Here is a new batch. I'm keeping them in the language, I received them. There are some questions that I do not understand, so I'm seeking more infor from those who submitted them.But here they are in the raw:
1. Where did Cain's wife come from? Or was it okay to commit incest after the fall but then not okay @ Moses?
2. If God created the earth, how did God get there?
3. Why did God destroy humanity in the flood just to have them start sinning all over again?
4. Was the flood regional or global or were the continents in Pangaea. If the Pangaea split at the flood, then how did animals re-disperse from Mt. Ararat?
5. If God destroyed humanity due to the angels "knowing the daughters of men" can this still happen and were the Nephalim some kind of hybrid as the "mighty men of old."
6. Or did he destroy humanity in order to not continue to strive with the generations that were living at the time to be hundreds of years old?
7. If God is the creator of all things did he create evil? If he did not, then did Satan create it? If Satan created it does he have some limited creative power?
There you go. I'm officically getting excited about this.
Again, readers questions and insights are welcomed (desired even).
1 comment:
Questions such as these have no easy answers. And any answer that you give them assumes they have the same view of inspiration and intention. In addition, you have varying genres mixed with a different culture. It seems that the larger goal would be to get everyone one the same page (I suppose your page) when it comes to these things. I will give you mine, you can agree or disagree.
In regard to Genesis 1-11, the content of the material is often polemic, etiological, and mythological. Most of the stories are the Israelites understanding of things, especially in response to surrounding stories about identical things. Thus, typically, the story arises from another culture, and then is reappropriated into an Israelite context. For example, every culture has a creation story, and most cultures of the ANE (Ancient Near East) had a flood story. These stories are clearly incorporated into the Israelite faith with a markedly different end. Creation is not a random act or done by demi-gods overcoming higher gods and using their substance to create (see the Enuma Elish) but the intentional will of a God who sought to pour out his love and glory in a substantive form. The flood is not sent by the gods somewhat capriciously because the humans “make too much noise” (see the Epic of Gilgamesh) but by a God whose holiness could no longer contend with the wickedness of His creation.
Stories such as Genesis 6:1-4 and 11 function as etiologies – stories that explain certain aspects of existence. Genesis 6:1-4 is an explanation of why there are much larger people roaming the earth. If you are an Israelite with an average height of 5’8” and you look around and see Goliath’s in the world (standing around 7’) you begin to wonder – “Why are there giants in the land?” This story explains such things. Technically, they were not “angels” that had sex with human women, but “sons of God.” This was a term in the ANE that referred to a heavenly counsel of demi-gods - something similar to the Greek or Roman Pantheon that had Zeus/Jupiter at the top, and then lesser gods below him. And what do you get when you cross a demi-god with a human? Well, you get a really big human. The story of Hercules is just such a concept. Granted this makes most conservatives bristle, but there is a pretty obvious development of Israelite religion that did not start at monotheism. The story of the tower of Babel explains why there are different races and languages.
As I see Genesis 1-11 (understandably not all, and very few of your members will see them this way), they are not meant to describe history but to make heads and tails of life. Thus, many of these questions posed will forever go unanswered, because quite frankly there is no answer and the literatures was not meant to engage such questions. With this framework, let me get to the questions.
1. Where did Cain's wife come from? Or was it okay to commit incest after the fall but then not okay @ Moses?
This questions assumes that God created no other beings and that the creation story is literal. If neither are true, then the question becomes moot. Otherwise, yes, incest is the answer.
2. If God created the earth, how did God get there?
God is eternal and ever existent. This concept is hard to get our heads around, but the Biblical evidence supports is.
3. Why did God destroy humanity in the flood just to have them start sinning all over again?
It is not as though God wanted them to sin again, but the condition of the human heart (Paul calls it the “sinful nature”) seems to inevitable lead to such action. The point of the story is to remind the reader of the seriousness with which God takes sin, but the extent of his grace symbolized by the rainbow.
4. Was the flood regional or global or were the continents in Pangaea. If the Pangaea split at the flood, then how did animals re-disperse from Mt. Ararat?
This question assumes that there was a literal flood whereas I see it as the Israelite writers taking a common motif of a flood and using it as a teaching tool. If taken literal, plenty of material is out there debating a regional or global flood, little of which is overwhelmingly convincing. You could also point to land bridges, etc.
5. If God destroyed humanity due to the angels "knowing the daughters of men" can this still happen and were the Nephalim some kind of hybrid as the "mighty men of old."
I don’t think they were angels, but demi-gods and yes they are a hybrid (at least that was the understanding of the original audience). It cannot still happen because we see there are not demi-gods, but the One True God. In addition, the Biblical understanding of angels has been skewed in various ways over time, now making the their common understanding something far different than originally stated. They are simply “messengers”, which come in various forms. A study of the Greek and Hebrew would be especially helpful on this one.
6. Or did he destroy humanity in order to not continue to strive with the generations that were living at the time to be hundreds of years old?
It is both. The mixing of realms (heavenly and earthly) in conjunction with the other sins (not named) caused God to be grieved, and thus he limited their years (to 120 not 100).
7. If God is the creator of all things did he create evil? If he did not, then did Satan create it? If Satan created it does he have some limited creative power?
I can’t answer this question in a way that will be satisfactory to you or your congregation, but I will give you my answer anyway. For me, “Satan” is a figurative representation of all the evil that is in the world rather than a literal manifestation. Otherwise, you have to contend with such questions and one outcome is allowing for God to have created evil as well. Since this seems to go against clear biblical precedent (see Paul especially), we seem to be left with looking for another option (although I will say that in many places in the OT God is the sender of good and evil, but it seems that progressive revelation gives other answers such as bad/evil things being the result of our sinful actions and others’ as well). In addition, it seems that Satan turns into God’s foil with the same power as God just not to the same extent. For example, many see Satan as omnipresent and at times omniscient with these abilities to put thoughts in our heads at just the right moment to make us stumble and fall. If this is the case, I would like to know where he gets these powers from? If God gives them to Satan, then I have more than a few theological concerns. In addition, the theology of Satan is so rarely mentioned in the Bible that painting a concrete and cohesive picture is, practically speaking, impossible.
For me, Satan stands for all the evil in the world. Temptation comes as a result of our sinful natures as the real war is not between angels and demons, but between us being led by the Spirit or by our selfishness.
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