I never got back to this last week and am just now responding to the questions, so I'll keep it going for another week.
1. After telling the story of God's creation of the world, the author(s) focus in on the climax of creation. The passage suggests that creation is missing something without humans. "...there was no man to work the ground." God creates humanity and breathes his life into them, creates a place for them to live on the earth, gives them a job and purpose, and creates them male and female so that they wouldn't be alone.
2. This passage zeros in on God's purpose for creation. God wanted to co-work with humanity to fill and govern the earth. I think it's really cool that God is like that. He wants a family and he wants to do stuff with them. That's awesome. He provided for their needs in an abundant way, planting them a garden and giving them access to all the food there. Also, he didn't create robots. He gave humans a choice about whether they would trust God and do things His way, or mistrust him and take the path that God told them not to take. He loved them and gave them a choice about whether they would love him.
3. Humanity was created to be in relationship with God, relationship with each other, and to perform meaningful work. As stated above, humanity was given a choice about whether to trust God and enjoy his abundant gifts, or disobey God and forge their own way.
4. This passage makes me want to discern in my choices the path that jives with trusting God, and going His way, rather than mistrusting God and forging my own path. It also makes me want to talk to work hard, work with God, and live in meaningful relationships with people.
There are a lot of rabbit trails off of this question that are fun to talk about and I'm not sure where you'd want to go with it. But my first thought is just that the Bible wasn't written as a science or history book. I have no doubt in my mind that God created the universe, earth, life on earth, and humans, but the Bible doesn't propose to tell us the nuts and bolts about how he did that.
The Bible is telling the story of God. Historical events are a huge player in the Bible but the narratives are written to accomplish other purposes than to just give us a step by step account of human history. The purposes of the narrative are to tell what God is like, what He's doing, and how we can join Him (among other things). You could say that Bible writers co-opt history to do theology, while using other types of literature to do theology as well.
So the story of Adam and Eve could be about the first humans, it could be about real people who weren't the first humans, or it could be a parable. Theologized historical narrative isn't the only genre used by writers of the Hebrew scriptures. There is a ton of great discussion out there about this topic, and smart people that love God differ on where they fall regarding who exactly the historical Adam and Eve were.
But, Genesis 1 and 2 are are some of the richest, deep and meaning packed pieces of literature that have ever been produced. We're just barely scratching the surface in these threads. These chapters, plus a few others, lay out the foundation for the entire story of the Bible and are full of awesome Easter eggs and hyperlinks to the rest of the Bible. The question of the historical Adam and Eve is interesting and fun, but it might be the least important item in the treasure trove of these chapters.
(10-28-2019, 08:57 AM)fifteenth Wrote: 1. How would you summarize the meaning of this passage? How would you tell someone verbally what this passage said or meant?
2. What does this passage tell us about God?
3. What does this passage tell us about Humanity?
4. If this passage is true, what does it say about how we should live?
1. After telling the story of God's creation of the world, the author(s) focus in on the climax of creation. The passage suggests that creation is missing something without humans. "...there was no man to work the ground." God creates humanity and breathes his life into them, creates a place for them to live on the earth, gives them a job and purpose, and creates them male and female so that they wouldn't be alone.
2. This passage zeros in on God's purpose for creation. God wanted to co-work with humanity to fill and govern the earth. I think it's really cool that God is like that. He wants a family and he wants to do stuff with them. That's awesome. He provided for their needs in an abundant way, planting them a garden and giving them access to all the food there. Also, he didn't create robots. He gave humans a choice about whether they would trust God and do things His way, or mistrust him and take the path that God told them not to take. He loved them and gave them a choice about whether they would love him.
3. Humanity was created to be in relationship with God, relationship with each other, and to perform meaningful work. As stated above, humanity was given a choice about whether to trust God and enjoy his abundant gifts, or disobey God and forge their own way.
4. This passage makes me want to discern in my choices the path that jives with trusting God, and going His way, rather than mistrusting God and forging my own path. It also makes me want to talk to work hard, work with God, and live in meaningful relationships with people.
(11-03-2019, 12:27 AM)balldontliez Wrote: o adam and eve were related and we're all related to them? this whole human race thing is incest?
There are a lot of rabbit trails off of this question that are fun to talk about and I'm not sure where you'd want to go with it. But my first thought is just that the Bible wasn't written as a science or history book. I have no doubt in my mind that God created the universe, earth, life on earth, and humans, but the Bible doesn't propose to tell us the nuts and bolts about how he did that.
The Bible is telling the story of God. Historical events are a huge player in the Bible but the narratives are written to accomplish other purposes than to just give us a step by step account of human history. The purposes of the narrative are to tell what God is like, what He's doing, and how we can join Him (among other things). You could say that Bible writers co-opt history to do theology, while using other types of literature to do theology as well.
So the story of Adam and Eve could be about the first humans, it could be about real people who weren't the first humans, or it could be a parable. Theologized historical narrative isn't the only genre used by writers of the Hebrew scriptures. There is a ton of great discussion out there about this topic, and smart people that love God differ on where they fall regarding who exactly the historical Adam and Eve were.
But, Genesis 1 and 2 are are some of the richest, deep and meaning packed pieces of literature that have ever been produced. We're just barely scratching the surface in these threads. These chapters, plus a few others, lay out the foundation for the entire story of the Bible and are full of awesome Easter eggs and hyperlinks to the rest of the Bible. The question of the historical Adam and Eve is interesting and fun, but it might be the least important item in the treasure trove of these chapters.