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Bible Time Period: Early World
In the Early World, you created the heavens and Earth and tested Adam and Eve in the garden. Help me today to choose the life you offer.
Reflection
Our journey begins in the “Early World” time period described in Genesis 1–11: “pre-history,” it’s sometimes called. These chapters contain some of the best-known stories in the Bible—Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, the Tower of Babel. It is here that the Bible story starts and where it finds its roots: “in the beginning,” with God creating the heavens and the Earth. The Early World sets the stage for the rest of the story, and the rest doesn’t make sense without it.
The stories you read today and tomorrow were written to get across Truth, not fact. They were never intended to be a scientific record of creation and our beginnings but to help us understand important things about ourselves, our relationship to God, the problem of sin, and the hope of salvation. They are the way God has given us to think about our beginnings. Relax, find a comfortable place to read in, and listen to what He says.
Today’s Reading
Today’s Question
Soak in the poetry of Genesis 1-2. What truths does it teach you about creation? About God?
Join the discussion below!
As I unstand things in Genesis, the stories are meant to show us many things about our nature as creatures of God. Recall, generally speaking these stories help us focus NOT on scientific facts, but on the faith and moral perspectives of human nature and how God ties into things. They show us what God is trying to tell us spiritually and not necessarily based on hard science.
I thought I was somewhat familiar with the opening chapters of Genesis until I came across the amazing notes in this 90 Day Challenge. Awesome!
Dear Brothers and Sisters; This is my first time joining this group, which I feel blessed to be called into… I took the time to read through most of the comments with open mind to learn from so many different interpretations; some guided by the spirit; some by a purely human mind and logic. I decided to enter my comment to share at the same time with all participants of this group a different point of view, that I had the opportunity to present on my books “The Three Plans of God” and “Those Angels Called Humans” … I always look for the WHYs, HOWs, and WHAT FORs… and I agree with some of the comments that Genesis is very rich in this type of messages. Except God, the creator; NO ONE knows what happen at the beginning; therefore we have to rely on the information that HE gave us; and what HE or the Holy Spirit inspired to be written is not a narrative sequential history; but a guiding or educational message that transcends time, and reaches each one of us…. God existed with no beginning… God was ONE, and TRINITY at the same time … God didn’t need us; but His will was to create…. then lets ask ourselves:
* WHY God created the universe, the earth and the heavens, the angels and us humans?… (because of LOVE)
* What for… were we created?… (To be united in LOVE to God)
* How were we created?…. (at image and similitude to God, the infinite spirit of LOVE)
* How evil spirit entered into God’s perfect creation? (God didn’t want to create us to obey Him as robots; true LOVE needs to come from free choice and free will; the alternative evil
* What is our role in our present life in this world?…..(The entire law from God the creator, is summarized in the only one commandment of LOVE to God and to all our neighbours)
* What is our direction and what our ultimate goal? (We are walking back to re-join the universal body of God our Creator)
All these questions are explained in the initial plan of God in his “plan for our creation”…
Unfortunately by choosing sin or disobedience; we broke God’s plan and got separated from our Creator… but so much HE loved us, that HE immediately designed his “plan for our redemption”, From the time of genesis, God announces the coming of his only son, God Himself to… a) forgive our sins; b) redeem us from our faults, and c) to restore the union with his body and his blood; the union of God and human kind… and finally; God also designed a plan to rescue us and bring us back to the Father in heaven, with his “Plan of Salvation” connecting Genesis even to the apocalypses, where we see the great multitude of those who believed, and were washed by the blood of the “LAMB OF GOD” standing in front of the altar of God.
Finally a word about those concerned about the genealogy described in Genesis… as mentioned before this is not a history book, but a guiding or teaching book for each one of us… Adam represents the male humanity… Eva represents women, wives, mothers, sisters… Cain represents sons inclined to do evil; while Abel represents sons inclined to obey and love God… God is putting us into a family perspective in which also God wants to take part. Every one of us necessarily fit into a family context; and should receive a message as a father, as a brother, as a mother or as a sister.. as obedient or as disobedient of God… and should see consequences and repercussions of our actions…
Genealogy may also account for structuring the concept of God walking together with human kind guiding its people (whom recognized Him and chose to obey Him) towards the redemption and salvation plans.
There was nothing… God created everything. The origin of the smartest people today or not so smart after all are created out of nothingness.
