Clarphimous
2005-06-05, 06:15
I'm going to be putting up some comprehensive notes on the Bible on my webpage. Problem is, I'm a horrible procrastinator. I'll need some help if I ever plan to get it done.
What it will involve are articles explaining the Bible by section and then other, more detailed articles about specific Biblical subjects -- such as characters, places, historical information and theological concepts. They'll all be linked to each other, of course. At the bottom of each Bible section article will be the text of that section from some open-source Bible. Right now I'm going with the NET Bible.
I'm an atheist/agnostic, and I'm hoping this could be a good resource for people who want a non-religious view of the Bible on the Internet. One of my main themes is that interpretation of the Bible changes over time, so any interesting or important interpretations you find feel free to tell me. Just no apologetics, i.e. "this is wrong because my interpretion of the Bible is right and yours is wrong, blah blah blah." Please, none of that.
Below is the text of the first article. It covers Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3.
------------------------------------------------------------
The Creation of the Earth
Genesis 1:1 - 2:3
The first chapter of Genesis, and also of the Old Testament, covers the creation of the earth. The story is part of the P document,<!--link to documentary hypothesis article--> meaning that it was put into written form until sometime after the Babylonian captivity. <!--link to Babylonian captivity article--> Anytime one culture is dominant over another, it usually results in the seeping of ideas from the greater to the lesser. This seems to be the case for the Hebrews, as this creation myth consists of many Babylonian pre-scientific ideas of the history and geography of the earth.
The acts of creation are split into seven days.<!--link to sacred numbers article--> The first six days God spent creating the earth, while on the seventh he rests. Our days of the week now correlate to the days of creation. However, our names for the days of the week have nothing to do with the acts of creation, so don't even try to match them up.
Before the acts of creation, the earth is described as "without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep...". In other words, it was a big piece of mud covered on top with water, with lots of dark. Some suggest that Genesis 1:1 describes the original creation of the earth from nothing, but I do not believe this is correct. For it reads "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," or more literally, the sky and the dry land. And as you'll soon see, this is what is being described throughout the chapter. It's a summary, not an independent event.
Others have come up with the ideas of catastrophism and the pre-adamite world to explain the earth's condition prior to Genesis, chapter 1. This is a subject all of its own, so I won't deal with it here. <!--link to catastrophism/pre-adamite article-->
One last aspect that I should mention before beginning with the days of creation is that there was wind blowing over the water. Winds were thought to be spirits, and therefore it's talking about a spirit moving over the oceans. In particular, this one would be God's spirit, or the Holy Spirit. <!--link to Holy Spirit article-->
Day 1 (Sunday) -- On the first day, God creates light. He then proceeds to separate the light from the darkness, creating day and night. It was thought that darkness was as tangible as light, so that's why it's described as separating the two. The sun and the stars do not exist at this point, so they probably weren't thought of as the source of light. This sort of belief would reduce the significance of the heavenly objects, which many pagans worshiped at that time.
Day 2 (Monday) -- On this day God creates the sky. To do this He builds a huge domed structure in the midst of the oceans to separate it into an upper half and a lower half. Below the dome is the waters that we now call the ocean, inside it is empty space, and above it is the water that occasionally leaks through as rain. We live in the empty space inside the dome. <!--link to earth/sky article-->
According to Creationism, <!--link to Creationism article--> the dome referred to here is some sort of barrier that held a large amount of water in the sky. Later in Genesis, this water would be what fell during Noah's flood. This is called the vapor canopy. <!--link to vapor canopy article-->
Day 3 (Tuesday) -- Now God takes the remaining water beneath the sky and moves it all into a few spots so the land can show through. He gives the land and the sea their Hebrew words, looks at his work, and "God saw that it was good". Then he creates plants on the land which can reproduce. Once again, "God saw that it was good."
Day 4 (Wednesday) -- God creates the sun, moon, and stars. They were thought of as entities placed high up on the dome of the sky. They had set times for getting out into the sky, and it was rumored that those who were disobedient were severely punished. The sun and moon are supposed to govern the day and night, while the stars are for keeping time in the long term, such as seasons and years. It would also seem that the Hebrews had their own system of astrology which they used for determining prophesy. <!--link to stars/astrology article-->
Day 5 (Thursday) -- God creates sea-dwelling animals and birds. Along with the regular sea-creatures, he also creates sea-monsters such as Leviathan <!--link to Leviathan article-->. "God saw that it was good". He then blesses them for fertility.
Day 6 (Friday) -- On the last day of creating stuff, God creates the land animals. The verses seem to specify the types of animals based on their size and relationship to man: small critters like lizards (and bugs, I guess), livestock, and wild animals. Then, finally He creates a man and woman "in his own image".<!--link to image of God article--> God blesses (again, for fertility) the creation of the day, and tells humans that they have authority over all the animals. For food, humans are given plants that have seeds or fruit. The rest of the animals can eat any kind of vegetation they want.
And God looks down and sees that "it was very good".
In the Middle Ages, an anonymous work titled <i>The Alphabet of Ben-Sira</i> contained the myth of Lilith.<!--link to Lilith article--> According to the story, Lilith was the first woman that God created. Lilith ran away, so God had to create a new partner for Adam. It lets the Bible continue the story at this point, where God takes part of Adam's side to create Eve.
