The misinterpretations of Genesis (chapters 1-4)

The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Christian Bible, and has been badly misinterpreted by Christian preachers and their followers, who are all too willing to parrot what they are told. Facts are facts, however, and Genesis says things that are quite different than the official narrative. For our purposes, we will quote the King James version, which is in the public domain. For our purposes today, we will go over the first four chapters. The purpose here is to examine Genesis, not to decide what is for real and what is myth.

We will start with a curious passage, concerning light and darkness:

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

According to this, light existed before the sun was created. What it means is anyone’s guess:

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

This occurred after the Earth already had vegetation on it.

One strange thing is, that there is no mention of any of the reptilian animals that we know today.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

The only mention of reptilian creatures is the Great Dragon (Satan) and the “Serpent” in Genesis. This is rather odd, but as we will see, there may be an explanation for this.

Now we will deal with a misconception, one of the most common ones about rain, and how the garden was watered. (Chapter 2)

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

Then in verse 10 we learn the source of the mist, which is never mentioned by preachers:

10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

This is seemingly contradictory, as seen in verse 5:

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

This is one of the verses that cause confusion. However, we don’t have to go over the water cycle. A river does not flow without rain.

The strange thing is, that we have a mist, and by the Bible’s own admission, the source of the water was a river. This is a clear description of an automatic watering system. Those did not yet exist back when the Christian Bible was composed. Yet the Bible clearly points at technology in these verses.

Then there is likewise a clear description of technology, this time surgery:

21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

This is not just surgery, but obviously genetic engineering. Therefore, we have the first indication that Adam and Eve were in fact genetic experiments. There is more to this however. In verse 8 we learn that the Garden of Eden was not in fact part of creation:

8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

We also learn the type of garden, an orchard to be exact:

9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The named trees are religious in nature and beyond our scope. However, it is enough to say that trees take several years to begin to bear fruit. (1) In turn, that affects when Adam was put into the garden, and that is another major point of contention. It stands to reason that since Adam was created out of dust (whatever that means) he would have had no knowledge of anything. Logically then, there would have to have been a training period of sorts, doubtless years or decades long. This is never talked about however. Neither is the fact that gardening requires tools and the knowledge of how to use them. All of this points to an extended period of time, where Adam was being trained and prepared to take care of the experimental garden. There is no direct indication of how long this period was, or how long it took to get Eve up to snuff as well. It does seem certain that a substantial delay did happen. it might have been a decade or more before the two even met!

In chapter 3 we learn about the serpent:

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

This is rather remarkable considering that reptilian creatures are not known for their intelligence.

2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

This once again is a remarkable statement. If we go with the standard Christian model, then death did not yet exist, yet Eve clearly knew what death was.

1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Death must have been present in the garden, because Eve was well aware of it. Then comes the serpent’s deception:

4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Fig leaves are oddly shaped, growing up to 12 inches (2) and would not have made especially good coverings. But there is a more serious problem with this. Like gardening, sewing requires a certain amount of skill, along with the proper tools, namely needle and thread. So, we have another omission that would make almost anyone question what they are reading, but the average preacher simply skips this.

The next verses talk about the various punishments for men, women, and the serpent generally it is thought that the serpent was turned into a snake:

14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Verse 14 is not really an apt description of snakes, given that there are arboreal snakes, sea snakes and so on that don’t eat dust. The undulating shape of snakes is in fact an efficient means of propulsion, especially in the water. Snakes are natural swimmers! It’s hard to tell what this means.

21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Note that verse 21 clearly states that God gave the two animal skins to wear, a little odd for a god.

22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Who God is speaking to here is not clear, but it’s obvious that this was not a solo operation.

23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

So Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden. Apparently their having certain knowledge represented a threat. This is very curious in light of the fact that they had been staying in a fruit orchard.

We won’t go over much of the Cain and Abel story. God was not pleased with Cain’s offering, so Cain grew angry and killed his brother.

11And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand;

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.

13And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

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.

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.

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

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.

These passages, once again, are vital, and verses 16 and 17 routinely ignored by theologians. It’s small wonder that this is so, since Cain built a city, when again that skill was not supposed to exist at that time. These verses also clearly indicate that not only did others exist at that time, but they were familiar with the Garden of Eden experiment. Who these people were is not stated, but perhaps a modern hypothesis called the Silurian hypothesis might shed some light on this. (3) The fact remains that Cain, by the Bible’s own admission, had skills that few modern people had. How many people today could plan out a city? The truth is that very few can. This also clearly indicates that were people on the Earth to live there, and people to build the city. There also had to be the materials and tools to build the city. Ignoring all this resolves nothing, but unfortunately that is what routinely happens. Automatic irrigation, architectural skills and tools were there, if we are to believe Genesis.

I am not done with Genesis, but we don’t want to get too long here. There is more information to go over. It is sufficient to say that the Garden of Eden story has been badly interpreted. It’s a shame that people simply want to read what they want to read, without looking at the meaning.

To be continued…

  1. https://farmityourself.com/how-long-does-a-fruit-tree-take-to-grow-and-bear-fruit/
  2. https://www.gardenguides.com/127237-fig-tree-leaf-identification.html
  3. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-astrobiology/article/silurian-hypothesis-would-it-be-possible-to-detect-an-industrial-civilization-in-the-geological-record/77818514AA6907750B8F4339F7C70EC6

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