GENESIS: Snoopy's Short & Snappy Review

[paradox3]

God has not given the people any moral guidance as yet, other than setting an example for Sabbath observance.

When God outlines the Law, it will include many references to the land and managing it properly, no?

God definitely provides the people with rules about offerings to be made and sacrifices to be performed in the Temple. But all this comes later in the Torah AFAIK.

 

[Mendalla]

It is interesting how even this rather mundane Bible passage, just a genealogy with ages given, has been influential with Methuselah becoming a kind of shorthand for someone long-lived. For instance, Robert A. Heinlein wrote Methuselah's Children about a secret selective breeding program to create longer lived humans. One of the results of that program was Lazarus Long, a protagonist in several of Heinlein's novels. And in the Star Trek episode Requiem for Methuselah, a character is revealed to be an immortal human who claims to have been a number of historical figures, including Methuselah.

 

[paradox3]

It's fascinating to consider how much the bible has influenced literature in our culture. Our culture itself, too.

 

[BetteTheRed]

God even told him to do the right thing and cautioned him that sin was crouching at the door.

That little quote is the basis for an entire philosophical riff by Steinbeck in East of Eden.

You must master it (sin) - a command from God
You will master it - a prediction from God
Thou mayest master it - a choice for humanity

 

[unsafe]

Snoopy notes with interest that these ancient humans live for a very long time

Snoopy is aware that humans live longer than beagles, but he has never heard of lifespans like these ones!

One explanation is that we are first Spirit beings as God Breathed His Life into us and we are made in God's image ---God is a Spirit living being -----and so are we ----as we are made in His image according to Genesis 1 ---

Spirits don't die ----they live on and on ------so age means nothing to a Spirit being ----

 

[paradox3]

Good Morning! Here is Genesis 6:

Snoopy's Snappy Review: Curious tale of angels and a righteous man.

Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 6 - New English Translation

God’s Grief over Humankind’s Wickedness - When humankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose. So the LORD said, “My Spirit will not...

www.biblegateway.com

All has not gone according to plan!

The angels have interbred with humans and produced a class of hybrid beings. Snoopy knows this happens in nature but it is not the norm.

Are these creatures like the wolfdogs who can continue to reproduce? Or are they like the mules who are sterile?

Everywhere God looks, the people are wicked and violent. Even their thoughts are evil. So God plans to destroy them all in a devastating flood.

God looks to Noah for help to redeem the world. He asks Noah to build an ark that will hold a male and female of every type of animal and keep them safe from the flood. There will be space for 8 humans on the ark.

Noah is given very detailed building plans and he does as God wishes.

There's a lot to unpack here before we even get to the big flood. Isn't it sad that God is regretting the creation of humankind? Just imagine if you regretted having your children!

How can it be that Noah is the only righteous man? The reading says he walked with God. What did he do that set him apart from the rest of the people?

How can we walk with God?

 

[paradox3]

Could this story be telling us we are not as far removed from the angels as we might think? It is so interesting that God's plan to reboot creation requires a righteous man. Not an angel or an angel hybrid.

 

[Mendalla]

I think it is now fairly well understood that the Biblical flood narrative likely is derived from or influenced by the story of Utnapishtim (=Noah) from the Epic of Gilgamesh. The old surviving complete text of Gilgamesh goes back to the 18th century BCE and some related poems are even older. Here is a translation of the relevant tablet.

Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet XI

There are Flood myths in a number of other cultures, too, but there is no geological evidence for a global flood, just some huge ones that occurred at various points in prehistory that might have been remembered in these stories. Or maybe it is just because most cultures started in river valleys where flooding is a regular occurence and tends to remake things (e.g. the Nile floods fertilize the soil there) so the idea of a single huge flood seemed like a possible way for a god(s) to remake the world.

 

[paradox3]

It's interesting that different cultures latched onto the idea of God wishing to remake the world. Were they simply trying to explain natural phenomena or was something deeper at play?

