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

First mention of a solution against death 7 Human sacrifice

In the previous articles about the solution for man and offerings, we talked about the way human beings looked for ways to restore their relationship with God and how they wanted to please God with offerings.

The first human beings had the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, symbolizing potentialities or possibilities that God has made available to Man, who is free to choose and explore as much as he pleases, even to separate himself from God, like the Prodigal Son from his Father.

Man had made his choice and had to leave the Garden of Eden, trying to build up a decent life. Though now he had to work hard for everything and was aware he had disgusted or displeased God. First there was only the Most High Divine Creator of all things Who was above Adam and Eve and above all other living creatures, the plants and animals. There was no hierarchy.

Hierarchy (from the Greek ἱεραρχία hierarchia, “rule of a high priest”, from ἱεράρχης hierarkhes, “leader of sacred rites”); ranking of objects into grades, orders, or classes of increasing dominance or inclusiveness + specific type of social organization in which members are divided by status or especially authority – people on a “ladder”

The first story were we saw human beings ‘fighting’ for a place or rang order is the one of Cain and Abel. Slowly hierarchy entered the human system. From simple hunter-gatherer tribes to complex, modern industrial societies we can find a hierarchy which is loved by people. Some scholars argue that gender played a central role in the formation and functioning of stratification systems. They showed that women’s exclusion from social life placed them in an inferior position, resulting in lessened life chances and status. While women’s standing in social and economic life has improved over the past half-century, women are still restricted by gender roles and patriarchy. Rich literatures examine the impact of family structure, occupational segregation, devaluation of women’s work, and sex-based pay gaps.

We also can see that the colour of skin, the place of origin, became important to place people on a step of the ladder. One’s racial and ethnic background or ethnicity, also greatly came to influence one’s life chances. When not belonging to the troop it could well be that people saw the person suitable to be used as an offer to the gods.

Human life was looked at as something very special and was considered by many as the most valuable material for sacrifice. The killing of a human being, or the substitution of an animal in place of a person, has often been part of an attempt to effect communion with a god and participation in his divine life.

We may find two primary types of human sacrifice: the offering of a human being to a god and the entombment or slaughter of servants or slaves intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. The latter practice was more common.

The realisation of human sacrifice to the promotion of the earth’s fertility may explain why the phenomenon has been most widely adopted by agricultural rather than by hunting or pastoral peoples.

The region where the Austronesian languages are spoken spans over 200 degrees of longitude from Madagascar to Easter Island

In a study published in Nature¹, Joseph Watts, a specialist in cultural evolution at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and his colleagues have analysed 93 traditional cultures in Austronesia (the region that loosely embraces the many small and island states in the Pacific and Indonesia) as they were before they were influenced by colonization and major world religions (generally in the late 19th and early 20th centuries).  {On Human Sacrifice (Article Nature)}

By mapping the evolutionary relationships between cultures, the team suggests that human sacrifice and social hierarchy co-evolved. Although societies can become more or less stratified over time, societies that practised sacrifice were less apt to revert to milder degrees of stratification.

Clearly there were different ways to look at the sacrificial bodies. They could be seen as something very special and very worthy but also as something they did not want in their community and found good enough to give to the gods. More than animal sacrifice human sacrifice helped to stabilize hierarchy, and conceivably, therefore, had a common role in the development of highly stratified societies that generally persist even today. Instead of killing the one in power a substitute was taken to receive for some time divine status and then was put to death. Sacral kings (considered to  embody gods of vegetation) were sacrificed when their vigour declined, in order to prevent reciprocal effects on soil fertility. In various places in Africa, where human sacrifice was connected with ancestor worship or veneration of the dead, some of the slaves of the deceased were buried with him, or they were killed and laid beneath him in his grave.

Aztec cosmogram in the pre-Hispanic Codex Fejérváry-Mayer—the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli is in the centre

There were also places were people thought the elements of nature, like the moon and the sun, needed human nourishment, which led to sacrifices in which thousands of victims perished annually in their rituals, like by the Aztecs. The Incas confined such wholesale sacrifices to the accession of a ruler.There were instances of human sacrifice in Peru and among tribes of North American Indians.

All human societies have been shaped by religion, leading psychologists to wonder how it arose, and whether particular forms of belief have affected other aspects of evolved social structure. According to one recent view, for example, belief in a “big God” — an all-powerful, punitive deity who sits in moral judgement on our actions — has been instrumental in bringing about social and political complexity in human cultures.

