one, people can follow as an ideal example, namely the Messiah, who we shall see is Jeshua, who in certain countries is better known under the name Jesus, or Jezus, Jésus, Jeesus, Chesu, Jezis, Xesus, Isus or Ishi/Isha.

Throughout the Brit Chadashah, we find satan tempting, prowling, seeking whom he can destroy. That sent one from God became even his primary target. God is the only one Who cannot be tempted, but all other beings can be tempted. Also Jeshua or Jesus Christ was tempted more than once, but he resisted every temptation even during great physical weakness.
How? He confronted every satan he encountered with the Word of God, while being full of the Spirit of God. In doing so, he exited the wilderness victorious and empowered and left Peter ashamed.

When he did not succeed in destroying Jeshua, the adversary focused his slander and deception toward luring others away from God’s Word and His Kingdom. Knowing what went on and what shall come, we should not have to fear the serpent‘s schemes to destroy our eternal destiny.

Though we will certainly die physically, we don’t have to die spiritually. God placed hope for our spiritual victory over death back in the first pages of Genesis.

Who Is Our Hope?

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [seed/ zera] and her offspring [seed/ zera]. He will pound your head, and you will bite his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

In the previous posting you could already read how God first revealed the hope for all mankind against the adversary when he promised that Eve’s seed / offspring (zera) would pound or crush the head of the serpent.

When we talk about an offspring, literally “those who spring off (someone,)” from off + springan “to spring” (see spring (v.)) we think of progeny coming from Old French progenie (13c.) and directly from Latin progenies “descendants, offspring, lineage, race, family,” from stem of progignere “beget,” from pro “forth” (see pro-) + gignere “to produce, beget” (see genus) and look at descendants or a posterity.

It can be that it is about a (singular) person’s child or the young of a person, an immediate descendant or descendants of a person or animal. Though it also may mean more than one person of one pair of people, in that instance talking about a lot of people, such as a nation of Israel or all humankind. When we look at Jewish theologians or scholars their writings we may find lots of debate going on about that.

For most Christians the seed mentioned several times in the Pre-Messianic Scriptures or Old Testament refers to a coming Messiah — Jeshua (Jesus Christ). To know for sure we shall look not only at the first mention of such seed but look at the further writings given to mankind to get to know what God His Plan is with mankind and in which The Master Maker reveals how we can see who shall be the Messiah.

The first five books (the Chumash or Pentateuch), written by Moses speaks of a male. Also in other ancient Jewish sages we find the mention of a “he”. enlightened by the Highest Ruach (the Power of God) Moses did not only wrote about the beginning of times. In 1300 BCE, Moses wrote about the last days (acharit-hayamim, בְּאַחֲרִ֥ית הַיָּמִֽים), which indicates that he likely understood a final deliverance and deliverer would one day arrive. (Genesis 49)

“So now, here, I am going (back) to my people; come, I will advise you as to what this people will do to your people in future days.”
(Numbers 24:14 SB)

“When you are in distress because there befall you all these things, in future days, you shall return to YHWH your God and hearken to his voice.”
(Deuteronomy 4:30 SB)

At the days of Jeshua people also got to hear what God said in the Garden of Eden

“I put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed: they will bruise you on the head, you will bruise them in the heel.”
(Genesis 3:15 SB)

They heard it in their common language of Aramaic, the language Jesus also spoke. In that language we can still find it in the translation, known as Targum Yonatan [Targum Jonathan (תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל)], the official eastern (Babylonian) targum to the Nevi’im. In that “Translation,” or “Interpretation” Book (hence “Targum”) unlearned Jews to whom the Hebrew of the Old Testament was unintelligible, could hear how we all are in a power struggle with the adversary in choosing to do good while resisting our selfish, evil desires. When Scripture was read aloud in the synagogue, it was translated aloud by a meturgeman, or professional interpreter, for the benefit of the congregation. The translator tried to reproduce the original text as closely as possible, but since his object was to give an intelligible rendering of the biblical text, the Targums eventually took on the character of paraphrase and commentary, leaving literal translation behind.  The read text was utilized as a vehicle for conveying homiletic discourses, traditional sayings, legends, and allegories is abundantly illustrated by the later Targums, as opposed to the more literal translations of the earlier Targums. In both of them there is also spoken of that time to come and more in particular of that person to come. The Targum Jonathan affirms that the world was waiting for the coming of “King Meshiha” (Messiah in Aramaic) to heal the wounds caused by the adversary when we sin, and to win us an everlasting freedom.

It is from the Targum Yonatan that several Jews in later years also came to see a Messiah in certain people, like we may find followers of Simon Bar Kokhba, Nehemiah ben Hushiel also known as Mashiach ben Yoseph or Messiah ben Joseph, of als Mashiach bar/ben Ephraim, Sabbatai Zevi or Sabbatai Zebi/Shabsai Tzvi, Jakob Frank (Jankiew Lejbowi) or the contemporary adored Menachem Mendel Schneerson. They and their followers where taken by the text

“they shall make a remedy for the heel in the days of the King Meshiha.” (Genesis 3:15, Targum Yonatan, which is attributed to the work of Jonathan (Yonatan) ben Uzziel, c. 50 BC)

Today still like in the past, Orthodox worshippers pray, sing, play the violin, and dance in the synagogue at what they consider King David’s Tomb.

Title page, Midrash Tehillim

When we look at the first and second century Rabbinic commentary (known as a Midrash) the seed as Messiah is defined as:

“Rabbi Tanchuma said, in the name of Rabbi Samuel: Eve had respect to that seed (“offspring”) which is coming from another place. And who is this? This is the King Messiah.” (Midrash Genesis Rabbah 23:5)

A millennium later, the European scholar of the Hebrew language whose writings on Hebrew lexicography and grammar became standard works in the Middle Ages, David Kimhi or Kimchi (RaDaK) also seems to point to the seed as Messiah, writing:

“As You went forth for the salvation of Your people by the hands of Meshiha, the Son of David, who shall wound satan, who is the head, the king and prince of the house of the wicked…” (Commentary on Habakkuk 3:13)

And yet, with all this evidence pointing to a single man, the Messiah, as the seed, some Bible translations have led us toward a very different understanding of “the seed.”

Altered Identity

A problem with certain translations is that sometimes translators did not have an equivalent for the Hebrew word in their language or thought something to be a particular figure or person, instead of a situation or any person who took on a certain attitude, like a satan who is an adversary but became in many translations the Satan, a devilish figure. Or the temptation “nachash” , our battle or struggle against inner thoughts, (the fencing in life) becoming a literal snake or serpent.

Concerning the seed certain writers or bible-translators where too much carried away by their own doctrinal visions and tried to translate  their version from that doctrinal viewpoint, hereby creating confusion, like for example using the word Lord for Jehovah God as well as for Jesus, the son of God, so that people could not any more see clear about whom was be spoken and could come to consider Jesus to be the same as God, which he naturally is not.

Sometimes, ideas about the identity of the seed are so deeply held that, to support those ideas, even basic Hebrew words are mistranslated in Jewish Bible versions.

One such translation tells us the seed is not a single person:

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; they [in Hebrew, hu] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise their [instead of ‘his’] heel.” (Jewish Publication Society (JPS), 1917)

Even though the original Hebrew text uses the word “hu”, which means “he”, the JPS Bible version uses the word “they.”

So, instead of a single man doing the bruising and being bruised, we read that a multitude of people, the nation of Israel, are involved in the struggle with the serpent as well as the victory over him.

Though most Jewish translations do not make this grave translation error, it illustrates how important it is to diligently search for the truth of God’s Word and how it is best not to stick to just one translation or even not to just one language.

This is true regarding Christian translations of the Bible as well.

St. Jerome, who, in 382 CE was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina (“Old Latin”) collection of biblical texts in Latin then in use by the Church > widely adopted and eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina and, by the 13th century, was known as the “versio vulgata” (the “version commonly-used”) or, more simply, in Latin as vulgata or in Greek as βουλγάτα (“Vulgate”).

Page from the Dutsch Professorenbijbel (“Professors Bible”), a translation of the Latin Vulgate of the Books of the New Testament. This part, covering the Pentateuch, was published in 1904. – De Heilige Boeken van het Oude Verbond. Vulgaat en Nederlandsche Vertaling met Aanteekeningen, part I – Petrus Laurentius Dessens (1851-1929)

When we look at the early Church’s official translation of the Bible completed in 400 CE by Jerome, we read in that Latin Vulgate translation that “he” has even become a “she”, though in the Vulgate of Hieronimus we find ‘yours’ (though also referring to “the seed of the woman” allowing it to be male or female):

“inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem et semen tuum et semen illius ipsa conteret caput tuum et tu insidiaberis calcaneo eius” (Genesis 3:15 VULGATE)

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed and she [in Hebrew, hu] shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Douay-Rheims Bible, which is based on the Latin Vulgate manuscript)

Here again we have to note that looking at the Hebrew text which uses the word “hu” (meaning “he”) the Latin Vulgate and those working form that work translate it to “she.”

Protevangelium of James, pseudepigraphal (noncanonical and unauthentic) work written about the mid-2nd century ad to enhance the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Christian tradition. Mary crushes the serpent.

Several of the early Church fathers, such as Justin Martyr (160 CE) and Irenaeus (180 CE) regarded this verse “as the Protoevangelium, the first messianic prophecy in the Old Testament.”

For centuries, the above mentioned one little pronoun change led to the false teaching that Miriam (Mary) either on her own or as a co-redemptrix with her son Jeshua, crushed the serpent and claims the victory. In many Christian denominations we find such confusion and paintings referring to that crushing by the “blessed” virgin Mary.

Fortunately, more recent translations of the Catholic Bible correct this error. The 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd edition) tries to correct it as well by stating:

“This passage in Genesis [3:15] is called the Protoevangelium (“first gospel”): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.” (Par. 410)

From the masculine singular Hebrew pronoun in Genesis 3:15, we see that the seed of the woman is a man, to whom may be referred to in in Romans 16:20 him being called a god, or higher/important person of peace, which identifies him as the Jesus Christ.

