0 Genesis : Interpretation

When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. 30:9

Trivia: Why did God open Leah's womb?

Genesis : Interpretation (36)

  1. "In the beginning"
    When was the universe created?
    The Gap Theory 1:1-2
  2. The second day is the only day God didn't call "good".
    "St. Jerome held that the reason why God did not pronounce the work of the second day "good" is to be found in the fact that there is something essentially evil in the number two, and this was echoed centuries afterward, afar off in Britain, by Bede." A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, Chapter 1 by A. D. White 1:8
  3. "Let them be for signs."
    Does the Bible condemn astrology? 1:14
  4. "Let the earth bring forth grass ... living creatures."
    Does the Bible teach evolution? 1:11, 1:24
  5. "And God made the beast of the earth."
    The Christian Identity and Aryan Nations folks say that "beast of the earth" and "beast of the field" refer to all non-human animals and non-white humans. They consider all people of color to be without a soul and on the same level as animals, such as cattle, fish, and birds. 1:25
  6. God gave humans dominion over every other living thing on earth. This couldn't be true, of course, since millions of other species existed for millions of years before humans existed. But this verse is used by fundamentalist Christians to justify their mistreatment of other species and disregard for the environment. After all, they believe that God created the other species just for them, so they can do whatever they please with them. 1:26
  7. "And God said, Let us make man in our image ... male and female"
    Is God both male and female? 1:26-27
  8. One way of dealing with the two contradictory creation accounts is to say that the reason there are two different stories is that there were two different creations. This has been a common interpretation historically, and it is still found taday. Pre-Adamites 1:27 (3)
  9. "God created man."
    When was Adam created? 1:27
  10. "Be fruitful and multiply."
    This verse is used to justify Christian opposition to birth control, concern for the environment, and animal rights. The earth was made for humans, and they can do as they damn well please with it. 1:28
  11. "I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth."
    Is it okay to smoke marijuana? 1:29
  12. "To dress and keep it"
    Some believers claim that this verse requires them to be environmentalists. 2:15
  13. When will Armageddon occur? 2:22
  14. In Christian Identity theology, the serpent is a black male ("beast of the field"), possessed by the devil, who seduced Eve. Cain is the child that is born from this union, the evil son of the devil and the first Jew. All Jews are descended from Cain. 3:1
  15. "I will put enmity ... between thy seed and her seed."
    The Two Seed Theory 3:15
  16. "And the LORD set a mark upon Cain."
    The mark of Cain and Racism 4:15
  17. "And Cain knew his wife." That's nice, but where the hell did she come from? Although the Bible doesn't say, Joseph Smith provided the answer in "The Inspired Version" of the Bible, which was his very own "translation". Here's what it says:
    And it came to pass, that Cain took one of his brother's daughters to wife, and they loved Satan more than God. - Gen.5:13
    So according to Joseph Smith (and he ought to know!) Cain married one of his nieces. He doesn't say, though, which of Cain's brothers was Mrs. Cain's father. Another answer is provided by the Pre-Adamite theory. 4:17
  18. Who were the sons of God? 6:2
  19. The flood story in Genesis is confusing to read. The clean animals go into the ark by twos (6:19-20, 7:8-9) and by sevens (7:2). The flood lasts for forty days (7:17) and for 150 days (7:24, 8:3). Noah sends out a raven (8:7) and a dove (8:8).
    Why doesn't Genesis get its story straight? Because there were two separate accounts that were (somewhat clumsily) interwoven. 8:7
  20. "But ... the blood thereof, shall ye not eat."
    Blood Transfusions 9:4
  21. Is it OK to eat blood? 9:4
  22. "And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him."
    "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."
    Does God approve of capital punishment? 4:15, 9:6
  23. "And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him."
    What did Ham do? Did he just look at his naked father or was there something more to it than that? Some commentators have suggested that Ham committed homosexual rape on his drunken father, and that this was why Ham's descendants were eternally punished with slavery. 9:24
  24. "Nimrod ... a mighty hunter before the Lord"
    Who was Nimrod? The king who tried to construct the tower of Babel? The first pope? Elmer Fudd? Here are some links to help you decide. 10:8-10
  25. "Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided."
    Some creationists believe that this verse refers to continental drift, which, they say, began to occur during the days of Pelag (which means "division"), about 100 or so years after the flood. But many other creationists disagree. 10:25
  26. "Terah ... begat Abraham."
    Who was Abraham's father? Azar or Terah (Quran 6:74)? Which is right, the Bible or the Quran? 11:26
  27. Say, I pray thee, thouart my sister."
    In the LDS Book of Abraham the same silly story is told, but it is God, not Abraham, who concocts the lie. 12:13
  28. Do angels have sex? 6:2, 4, 19:1-4
  29. What was Sodom's sin? 19:4-5
  30. "And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking."
    What did Sarah see that disturbed her so much? Jonathan Kirsch suggests in The Harlot by the Side of the Road that the "play" between Isaac and Ishmael may have been of a sexual nature, noting that the same word is used to describe the behaviour of Ishmael and Isaac as is used in 26:8 to describe Isaac's fondling of Rebekah. 21:9
  31. Does God approve of slavery? 9:25-27, 16:8-9, 17:12-13, 17:24, 17:27, 24:35-36, 26:13-14
  32. "God gave thee ... plenty of ... wine."
    Is it OK to drink alcohol? 27:28
  33. Is polygamy OK? 2:24, 4:19, 16:3, 25:1, 25:6, 26:34, 28:9, 31:17, 32:22
  34. Jacob's thigh 32:24-30
  35. According to the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical book of Judith, God not only approved of the violence in Genesis 34, but he gave Simeon the sword that he used to kill all the males in the city. 34:1-31
  36. "Pharaoh's birthday"
    What about birthdays? 40:20

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