The network of small and island states stretching from Madagascar to Easter Island  — challenges that theory. In these states, a more general belief in supernatural punishment did tend to precede political complexity, the research finds, but belief in supreme deities emerged after complex cultures have already formed ².

Joseph Watts, a specialist in cultural evolution at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who worked on the study, wanted evidence to examine the idea that “big Gods” drive and sustain the evolution of big societies. Psychologist Ara Norenzayan at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, has suggested that belief in moralizing high gods (MHGs) enabled societies to outgrow their limited ability to police moral conduct, by threatening freeloaders with retribution even if no-one else noticed their transgressions^{3, 4}.

Watts says

“Austronesian cultures offer an ideal sample to test theories about the evolution of religions in pre-modern societies, because they were mostly isolated from modern world religions, and their indigenous supernatural beliefs and practices were well documented.”

The believers in moralizing high gods (MHGs) got in their system some people who got control by aligning themselves with those supreme deities and then making lists of things people could and could not do. We can imagine their way of getting more power by making the people afraid with ideas of suffering or torture (in the underground or hell) and by the possibility to become a target of offering. For centuries certain religious organisation or churches made their followers afraid of doomplaces and told them that they could buy themselves free from those torture chambers by giving money to their church. People could buy indulgences.

The granting of indulgences was predicated on two beliefs. First, in the sacrament of penance it did not suffice to have the guilt (culpa) of sin forgiven through absolution alone; one also needed to undergo temporal punishment (poena, from p[o]enitentia, “penance”) because one had offended Almighty God. Second, indulgences rested on belief in purgatory, a place in the next life where one could continue to cancel the accumulated debt of one’s sins, another Western medieval conception not shared by Eastern Orthodoxy or other Eastern Christian churches not recognizing the primacy of the pope. {Indulgence –
Roman Catholicism, encyclopaedia Britannica}

A Catholic bishop granting plenary indulgences for the public during times of calamity. Note the almsgiving in the background. Wall Fresco by Italian Artist Lorenzo Lotto, Suardi, Italy, circa 1524.

Certain faithgroups or churches wanted their believers to believe that offerings could reduce the the debt of forgiveness of sin. The offers could exist out of many gifts but also by the performance of good works in their life (pilgrimages, charitable acts, and the like) and if their offerings were not yet sufficient they would get a lesser penalty after they died, by temporarily suffering in purgatory instead of eternal suffering in hell. Indulgences could be granted only by popes or, to a lesser extent, archbishops and bishops as ways of helping ordinary people measure and amortize their remaining debt.

In different cultures an other way was less bloody, having the sacrifice taking place by going under water. Whilst in Mexico young maidens were drowned in sacred wells, others found it sufficient to have an immersion. As such we can find Celtic rituals. Whilst the burning of children occurred in Assyrian and Canaanite religions and at various times among the Israelites, it became a custom by the Israelites to be cleared of sins by immersion to enter a new life. John the Baptist as such came to immerse his cousin Jeshua, Jesus Christ, who was the long awaited Messiah. About 40 days after Jesus’ birth, his parents had brought the customary sin offering permitted in the case of the poor,

“a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:24; Leviticus 12:6-8)

The offerings and human sacrifice legitimises political authority and social class systems, functioning to stabilize social stratification. It was also an ideal way to get rid of unwanted people or to take care that those who stood in the way could disappear from the scene.

In this way the Nazarene Jeshua an annoying person and possible peril for the security and peace in the Roman empire and in the Jewish community. Though it was not thought him to be an offer, several thought it better to give him away to be killed instead of the vigilant or robber Barabbas. Pilate knew that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests and elders wanted Jesus out of the way, i.e. being killed.

“Give us Barabbas!”, from The Bible and its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, 1910

The man being called to be crucified did not have his roots in the right soil because nobody thought anything good could come out of Nazareth. (John 1:46; 7:41, 52) Although he was a perfect man and a descendant of King David, his humble circumstances did not impart to him any “stately form” or “splendour” — at least not in the eyes of those who were expecting the Messiah to come from a more impressive background.
Spurred on by the Jewish religious leaders, many were led to overlook and even despise him. In the end the crowds saw nothing desirable in the perfect Son of God.

