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Questions Regarding the Creation of Man on the Mythical "8th" Day

Question/Comment:

My First Response:

----- Original Message -----

From: Paul Stringini

To:  Name Withheld

Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 4:33 PM

Subject: Re: another question

In Genesis there is the 6th day creation where God created man. Then comes the 8th day and God speaks about creating Adam to tend the Garden of Eden.

 

There is no "eighth day." This "eighth day"  concept arises from a misreading of the text of Genesis 1 and 2 (and the chapter division is not optimal between Genesis 1 &2).

 

Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

 

This verse states that "the heavens and the earth" were finished "and all the Host of them" on the sixth day.

 

Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

 

That is the seventh day.  Now we come to the verse that is supposed to be the beginning of the so-called "eighth day"

Genesis 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

 

NOTICE THE PHRASE;  "in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens"  This phrase places the context for the following verses squarely in the time frame of everything that happened before Genesis 2:1.  The heavens and the earth were finished by the sixth day and this verse clearly indicates that the verses which follow are details of events which occurred "in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." 

 

This is not really an "interpretation"  this is just the result of a careful and reverent reading of the bible text.  This is the impression one gets when one picks up a bible and reads it allowing it to speak for itself.  It is only when people who are not careful about the way they handle the scriptures come along and cloak themselves in teacher's garb and tell us otherwise that we begin to see things that are not really there. 

 

These verses are placed sequentially after the seventh day, but Verse 4 is a clear TIME MARKER that reminds us that the detailed description of the creation of Adam and Eve belongs to the period in which God created the earth and the heavens, which verse one clearly stated were finished by the sixth day. 

 

One might ask why the sequence would depart from a strict chronology?  I could make suppositions which may or may not be valid, but the important thing is that the text is pretty clear about what it is trying to say.  When we start to try to alter the plain meaning of the text in order to reconcile the text with our own sense of how it ought to have been written,  we have embarked down the road of corrupting the meaning of the bible.

 

2Cor 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

 

And he brings forth a help mate, Eve. Mainstream teachings seem to be that they were the first two humans.

 

Well, that is the sense one gets from the text.  Do not judge things based on whether they are popular or not but judge them on what the bible says.

 

Genesis 3:20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

 

1Cor 15 45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

I think that based on this verse it is reasonable to assume that Eve actually was "the mother of all living." Why presume otherwise? Adam was the "first man" ?  One could make all kinds of arguments why this doesn't really mean "first"  I suppose those are the same sorts of arguments that people make when they say the "last" trump isn't really "last." 

 

Now what makes sense to me

 

Right there.  That is your problem.  You are trying to teach the bible how to make sense to you. As if what makes sense to you is the measure of whether things are true or not.  You need to submit  to the scriptures and let the bible teach you what makes sense to God. 

 

is the 8th day creation of Adam and Eve after mankind was created on the 6th day. Reason being as follows.  While Cain and Able are growing up and learning to work in the field, the Land of Nod is populated. I say that because after Cain slew Able, Adam booted his butt out and sent him away. Upon which he headed to the Land of Nod and took him a wife.  

I could offer you several other explanations, people try to read the narrative of Genesis as if it was a proper history and as if it ought to supply all the details we would ever care to know about the beginning of man.  But It doesn't.  

 

If you need another hypothesis, remember that Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters, and we don't know how old Cain and Abel were either.   "Populated" is overstepping the issue.  "The Land of Nod"  is a place,  He could have taken one of his sisters with him into Nod, but really it is wrong to try to guess at these things.  When you state, "Land of Nod is populated"  you are overstepping, you can only properly frame that statement as a question.  Was the land of Nod Populated?  We don't know.

 

Nod did not have to be populated.  The fact that it has a name does not necessarily indicate inhabitation. Genesis was written thousands of years after the events and the place name may have been given to the land by a later generation and was being referenced by Moses later in the bible, such as one might say "Columbus discovered America,"  when it was not called America until generations after Columbus.  Cain could have gone to a land that would eventually be called Nod, it does not mean that the place was known as Nod in Cain's day or inhabited.  We don't know, we have not seen.