Day 7 / Sabbath (Saturday) -- On this day God rests. Why would an omnipotent diety need to rest? He probably didn't need to, but as we all know God likes to do things just because He can. Hey, you'd probably want to kick back and relax too, wouldn't you? This day of rest is the theological basis for the Sabbath day, when all good Jews would resist performing physical labor. <!--link to Sabbath article-->
What it will involve are articles explaining the Bible by section and then other, more detailed articles about specific Biblical subjects -- such as characters, places, historical information and theological concepts. They'll all be linked to each other, of course. At the bottom of each Bible section article will be the text of that section from some open-source Bible. Right now I'm going with the NET Bible.
I'm an atheist/agnostic, and I'm hoping this could be a good resource for people who want a non-religious view of the Bible on the Internet. One of my main themes is that interpretation of the Bible changes over time, so any interesting or important interpretations you find feel free to tell me. Just no apologetics, i.e. "this is wrong because my interpretion of the Bible is right and yours is wrong, blah blah blah." Please, none of that.
Below is the text of the first article. It covers Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3.
------------------------------------------------------------
The Creation of the Earth
Genesis 1:1 - 2:3
The first chapter of Genesis, and also of the Old Testament, covers the creation of the earth. The story is part of the P document,<!--link to documentary hypothesis article--> meaning that it was put into written form until sometime after the Babylonian captivity. <!--link to Babylonian captivity article--> Anytime one culture is dominant over another, it usually results in the seeping of ideas from the greater to the lesser. This seems to be the case for the Hebrews, as this creation myth consists of many Babylonian pre-scientific ideas of the history and geography of the earth.
The acts of creation are split into seven days.<!--link to sacred numbers article--> The first six days God spent creating the earth, while on the seventh he rests. Our days of the week now correlate to the days of creation. However, our names for the days of the week have nothing to do with the acts of creation, so don't even try to match them up.
Before the acts of creation, the earth is described as "without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep...". In other words, it was a big piece of mud covered on top with water, with lots of dark. Some suggest that Genesis 1:1 describes the original creation of the earth from nothing, but I do not believe this is correct. For it reads "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," or more literally, the sky and the dry land. And as you'll soon see, this is what is being described throughout the chapter. It's a summary, not an independent event.
Others have come up with the ideas of catastrophism and the pre-adamite world to explain the earth's condition prior to Genesis, chapter 1. This is a subject all of its own, so I won't deal with it here. <!--link to catastrophism/pre-adamite article-->
One last aspect that I should mention before beginning with the days of creation is that there was wind blowing over the water. Winds were thought to be spirits, and therefore it's talking about a spirit moving over the oceans. In particular, this one would be God's spirit, or the Holy Spirit. <!--link to Holy Spirit article-->
Day 1 (Sunday) -- On the first day, God creates light. He then proceeds to separate the light from the darkness, creating day and night. It was thought that darkness was as tangible as light, so that's why it's described as separating the two. The sun and the stars do not exist at this point, so they probably weren't thought of as the source of light. This sort of belief would reduce the significance of the heavenly objects, which many pagans worshiped at that time.
Day 2 (Monday) -- On this day God creates the sky. To do this He builds a huge domed structure in the midst of the oceans to separate it into an upper half and a lower half. Below the dome is the waters that we now call the ocean, inside it is empty space, and above it is the water that occasionally leaks through as rain. We live in the empty space inside the dome. <!--link to earth/sky article-->
According to Creationism, <!--link to Creationism article--> the dome referred to here is some sort of barrier that held a large amount of water in the sky. Later in Genesis, this water would be what fell during Noah's flood. This is called the vapor canopy. <!--link to vapor canopy article-->
Day 3 (Tuesday) -- Now God takes the remaining water beneath the sky and moves it all into a few spots so the land can show through. He gives the land and the sea their Hebrew words, looks at his work, and "God saw that it was good". Then he creates plants on the land which can reproduce. Once again, "God saw that it was good."
Day 4 (Wednesday) -- God creates the sun, moon, and stars. They were thought of as entities placed high up on the dome of the sky. They had set times for getting out into the sky, and it was rumored that those who were disobedient were severely punished. The sun and moon are supposed to govern the day and night, while the stars are for keeping time in the long term, such as seasons and years. It would also seem that the Hebrews had their own system of astrology which they used for determining prophesy. <!--link to stars/astrology article-->
Day 5 (Thursday) -- God creates sea-dwelling animals and birds. Along with the regular sea-creatures, he also creates sea-monsters such as Leviathan <!--link to Leviathan article-->. "God saw that it was good". He then blesses them for fertility.
Day 6 (Friday) -- On the last day of creating stuff, God creates the land animals. The verses seem to specify the types of animals based on their size and relationship to man: small critters like lizards (and bugs, I guess), livestock, and wild animals. Then, finally He creates a man and woman "in his own image".<!--link to image of God article--> God blesses (again, for fertility) the creation of the day, and tells humans that they have authority over all the animals. For food, humans are given plants that have seeds or fruit. The rest of the animals can eat any kind of vegetation they want.
And God looks down and sees that "it was very good".
In the Middle Ages, an anonymous work titled <i>The Alphabet of Ben-Sira</i> contained the myth of Lilith.<!--link to Lilith article--> According to the story, Lilith was the first woman that God created. Lilith ran away, so God had to create a new partner for Adam. It lets the Bible continue the story at this point, where God takes part of Adam's side to create Eve.
Day 7 / Sabbath (Saturday) -- On this day God rests. Why would an omnipotent diety need to rest? He probably didn't need to, but as we all know God likes to do things just because He can. Hey, you'd probably want to kick back and relax too, wouldn't you? This day of rest is the theological basis for the Sabbath day, when all good Jews would resist performing physical labor. <!--link to Sabbath article-->