Mary said “..he looks on His servant in her nothingness, henceforth all ages will call me blessed..” Have we forgotten God as giver of our life?
Genesis 3:15 as we know, refers to Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“Woman” mentioned in the O.T.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel.” (Quote from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)
“Woman” is mentioned in the N.T. at the wedding feast of Cana.
(John 2:4) ” [And] Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.”
Jesus would do anything for his Mother Mary. Mary is intercessor.
The Queen Mother of the O.T. was not the wife of the King but the mother of the king. Jesus was not ready at this time for his “hour to come” but he did what his Mother asked of Him.
On the cross, Jesus said to Mary–“Woman, behold your son.”
And to St. John, Jesus said–“Behold your mother.” Jesus was telling St. John, his beloved disciple to take care of Mary. And Jesus was telling Mary to take care of God’s people, the Church.(John 19: 26-27)
“When Jesus saw his mother* and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” 27Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
Indeed, as the “Magnificat” proclaims (as you so beautifully stated)–“all ages will call me blessed….” Scott Hahn has a wonderful book among his many books called “Hail Holy Queen”
and talking too about the Church, Mike Aquilina has many books about the Early Church Fathers.
My question is- God is “all knowing” why is he looking for Adam and Eve in the garden? And on the same note why did he ask Cain “where” Abel was? I thought he knew all this stuff?
I frequently ask my son where things are when I know exactly where they are, and there are good reasons for doing so in terms of his moral development.
maybe God couldn’t see them??? imagine! we are in so much more trouble if God cannot see us because of 1 sin!!
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no – God wants them to think He cannot find them because they are hiding…
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He knows where His children are – that He went to the spot speaks to this… what He wants, therefore, serves us a purpose not God – He wants us to come to Him…
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God IS our Father – He does not put Himself too far away from His children… just like our babies, begin with peek-a-boo – mom or dad mere inches away, ‘hiding’ themselves from our baby’s face… hiding our face grows into hiding our selves, ducking below the table, or behind the sofa with toddlers… hiding some other room when kid counts, or vice versa…
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not for ‘any’ reason we do that, EXCEPT – to gain our kids’ trust that we are always there – physically, when thy are small; on the phone when they are in school; by mail when they move across the country… gradually, we hope, they learn not to come to us when they need something, but turn to God…
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because, when we die, God is the only One who can actually be there…
no… I take exception with myself, lol… “no – God wants them to think He cannot find them because they are hiding…” … that’s wrong…
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it’s not that God wanted them to think anything – it was Him respecting their privacy, their own choices NOT to be seen… that’s not saying God cannot see, but does not see… hmmm…
Looking at the posts here reminds me of the Bible Studies I used to attend as an Evangelical, where everyone just told everyone else what the passage meant to them.
The New Evangelisation is making ecclesial relativism mainstream and becoming Protestantism in all but name, except with a figurehead, a papal mascot.
One of the Truths this tells me is that our God is a Triune God. There are many other things this tells me but the Trinity popped in my mind right away because someone asked on one of my Catholic YouTube videos, “prove the Trinity, give me verses in the Bible that prove the Trinity” and this is just one area of many where we find the Trinity.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;” Gen 1:26.
We will not find Trinity in the Bible but it is referred to that God is plural. For example, Genesis 1:26 says–‘Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the….”
“Let us……Of course we know from our Catholic Faith that God is one and three Divine Persons. Tradition tells us that not everything is in the Bible as Catholic believe for we adhere to Faith and Tradition. The word “Bible” is not found in the Bible.” We know that the Bible was put together, encompassing many different books and genres which is inspired by the Holy Spirit. But the word “Bible” is on the outside of the Bible, not inside of the Bible said Fr. John Trigilio on one of his programs of “Web of Faith” on EWTN.
As to the original question posed, God created
everything needed to sustain us. His creation is comprised of opposites;
darkness and light, water and land, minerals (no life) and plants (life),
irrational animals (birds and fish) and rational animals (man). Although the
world is full of opposites, they each have a purpose and complement each other.
His six days of creation built upon each other, culminating in His greatest
masterpiece… man… and woman…
Isn’t it amazing! “In the beginning…” there was God and His ultimate Sovereignty. How He loved us so much that from out of the nothingness, He brought forth LIFE! The Genesis Story, I must agree, is one of the most eloquent love stories poetically written. All I can say is “Wow!” God truly loves us this much!
Tina, I agree…WOW, it makes you never want to disappoint our Lord!