Matthew 27:11-26 NHEBME  (11)  Now Yeshua stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Yeshua said to him, “So you say.”  (12)  When he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.  (13)  Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?”  (14)  He gave him no answer, not even one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.  (15)  Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release to the multitude one prisoner, whom they desired.  (16)  They had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.  (17)  When therefore they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Yeshua, who is called the Messiah?”  (18)  For he knew that because of envy they had delivered him up.  (19)  While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.”  (20)  Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes to ask for Barabbas, and destroy Yeshua.  (21)  But the governor answered them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!”  (22)  Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do to Yeshua, who is called the Messiah?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!”  (23)  But he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the louder, saying, “Let him be crucified!”  (24)  So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this man. You see to it.”  (25)  All the people answered, “May his blood be on us, and on our children!”  (26)  Then he released to them Barabbas, but Yeshua he flogged and delivered to be crucified.

In the time before Jeshua the ancient temple courtyard was the altar for offering sacrifices. This foreshadowed God’s provision, according to His will, for a perfect human sacrifice to ransom the offspring of Adam. (Heb 10:1-10; 13:10-12; Ps 40:6-8)

This man, born in Bethlehem, at his immersion was proclaimed by God Himself to be the “Only begotten beloved son of God“. Nobody had managed to fully do the will of God neither could have brought a perfect sacrificial body in front of the Most Divine God. This time that man managed to put aside his will and managed to keep all the time to God’s Will. He was the living proof that man, if he wanted, could keep to God’s Commandments. Still to today there are religious groups in Christendom who want others to believe no man would ever be capable to keep God’s commandments, and therefore Jesus would have to be God himself. This idea makes of God a very cruel God Who imposed Laws to man which He knew they would never be able to keep. But God is a God of love and order Who does not asks more of people than they can endure or do. That what God asks of mankind Jesus managed to fulfil and by doing God’s Will all the time, not going against the Will of God, he was not at any time an opposer or adversary of God.  Jesus him being a perfect human being made the sacrifice of his life acceptable in the eyes of God to be the best ransom that could be paid for making an end to the curse of death.

God even expanded the gift of Christ to mankind by declaring all those who have faith in Christ’s sacrifice, righteous on the basis of their faith. By believing in Jesus Christ and following his teachings, when they after their immersion try to keep to the commandments of God,  they are viewed by God as sinless while in the flesh.

Romans 3:20-26 NHEBME  Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.  (21)  But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the Law and the Prophets;  (22)  even the righteousness of God through faith in Yeshua the Messiah to all those who believe. For there is no distinction,  (23)  for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;  (24)  being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua;  (25)  whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance;  (26)  to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Yeshua.

Romans 5:1-2 NHEBME  Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah;  (2)  through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Differently than in other religions where every time a new sacrifice is needed, the blood of Christ is for ever and makes that no other sacrifices have to be made.

Romans 5:9-10 NHEBME  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.  (10)  For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

Romans 8:1-7 NHEBME  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yeshua.  (2)  For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua made you free from the law of sin and of death.  (3)  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;  (4)  that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  (5)  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  (6)  For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;  (7)  because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

 

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References:

1. Watts, J., Sheehan, O., Atkinson, Q. D., Bulbulia, J. & Gray, R. D. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature17159 (2016).
2. Watts, J. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 282, 20142556 (2015).
3. Norenzayan, A. Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict (Princeton Univ. Press, 2013).
4. Norenzayan, A. & Shariff, A. F. Science 322, 58–62 (2008).

Please find also to read:

• Complex societies evolved without belief in all-powerful deity
• Ritual human sacrifice promoted and sustained the evolution of stratified societies

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Preceding articles:

Gone astray, away from God

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4

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

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

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

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

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

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2

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Additional reading

1. People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
2. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
3. Displeasures and Actions of the Almighty God
4. Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience
5. Counterfeit Gospels
6. Disobedient man and God’s promises
7. Redemption #2 Biblical solution
8. Not about personal salvation but about a bigger Plan
9. Religious people and painful absence of spring of living water
10. An unblemished and spotless lamb foreknown
11. Sayings of Jesus, what to believe and being or not of the devil
12. For the Will of Him who is greater than Jesus
13. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #3 A voice to be taken Seriously
14. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #8 Prayer #6 Communication and manifestation
15. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
16. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #18 Fulfilment
17. Bad things no punishment from God
18. Thought for the third day of the Omer
19. How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
20. Wishing to do the will of God
21. Worship and worshipping
22. Solstice, Saturnalia and Christmas-stress
23. Be an Encourager
24. Expenses, costs – Onkosten, uitgaven
25. Actions to be a reflection of openness of heart
26. Thanksgivukkah and Advent
27. Purify my heart
28. Immortality, eternality – onsterfelijkheid, eeuwigheid
29. A concrete picture of what is to come in the future
30. Phoenicians sacrificed infants
31. A Living Faith #6 Sacrifice
32. Self-preservation is the highest law of nature