Romans 16:20 NHEBJE  And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Those who look at the offspring and hers find that it is all about human beings and may find that

for in context it describes those who “by smooth talk and flattery” “deceive the minds of naive people”. Particularly, this may mean the Judaizers, who sought to draw other believers — esp Gentile believers — away from their freedom in Christ into an enforced bondage to the Law of Moses. {Agora commentary on Romans 16:20}

To do away with all doubt and confusion over the identity of the seed, we can go to the apostle John who clearly tells us who the victor of the adversary is:

1 John 3:8 NHEBJE  He who sins is of the devil [diabolos], for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

Behemoth and Leviathan, by William Blake

The committer of sin being of the adversary is at the origin or reason to have a foreseen figure having Jehovah with His relentless, large, strong sword will bring judgement on Leviathan, the fleeing and twisted serpent, slaying the monsters of this world

Isaiah 27:1 NHEBJE  In that day, Jehovah with his fierce and great and mighty sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

And unclean men might have questioned what that man from Nazareth, born from the Essene woman Miriam, came to do in the temple, though there was one who told it to those around him. And there was the moment the adversary would fall.

Mark 1:24 NHEBJE  saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God!”

Luke 10:18 NHEBJE  He said to them, “I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven.

The Nazarene saying to his disciples that he gave them the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, them having to know if they believed in him they should not worry because nothing at all would harm them.

Luke 10:19 NHEBJE  Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will in any way hurt you.

For Jesus it was clear that the voices which came from the heavens declared who he was and came, not for him, but for those around Jesus and for us. First there was the Pneuma or Spirit of God telling that he was the only begotten son and secondly there where the angels telling that at the moment, the judgement is of this world, having its own ruler. But that ruler of the world shall be cast out, whilst the seed of the woman shall be lifted up from the earth and will draw all people to himself.

John 12:30 NHEBJE  Jesus answered, “This voice hasn’t come for my sake, but for your sakes.

The world has to come to understand that we have man going wrong from the beginning, i.e. sinning, and that it is for this purpose that the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of evil and the trespassers or aggressors.

1 John 3:8 NHEBJE  He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

In the next postings you shall come to see how through later prophecies we can discover that only Jeshua could be the seed of Genesis 3:15 and the one to restore our relationship with the divine Creator, our heavenly Father, and what the importance is of that Nazarene man, who we have to recognise as the Son of God, and not a god son, God dwelling in him, so that God also may dwell in us and we in Him.

1 John 4:15 NHEBJE  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.

The Victory Is Ours to Share

The 1st Adam, being made in the image of God, was followed up by the 2nd Adam, also made in God’s image, like we are made in God’s image. All being children of flesh and blood, having our own weaknesses. Jesus also a man of flesh and blood who also shared in our humanity, put his own will aside so that he might destroy the originator of evil, the tempter or nachash, the ‘serpent‘ who holds the power of death, most people do know by the name “devil”. By his ransom offer Jesus could free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Hebrews 2:14-15 NHEBJE  Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,  (15)  and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

It is by Christ offering himself for all mankind that we are liberated and have a prospect for a better future.

“When Christ [Messiah] died for our sins, Satan was disarmed and defeated. The one eternally destructive weapon that he had was stripped from his hand — namely, his accusation before God that we are guilty and should perish with him,”  {John Piper (Desiring God)}.

Conclusion

We have seen how the first human beings (the man and mannin) already early at the beginning of times rebelled against their Maker. They had gone in into their own false thoughts that God would withhold something for them, or on purpose kept certain things secret for them,so that they would not get the same power as God. They had everything they could wish for but wanted more.

Having gone wrong they had to learn that there was a severe consequence of obeying the slanderer, destroyer, and adversary of God. It has been mandatory and expensive, namely the separation from direct contact with God, not always seeing and feeling the love of God.

We as descendants of the offspring of the progeny of those who came in the lineage of the children of Adam and Eve, we too have the defects of the damaged cake mould. Today we do have to make our own choice like Eve and Adam had to choose. Today we should be able to come to see who the bruiser is and who the one man is who can bring salvation for us.

While there may also be consequences in our lifetime to obeying the adversary, the eternal consequence of trusting in the Nazarene rabbi Jeshua, son of man and son of God, as our Messiah and Deliverer shall bring us the hope to enjoy a magnificent security, safety, and God’s chesed (merciful love) that can never be taken away from us, even when so many around us may try to destroy us or to make our life agony. whatever may happen to us, serious accidents, horrible things, when we trust Jesus we shall have the assurance of the hope, and then there shall be nothing able to separate us from the love of God that is in Messiah Jeshua our lord.

Romans 8:38-39 NHEBJE  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  (39)  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

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Preceding

Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man

Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4

Out of the seed of Eve

Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

A solution for a damaged relationship 3 Insight and prophesies given

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

First mention of a solution against death 6 Authority given to the send one from God coming out of the woman

First mention of a solution against death 7 Human sacrifice

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2

Necessary to be known all over the earth

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Additional reading

1. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
2. A Tool to shed light over the qualities in our life 2 Jews for a Messiah
3. An other tool bringing words for understanding and wisdom
4. Reading to grow and to become wise concerning the most important thing in life 3 Light and wisdom in words
5. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #1 Beginning of everything
6. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #7 Promise and solution
7. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #8 Looking for the 2nd Adam
8. A “seed” for the blessing of all mankind would come through the family of Abraham
9. Seeds and weeds for being the greatest nation
10. The language of Jesus and the title of God
11. Revival of Jesus’ language at Oxford
12. The Sabbatean Prophets
13. Sabbatai Zevi (Jewish Convert To Islam)
14. Converso Involvement in the Sabbatai Zevi Movement

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Further literature of interest

1. Tell me a story [43a]
2. Adam and Eve
3. I don’t want to be a gardener
4. Genesis 3
5. Lingering: Genesis 3:1-2
6. Daily Verse Reading – Genesis 3:9-15,20
7. It Took an Apple to Create Murder (figuratively)
8. Desire of the Woman
9. Eden Another Perspective [77a]
10. Eden Another Perspective [77b]
11. Eden Another Perspective [77c]
12. In The Beginning, Part III
13. Eve and Adam not Adam and Eve says Anthony Sargeant
14. What is the big mistake of Adam and Eve? (part 2)
15. A Serpent and a Savior
16. Born of a Woman
17. Jesus the Better Adam
18. Day 19: The Snake-Stomping Baby
19. Conversation
20. Questioned by a Serpent
21. The Serpent
22. Why did Satan use a Serpent? (1 of 2)
23. Why did Satan use a Serpent? (2 of 2
24. Did Adam’s Garden Have a Talking Snake?
25. The Talking Serpent
26. Fear?
27. The Endowment of Free Will in Spiritual Things
28. A Serpent and a Savior
29. Serpent Destroyed
30. The Fall of the Deceived
31. Enmity
32. The serpent trail [133b]
33. The serpent trail [133c]
34. Give Me A Minute – Who Is The Devil?
35. Accurate Answer
36. Answer with Truth
37. Bereishis – Why the Snake was Punished — By Ben
38. Battling the Serpent
39. The First Superstition
40. Judge Not
41. Have You Been Bit and Don’t Know It
42. Scripture at Sunrise 1.11.2017Ephesians 6:12
43. The Bible Tells One Story – Andrew
44. The Creation story 2
45. Satan will be cast out in the end by Me – December 19, 2016
46. Good & Evil: Battle Continue
47. Be Skeptical of the One Who Offers You Power
48. He Shall Bruise You on the Head
49. What Broken Fellowship With God Is Like
50. An Enemy Of God
51. ‘enmity’ ….. mentioned in the Holy Bible (KJV)
52. Christ Crucified: The Seed of the Woman
53. End – Time Prophecy
54. Raising Tyrants
55. The Signs of Revelation – Part V: The Animal Symbols of the Battle
56. Human Sins
57. Second Death

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Related articles

• Would you Adam & Eve it? Fruit may have been the making of mankind
• Rule #5: Ponder the Brevity of Life (8 Rules for Growing in Godliness)
• Sunday reflection: Matthew 4:1-11
• INSPIRATIONAL: You Can’t Return to Eden
• What Exactly Is Written About You?
• Mark the start of Easter holy week with a Palm Sunday salad
• For Getting to know Jesus
• The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #5 Temptation, assault and curse
• Out of the seed of Eve
• Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

Out of the seed of Eve

The seed of Eve

In the previous postings we have seen that immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, the Divine Creator Jehovah determined that there would be offered a solution for mankind by a symbolic mannin or woman who was to bring forth a seed, or son.

God having His Book of Life and death had placed the name of that Send one in it, and as such this saviour was already there in the mind of God before Abraham was born. Jehovah did not predetermine from the beginning that Adam and Eve would sin and that the ransom sacrifice provided by means of Jesus Christ would be needed. From the beginning God allowed man to have a free choice and to use it according to their wants.

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553): Adam and Eve. Beech wood, 1533. Bode-Museum, Berlin (Erworben 1830, Königliche Schlösser, Gemäldegalerie Kat. 567) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There was no “throwing down of seed,” before Adam and Eve sinned. Following the rebellion but before the conception of offspring by Adam and Eve, Jehovah foreordained the appearance of the “seed.”

The act of adversary had to come to an end. The 1st man had made the wrong choice and let himself be carried away with bad thoughts. Both were mislead by thoughts which went on in their mind. It was an act of adversary which is called the devil or satan in the Bible.

When Adam and Eve went in against God’s Wishes, they themselves became adversaries of Allah/God (satan).  When Eve chose to eat from the forbidden fruit she committed an act of insubmission, going against the Will of God. By doing that she did wrong and sinned against a holy God; going against His righteous laws. Following her bad thoughts she committed sins against God His love, against His name and cause. Therefore God took action and delivered a judgement over them. When He did that, as a loving Father would rebuke His children He also spoke a prophecy that gave hope to their offspring, saying to the serpent:

“I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

From the beginning, the identity of the promised “seed” was a sacred secret or a mystery of God. About those mysteries God declared they would become clear for the lovers of God in due time, not at the time of man but at the time of God.

This prophetic statement revealed that there would be a seed, which would not have to be literal children, or offspring, though later he declared also by His Word seed would come from the tribe of King David. This meant that this promised seed, God His speaking, would only become a reality “after” King David, as an offspring of this great man of God. That also means that the promised seed was not yet in the heaven with God, though the thought of it was already there with Him … in God’s mind.

The origin of the seed and the being of the seed originated by God. Like everything came into existence from nothing, by the Speaking of God, it also was the Word of God that gave existence to the seed. By God’s Power, the Spirit of God, a woman got pregnant with the send one from God. And this only happened many many years, even centuries, after the first sin of man, long after Adam was created and Cain and Abraham were born.