So Abel had no offspring. Sad to realize this since God favored him.
Does anyonr know Why did God favor Abel and not Cain?
ABLE GAVE THE BEST OF HIS FLOCK WHILE CAIN DID NOT OFFER HIS BEST PRODUCE.
Cain made an offering to God, but it was considered not much of a sacrifice because he didn’t give his best to God, while Abel offered the best part of his flock. Kind of like the widow’s offering in Matthew 12. She gave two copper coins, worth only a penny. And yet it was worth so much more than all the rich people’s offerings, because they gave from their surplus, but she gave all that she had. Which made her offering more precious and more of a sacrifice.
JULIE I THINK THE OUR IS REFERENCE TO THE TRINITY. WE OFTEN FORGET THAT OUR TRIUNE GOD IS ,WAS AND WILL BE THE FATHER,SON AND HOLY SPIRIT ETERNALLY.
Thanks Lucy, that makes total sense!
I haven’t read through all of the comments that were posted from a year ago to see if this was discussed previously but this is one aspect of the first chapters of Genesis that intrigued me for years. I came to Christianity when I was an adult after a childhood of atheism. So, I was reading these words with an adult capacity but without any filters from having them explained to me as a child.
One thing I never understood was how Adam and Eve would have had the arrogant pride to desire to be equal to God as recounted in the Original Sin story. They were created perfect, in God’s image. I always thought that the motivating factor for taking the “apple” had to be something that was not sinful in and of itself. I had heard people mention a time or two Adam’s failure to protect Eve from the serpent. Jeff Cavins expounds on this wonderfully in a talk about suffering. If one reads the Scripture carefully, it is obvious that Adam is standing with Eve when the serpent approaches her because she immediately hands the apple to him to eat. God had told Adam that he was to care for the garden, and one aspect of caring for something is to protect it. Eve was part of the Garden so Adam was to protect her. Why didn’t he? One would have to assume that he was afraid of being hurt or dying, which in and of themselves are not sinful. One could see that the “temptation” of Original Sin may have been presented to call Adam beyond the “natural” reaction of wanting to avoid pain and /or death to do the supernatural act of sacrificing oneself for the good of another. He failed at that miserably but then Christ came and sacrificed himself completely for the good of His Bride, the Church–mankind. That understanding of the Original Sin account makes perfect sense to me and puts all the pieces of the puzzle in perfect order. And, if there is validity to this idea, then we are spending so much of our time in spiritual growth trying to overcome our “arrogant pride” when in actuality the thing that may be preventing us from doing God’s will more often is fear. Any thoughts?
The problem here is that God said to them not to eat of that tree as I was told in my cathechism clases the Original Sin was the disobedience nothing else not that Eve wanted to know everything or Adam following suit that’s why it said that because Virgin Mary obedience we are save.
well, I read the Bible completely – about 16 times, lol, cause that’s how many Bibles I originally owned… well, after the strokes – I don’t remember before the strokes…
never before has anyone ever suggested that Eve was not in the garden when God said “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Gen 2:16-17), but she doesn’t even appear until verse 22…
so… Eve was not there when God said it… and He doesn’t like to repeat things, I noticed…
I, too, read it as ‘them’ wanting to eat the fruit – I didn’t notice it was Eve… ‘And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ‘ (Gen 3:2-3)…
notice the difference between what God is reported to say, and what Eve reports Him saying… no where else is it reported that God said “…neither shall you touch it…”
What does this indicate? 1) Eve was struggling mentally with the serpent, and slipped up; 2) Adam, in relaying it to Eve, told her “don’t touch” because he didn’t want to face the unknown thing as death…
I suggest it was probably both – Adam told her what God said, because it was his duty to “till it and keep it.” (Gen 2:15) She said something different because she hadn’t heard God say it, and she was scared… ‘Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”’ (Gen 3:1)
imagine! where on earth would anyone find a speaking serpent?