 

Col 2:18...intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

 

Too often, the doctrines of Arnold Murray follow that pattern, He intrudes into things that he doesn't really know anything about.  He tells convenient stories that appeal to many people, but their basis in the scripture is highly suspect.

 

Really, this is a "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" issue.  It is the sort of question that is only important to skeptics and novices.  Does this really help me answer the question "What must I do to be saved?"  You know how Dr. Murray always says, "There is more to God's word than what you were being taught?"  It is true, but that kind of information is not what it is all about.

 

The secrets are more about how we partake of the divine nature and become like Christ:

 

2Peter1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

HOW DO WE DO ALL THIS?  THIS is what we ought to be troubling ourselves with.  How shall this be accomplished in US?  This is the DEEPER truth that you are not being taught.  God is not impressed with our knowledge.  He is not going to give us ribbons for finding out the seccrets of Cain's marriage.  God is going to require of us based on what he has GIVEN us, and he has given us a very sure word, that Christian men ought not live like other men.

 

1John 3:7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

This is what you are not being taught.

 

2Cor 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

 

And Arnold Murray has you thinking about trifles such as where Cain Got a wife.  Is that what it means to understand the bible?  To know where Cain's wife came from?  Will the answer to these foolish questions save you?  I mean you no ill, but I speak this to your shame.  You have been robbed again.

 

1Tim 1:3... that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

 

GODLY EDIFYING WHICH IS IN FAITH is the edification which tends to GODLINESS.

 

Tit2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

 

If Cain and Able are first borns of A and E then their story precludes any other births which would then make it impossible for there to be a wife available in Nod for Cain if you adhere to the mainstream belief. Hope I'm making myself clear

 

For one I don't have a "belief" about Cain, I just try to sort out what the text says.  The text leaves a lot out.  It is not my place to start trying to fill in the details.   The things you are saying are impossible are not impossible, because the statements you are making are based on various suppositions that are by no means clear or required by the text. 

 

1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.

 

Between verses 2 and 3 there could be many years, it does not even say this was the first offering they ever brought.  You can't preclude other births.  This is the logical fallacy of the "argument from silence"  you cannot say that other births are precluded unless there is some textual element that precludes them.  You can't include other births either, UNLESS there is some other textual element that leads one to believe other births may have occurred. 

 

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

 

Adam has an entire world to populate and a command to multiply, and you would suggest that Eve only bore two children in the whole first generation? By the time Cain and Abel were twenty Eve  could have had 20 or more additional children and since the child to replace Abel whom cain slew was Seth and he was born after the incident, one might speculate that Eve had only daughters until after Cain slew Abel (or maybe a number less than that, this is all speculation, but it is based on what the biblical text would allow, I for one, do not even consider it an important question).

 

This is all supposition, but it is more reasonable to suppose that the wife of Cain was one of Cain's unmentioned sisters than to suppose that the wife of Cain came from a man who lived before the "first man" and from a woman who lived before the "mother of all living."  who was not born of the "mother of all living." 

 

 

In addition, the people in Nod would have to speak the same language or Cain would not have been welcome nor would he have been able to tell them he wanted a wife.  Following that line of thought that 6 day creation was all peoples who then spoke the same language, fits right into the lead up to Babble, where God confused the language and scattered people to the 4 corners of the earth.  I'm paraphrasing obviously.

They would have all spoken the same language until after the tower of Babel in Chapter 10 (which is also where the nations/races are divided)  But as I stated previously, while it is easy to "imagine" other people living in "Nod"  it remains that Eve was the mother of all living and Adam was the first man.  There is no eighth day.

 

I recommend you listen to my bible studies, I don't cover these topics but I cover ones that are much more important, chapter by chapter line by line.

 

http://oraclesofgod.org/studies/studies.html

 

Sincerely,

Paul Stringini

 

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