All who came after Adam and Eve in a way were from the devil (satan) because they all came forth from a man and a woman who were under the spell of treason to God. As such all born on this earth came under the same spell or from the same “father”.

John 8:44 NHEBJE  You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.

1 John 3:10-12 NHEBJE  In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever does not do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who does not love his brother.  (11)  For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;  (12)  unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

Many would not like to hear it, but everyone who does not carry on righteousness does not originate with God, whilst the others do. And the one who proved never to go against the Will of God is the one who most of all can claim to be son of God. More than that, this special envoyé was placed in a particular way in the womb of a devout Essene young lady. She bore the pains of insult and of birth as well having to see how her son was being slaughtered. When her son was of age and went public, it was God Himself Who declared that man standing in the river Jordan to be His only begotten beloved son.

Luke 3:21-23 NHEBJE  Now it happened, when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized, and was praying. The sky was opened,  (22)  and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”  (23)  Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Eli,

From the 1° Adam and Eve, the first parents, came forth all people. From the 2° Adam were to come forth those who would choose to follow Jesus and to love God. Like the 1° Adam was part of a creation now the 2° Adam was the beginning of a new creation. Both those creations came into existence by the Speaking of God. God‘s Voice sounding and bringing into being. From the beginning this Voice or God’s Word was with God. And from the beginning of mankind God’s Word, His promise for a solution, was with God also. God His Word was to come in fulfilment much later, bringing a very important person (a god) to man, by whom no new creation could come into being and everything would have stayed the same as after the fall of man. But now, that promised seed brought a new world for mankind.

John 1:1-3 NHEBJE  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (2)  The same was in the beginning with God.  (3)  All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.

That important man (a god), the seed of the woman but also seed of King David, was a deliverer who would destroy the one really represented by the serpent, namely, the great serpent and enemy of God, “Satan” the “Devil”.

Revelation 12:9 NHEBJE  The great serpent was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

From the early times many people would be deceived. From the revelation of St. John we can figure out that the devil and satan would have a “seed.” It would require time for the two seeds to be brought forth and for enmity to develop between them. This happened not before the fall of man, but long after. Both seeds came into existence even after Adam and Eve their act of disobedience. When the brought forth children, soon came a time that we could see that the seed of evil was again planted and a brother killed his own brother.

Jehovah also foresaw the result of the enmity between his woman and “Satan” and between their opposing seeds. Although Jehovah would allow the seed of God’s woman to suffer a bruising in the heel, in God’s due time, the seed would bruise the serpent, or satan the devil, in the head. In the meantime, Jehovah’s purpose unfailingly advanced through the chosen genealogical line down to Jeshua the Kristos or Jesus Christ.

Jeshua or Jesus, like he is most know in Anglophile countries, was of the natural seed of Abraham, through his mother Mary (Miriam); he was of the tribe of Judah; and both naturally through Mary and legally through his adoptive father Joseph, he was of the line of David.

Some may say

“It was not until Jesus was begotten by the spirit, thus becoming a spiritual son of God, that he became the ‘seed of the woman’ and the seed that was to bless all nations.

This occurred at the time of his baptism by John in the Jordan River, 29 C.E. Jesus was then about 30 years of age. The holy spirit, coming upon Jesus, manifested itself to John in the form of a dove, and God himself acknowledged Jesus as his Son at that time.

Matthew 3:13-17 NHEBJE  Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.  (14)  But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”  (15)  But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him.  (16)  And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him.  (17)  And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

John 3:3 NHEBJE  Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

With that rabbi who came to declare his heavenly Father, a new generation could start. A new seed be fertile. By the 1° Adam death had entered the world, now by the 2° Adam life could once again enter the world. Consequently, God’s promise,

“I shall surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand that are on the seashore,”

has a spiritual fulfilment and means that others, who “belong to Christ,” are added as part of Abraham’s seed and shall also be able to enter the Kingdom of God to enjoy a non-ending life.

Genesis 22:17 NHEBJE  that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.

Mark 9:41 NHEBJE  For whoever will give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to the Messiah, truly I tell you, he will in no way lose his reward.

1 Corinthians 15:22-24 NHEBJE  (22)  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.  (23)  But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.  (24)  Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

Authority was given by the heavenly Father to Jesus, who was to be called King of the Jews. He was not like and brought animosity at the time of the Romans in Jerusalem. The ill feeling against him and his followers continued after his death. We can see that in this way the great serpent satan the devil produced “seed” that has manifested the bitterest enmity toward those who have served God with faith like Abraham, as the Bible record abundantly testifies. Continueously adversaries of God or satans tried to block or hinder the development of the woman’s seed. Jesus also had already warned his listeners about what man can produce or which seed man can saw.

Matthew 13:24-30 NHEBJE  (24)  He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,  (25)  but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away.  (26)  But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the tares appeared also.  (27)  So the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did these tares come from?’  (28)  “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’  (29)  “But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the tares, you root up the wheat with them.  (30)  Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”

We all shall have to bring forth seed, people who sincerely love God and want to step in the footsteps of master Jeshua. The real followers of rabbi Jeshua shall try to be stronger than the temptations those adversaries of God bring. They shall try to proof they are worthy the sacrifice that man brought and by whom blessings have come all over them who have faith in him and who love his heavenly Father the Only One True God.

At the times of the apostles it was not easy. The enmity reached its height, however, in the persecution of the spiritual seed, particularly in that displayed toward Jesus Christ.

Acts 3:3-15 NHEBJE  Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive gifts for the needy.  (4)  Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, “Look at us.”  (5)  He listened to them, expecting to receive something from them.  (6)  But Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”  (7)  He took him by the right hand, and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength.  (8)  Leaping up, he stood, and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God.  (9)  All the people saw him walking and praising God.  (10)  They recognized him, that it was he who used to sit begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.  (11)  And as he held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.  (12)  When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk?  (13)  The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.  (14)  But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a man who was a murderer to be granted to you,  (15)  and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.

Paul refers to the prophetic drama to illustrate, saying:

“Just as then the one born in the manner of flesh [Ishmael] began persecuting the one born in the manner of spirit [Isaac], so also now.” (Galatians 4:29)

And a later report, in reality a prophecy, describes the Kingdom’s establishment in heaven and the devil’s being hurled out of heaven down to the earth, with only a short time to continue his enmity. It concludes:

“And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Revelation 12:7-13, 17)

For sure the world shall have to face a terrible war, bigger and more fearful than the Great War. It shall be a war between people who claim to be fighting in the name of Allah/God, but they will be deceivers. Children and parents shall have many discussions with each other. Their internal, war between families shall be just part of the bigger picture where nation shall fight against nation and many shall ridicule religion and spit on the God of gods. Then we may see a war against the remnant of the woman’s seed which shall end when ‘Satan is crushed under their feet.’

Romans 16:20 NHEBJE  And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

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Preceding

The very very beginning 2 The Word and words

Means of creations

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

First mention of a solution against death 6 Authority given to the send one from God coming out of the woman

First mention of a solution against death 7 Human sacrifice

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Additional reading

1. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
2. The Existence of Evil
3. Epicurus’ Problem of Evil
4. People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
5. Philosophy hand in hand with spirituality
6. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
7. A fact of History or just a fancy Story
8. Lord in place of the divine name
9. OT prophesies and the NT fulfillment of them
10. Jesus begotten Son of God #10 Coming down spirit or flesh seed of Eve
11. Matthew 2:1-6 – Astrologers and Priests in a Satanic Plot
12. Nazarene Commentary Matthew 3:7-12 – Opposition and Two Baptisms
13. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:39-40 – The Young Child Grows
14. Nazarene Commentary Luke 3:3-6 – John Preaches Baptism of Repentance
15. Nazarene Commentary Mark 1:1-8 – The Beginning of the Good News
16. What is the truth asked also Pontius Pilate
17. Imprisonment and execution of Jesus Christ
18. Hebraic Roots Bible Matthew Chapter 27
19. Death of Christ on the day of preparation
20. Truth, doubt or blindness
21. The Seed Of The Woman Bruised
22. Authority given to him To give eternal life
23. Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
24. Sayings of Jesus, what to believe and being or not of the devil
25. The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being
26. Satan the evil within
27. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 2 Summersend and mansend
28. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 3 Black Mass, Horror spectacles and pure puritans
29. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 4 Blasphemy and ridiculing faith in God
30. A New Year and a New Person
31. Christ having glory
32. Hotbed of Satanism or the Satanic capital of Britain
33. Christians at War? Christians using violence?
34. 2015 the year of ISIS

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Further related articles

1. When God Has Spoken!
2. Hearing God’s Voice
3. Is God Speaking?!
4. The hidden message that was in front of me
5. Small Voices
6. Wisdom for the Day
7. 1 Samuel 3:10 Are You Listening?
8. Courageous Communications
9. Blessings
10. The 90 Day Challenge, Day 28 -“Recognizing God’s Voice”
11. Focused!
12. Significant in Christ

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Related articles

• Genealogy – a Good Pursuit !!!
• An Earlier “Great” Commission
• Revealing Adam: The Transfiguration
• Interfaith Voices: Examining Eve’s heroic sacrifice
• Shine your Light!
• Jesus Take This Heart Of Mine
• Not afraid
• Vayikra after its opening word וַיִּקְרָא, which means and He called
• Authority given to him To give eternal life
• First mention of a solution against death 6 Authority given to the send one from God coming out of the woman

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

You would expect a created being be loyal to its creator. Also the Elohim Jehovah God, the Divine Creator, wanted His creatures to be faithful to Him.

All the fullness of the Godhead was and is still thereto be that of mankind to make them  complete. The Divine Creator made us in His image but did not endow us with the attributes of Deity. Though He had given man the possibility to give names to all things and to govern this world. He provided His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and infallibility, for our defence. Man had to be satisfied with favour and full of the goodness of the Lord.

The first man (1° Adam) felt lonely and ‘fancied’ some accompaniment. He willingly or readily was quite ready to admit to his Creator that he loved somebody to talk to and to share ideas with. It was ‘of pleasure’ to have somebody of is equality around him. ‘Obliging’ or ‘willing’ he ‘on his own accord’ let his ‘mind wander’ to have a partner which he did not find in those already created creatures. His ‘spirit’ was ‘willing’ to have somebody who could be with him and help him.