I suggest it wasn’t normally a serpent, so far as we know serpents – I suggest it was, indeed, a ‘man’, a subordinate or someone new to Eve and Adam… an “angel” from heaven…
the “serpent” said something to cause Eve to re-play the words she heard from Adam – and re-heard them differently…
she wanted the fruit – it was Eve who ‘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’…
probably tired of eating the same-old, same-old every day for heaven knows how long (the Bible doesn’t say) – probably in rebellion to Adam, who heard God and picked out the fruit he would eat… probably to make herself as wise as Adam seemed to be… she didn’t necessarily know God as Adam did…
probably…
and Adam standing there – now, why didn’t he put an argument to the serpent before Eve took the fruit? because the serpent ‘made sense’ to him… because the tree looked good to the eyes, its fruit looked good to eat, and being wise as God, knowing good from evil was probably a searching question for Adam…
also, his downfall… not for sinning or disobeying – but putting someone else’s words above God’s…
That’s the problem with so many things that are not good for us. They look good, they look enticing. But looks are deceiving, and for the last 2000 years, men and women have been falling into the traps of deception.
Sure, Maria, but one needs to also ponder what would have prompted them to be disobedient. If they were created in God’s image and that included perfection, there would have been no desire to sin in them–no pride, no laziness, no greed, none of those sins. That is what makes me inclined to think that the thing that motivated them to disobey was fear since fear in and of itself is not a sin. And before Eve even ate of the fruit, Adam sinned in not obeying God by protecting Eve from the serpent’s temptation.
ADAM IN THE STORY WOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN DEATH. THE SIN WAS NOT OBEYING GOD? SHE ATE WAS HE AFRAID THAT SHE NOW HAD SOMETHING THAT HE DID NOT HAVE? I HAVE THOUGHT THAT THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE IS NOT HATE BUT FEAR, WE HATE BECAUSE WE FEAR. THE ORIGINAL SIN STORY WAS ONE EASILY UNDERSTOOD BY THE EARLY NOMADIC PEOPLE. EDEN A GARDEN OF WONDER A SIMPLE COMMAND BY THE LORD , BROKEN AND PUNISHED. I HAVE HEARD MANY OTHER IDEAS AS TO WHAT THE FIRST SIN WAS SUCH AS MURDER ETC.. I THINK YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT FEAR AND WE HIDE IN DARKNESS AWAY FROM THE LIGHT WHEN WE FEAR. WE CLOTH OURSELVES IN MASKS BECAUSE WE FEAR TO LET GOD AND OTHERS KNOW WHO WE ARE . WE SPEND SO MUCH TIME COVERING OUR NAKEDNESS THAT WE BECOME AFRAID OF HIS LIGHT. THANKS FOR YOUR QUESTION.
I agree Lucy, that we often “hide” ourselves from others out of fear but we cannot hide our true self from God for He knows us inside out. He alone knows us and what our true purpose is in His plan of creation. He continually LOVES us into being. What a beautiful thought that is for me. Often, life becomes so busy that we are unaware of the beauty and order of all creation. I love it, when as others have pointed out, I take time to notice the “little things” that are also a part of God’s plan. God bless!!
I did the reading mainly left feeling there is so much I don’t understand the first four words are incomprehensible. In the begining of what? God is there but isn’t God outside of time?
And then heavens and earth, is that the sky and the land, the ” spiritual” and the temporal, or the universe and the planet earth?
The Spirit of God hovered would’t God be every where?
Why did God prefer Abel’s offering of meat to Cain’s offering of fruits and vegetables? And why is it sinful. to. not do well?
Read the Prologue to John’s Gospel I believe it is John 1:1-14
Then I get the idea that Christ is the light and the life that He is not only the mediator between God and man but between God and all creation and that He decides and judges what is the proper place for all things. If I look at it that way the two sections seem to say the same thing.
Exactly correct. That is why it is so Beautiful
Excellent reminder that God is the creator of Heaven and Earth. The creations are an excellent reminder of the work God did to create the Heavens and Earth in seven days. Amazing and at times so hard to wrap my mind around. God knows that evil is what keeps us true to Him.
Since the woman ate from the tree of Knowledge, to know good from bad satan is around waiting for us to fall. God clearly defines how we are destined to to fall, but through him we can overcome choosing life with him verses life of sin.
Good start in our study. It is through these readings that help understand that sin on Earth stems from the Garden of Eden, the Fall of Man, Cain and Abel.
