re: #229 Semper Fi

The two just multiplied in that (G of E) location.

Animals? You’re right. I only remember there was a snake.

Cain’s wife came from someplace so I’ll say people already existed. They may have liked climbing trees a lot but Cain was a guy.

Light created ‘before’ a light source was created is, to me, indicative of the an author’s inaccuracy due to inexperience. Genesis was his first book.

From what I remember from a Bible as Literature class I took ages ago, the current version of Genesis is an amalgam of different oral source material plus some extra stuff added later to stitch it all into some kind of narrative. So, we have two versions of the creation of Adam and Eve, because there were a least that many oral traditions floating around. IIRC the Torah was codified during the Babylonian Exile (8th Century BC?) while the various creation stories were around much longer.

As for Cain’s wife, one interpretation is that Genesis is only about the creation of the Hebrews and Cain’s wife was from another population group. Another (more far fetched, but popular among fundies) is that the angels or the nephilim came down to make whoopee with teh humanz, thus giving the early humanz really long life spans.

It’s also important to remember there were other religions around during that time, and the early Hebrews were trying to establish themselves as a people and rebuild as a nation. A lot of the OT can be read as public relations material (or propaganda) to tell the Hebrews how to be Jewish (aka Yahweh worshipers, as opposed to El, Baal or Asherah worshipers).