Genesis 2:18-25 NHEBJE  Jehovah God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”  (19)  Out of the ground Jehovah God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.  (20)  The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him.  (21)  Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.  (22)  He made the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man.  (23)  The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”  (24)  Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.  (25)  They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

There was no need to be ashamed because their thoughts were still pure and innocent in conscience. The covering of our body is the ensign of our bad thinking and going wrong or our sin. There was no proneness to lust or sin: they were and everything was “very good”.

Genesis 1:31 NHEBJE  God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

They got habitual to their environment, a planted garden in a place called Eden, which was in the east, in which they also saw the tree God had planted and had asked them not to eat of its fruit.

Genesis 2:8-9 NHEBJE  Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.  (9)  Out of the ground Jehovah God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:16-17 NHEBJE  Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;  (17)  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.”

God ordered man something He knew they would be able to follow. It was not that God demanded more than man may cope. (Because that is not something God does.) God’s commandments are rules given to man  in the knowledge that they should be able to keep them. In case God would have created human beings of which He knew they would not be able to keep or to observe His commandments that would have made Him to be a Creator of imperfect beings and also a cruel God or cruel Father, because when He cursed those who are at fault when He knows they cannot keep His rules He would have asked more than they can bear or demand more than they can do.

God had created the human beings with a free will. You may notice above the ‘signs’ of the feelings and the thoughts of man. It was the free mind and the capability of man to think and to reason that may have brought them to question their Maker.

From the man was taken a bone and as such being flesh of the man’s flesh the mannin or wo-man came living next to him and reasoning with him. They had all sorts of things pleasant in their sight and should have had no reason to complain.

Adam and Eve by William Blake (1808), Watercolour on paper

With the tree of knowledge of good and evil in their sight, both Adam and Eve were confronted with the idea that they might also get the same insight as God and could come to know the good and evil. Though for them God having said that they should not eat of it, neither to touch it, lest they’ll die, seemed as if God was holding something back from them which they also could deserve.

The inner feelings or thought about that tree became very tempting. It was as a reptile creeping in their head, coming to their heart, making them to believe they could gain a knowledge which they did not have yet. The word ‘serpent‘ which can be found in many English translations stands for the Hebrew word that indicate “quickness of perception” or “to hiss, to divine”, in Greek, “to see” or also as the Hebrew meaning for a “voice of flesh”. It was an act of expressing (a negative view or reaction) disapproval, contempt, or dissatisfaction. They showed discontent with their situation God having the right to touch the tree of knowledge and to eat that fruit whilst they were forbidden to come near it.

The original wording in the books of Moses show there was such a sound uttered as an exclamation of derision, contempt, etc, which made them doubt God and go against His Wishes. Such going against the Will of God is called sin and makes the person an adversary of God, for which the word ‘satan‘ is used. Satan is an act (and not a person as such) of taking on adversary or offering resistance or opposition. Adam and Eve felt an aversion against their Maker the Most High Elohim and this brought them to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

Their backbone was not strong enough.  Their willpower was not so strong they could resist their inner thoughts of trying out what it would give if they ate from that tree. By absence of consensus ad idem Adam gave in to the will of the woman and with her, tried to eat from what they thought would give them more power and would bring them on the same line as God.

It is this act of wanting to become like God and disobeying His commandment what brought to mankind the first sin or mortal sin and the fall of man.
Selfseeking in the hope to gain something he thought God kept secret for him man out of selfishness, self-willed went his own way , headstrong or high-handed his self-complacency and conceitedness brought him to take the fruit. With his own hands man took the fruit like the woman had done in the hope to receive self-satisfaction, knowledge and more power.

The first human beings their mind had become adverse to or at enmity with God.

Genesis 3:1-8 NHEBJE  Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Jehovah God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'”  (2)  The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat,  (3)  but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'”  (4)  The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die,  (5)  for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  (6)  When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.  (7)  The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.  (8)  They heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God among the trees of the garden.

Psalms 12:4 NHEBJE  who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?”

Now they had found a liar in themselves. (Proverebs 30:6) Their idea of becoming like God made that they gained knowledge of good and evil, like God had warned them. Every thing that is desirable to be known could have been that knowledge. But with it came also what they thought God would not bring over them. This means that they thought God was not telling the truth or that God was a liar. But God always tells the absolute truth and does not tell lies. This means that those who love God believe that God is always clear in His speaking and does not hide something but always says how it is.

Eve doubted of the certainty of what God had said whilst her partner the 1° Adam plainly and cleanly impugned it. God’s veracity was attacked first, than the truth of God’s Word was doubted and God‘s benevolence and goodness toward humankind was also further attacked (Genesis 3:5).

In a way it is ironical that mankind tried to grasp from God what was already his and was not willing to be patient enough to see everything evolve. The rabbis say that the eyes and ears are windows of the soul and what we let in, grows in our heart until the fateful act is committed. Eve is the first example given to us and should also be a warning to be alert and to not let us be carried away by our bad inner thoughts.

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Preceding posts:

The very very beginning 2 The Word and words

A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made

Creation of the earth and man #17 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #1 In the image and after the likeness

Creation of the earth and man #18 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #2 Assimilation of character

Creation of the earth and man #19 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #3 Beholding image and likeness of the invisible God

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3

Genesis – Story of creation 5 Genesis 3:1-12 Eating of the fruit-tree of knowledge

Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse

Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #8 The Formation of woman #1

Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #9 The Formation of woman #2

Gone astray, away from God

Continues with: First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

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Additional reading

1. Creator and Blogger God 2 Image and likeness
2. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
3. Creator and Blogger God 5 Things to tell
4. An anarchistic reading of the Bible (2)—Creation and what follows
5. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #1 Creator and His Prophets
6. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
7. The faithful God
8. Story of Jesus’ birth begins long before the New Testament
9. You Need Light for Your Path
10. God’s wisdom for the believer brings peace
11. God son king and his subjects
12. Dignified role for the woman
13. Satan the evil within
14. The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being
15. Messenger of Satan
16. Epicurus’ Problem of Evil
17. The Existence of Evil
18. The Soul confronted with Death
19. Lord in place of the divine name
20. People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
21. To be carried away – meeslepen of laten verleiden
22. Immortality, eternality – onsterfelijkheid, eeuwigheid
23. Getting to know the Truth
24. The naked truth is always better than the best dressed lie
25. How to look for and how to handle the Truth
26. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen
27. Thy Word is Truth
28. Bible, helmet of health, salvation and sword of the spirit
29. Determined To Stick With Truth.
30. Truth never plays false roles of any kind, which is why people are so surprised when meeting it
31. It is a free will choice
32. Sincerity not a test of truth

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Further reading

1. 1. Creation
2. Whence Creation…
3. In the Garden
4. Ferenc Helbing (Hungary, 1870-1958), The Garden of Eden
5. Seated in the Clouds, Ruling in the Earth
6. Bible Study: Insights in Genesis: Adam and Eden
7. Bible Study: Insights in Genesis: Adam Dominates
8. Adam and Eve
9. Adam, Eve and Lilith
10. Adam, Eve, and Mara
11. Adawn and Eve nun
12. Was Eve really made from one of Adam’s Ribs?
13. Out of a rib
14. Genesis 1-4: The Tree of Life and the Protoevangelium.
15. What does the Story of Eden Tell Us? Is it about Sin?
16. A Compromised Free Will in John Milton’s Paradise Lost
17. The Faulty Foundations of Faith Alone – Part 2: Original Sin?
18. Surviving the generations
19. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)
20. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 3)
21. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 5)
22. Eve and the Apple of Doom
23. Genesis 3:20, Life in a Dying World
24. Genesis 3:21,Yes, There is Hope for Us Yet
25. Swords Genesis 3:23-24
26. The Simplicity of the Gospel
27. Did Adam’s Garden Have a Talking Snake?
28. Snake Dragon
29. Snake in the Grass
30. Exchanging the Truth of God into the lie…
31. Alas, Poor Adam
32. Let go
33. Becoming a Man
34. Pope Francis and the Search for Adam
35. The First Kiss
36. From Adam to Jesus
37. Adam and Eve as a figure of Christ and the Church
38. Know who you are in Christ, because Adam and Eve didn’t
39. Is God a Feminist?
40. What Does God Know?
41. Human Beingness
42. Hungry for God
43. Are You a Playing Field for God or The Devil?
44. Are You Free?
45. We Do Not Inherit Original Sin from Adam
46. Eve Makes Intercession And So Does Dawna~
47. Giver Of Life!
48. Motherly Love
49. Improving Your Life
50. A Poem to a Friend
51. The Fake Apology & the Garden of Eden
52. What does the Story of Eden Tell Us? Is it about Sin?
53. In the Garden
54. “Walking in the Spirit”…of Truth
55. A Circle Has No Start or End
56. Healing the Divide I – Death and Sin
57. Isis, the Kurds, and the Garden(s) of Eden
58. How Rival Gardens of Eden in Iraq Survived ISIS, Dwindling Tourists, And Each Other

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Related articles

• Witnessing Creation and the Day that Made History
• Timothy Alberino: Serpentseed Link to the Sons of God
• How Long Did Adam Live?
• Holy Tuesday 2016
• Is Unity in Diversity Possible?
• Do you believe that God personally revealed himself to mankind?
• A Triple God or simply a rather simple One God

A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made

The Divine Creator, Master of heaven and earth, reached forth His hand and blessed the whole, and Adam and Eve began their life at the Garden of Eden in that primeval happiness and intimacy with God, of which their sin was so soon to deprive them and the world.

The Paradise (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Though we do have no knowledge about the where about of the Garden of Eden except from the biblical description which places it amid four rivers and names the Euphrates as one of these. Students have usually guessed its location between Ur, Calneh, near the mouth of the Euphrates, a region where the garden might include seashore, river-meadows, and mountains, and the ancient coastline of the Persian gulf.
‎Noah’s landing place, Mt. Ararat, the centre from which his descendants went forth for the second peopling of the earth, is fairly settled upon as being in the great culminating range of Armenia, the tremendous peaks which tower at the Euphrates’ source. The site of Babylon or Babel has been definitely established by modern research, as has also that of Ur, the city whence Abraham set out upon his journeyings.

There were the waters and by time the dry land appeared and became more and more coloured by plants or cultivated, step by step developing to its present outline. Throughout history there came people who wanted to notate these developments and how man evolved in that big system of things. These successive steps, as detailed in the Bible narrative, are told also by the investigations of science, which show that our globe must indeed have progressed through just this development. Though the biggest fault many people make is that they all want to see it happening in their notation of time, forgetting that God has an other view of minutes, hours and days.