The creation story is a story of order. God is the Word and his word brought about the creation. Also, God is a God of order. With this order God created each aspect of Earth and life one step at a time culminating in the creation of man. God is also a God of mercy for although man sinned God promised and has given us a redeemer to save us from the the bondage of sin and death.
stunningly beautiful….however, was anyone else thrown by the two creation stories given in Ch 1 and then 2? my footnotes say the story told in Ch 2:4-25 is actually the older version. why asnt that first and why is the order of creation changed?
well, it was probably by two or more different tellings they arrived at the creation… one, most likely, from Israel, and the other from Judea… by then, many centuries old, they didn’t feel it was right to decide who told it as it was, but to report the two as they heard tem…
This Bible Study for the next 90 days will be a unique experience for me, and I enjoyed reading most of the comments. The truth that Today’s Reading taught me, was how God gave us the “will of choice” and how the curiosity of Eve overcame her after being told to not touch the tree of knowledge. Who was more surprised of the outcome, Adam, Eve, the serpent or God?
The Jewish commentary notes that not only is the number 7 prominent in the number of days of creation, but prominent in the wording of this first creation account. The verses, in Hebrew, consist of either 7 Hebrew words or a multiple of 7 Hebrew words. Thus, overriding the poetic style of Ch. 1, there is an emphasis on the creation of the Sabbath day of rest. In the remainder of Genesis, there is often a listing of items that is usually 7 in length, which echoes back to the creation itself and its destiny in God’s rest.
THIS TAKES ME BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL BIOLOGY. ALLENTOWN CENTRAL CATHOLIC IN THE EARLY 1960,S THE SISTER TEACHING THE CLASS TOLD US THAT THE CHURCH DID NOT PROHIBIT BELIEF IN EVOLUTION AS PART OF A CATHOLIC BELIEF SYSTEM AS LONG AS WE BELIEVED THAT GOD CREATED THE SOUL AT THE POINT WHERE MAN EVOLVED INTO A SENTIENT BEING. FAST FORWARD 20 YEARS [ I WAS A LATE BLOOMER GETTING MY B.A. AT 44] TO BIOLOGY SENIOR SEMINAR AT DESALES U. MY A.V. INTEGRATING PRESENTATION ON RELIGION AND SCIENCE WAS A SLIDE SHOW PRESENTING EVOLUTION TO THE READING OF THE CREATION STORY FROM GENESIS. READING THESE CHAPTERS NOT ONLY REMINDED ME OF THE DESCRIPTIVE POETRY BUT ALSO OF THE BEAUTY OF THE COMPLEX UNFOLDING OF THE EVOLUTIONARY WORK OF CREATION.
This struck me as well today, when I was reading. There seems to be a harmony between scientific theories and these chapter in Gen. that compliment each other. I truly appreciate the balance between something that as inspired by God so very long ago and our current scientific understanding.
. THE BALANCE IS THERE ONLY IF YOU DO NOT TAKE THESE ACCOUNTS AS A LITERAL HISTORICAL ‘TRUTH’. I BELIEVE THAT GODS DAY IS NOT A 24HR. TIME PERIOD BUT AN INDEFINITE TIME DURING WHICH WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT DAY CAME TO PASS. THE BIG BANG OR THE WORD SPOKEN BY GOD STARTED OUR UNIVERSE. GOD SET IN PLACE IN THIS UNIVERSE WITH A SYSTEM OF CONTROL WE CALL NATURAL LAW. E.G. THE LAWS OF MATH, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY,BIOLOGY ETC. THE EVOLUTIONARY UNFOLDING OF THE UNIVERSE IS THE STAGES OR DAYS OF GENESIS. THE ” AND GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD” IS THE BLESSING OF GOD ON HIS UNIVERSE ,HIS STAMP OF APPROVAL ON HIS CREATION. THE CREATION STORY BEGUN AS ORAL TRADITION WAS THE PEOPLE OF GODS FAMILY HISTORY. THEIR THIS IS WHO WE ARE AND THIS IS WHERE WE CAME FROM.
hmmm… well the Spirit of God moving sounds like a wind whipping it up… I believe God spoke…His Spirit moved… and His Word shaped…
like we do … we speak to our children, waiting for them to hear it, and then finally waiting to see what results from our speaking… (God didn’t need to wait, but we still do, lol…)
WE WAIT AND PRAY BUT WE CAN GET HUNG UP ON THE STORY AND FORGET THE MEANING BEHIND THE STORY. THIS WAS AN ORAL TRADITION WHICH WAS PASSED DOWN THE GENERATIONS AS STORIES. STORIES ARE REMEMBERED BETTER THAN RULES. THE WORD SPOKEN BY GOD TRIUNE GOD ;FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT FROM THE BEGINNING ONCE AND FOREVER BEGAN OUR UNIVERSE. THE SON WAS ALWAYS BEFORE HE MANIFESTED HIMSELF IN OUR UNIVERSE AS JESUS CHRIST. FOR US TO BE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD OUR SOULS HAD TO BE GIVEN TO US BY GOD WEATHER IT WAS BY THE BREATH OF GOD INTO A CLAY DOLL OR THE BREATH OF GOD INTO THE EVOLVED SENTIENT BEING WE KNOW AS MAN. THE ANGELS ARE BEINGS OF PURE SPIRIT CREATED BY GOD AS HIS HEAVENLY COMPANIONS. I ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD THAT THEY WERE CREATED BEFORE MAN AND AFTER THE FALL OF LUCIFER GOD TRIED ANOTHER WAY WITH US.