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Further reading

1. Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Cultures
2. The Ceremony of the Goddess of Knowledge in Bali
3. River Ganges ‘The Offering’
4. Bali Religious Ceremonies to Invoke the Safety, Gratitude and Protection of God
5. Human Sacrifice In The Ancient Mysteries, Paganism, Druidism and Satan The Founder of
6. King Killers of Ancient Ireland
7. Human Sacrifice, Ancient Gods and Lady Fern
8. Bible 2016: 13 June Daily Bible Reading
9. II Kings 23
10. A Reflection of the Heart
11. Ark First, Altar Next
12. Numbers 7
13. Leviticus 4; The Sin Offering
14. Leviticus 6:14-23; The Priests Grain Offering
15. Parasha Naso (an accounting of)
16. A Story of Two Fathers and Two Sons
17. Showdown
18. A Living sacrifice before God
19. Giving All
20. Jesus as an Offering
21. Ascended, offered life
22. His Witness
23. Is it important to tithe?
24. Please God
25. Hoping God is Pleased, While Knowing He Is Not
26. Who Are You Trying to Please?
27. The need to please!
28. Man of Faith
29. Regaining Soulfulness
30. Pray to Receive Forgiveness (Repost)
31. God or Man Pleasers
32. Suffering Is Not For Nothing
33. Trusting God’s Promise
34. Kingdom Economy
35. Relationship, Better than Choice
36. When All You Have Is Enough
37. Is the Bible fact or fiction? Yes!
38. Empty Oaths or Missing the Real God
39. Are there two Gods in the Bible?
40. Two Gods and Two Countries
41. Watchtower Study June 5, 2016—Being Faithful Leads to God’s Approval
42. An Offering Prayer
43. Did Jesus believe in sacrifice?
44. Bible 2016: 13 June Daily Bible Reading
45. The Vedic rituals, their innovative nature and contribution to the early knowledge
46. Vayikra: Offering
47. Animal Sacrifice, Leviticus, and Penal Substitution
48. Despite naysayers, archaeologists assert thesis about child sacrifice in ancient #Carthage
49. It’s not just ancient Roman propaganda: Carthaginians really did sacrifice children
50. Ancient Greek stories of ritual child sacrifice are true, study claims
51. Carthaginians sacrificed own children, archaeologists say
52. Bakra Eid – A Religious Ritual or Calories to Waste?
53. Irfiction: Payback
54. Holi Mubarak*
55. When my mother was a Voodoo priestess, animal sacrifices and my broken heart
56. A Mosque, Some Mosaics, and a Whole Lot of Raw Meat: the streets of Istanbul
57. Sacrificing in the city
58. Anthropology Friday: Animal Souls
59. The Politics of Sacrifice
60. Ode to Eternal Justice
61. বলি কি সত্যি দরকার ?

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

Vanity and the hope to be as God, knowing everything and being able to do everything, man made the wrong choice, going in against the Will of God, disobeying His mitzvot not to touch or eat of the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

The Divine Creator is a God of order, clarity, Who does not tell lies (= always telling the truth) and does not create chaos or confusion. (1 Corinthians 14:33) Man should have known that God always told the truth. But by letting his thoughts wander about, he was caught by his own bad thoughts that God would keep something hidden from him or did not want to give him what he also should own.

As He had promised they would get to know life and death, He cursed them to the hard labour which they previously never had to do. And having made out of dust, God told them they would return to it, becoming dust again, meaning to die and then to decay. (Genesis 3:19)

 (Genesis 3:19 ASV): “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

In the previous chapters we discussed that what happened to Adam and Eve still happens to us every day. Temptation today still follows the same pattern with us as it did with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Always there is first the arousing of desire; then the mind, seizing upon that desire, rationalizes it to make it seem reasonable, proper, and profitable. Then the will acts — and often immediately confusion, guilt, blame, and a sense of limitation follows without fail. The process is absolutely relentless.

Adam and Eve thought, like we often do, that we can hide ourselves. We may think that we have hidden things we did from the eyes of man, and oftentimes many of us are deluded into thinking that because no human being knows about our guilt, nothing has happened.

