Day 2. Genesis 3-6

Genesis 3-6

Genesis 3

¹And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

Prior to God killing the first creatures, Adam and Eve were naked. Suddenly, Adam "knew" Eve. Here, "knew" means, had sex with. The first 4 times the word "knew" is used in the bible, it means had sex with. The fifth time it means, had knowledge of. The sixth time, it's had sex with again.

²And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Abel was a shepherd, Cain was a farmer.

³And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.

⁴And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

⁵But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

Abel and Cain brought sacrifices to god. At this point, god is still walking around on the earth, near the first family. Abel brought the best, the fat, doesn't mean the actual blubber, it means the most healthy of his flock. Meanwhile, Cain brought the fruits that had fallen off the tree, instead of the ripe ones that were still on the tree. God told Cain, that if he provided a good sacrifice, that it would be accepted as well. But Cain was still pissed.

⁸And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

Now we have the first murder. Cain kills Abel because Cain is angry with his brother for giving god the best things, while he only gives the convenient things. (Granted god has already killed things to make some clothes).

⁹And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

¹⁰And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

God knew that Cain killed Abel. He wanted to know why? God then curses Cain. So far, God has created 2 people, they KNEW each other, and created 2 more. One of them is dead, one is cursed and two aren't really mentioned in this story. At this point, a full 1/3 of all listed humanity is cursed... maybe...

¹²When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

Cain was the farmer, his curse was that he wouldn't be able to farm successfully anymore.

¹⁴Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

Who is this "every one"? If you take the story as Adam was the guy created on day 6, then there's only 3 people. Unless at some point god created some other people. However, if you take the story as god did the 7 day creation, and then made Adam, then there already are "every one".

¹⁵And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

A different Mark of Cain. Another Mark of Cain. Also, remember that Abel was the first person listed to have died. The warning of the day you eat the fruit, from the tree of knowledge, has taken however long from the point when they ate, until Cain kills Abel.

¹⁶And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

The land of Nod isn't an actual place. It's not named after anyone in particular. In Hebrew, nod means wandering. Remember, Cain was cursed to not be able (pun not intended) to farm anymore. Instead of having roots as a farmer, he had to become a wander. So, he went to the land of wandering.

¹⁷And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

At this point, Cain got to stop wandering.

Verses 18-23 are a list of descendants of Cain.

²⁵And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

I find it disheartening to see that children are a commodity in the bible. Even though Adam and Eve lost Abel (and Cain was sent away) they had Seth, and he was a replacement child. If feel sorry for Seth. He'll never be able to live up to the legacy of Abel, even though Seth has children and is pretty much the father of everyone that the bible cares about, he'll still never be as great as Abel, who brought the firstlings and then was killed.

Genesis 5

Genesis 5 is an important book of the bible. This is the one that James Ussher used to get his date of October 23, 4004 BC. Genesis 5 has a list of ages, and offspring, and the age of the father when the offspring was born. For example...

³And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:

⁴And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

⁵And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

Adam lived 930 years. He was 130 when Seth was born. Seth lived 912 years.

The oldest person in the bible was Methuselah. He lived 969 years. Methuselah was the father of Lamech. Lamech was the father of Noah.

³²And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Most people think that is their chronological order. Ham was the youngest son. His name means black. Others say his name means warm.

The eldest son was Shem. His name means dusky. Others say Shem means "name" "renown" or "prosperity". Shem is the father of all the Semitic people.

The middle son is Japheth. His name means fair. Others say Japheth means "open".

If you go by the first definition, then Noah named his kids: "darky", "whitey", and "not so darky".

Genesis 6

¹And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

²That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Nobody really knows that the "sons of God" were. Many people believe that they were angels that came down and took wives.

⁴There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

The angels had sex with human women, and created a species of angel-people. These offspring are commonly referred to as Nephilim.

⁵And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

⁶And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

God repented. This verse leads to the doubt in an all knowing god, who can see the future and knows everything that's going to happen. An all knowing god would know that shortly after he created everything, he would be sad about it.

⁷And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

An all knowing god would have known that when he made Adam, that Adam would have eaten from the tree, and gotten everything to the point where god was going to destroy it. He should have fixed it there. Again, why did he put in the tree?

⁸But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

⁹These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Noah was just and perfect. Remember that for later.

¹³And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

God determines he is going to destroy the world.

¹⁴Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

It's impossible to pitch (the verb) without pitch (the noun).

¹⁵And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

A cubit is roughly the length of the forearm. It's about a half a yard. So the ark was to be 150 yards long, 25 yards wide, and 15 yards tall. So this was a football field and a half long.

¹⁶A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

It's 3 stories and has a window.

¹⁷And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

Remember, it hasn't rained, yet, there's just a mist that comes up from the earth.

¹⁸But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.

The Noahide covenant, we will get to that later.

¹⁹And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.

Two of each. A male and a female. Remember this...

²¹And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.

People at this point (and all animals) were vegetarians. The food taken on the ark would only be fruits, vegetables and grains.

Things to ponder from today:

1. Why did an all-knowing all-powerful god allow the earth to get so out of control that the best solution was to destroy everything?
2. God was still walking around on the earth, he hadn't left to spend all the time in heaven; at this point people still didn't obey him. He's one of the least successful deities at getting people to follow him. The closer he is, the more people rebel. As of this writing, he hasn't been on the earth (god the father) since he knocked up Mary. There are more people who devoutly follow him since he's been away for 2000 years, than obey him when he was actually walking around with them.
3. Some people hold traditions that Cain was unkillable. That Cain lived until the flood.