I was awakened recently to the observation the first thing God saw was not good was man should be alone.
I agree. This is the source of our hope for salvation. I am continually amazed at how Genesis contains all the elements of theology.
That supposed to be a reply to Julie.
love that the first words ever documented by adam are him talking about woman. You can just imagine the joy when he first sees her like “At last this is why I exist, FOR HER”
Gen 1:26 I find very interesting, when God said “Let us make him in OUR image. I have done some reading and found that our meant the Angels. One can only wonder.
Thanks Lisa Rose, that is very interesting.
I was told that since the begining it was Father, Son and Holy Spirit
I heard it was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, too… I understood the angels didn’t even come into being until man was on the earth… they were there, of course, praising Him, but there was no reason for them to have their shape until man…
I was confused in Genesis 1 26 where God said “let us make man in our image” what does God mean by “our”? I always thought that we were made in God’s image. I have the RSV Catholic Bible.
I think I’m reading too much into that, we are of course made in God’s image, just not sure why the word ‘our’ is there.
Our : father, son, holy spirit. The trinity.
Thanks David that makes sense and I actually thought of that but also thought that Jesus the son had not come yet. But since the OT foretells much in the NT that would explain God foretelling the Trinity.
God didn’t foretell Jesus before Jesus was… read St John 1… Jesus was the Word God spoke to create the heaven and the earth…
Yes Sleepy! The Trinity – The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit – always existed. The “We” and “Our” in Genesis points to the Trinity. The Son always existed. As for the book of John – The Son is the Word – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”…”And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father.” John 1:1-3 and John 1:14
One thing I have learned also through St. JPII’s Theology of the Body is that if we read this sentence correctly there is more than just meaning of the “our” that is very interesting. The Scripture states that God created man in our image, MALE AND FEMALE he created them. So, then one can assume that our masculinity and femininity and the relationship between the two has something to do with people’s being created in the image of God. A wonderful thing to ponder and it makes perfect sense. God is Love and what is the most complete physical way that humans show God’s love–through the marital union resulting in the creation of new life. Makes our relationships as man and woman take on a much more significant meaning for me!
Thanks Laurettas I had not thought of that.
Father,Son and Holy Spirit
Maybe this is because I started a diet last Aug. but it has made me aware of food. In Genesis 1:29. God said that we are to eat plants and seeds. Nothing was said about animals. Hmmm. Today we hear how it is best to eat simple. Vegtables and fruits to be healthy. Has anyone ever pick that up?
My vegan brother has an interesting take on this. Before the fall Adam and Eve ate fruits and seeds. After the fall animals were sacrifice representing the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. As at passover those animals were eaten. After Jesus’ death on the cross the only sacrifice is the Euchrist. Therefore we should go back to being vegan. What he dosen’t apply is God’s revelation to Peter that all meat is clean and permissable. (I am still recovering from the effects of the vegan lasagna Christmas dinner. Just interesting
Jesus also said that it is not what goes into our mouths that causes us trouble but what comes out of them!
I have a compromised digestive system (2/3 of the esophagus and 1/4 of the stomach removed) So physicallly what goes into counts. If my digestive can’t handle what goes into my mouth it reacts violently LOL
I don’t agree with my brother though, I will eat anything my digestive system and budget permits.
That’s a intetesting point. Daniel is also protrayed as a vegan. He’s able / ordered to eat from the king’s table, but requests only vegtables, fruits and nuts instead.
It is good to remember that GOD existed before anything else. Also, His creation was good; we often forget this.
It is also good to remember that GOD has a plan, and our primary role is to trust Him.
Thanks Pat, you are right on both points. Especially with the new year it is wise to remember that God’s creation is good!