 

[unsafe]

How can it be that Noah is the only righteous man? The reading says he walked with God. What did he do that set him apart from the rest of the people?

Noah came from the line of Seth ---who was the third born after Cain murdered Able ------remember Able was accepted by God and pleased Him ---Cain was rejected by God -----so here we see the 2 sides ---Cain"s line --- the evil side and Seth's line ---the right with God side --as was Able ---

Genesis 4:25 Exp B​

Adam and Eve Have a New Son​

25 Adam ·had sexual relations with [L knew; 4:1] his wife Eve again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth [C related to the Hebrew word for “give” or “appoint”] and said, “God has ·given [appointed for] me another child. He will take the place of Abel, who was killed by Cain.

So Noah was righteous in God's eyes -----

 

[paradox3]

Genesis 4:25 Exp B​

Adam and Eve Have a New Son​

So Noah was righteous in God's eyes -----

Yes Genesis makes this clear. But why? This is what I am wondering.

He came from Seth's line but there are several generations between Seth and Noah. There could have been hundreds of descendants of Seth (at least) by the time Noah was born. Many people these days have literally thousands of fifth cousins.

Why was God specifically pleased with Noah? There might be no answer to this question. But we do have the clue that Noah walked with God (v.9)

 

[Mendalla]

Back to yesterday for a moment, I actually know someone named "Abel" (pronounces it "A-bell" not "Able"). He's from the Dominican so it's likely a Spanish name.

Many people these days have literally thousands of fifth cousins.

My little brother is the family geneaologist since Mom died and discovered we are apparently eighth cousins of the Trudeaus through Mom's French-Canadian great-great-grandmother.

So, yeah, it's amazing how many people you are connected to if you go wide enough and back far enough.

 

[paradox3]

My neighbor's grandson has a dog named Cain. They always joke that they are waiting for Abel to show up.

 

[Mendalla]

In the old roleplaying game Vampire : The Masquerade (which is still around in both electronic and tabletop forms), Cain is regarded as the ancestor of all vampires, being as he's the first murderer and vampires are basically supernatural serial killers.

Back to Noah, if you ever see what a flash flood can actually do (e.g. I've been in a slot canyon in the US Southwest, which are carved out by flash floods), it is little surprise that they are seen as God's instrument of destruction in so many cultures. Water is amazingly powerful stuff. I even got a sermon out of that idea in my UU days (it was supposed to be part of a series on the four classical elements and their spiritual/religious symbolism but the series kind of fizzled out before I got to the end).

 

[paradox3]

Here is a fascinating thing about ancestry. The family tree as we typically conceptualize it (every generation doubling) is not really accurate. Because the same individuals actually show up in multiple places if you go back far enough.

If we simply keep doubling the numbers in every generation as we go back in time, there is a big problem around 1200 CE. A hypothetical family tree will contain more slots than there were people alive in the world at that time.

 

[paradox3]

Now that I think about it, isn't there something problematic in the idea that a murdered son could be replaced by another one?

 

[Mendalla]

Now that I think about it, isn't there something problematic in the idea that a murdered son could be replaced by another one?

I don't know. In a culture where sons are valued for being "big, strong men" who can do the farm work and take over the family name, I think a replacement son kind of makes sense.

 

[paradox3]

I don't know. In a culture where sons are valued for being "big, strong men" who can do the farm work and take over the family name, I think a replacement son kind of makes sense.

True enough in a practical sense. It seems that Adam and Eve will have more children later in Genesis but they are not named.

 

[jimkenney12]

There is substantial evidence for a great flood or two at the end of the ice age. This flood covered low lying lands around the world. Divers found middens in fairly deep water on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The flood story has roots going back about 10,000 years. The Cain and Abel stories possibly go back 6000 to 7000 years.

 

[Mystic]

The angels have interbred with humans and produced a class of hybrid beings. Snoopy knows this happens in nature but it is not the norm.

Many who study UFO abduction cases identify the interbreeding program of the nephilim with sexually intrusive alien operations on UFO abductees and speculate that nephilim were involved in human evolution!