Yet within us, whenever we yield to evil, a darkness falls and death tightens its grip upon our throat. {Ray C. Stedman}

When addressing the evil God shows His understanding and shows His willingness to provide help in their hopeless situation. It is not that man shall be able to escape for what they have done. No, there is the curse for the woman and for the man. and to the evil or the adversary of Him, Jehovah says

Genesis 3:15 NHEBJE  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

The evil or satan shall become subject of a war  to the “death”. The thoughts Eve had, would now also come to her children, dwelling in them they shall be troubled by desires, vanity, and other bad things, bringing them into captivity to the law of sin which is in their members

Romans 7:18-23 NHEBJE  For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.  (19)  For the good which I desire, I do not do; but the evil which I do not desire, that I practice.  (20)  But if what I do not desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.  (21)  I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.  (22)  For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,  (23)  but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

For those who have that incapacity to be fully correct or without fault, God did not want that they would not have to face total destruction. Speaking out His judgement over Adam and Eve the Divine Creator spoke about a future saviour. Some one who would be able to break the curse of death. Between the bad thoughts and the way of righteousness shall be a battle. Those who would like to follow their own self-love and what made Eve from this world shall find tribulation and lots of problems in this world, not strong enough to fight them. Though others who not want to be of that world shall be able to be stronger and find their way out, though the world may hate them.

John 15:19 NHEBJE  If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 16:33 NHEBJE  I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”

Yes, there will be one coming, by the promise of the Most High, who can call himself the only begotten son of God. Though the mind of the flesh may be hostile to God (Romans 8:6-7) this provider foreseen by God in the Garden of Eden, after the fall of man, long before Abraham, is the one we all have to look for and have to find. In him we shall have to put our faith to come away under the curse of death. He is the only man who succeeded to be without fault. He always managed to do God His Will. Though he was tempted many times (in the desert, in the square of the village and in the town, in the temple, in the garden of Gethsemane) he never gave in to the temptation, always wanting to do God His will instead of his own will.

Luke 22:41-42 NHEBJE  He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed,  (42)  saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

The writer of Bereshith notates God’s declaration that there shall be a separating of the serpent (the evil, the temptation) from the woman, and tells about the provision of a solution, which we shall hear about in later books as well. In the third chapter of Genesis we find  the basis for the first promise of redemption which must be interpreted allegorically. In that light, the serpent stood for what it proclaimed:

“Ye shall not surely die” (v. 4).

This error was an emanation of the thinking of the flesh called “the carnal mind” by the apostle Paul, which, he declared

“is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7).

Moses lets us understand that there in the Garden of Eden was the base of our problems. There the first man and woman doubting God and His honesty, they becoming adversaries or enemies of God. Eve her thoughts are represented as the creeping animal, a serpent which became “the father of lies“, and all who endorse or proclaim error are considered as its seed, or children.

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.

 

Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil עברית: חטא עץ הדעת – ד”ר לידיה קוזניצקי (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Accordingly, in the allegorical signification of this statement, the serpent represents the spirit of error and deceit as it emanates from the carnal mind. It is frequently used for those who oppose the Truth (Psalms 58:4; 140:3; Matthew 23:33; Revelation 12:9), manifesting themselves as adversaries of the righteous. Its error stemmed from its presumption in reasoning upon Divine law from the standpoint of the flesh. This philosophy caused Eve to view the forbidden tree anew, and its attractive appearance aroused in her the latent propensities of the flesh which then became active and demanding.

“The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”

which John teaches is

“not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16)

were inflamed, and became “the word of the serpent” made flesh in her.

Adam and Eve wanted so much to have that knowledge of good and evil. Their aspiration to own that knowledge was fed by their lust for more. Paul calls such ‘wants’ “lusts” and gives them the title of sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3), or “sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:20).

Romans 8:3 NHEBJE  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;

The sending of that son is God’s solution for mankind. Though evil shall do everything to try to destroy him, it shall not succeed.

Michelangelo Bounarotti – The Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve – detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By the offspring of the woman the world shall come to see a Virgin Birth where “It” (AV), a singular seed, shall “bruise” (AV), or “Shuwph” = to crush (Job 9:17).  This enmity which had come into existence, between man and God, is seeking the destruction of the higher interests of man. While it will inflict injury, this enmity is subject to the ultimate conquest of man.