2 Peter 3:8 (ESV): ⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

It is with this knowledge that we should look at the creation of the earth and at the evolution of our world which is still continuing to evolve and undergoing many changes, regularly presenting to mankind for him newly discovered animals and plants.

‎It was of the productions of God’s fourth day, the sun and moon, with all their wonder and splendour entered the Bible narrative. Those elements at the sky could be used by man as signs. The lights in the firmament of the heaven were given by the Creator so that man could divide the day from the night and have them for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. That is to say, man from a very early period measured his days by the sunlight, his weeks and months by the changes of the moon, and his years by the shifting of the sun and stars. By them he knew the coming of spring and fall, and when to plant and when to reap his crops. They served as guides to travellers by land and sea.

In the wording of the writer of the Bereshith or the Beginning of everything we can find some indication of multiplying elements and even abundance.

Genesis 1:20 (ESV): ²⁰ And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”

Psalm 104:25 (ESV): ²⁵  Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.

Genesis 8:17 (ESV): ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

Genesis 9:1 (ESV): And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

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Inner left panel of the triptych of the Garden of Eartly Delights. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As the culmination of the sixth day of effort, God had created man, formed from “the dust of the ground” the first male and as a companion who might be with him and share his joy in God’s teaching and uplifting, from the rib of man the first female was created, who also could reproduce and bring forth new generations. Both were made in God’s image, with intellect, with an eternal soul, even with something of God’s own creative power, able to create new things.

God was even willing to give responsibility in the hands of man and gave him the right to give the things names. As such in the glow of God’s inspiration Adam named them; and he was given dominion over them, and dwelt among them as their ruler, in peace and joy. At first the beasts had no fear of Adam, nor of one another; for as yet death had not come into the world. Adam did not live, as do we, by meat, by devouring other lives.

The first book of the Bible mentions the need of the first man to have other company than those animals. God could see that it was not so good that man was alone.

Genesis 2:18 (ESV): ¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

God’s first charge to man, or perhaps it were better to say the first wisdom He instilled into him, His first fatherly counsel, was that man should live on the fruit and herbs, that his “meat” should be of these alone.

Genesis 2:20–23 (ESV): ²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

Those first human beings had no shame and found no reason to be clothed. Naked they were part of a universe that was in unison with God’s Wishes. Together they could enjoy early happy days of innocence, ignorant of any evil, because there was not yet such thing. They were at first happy in the presence of God, conversing with Him as with a father, conscious of His ever-presence and at ease and security therein.

‎God, in His love and joy for His beautiful new creatures had made them a garden, a beautiful paradise for their dwelling in which they could dwell freely. Out of the ground made the Elohim God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, in a marvellous garden surrounded by four great rivers .

God had provided only one or two restrictions. They had to follow His Words and should not eat from a certain tree, which would bring the eater of its fruit, the knowledge of good and bad. The writer of the Torah (or The Law) use symbolically a creeping animal, the serpent. Also later the serpent has usually been treated by artists symbolically to represent that temptation that came over man. The serpent’s cunning words suggest human nature arguing with itself; the baser, beastly parts stirring the mind to ambition and rage and fear.

The more sophisticated ‘animal‘ or ‘possessor of an anima or soul‘ got so much taken by the inner voices that his own thinking got so strong that he dared to go against the Wishes of the Most High. The 1st Adam and the first mannin or first woman could see that their Maker could do everything and had all wisdom. Would it not be nice for them to have such wisdom and power themselves?

The idea that when they would eat of that forbidden tree, they would become like God “… ye shall be as gods” was so much carrying them away from the Will of God that they did not mind trying it.

Genesis 3:5–7 (ESV): ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

As the first human beings had chosen to go against the Will of God and as such went wrong or sinned, their offspring became ‘infected’ as it were by that attitude of them.

Genesis 3:16–24 (ESV): ¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband,and he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷ And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; ¹⁸  thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground,  for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

²⁰ The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

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Preceding articles:

Creation of the earth and man #17 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #1 In the image and after the likeness

Creation of the earth and man #18 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #2 Assimilation of character

Creation of the earth and man #19 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #3 Beholding image and likeness of the invisible God

Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #8 The Formation of woman #1

Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #9 The Formation of woman #2

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3

Genesis – Story of creation 5 Genesis 3:1-12 Eating of the fruit-tree of knowledge

Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse

Next: First mention of a solution against death

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Additional reading

1. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
2. Creator and Blogger God 5 Things to tell
3. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
4. Atonement And Fellowship 1/8
5. A look at the Failing man
6. Looking for a primary cause and a goal that can not offer philosophers existing beliefs
7. Story of Jesus’ birth begins long before the New Testament
8. With child and righteousness greater than the law
9. An anarchistic reading of the Bible (2)—Creation and what follows
10. The Origin of Life on Earth: Creation or Evolution?
11. Old Earth creationists and other conservative Christians denying any evolution
12. Evolution of life but not according to Darwin’s evolution theory

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Related articles

• Holy Tuesday 2016
• Why Do Bad Things Happen to Those Who Love Jesus? Dr. Michelle Bengtson – Part 3 0f 3
• Witnessing Creation and the Day that Made History
• Morgan Freeman Explores Genesis’ Creation Story In Latest Episode of “The Story of God”
• How Long Did Adam Live?
• Sermon Redux – “The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions” – Genesis 3:1-24 – Part 3 of How We Got Into This Mess
• Timothy Alberino: Serpentseed Link to the Sons of God
• Painting the modern garden: where is the British art?
• What Jesus Revealed About Being Human
• Resurrection: Dead in Adam, Alive in Christ

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1

Man living in Garden of Eden in Days of God

At a certain time in history of the universe the Divine Creator made “from the dust of the ground” a human being. Just with dust man would be nothing so there had to be a spark or something special to bring the material to live. The “essence” of the being for man came  from God Who is the “Supreme Being” Itself.

Michelangelo’s painting of the sin of Adam and Eve (the Fall of Man) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Eternal Spirit Who Is Who He is the Being in Itself made man in His own image by His Voice and by “a spark”, or particle, scintillated from His Divine Nature, giving the being life, having intelligent faculty and existence independently of the substantial organism with which it is associated.

Man felt lonely and got a partner, a mannin or woman, called Eve. Together they could sojourn freely in the Garden of Eden. In essence they where good and had the free will to stay good, by keeping to the ordinances of their heavenly Father.

Seventh day Day of rest for God

The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archaeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as “Israel“, representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.

They too came to understand the days of God and how they should honour Him and respect His creation. For them the seventh day was also a day of rest where they could show how much they loved their Creator. We do not know whether the earth’s first population organised themselves by means of a seven day week. Whereas other periods of time or various calender units based on the time the earth takes to revolve once around the sun (the day, month and year) are based upon observable movements of stars and planets, the seven day week has no such basis-that can be found only in the explanation in Genesis. As the time passed days, month and years got names. A Rosh Chodashim (head of the months) came to exist next to a month of the salvation or Chodesh ha Yeshuah,  a month of redemption or Chodesh hageulah, a year of recompense and many others.

From beginning the stars, planets and man’s being may have been very complex and not understandable for man. Darkness and light made a difference for him giving him an idea of a time element. But the things man did not know seemed to worry them. Also the matter that That Holy Spirit they could not be seen made their mind weary. They started wondering how This Spirit could order days and demand them to take rest or have  period of inactivity, relaxation, or sleep, on a certain day and not to eat from a certain fruit-tree, calling it the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was going to bring life and death over man.

Organisation of days and food provision

In case man had decided to organise his living according to periods of seven days nowhere can we find proof that God said they would be punished for not resting on the seventh day. They had total freedom of choice about this. In fact, God gave no instructions about how the seventh day should be spent until after the nation of Israel had been brought out of Egypt (the Shemoth) and led miraculously through the Red Sea into the wilderness of Sinai. Being a large community, they needed a good and regular supply of food and water, but in desert conditions these were very scarce. The people soon complained, and wished they were back in Egypt. A further miracle brought them their food. Each morning around their camp

“there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as the hoarfrost on the ground” (Exodus 16:14).

The food was called “manna“, and could be collected for six days each week.

This was literally food which could be eaten. On the first five days each week any manna not eaten that day, but kept overnight “bred worms, and became foul”.
On the sixth day, if a double portion was collected, it would keep fresh for use on the seventh day when no manna was available. Moses asked them to eat that manna that day for that seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah God. Therefore they could not find any manna in the field. Take attention that Moshe or Moses says it was a ‘day of rest for Jehovah’ and not ‘day of rest for man’.
In this way the pattern of work and rest was enforced for the nation of Israel:

Exodus 16:25-26 NHEBJE  Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Jehovah. Today you shall not find it in the field.  (26)  Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none.”

Six days of gathering and one day of rest: God’s activity in Creation thus became the example for His nation. For the first time in the Bible, the word “Sabbath” is used. It means simply ‘to cease‘ ( to bring or come to an end), and is used to describe the day when the manna discontinued falling down from heaven and the Israelites rested from their labours, as God had from His.

Laws to control the activity of the nation

In those days of Moses and his people shortly after the manna was first provided, it also was the moment in time that God gave through Moses laws to control the activity of the nation. Today those written rules are mostly known as the Ten Commandments by which people where told to have only One True Eternal Spirit God of Whom no graven images where to be made. Of the people was also demanded in the fourth commandment to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy or sanctified, which means to have it been kept apart, not being it the same as other days. Also it was told they could work six days but the seventh day they should take a Sabbath to the Lord their God. In it they had not to do any work .

Exodus 20:8-12 NHEBJE  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  (9)  You shall labor six days, and do all your work,  (10)  but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;  (11)  for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.  (12)  “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Jehovah your God gives you.

As for the manna, so for all of Israel’s activities the pattern would be six days of labour followed by one day of rest. We may not forget for man to be able to stay alive he had to work hard. Everything had to be done by hand. Labour was at first not a  physical toil done for wages, but was a necessary act for providing food. In the early days in the Garden of Eden there did not exist a difficult or arduous work or effort. they had not to strive or work hard for something, but when then opposed God, Adam and Eve had been disobedient to God‘s commandments, Jehovah sentenced them and their descendants to hard toil in order to produce their necessary food.

We also can find the Psalmist referring to such work which was done until the evening (Psalm 104:23). From the fall of man onwards the daily work he had to do became a constant reminder of his mortality; the certainty that he is “dust, and to dust (he) shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

Significance of introduction of Sabbath commands

God’s people experienced many wonders by God and by them they could survive. God freely provided their daily food, but they had to work to gather it, except on the seventh day. The difficulty of walking through the dessert and gathering food was to make them conscience of the punishments brought upon the world as a result of Adam‘s disobedience.