Amen
at this time of year its very interesting that the center of our Christmas symbol is the Christmas tree- a tree that mysteriously lives while all other vegetation “sleeps”… and in the beginning we have the tree of LIFE… a garden and a tree in the beginning, and a Garden and a new tree of life-JESUS- in the end. HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
The first two chapters is so jam-packed with meanings. This are a few things I gleaned from it.
1.The order God creates things and the importance on how he orders it. The interconnectivity of each part to make the world and the man. An example is the fact there is rain to make clay to make man.
When reflecting in these passages I see the creation of the world with the meaning of wholeness or Holistic.
2.The world is inside God but God is at the same time outside it and He does not rely on the World.
3.We are made in his image.-We are his image through the Holy Spirit.The Holy Spirit makes us in his image.
4.The creation of woman from man.I was reflecting how it shows that its team work/ a united force or united mission to serve God.
Reading about the “fall” I realised that even before the serpent
arrived, the relationship between Adam, Eve and God was not perfect.
They were made in the image of God, had immortality, dominion over
living creatures and a close relationship with God. Yet they did not
trust God or understand what He had given them. The serpent said that
would not die if they ate of the fruit and that they would be like gods,
but eating the fruit brought death and although they were already made
in the image of God, the disobedience soiled and damaged that likeness.
They abandoned what they had by listening to the serpent’s false
promises instead of trusting in God.
When God asks Adam if he ate
of the fruit, he blamed Eve and she blamed the serpent. They knew
something was wrong because their relationship with God had a new
element – fear. And it seems that this fear, caused them to move
further away from Him by not saying “Sorry, I disobeyed you” and then
explaining the circumstances and trusting in His mercy. Thankfully, we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation to guide us into confessing and taking responsibility for our actions, words and inaction.
PS. I am confused because the comments all seem to be a year old and usually Barbara completes the readings and comments before I do (except on a Sunday). Am I in the right place?
what’s astonishing is man’s insistence that since he was ordered to have dominion over all the earth, including every thing upon it, that man is to be governed by man!
those are only a few… most of us would gladly welcome Jesus, if only The Man got out of the way… I pray daily that man realizes that God is in charge of even The Man…
This is a good way to remember God’s creation.
The POWER of THE WORD.
GOD created.
GOD said.
GOD saw.
GOD called.
GOD blessed.
GOD breathed life into Adam.
we read about our sense of touch, sight, speech, hearing, being used by GOD before HE gives them to us….further comfirming that HE created us in HIS image and blessed us with intelligence different than the beasts.
What I take away from revisiting these chapters in Genesis is that we need to go back to the “beginning” to help us understand today. There is so much around us that we just don’t think about because we live such busy lives. God truly had a plan – one step at a time. I am planning to slow down a bit and draw closer to God in 2015.
I was just thinking about the first 2 chapters also. Along with all the other insights I was thinking about in Gen 1 God is creating and is called God but in chapter 2 we read about Lord God could that be that now that God finished creating the earth He had something to be Lord over?
Any thoughts?
two different words were used for God here:
1:1 – Elohim means ‘God’, ‘Judge’, ‘Creator’…
2:4 – Yahweh means ‘Lord’, ‘Master’…
indicating at least 2 sources for creation one calling our Father ‘God’, and the other ‘Lord’…
Thanks for the thoughts they are very good.
I can never read Genesis without thinking about the Prologue to John’s Gospel. Genesis begins salvation history The Prologue to John’s Gospel sums it up. In this reading I particularly noticed that God created man to tend His creation. Mankind failed horribly at this task.
To all members of this panel; Happy and Blessed New Year. I am really happy to start the Year here.
To start on Gen 1-2; I think lineage was used with two purposes; 1st to teach who were the ancestors and 2nd to teach timing.
As you have mention, hebrew tradition as most of the people of the Ancient World, accounted for history by story telling. The lineage helped new generations to understand time, when was that everything come to pass.
Later on and until today linage has been used to account for profecies.
Chapter 1 is to my view, the mist beautiful; in its story I find equality and a peaceful harmony among Creation.
Chapter 2 brings to my mind, a whirpool of duality and separation.
It is clear that these chapters came from different origins. I heard once that Chapter 1 was taken from Sanscrit and Chapter 2 was brought by the Pharisees. Any comments on this?
Thanks
Happy and Blessed New Year to you also.