The sorrow of woman consequent upon the Fall brings God now having a woman bringing life to a man, but this time not without pain. Also the seed God provides shall bring lots of pain to his mother and generations shall look up at that miserable pain this son of hers had to endure.

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Preceding articles

Creation of the earth and man #22 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #6 Spirits, spiritual bodies and illusory perception

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

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

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

What others think about the tree of knowledge of good and evil

A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2

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

Necessary to be known all over the earth

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

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Additional reading

1. Challenging claim 4 Inspired by God 3 Self-consistent Word of God
2. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
3. Possibility to live
4. Dying or not
5. A learning process for each of us
6. Together tasting a great promise
7. The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being
8. Satan the evil within
9. Satan or the devil
10. Lucifer
11. Redemption # 1Biblical doctrine of salvation
12. The Song of The Lamb #3 Daniel and Revelation
13. Story of Jesus’ birth begins long before the New Testament
14. Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant
15. God Our Refuge
16. On the Edge of Believing
17. What is life?
18. Dying or not
19. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #6 Summary
20. People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life
21. When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation
22. The redemption of man by Christ Jesus
23. Suffering redemptive because Jesus redeemed us from sin
24. Looking for a primary cause and a goal that can not offer philosophers existing beliefs
25. 1 Corinthians 15 Hope in action
26. How we think shows through in how we act
27. Not staying alone in your search for truth
28. Doing the works of God
29. Being fit to take care of a garden
30. Be holy
31. We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace
32. Aim High: Examples of Godly Characters to follow
33. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
34. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #2 Psyche, the word
35. Departed Souls Await Judgment

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Further reading

1. Daily Reading: 29 March – The Fall – Genesis 3 ~ paradise lost
2. The Original Sin
3. Were We Ever Cursed?
4. The fall of “The Fall” Part 2
5. Genesis 3 – would you Adam and Eve it?
6. Why We Sin…and the Truth That Sets Us Free
7. Death, Life, and Trees
8. Fear & Loathing In… God?
9. Significance of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns?
10. Christ’s Sacrificial Love
11. Children of the Free
12. How Great The Fall
13. Practising Ministry 5: It All Went Wrong
14. Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 5
15. Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 6
16. Tradition or the Bible – your choice.
17. The Answer for Pain
18. More Grace Needed Here!
19. A Tale of Two Skywalkers
20. Redemption and Restoration
21. The Poetry of George Herbert: “The Sacrifice” (Pt. 2)
22. Rejoicing in Christ
23. In A Perfect World…
24. Reasons not to compromise with theological compromisers
25. No Longer Slaves!
26. +++
27. Further reading
28. Is Eve Responsible?
29. To The Weary…
30. Ripped from the headlines: Bring on the so-called “Catholic” guilt
31. Empathy and Guilt
32. 5 Steps: Overcoming Guilt
33. Guilt and Regrets
34. The Voice of Guilt
35. Guilty of Being Human
36. Living With Guilt
37. Guilt, Shame & the Atonement: A Foreword
38. Daily Obstruction: Religious Obstructions
39. No More Guilt
40. Guilt Free
41. Condemnation Never Comes from God
42. It’s On You, It Always Has Been
43. Here’s to You: Your are Right in His Sight
44. Who is evaluating you?
45. 
46. The Offerings in Leviticus (1 of 2)
47. The Offerings in Leviticus (2 of 2)
48. Perfectly Imperfect
49. 
50. The Path to your Potential
51. No short cuts to heaven..!
52. The Purpose in it All
53. Not For The Faint Of Heart
54. Redemption
55. Deliverance
56. What Lie We Often Fall For
57. Why does God allow deception?
58. The Father of Tall Tales
59. The Father of Lies
60. Satan, Who? Is Satan Real?
61. Dear Father of Lies
62. Look at the Lamb (Day 8)
63. The Importance of Biblical Discernment
64. God Is and We Aren’t
65. Jesus Free Man From Sin
66. Are people willing to die for something they know is a lie?
67. Liars & Murderers – God Says They Are The Same!

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Related articles

• Would you Adam and Eve it?
• Holy Tuesday 2016
• Witnessing Creation and the Day that Made History
• Why Do Bad Things Happen to Those Who Love Jesus? Dr. Michelle Bengtson – Part 3 0f 3
• Sermon Redux – “The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions” – Genesis 3:1-24 – Part 3 of How We Got Into This Mess
• Gratitude…
• How Long Did Adam Live?
• Resurrection: Dead in Adam, Alive in Christ