The day they had not to gather the food from heaven, they had to remember what they had received the previous days. That day of not to provide for their food they could contemplate and take more time to think about God. That day of rest, on the Sabbath, would give man time to meditate on God’s works and to let him identify himself with God, and with the completion of His creation, when He was able to review

“everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Measures to bring man back to God

Though man could see all the wonders of God and they had received brains to create things themselves as well, they wanted more. God had given their mind to think and to make their own decisions. At one point in time they choose to go their own way, against the Will of God, and throughout history many times they went astray, but God always came back to them to help them out.

It was from that moment when Adam and Eve had revolted against their Maker that God had to take measures to bring them back to their senses and back to Almighty God, the Most High.

When Adam and Eve where expelled from the Garden of Eden and had created a family, their descendants also could not always follow the Way of God, wherefore the Elohim gave them more rules and regulations so that they could keep themselves on the safe path.

Man choose to create their own regulations and wanted to create their own calendars and wanted to say what to do what they ever wanted on whatever day. But for God not all actions of man were acceptable. He clearly told them what would be appropriate for man to do and what would be an abomination in the eyes of God.

Showing willingness to come to God

Throughout the ages lots went wrong and often God came back into the picture to guide His people back onto the right track. Already from the beginning of the fall of man God provided a solution for their sin, but first they also had to show they where willing to come to God again. Every individual has now the own choice to choose either to be for God or against Him, to follow His ordinances or to refuse the right to God to demand certain things from man.

In later writings we shall come to see how the promises of God for the solution against the fall of man became a reality which took away the many chains the people had gotten over them by the years.

In subsequent readings you shall, hopefully, come to see how a Nazarene man, called Jeshua, today better known as Jesus became the man who brought salvation and who is the embodiment of Israel. Those who follow that Nazarene man and call themselves Christian should know who that man is and what his teachings are, but also keep to his teachings, so that they can be part of the Body of Christ and be part of the (new or renewed) true and faithful Israel.

Finding difficulties to keep to God’s Laws

It took many centuries but God’s people Israel bounded to the Mosaic Laws often found it a burden, therefore the loving God foresaw also an abrogation of many laws. Jesus namely was to come to install the New Covenant between God and man, which would do away with, or annul, especially by authority given to Christ Jesus, several Judaic Laws.

Those who would embrace the faith of Abraham could make their choice for God sealed, not by worldly proofs, but by spiritual proofs. They would not have to have a real body circumcision but should be circumcised by putting on Christ in baptism, thus partaking imputatively of the literal circumcision of which Christ was subject under the law, becoming the children of Abraham, and heirs of the promises made to him.

Saul of Tarsus was called by Christ and became an apostle who taught the gospel of Christ and founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe in the first-century world of the common era.

The Jew Saul of Tarsus took some time to come to understand God’s new ordinances but by the new light having come he made a testimony that we can face a world where there is neither Jew (believing descendant from Abraham’s tribe) nor Greek, Roman, or Goyim (gentile; a non-Jewish person or an unbeliever), but that all have the free choice to go their way. There would neither be a servant nor freeman, neither male nor female, or no distinction in the eyes of God, all being made equal and all having to make their own choice. And those baptised into Christ should all be one in Christ Jesus, liberated by him.

Galatians 3:27-29 NHEBJE  (27)  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  (28)  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  (29)  If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

Children of promise made free

United in Christ Christians should not be barren any more having broken forth knowing they are brethren and sisters and as Isaac was, being children of promise.  Though still being born according to the flesh the mind we received can be used to come to knowledge and with the right insight making us to make the right choices. Those who choose to follow Christ Jesus are children of the free: by the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.

Galatians 4:27-31 NHEBJE  (27)  For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who do not bear. Break forth and shout, you that do not travail. For more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.”  (28)  Now you, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise.  (29)  But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.  (30)  However what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the handmaid and her son, for the son of the handmaid will not inherit with the son of the free woman.”  (31)  So then, brothers, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the free woman.

Those liberated by Christ should not take up the old burdens but should face the Saviour Jesus who is the new Genesis (New World), by who’s life we can see the embodiment of the new Exodus.

We should come to see that Jesus is fulfilling Israel’s history and  bringing it to a climax.

 

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Preceding articles:

Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

Creation of the earth and man #5 Of the Sabbath day #3 Ceasing from the works of the flesh

Creation of the earth and man #6 Of the Sabbath day #4 Mosaic codes, Sabbaths and Sunday

Creation of the earth and man #7 Of the Sabbath day #5 Respecting the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead

Creation of the earth and man #8 Of the Sabbath day #6 If it be necessary to keep Sunday

Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?

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Additional reading

1. “Before” and “after” the Big Bang
2. Science, belief, denial and visibility 1
3. God giving signs and producing wonders
4. What is life?
5. Dying or not
6. Possibility to live
7. Blindness in the Christian world
8. A learning process for each of us
9. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
10. People Seeking for God 7 The Lord and lords
11. A prophet to restore
12. Story of Jesus’ birth begins long before the New Testament
13. With child and righteousness greater than the law
14. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
15. Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
16. Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant
17. Hosea Say What?
18. Born to Shine not to fear!
19. Commemorating the escape from slavery
20. Days of Nisan, Pesach, Pasach, Pascha and Easter
21. Do we need to keep the Sabbath
22. Vayikra after its opening word וַיִּקְרָא, which means and He called
23. In case you find contradiction between Old and New Testament
24. Together tasting a great promise
25. Deliverance and establishment of a theocracy
26. Glory of God appearing in our character – The Face of Moses and Law on Tablets of stone
27. Atonement And Fellowship 6/8
28. The Law of Christ: Law of Love

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Further related reading:

• Goy: standard Hebrew biblical term for a “nation“, including that of Israel =  Israelites and Gentile or non-Jewish nations
• Goy to the World
  Magazine article from: Moment …nations shall be of thee.” The Hebrew word God uses for “nations” is goyim. Yes, you ‘”tad right: God refers to the nation of Israel as goyim. The meaning of goyim, like the people it originally described, has come tar since those clays..
• Goy/Goi/Goyim/Goyym/Gentile/Gens/Gentilis: nation or people, commonly applied to non-Jews or stranger, whether merely a visitor (“ger”) or a resident (“ger toshab”), or proselyte
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  “Gentile” corresponds to the late Hebrew “goi,” a synonym for “nokri,” signifying “stranger,” “non-Jew.” In the Hebrew of the Bible “goi” and its plural “goyyim” originally meant “nation,” and were applied both to Israelites and to non-Israelites (Gen. xii. 2, xvii. 20; Ex. xiii. 3, xxxii. 10; Deut. iv. 7; viii. 9, 14; Num. xiv. 12; Isa. i. 4, lx. 22; Jer. vii. 28). “Goi” and “goyyim,” however, are employed in many passages to designate nations that are politically distinct from Israel (Deut. xv. 6; xxviii. 12, 36; Josh. xxiii. 4). From this use is derived the meaning “stranger” (Deut. xxix. 24; comp. II Chron. vi. 32 =”‘amme ha-‘areẓ”). As the non-Israelite and the nokri were “heathens,” “goi” came to denote a “heathen,” like the later “‘akkum,” which, in strict construction, is not applicable to Christians or Mohammedans (see below). In its most comprehensive sense “goi” corresponds to the other late term, “ummot ha-‘olam” (the peoples of the world). {Jewish encyclopedia article 6841 – goy}
• The Hi-Tech Shabbos Goy
  Magazine article from: Moment …centuries, the controversy took new form, when Jews hired “Shabbos goys” to perform tasks that were forbidden on Shabbat. While some…their heads in disapproval, others were too busy scouting out goys-for-hire for themselves. They also updated the halakhic..
• Non-Jewish Immigrants Forcing Israel to Choose between Being a “Jewish” State…
  Magazine article from: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs …tubes, you’re going to have five million goyim sitting in Eretz Yisrael. There’s no…about because these Jews will have a lot of goyim in their families — and boy, are we talking about a lot of goyim — and they’ll all end up in Israel..
• Israeli Religious Intolerance and Rejection of the Peace Process Alienating…
  Magazine article from: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs …considered Jewish by halakah and cannot be married at all.GOYIM AND SHIKSASZe’ev Chafets, associate editor of The Jerusalem…consider `Kike’ and `Hymie’ fighting words, talk about `goyim’ and `shiksas’ with blithe indifference. They assume that..

• Switch Off
  Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

• Did Jesus teach the Law of the Old Testament to the Jews?

• A Case For Sabbath Observance

• Keeping the Old Testament Law

• Spiritual Sunday 1: The Infinite Grandness and Goodness of God

• Sabbath Day

• Sabbath (Dis)Comforts

• Thoughts on Keeping the Sabbath

• Is It Wrong To Work On Sabbath Day?

• A Date With God

• Rosh Hashanah A Day of Rest, Not the New Year

• Small Town Boy

• Children of the Free

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Related articles

• Blame Eve and the Serpents
• In Judaism, to be good or sinful is a matter of free will
• ‘Ex Machina’ film alludes to the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible, says priest
• Everything is a Miracle – reblogged – Part 2
• Inside Baseball: The DoD EHR
• Vayikra after its opening word וַיִּקְרָא, which means and He called
• Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 1

Necessity of a revelation of creation 5 Getting understanding by Word of God 3

Genealogy of mankind

In the first 11 chapters of the book Genesis we can find a survey of the world before Patriarch Abraham. From chapter 12  until 50 we get more a focus on one main family line in considerable detail. In the world there have been many creation myths written down, in contrast to the patriarchal stories, however, those ancient nonbiblical stories do not in any way challenge the authority or the inspiration of Genesis. In fact, the nonbiblical stories stand in sharp contrast to the biblical account, and thus help readers appreciate the unique nature and character of the biblical accounts of creation and the flood. In other ancient literary traditions, creation is a great struggle often involving conflict between the gods who themselves also got created or came into existence by certain forces of nature.

Through these stories the people of the ancient world learned their traditions about the gods they worshipped and the way of life that people should follow. Babylonian versions of creation and flood stories were designed to show that Babylon was the centre of the religious universe and that its civilization was the highest achieved by mankind.

With the words that accompanied the followers of God it could be seen that though many would love to worship the sun and moon or natural phenomena, they had to hear that such ideas are non-constructive delusions, ignoring that there is Only One True God, Divine Creator of heaven and earth, Whose Word is Almighty and incorruptible.

The man called the mannin, who he got as a partner of wife “Eve“, because she was the mother of all living. Because the man had become like one of the heavenly creatures in knowing good and evil God drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:20-24). When God had cast out Adam and Eve and they got children His words accompanied them and got them to know if they pleased the Elohim Hashem Jehovah or not.

The First Mourning (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The first son of Adam and Eve (Cain) became a murderer after he came to know that Abel’s offering was more liked by God than his. Though God stayed with him and placed a sign for his protection so that he would not be killed by others. Though we can see how it went from bad to worse. Adam and Eve got again a son which they called Seth and when this son got a son, Enosh, which means ‘to call upon the name of God’ or, ‘call themselves by the name of the Lord’, the people started worshipping Jehovah, the God and later God declared the offspring to be His people.

Gen 4:25-26 NSB  Adam had intercourse with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. She said: »God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.«  (26)  Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on (proclaim) the name of Jehovah.

Deu 26:17-18 NSB  »You declared Jehovah to be your God today. You said you would walk in his ways and keep his statutes, his commandments and his ordinances, and listen to his voice.  (18)  »Jehovah declared you to be his people and a treasured possession. Obey his commandments and receive his promise.

In the 5th chapter of Genesis we are given the genealogy of the People of God up to the sons of Noah, when the earth was not any more the paradise form the first days. Whereas 5:1–32 is largely a genealogy that traces a single line of descendants from Adam to Noah, naming only one person in each generation, 6:1–8 provides a worldwide picture of increasing human wickedness. The contrast between these two elements is not simply between the particular and the universal but, more importantly, between righteousness and evil.

In the 5th chapter we see that the usual pattern of the genealogy (vv. 1–32) is altered with the substitution of the expression ‘Enoch walked with God’ but tells us also that Enoch was taken by God, he disappearing from the earth after having walked with God for 365 years in total  (Genesis 5:22–24).

Gen 5:24 NSB  Enoch walked with God. Then he was no more, because God took (moved) him away.

In this passage, and in certain other contexts in Genesis (e.g., 3:8; 6:9; 17:1; 24:40; 48:15), the Hebrew verb for “walked” is a distinctive form that conveys the sense of an ongoing intimacy with God. Remarkably, because of this special relationship, the words of God Enoch do not speak of dying in this instance, which we also can find by Elijah who went up to heaven in a windstorm. (2 Kings 2:1–12). The narrator’s desire to highlight this fact may explain why the present genealogy, unlike the one in Genesis11:10–26, regularly mentions that “So and so died.”

Finding the name “Noah” (Hb. noakh) in god’s Word may be also of particular reason. Strictly speaking it means “rest” (Hb. nuakh). After some turbelent years, having people going further away from God, ignoring His Word, we do find the concept of “comfort” (Hb. nakham) “Out of the ground that the Elohim has cursed, having one to “bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” Lamech expecting that Noah will bring both rest and comfort from the painful toil of working the soil (see 3:17–19).

Gen 5:28-32 NSB  When Lamech had lived one hundred and eighty-two years, he had a son.  (29)  He named him Noah. He said: »He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground Jehovah has cursed.«  (30)  After Noah was born, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years and had other sons and daughters.  (31)  Lamech lived a total of seven hundred seventy-seven years, and then he died.  (32)  After Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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Preceding articles:

Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man

Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things

Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God 1

Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2

Next: Necessity of a revelation of creation 6 Getting understanding by Word of God 4

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Related articles

• Old Earth creationists and other conservative Christians denying any evolution (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
  When we looked at North America the last ten years we could see that very conservative Christians gained terrain and could blown up the whole evolution thing in a ridiculous way.
• The Lost World of Adam and Eve (christianitytoday.com)
  In recent years, John Walton, professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, has been both lauded and criticized for his interpretation of Genesis 1–2. In his 2009 landmark book, The Lost World of Genesis One (InterVarsity Press), he argued that to rightly understand Genesis 1—an ancient document—we need to read it within the context of the ancient world. Read alongside other ancient texts, he says, Genesis 1 is not about how God made the world, but about God assigning functions to every aspect of it. In 2013, Walton contributed a chapter in Four Views on the Historical Adam (Zondervan). There he argued that Adam was a historical person, but also that Adam’s primary function in Scripture is to represent all of humanity. For Walton, Genesis 1–2 is not concerned about human material origins, but rather about our God-given function and purpose: to be in relationship with God and work alongside him, as his image bearers, in bringing continued order to our world.
• The Lost World of Adam and Eve ~ curated by Charles Kannal (UTS’96) (utsalumni.org)
  Throughout history, theologians responded to the challenges of their day. Today we have different issues on the table. So it’s no surprise that I talk about things they didn’t address. Even though my exegetical conclusions are different from what many people have heard, I’m not calling into question any basic doctrines. I’m still essentially conservative theologically, and I’m firmly evangelical in my approach. I want to maintain and articulate the authority of Scripture.
• Biblical Tree of Knowledge (debatepolitics.com)
  God had already decided to make man in His image Before He created Adam. Therefore, the morality of God had been bestowed in man before they ate from the tree.
• Great abyss upon the waters of creation (postdelugestudio.wordpress.com)
  When God created the heavens and the Earth, it was made in his own image, or likeness.  Basically transferring all of its glory and manipulative energy into it’s own spiritually inanimate clone.  Giving it’s own form of birth, continuing on in the reaffirmation of it’s own existence through these acts of creation.  However, by the time it came around to the creation of our universe, it’s own consciousness had grown weary, and old.  And it became a slumbering giant,  who by the sweep of a hand created the universe, only managed to trap itself within the realms of its own unconscious, the infernal dimensions, and its own vast dream world.  It became a world between worlds, a spiritual halfway house, where souls would pass through into a realm of destruction, or make it back out of this dark labyrinth, reactivated with the Holy Spirit.  Within the waters of God’s own creation, it came to manifest itself as a bringer of the dawn, the black, primordial soup of matter, that would become the natural world.  A form of consciousness which only known to distinguish itself as apart from God,  from it’s very conception
• Found in the Falling (thebeggarsbakery.net)
  Adam and Eve wasted no time falling away from God in the Garden of Eden, when everything was pristine and perfect. We fall away in good times and in bad.
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  What kind of God rewards the art of collapsing…the majesty of falling? The kind who made us in His own likeness. The kind whose love for us manifested in the death and resurrection of perfection, so that we could serve in the highest priesthood.
• Nicholas Asks About Adam And Eve (kathleenbasi.com)
  No one had ever really addressed the possibility that Adam and Eve were not historical figures but representations. When my teacher (I don’t remember now if he was a TA or a professor) started tossing the word “myth” around in regard to the creation story, I had my first practice at the Mama Bear-claws-out defensive stance, thirteen years before I ever became a mama. The only meaning of the world “myth” I had ever heard was the one that meant “not true.”
• I Think I Know Lot’s Wife’s Name (dianerivers.me)
  Lot, the nephew of Old Testament patriarch Abraham, lived in a rotten neighborhood. In fact, the entire city, as well as the one next door, was so wicked, God ordered they both be destroyed, as a warning to future generations of His disdain for unrepentant sin. To this day, even the names of the cities – Sodom and Gomorrah – have come to epitomize evil and wickedness.
• Vayikra: Cows, sheep, goats and God (anitasilvert.wordpress.com)
  Vayikra – And God called. And so begins a lot of instructions about killing and offering up a lot of animals for all sorts of reasons, all with the purpose of getting closer to God (“korbanot”, the word for offering, comes from the word “karov” – get close to).

  Placing the rules and regulations of offering animals within the context of an “am kadosh”, a holy people, beholden to God, asks us to take on the mindset of a wholly different society than the one in which we live today. But as with all Torah, there are lessons to be learned, even if the simple reading seems foreign and disturbing. One example is examining the actual animals identified for offering in this parasha.

• CTP Bible Study Class – Genesis 4 – 5 (unsettledchristianity.com)
  The first jealousy. The first anger. The first murder. The third baby boy.

  As you can imagine, there exists several millennia of commentary on these chapters. This is a summary of some Jewish commentary. Here is a singler, modern, source. This is from the Book of Jubilees.

Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things

In the beginning there was only emptiness and the Untold Greatness of the Supreme Adonai (a title of reverence for God, serving also as a substitute pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton יהוה {Jehovah}) Elohim Creator God of gods. His Voice echoed in the universal space and thus arose the things that He had formed. We wished His Voice echoed through eternity as He is infinite. He spoke and something came from nothing into life and the Divine Creator wished that His creation would hear His voice.

When He had created man in His own image, and blown His breath in the nostrils of this man, the 1° Adam came into life with blood running through his veins, and could hear His creation talking to Him, giving him the surroundings to live in and to give names for all the things man could find in his life. Though not so happy on his own man requested a partner, so God provided a mannin (the female, part of the red blooded man) out of his rib. This woman, Eve, also could hear the Voice of God and live with her partner in the Garden of Eden, which was a perfect world. This female creature got a dignified role in the creation, and had to bring forth other human beings to populate the earth.

We may understand God expected man and mannin to be been a faithful to each other and to Him. He had organised the system, having created space, heavens, planets, solar systems, time and as such an organised system of things and asked them also to organise their life by first calling the things by name. They had to take care of mother earth.

God created things with the appearance of age. This allows a specific ‘literal’ interpretation of Genesis 1, 2. It is suggested that miracles such as the turning of water into wine indicate that the miraculously provided wine was created with an apparent age. This idea is extended for example to God creating trees with apparent annual rings that God had fabricated. God organised the whole system so that everything would become clear as soon as man got more insight in those things. Several different combinations of radioactive isotopes in the rocks independently  indicate an age of several billion years, that way people can come to place the things in the time indication they are following, which can be different now from one group of humans to an other. Today we may find the Gregorian calendar, the Jewish, an Islamic and Julian calendar in use, making it that for each of these population we are in ‘an other time’.

God normally provided sun, moon and darkness to provide a time indication. This a lunisolar calendar is still being followed by the Jews. The time indication given by God for man is different than God’s time indication for Himself, being one day a thousand years.

Gen 1:5 NSB  God called the light day. He called the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.

2Pe 3:8 NSB  Do not forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (Psalm 90:1, 4)

Psa 90:4 NSB  In your sight a thousand years are like a single day, like yesterday, already past like an hour in the night.

Hebrew or Jewish calendar (הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, ha’luach ha’ivri), showing Adar II between 1927 and 1948

In the time span of God man could live freely but had to respect the days of God. By time passing, days were added and as such man was requested to organise special days for God. These holy days could be determined by the the dates on that calendar of the People of God or Hebrew calendar. With it people can organise for Jewish holidays and for Christian holidays, to get the dates right for the appropriate public reading of Torah portions, yahrzeits, and daily Psalm readings, among many ceremonial uses. In Israel, it is still used for religious and for civil purposes, providing also a time frame for agriculture. Although the civil calendar usage has been steadily declining in favour of the Gregorian or Western calendar also sometimes called the Christian calendar, which is internationally the most widely used civil calendar.
The Julian Day calendar, introduced by the authority of Julius Caesar in 46 bce,  brings a system of astronomical dating allowing the difference between two dates to be calculated more easily than conventional civil calendars with their uneven months and is still used by used by some Orthodox Churches. Dates in the Julian calendar are sometimes designated “Old Style.”

An Election Entertainment featuring the anti-Gregorian calendar banner “Give us our Eleven Days”, 1755. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

God gave preparation days and special days to remember and to take rest. For mankind it had to be followed and to be a “legacy,” or “inheritance” (nachala) (Time (of) Year) Later in history we shall see that the Roman emperor Constantine organised the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, one of the key concerns was to determine a date for celebrating Easter that would be the same across the board for all Christians and in accordance with the celebration of the god of fertility Eostre, the namesake of the festival of Easter. Constantine wanted to have all the Christian festivities falling together with those of the Romans and having the Christians to accept the Roman tri-godhead celebrations in their meetings. The determination of a dating method for the pagan feast which later became a holiday in many Christian communities called Easter, got all the different Christian communities who came to accept the tri-une godhead to celebrate Easter on the exact same day, whilst the other true Christians kept on celebrating God’s Days but got it more difficult to know which day had to be celebrated. As such the Romans and those who got more power from emperor Constantine hoped they would not be able to follow God’s holidays and soon would join the public holidays.

But before the adversaries of God had taken most in control god took care that His Word would keep sounding all over the world at all times. The order and organisation offered to man by god was rejected by the man and mannin, they questioning His right to govern everything and to decide everything, being Master over everything and especially over the Knowledge of good and evil (with the Tree of good and evil). The order of hierarchy became damaged and God had to provide a new world order with man having now given the right to organise everything himself. After the fall, the first sin of man, the human beings could receive all the robes in their hands to arrange life.

Destructive plate margin; oceanic crust is forced below the continental crust because oceanic crust is denser than continental crust. Friction between the moving plates causes earthquakes. The heat increase due to friction and being pushed into the asthenosphere causes the oceanic crust to melt, and reduced density forces the newly formed magma to rise. The magma rises up through weak areas in the continental crust, eventually erupting as one or more volcanoes.

Man and mannin were cast out of the perfect world which was all the time in harmony. Now they came in the outer boarders where God had allowed the world continually to develop.  From then onwards people would feel the creation evolving with among others the movement of the earth’s liquid interior causing earthquakes and volcanoes as lava is forced to the surface and the plates of the earth shift.  However, movement of the earth’s liquid core also creates the magnetosphere, a magnetic field shielding the earth from cosmic rays. This all made part of God’s Plan but now man got more knowledge of it and had to bear the consequences of their actions contrary to the Will of God. Whilst at the beginning, man had not to fear volcanoes, they now came to fear them for their destruction. Instead of gaining the knowledge they had hoped for, becoming equal with or even higher than God they lost their innocence and their inner peace, coming not to see straight ahead what possible benefits such eruptions of volcanoes could have. Volcanoes are part of the earth’s carbon cycle, regulating temperature and carbon balance so that life can survive and flourish.

God had everything placed so nicely in His system, but man wanted to be master over their own system. Now they got it. Perhaps the Garden of Eden was such a sacred place where there would not have been any problem with the further development of the universe that the movement of the earth’s surface plates over-there would not have created deadly earthquakes and tsunamis. Spread out over the earth’s surface people had to find places to live which perhaps were not provide for such conditions at first, but with man moving to the wrong places, making the wrong decisions to live somewhere they came to suffer by those actions of the earth were the movement of these plates is also essential to life on earth and were the streams of water are also necessary for the development and fertilisation of the soil.

The God of order had everything in His ‘head’ and enclosed in His ‘heart’ and had everything foreseen for His human beings. The divine Creator is the One to Whom belongs Rulership and awe. Dominion and fear are with Him. He establishes order in the heights of heaven and He makes peace in His high places.

Job 25:2 NSB  »Rulership and awe belong to God. He establishes order in the heights of heaven.

Adam and Eve were created perfect. We do believe, unlike most trinitarian Christians, that God made His creation perfect and that Adam and Eve had everything to be and to stay perfect. God was not a cruel god who imposed laws he knew man could not keep. The Divine Creator did very well know that the Laws or Commandments He gave to the human beings could be followed by every human being. In case Eve had listened to God and not driven her own will, there would not have been any problem. Now she got judgement over her and got damned with suffering. With her the 1° Adam also was taken into to temptation and into the damnation of the fall. Man became consigned to perdition, being made from dust he was to return to dust again.

Gen 2:7 NSB  Jehovah God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living being.

Gen 3:12-19 NSB  Adam said: »The woman you put here with me gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.«  (13)  Then Jehovah God said to the Eve: »What is this you have done?« The woman answered: »The serpent deceived me, and I ate.«  (14)  So Jehovah God said to the serpent: »Because you have done this you are cursed above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  (15)  »And I will put enmity (hostility) (hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring (seed) and hers. He will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) you in the head, and you will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) him in the heel.« (Romans 16:20)  (16)  He said to the woman: »I will greatly increase your pains in childbirth; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.«  (17)  He said to Adam: »Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.  (18)  »It will produce thorns and thistles for you. You will eat the plants of the field.  (19)  »You will eat your food by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground. You came from the ground. For dust you are and to dust you will return.«

Job 34:15 NSB  »All flesh would perish and man would return to dust.

Psa 90:3-10 NSB  You turn men back into dust and say: »Return, O sons of men!«  (4)  In your sight a thousand years are like a single day, like yesterday, already past like an hour in the night.  (5)  You sweep mortals away in the sleep of death. They sprout again in the morning like grass.  (6)  In the morning they blossom and sprout. In the evening they fade and wither away.  (7)  Your anger consumes us. We are troubled by your rage.  (8)  You set our sins in front of you. You put our secret sins in the light of your presence.  (9)  Indeed, all our days slip away because of your fury. We live out our years like one long sigh.  (10)  The days of our lives are seventy or eighty years if we are in good health. But the best of them bring trouble and misery. Indeed, they are soon gone, and we fly away.

The God of order and love presented an ending to the suffering, an end to the misery by the end of life. But this end of life does not fit the Plan of god and therefore He provide a solution to return the consequences of disobedience in the hope more human being would come to obey His orders and be prepared to honour Him as the Only One God.

To help them to find the right way to restore the damaged relationship He continued to give His Word with the people in the world.

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Preceding articles:

1. Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man
2. The very very beginning 1 Creating Gods
3. The very very beginning 2 The Word and words
4. Something from nothing
5. Means of creations
6. Coming to the creation of human beings in the image of God
7. Dignified role for the woman
8. Genesis – Story of creation 5 Genesis 3:1-12 Eating of the fruit-tree of knowledge
9. Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse
10. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1
11. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2
12. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3
13. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4

Continues with: Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God

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Additional reading:

1. Creation Creator and Creation
2. Creation of the earth out of something
3. Other stories about the beginning of times
4. Because men choose to go their own way
5. Taking care of mother earth
6. People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
7. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #1 Creator and His Prophets
8. Different principle about the origin and beginning of everything
9. High Holidays not only for Israel
10. Tu B’Shvat, the holiday of the trees
11. Ember and light the ransomed of Jehovah
12. Altered to fit a Trinity or Ishtar the fertility goddess
13. Matthew 1:1-17 The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
14. Raising digression
15. Hellenistic influences
16. Politics and power first priority #1
17. Politics and power first priority #2
18. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
19. A rebellious movement founded on a fake?
20. Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection
21. Easter: Origins in a pagan Christ
22. 14-15 Nisan and Easter
23. Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs
24. When we love we do not need laws

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• Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
• Not following the tradition of man
• Vayikra after its opening word וַיִּקְרָא, which means and He called

• Ides of March: What Is It? Why Do We Still Observe It? (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)
  Aside from its historical connection, the concept of the Ides of March would have resonated with English citizens in 1599, the year Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar was probably performed, Ziegler said.

  “This whole business of the Ides of March and timekeeping in the play would have had a strong impact on audiences,” she said.

  “They were really struck by the differences between their Julian calendar [a revision of the Roman calendar created by Caesar] and the Gregorian calendar kept in Catholic countries on the continent.”

  Because the two calendars featured years of slightly different lengths, they had diverged significantly by the late 16th century and were several days apart.

• Fisher: The coming of spring (themorningsun.com)
  Anxious people stop me on the street and at parties. I can tell by their expression that they are worried. I clasp their hand firmly in both of mine. “What is wrong, friend?” In a hushed tone they respond, “When is Easter coming?” “Why, the first Sunday after the first full Moon after the Vernal Equinox,” I assure them.

  We orbit the Sun every 365.24+ days each year. Think of a clock face, with the Winter Solstice at 12 o’clock, and the Summer Solstice at 6 o’clock. Our planet moves counterclockwise on the clock face. Earth is now very near 9 o’clock, the spring, or Vernal Equinox for the Northern Hemisphere. It will occur at 6:45 p.m. on March 20. (The Southern Hemisphere reverses these: they are entering their fall.)

  Cultures throughout history have celebrated the coming of spring, thanking the gods for delivering them from the miseries of winter. Sacrifices, feasts, wild parties and lots to drink were accessories to this time. It was important to understand when spring arrived so farmers knew when to plant their crops. The atmosphere was one of joy and rebirth.
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  Among the oldest such festival is Passover, April 3 this year, a Jewish celebration of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. Christian Easter, the most important celebration in their calendar follows from this. Jesus was crucified after the Passover feast of Seder, in 30 CE. Easter is a moveable feast, which means that it does not occur on the same date every year.