by heyfea 38 Replies latest watchtower bible
Thank you for your answers.
My husband and I stopped going to the kh more than 10 years ago. Just didn't feel like going anymore. But anyway, my husband kept this idea that regardless of his failure to live the JWs lifestyle, the JWs still have the truth. Or at least he did strongly some years back. Now, with the Internet, he's discovering a lot surprising things about the JWs and slowly, he's beginning to change his point of view. Thus, the question he asked me.
Doesn't the Jewish religion have a story about the so called first wife named "Lilith". She wan't kicked out she left Adam for whatever reason (use imagination here). She could have left with a tribe of her own. I've been told that the Bible only skims the surface of what we need to know to make our choice. This I don't buy. No one would by a product without a complete instruction book. (Well, obviously we have).
Genesis 5:3 -5 When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son who was just like him, his very spirit and image, and named him Seth. After the birth of Seth, Adam lived another 800 years, having more sons and daughters. Adam lived a total of 930 years. And he died.
The above text is from The Message Bible. I've turned it over and over in my mind because I believe it holds a clue to solving the problem. I'm confident the Bible has the answer. There are so many questions.
For instance, when Seth is born and Eve says that he is to take the place of Abel, what exactly did she mean? The text says that Seth was born when Adam was 130 years of age. Are we to conclude that, prior to Cain's banishment, Abel's death, and Seth's birth, no other sons were born to Adam?
What was special about Seth? The only thing I've been able to find is that the Messiah came through his line. Could there have been unnamed, but somehow un-qualified sons, born to Adam prior to Abel and Seth? What is the age difference between Cain and Abel?
These are all questions that I'm researching. Just when I think I know something, I find out I don't know jack.
Sylvia
Snowbird,
The only thing I could come up with is that perhaps Eve was talking about a replacement for the God APPROVED son she's lost? And yes, you're right. There are a lot of things we read in the bible which we think are so plain and simple, only to realized that we've missed one line, one word, that changes things a bit. You are not alone.
Here's a link to help with your research, heyfea-
in a minimum answer, NO!
The Scriptures are a collection of Jewish writings written by Jews for Jews using Jewish thoughts.
The Jews who wrote the Creation stories were using the ideas that were current at that time. They were not averse to making use of stories in common use at that time in order to get their point across. We accept that the Jew named Jesus Christ used mythical stories as parables in order to get his point across. Likewise, these even earlier people used stories in vogue at that time to get their point across.
Hence the first creation story (by the Elohists) might simply be saying that the stones, animals, birds, sun, moon, stars, trees, and so on that you Jews are worshiping were made by the True God Elohim.
The structure and parallelism of the genealogies before and after the Flood are simply a contrived tool to provide a lesson, that mankind lived shorter and less fertile lives the further they moved away from their original state.
It is quite likely that the genealogies in the Gospels are likewise didactic, rather than literal.
As I said at the start, we must think like the Jewish people living at the time these stories were written. They were not written to a guy living in 21st century Melbourne, who speaks a different language and does not live in an agrarian community.
Doug
"Could there have been unnamed, but somehow un-qualified sons, born to Adam prior to Abel and Seth?"
I fail to see why not. The Bible in genealogic records often omits names, people, who are of "no importance" to the main line as such. In Matthew, three generations are omitted following Jezabel because of her wickedness and the register jump directly to generation four. So because the Seth line is the importtant one, there was no need to give details on the other ones.
Don't see the problem.
Maybe there was a whole slew of daughters before Able and they just didn't count because they were women.
Man and woman are created, apparently simultaneously and after the animals, at Genesis 1:27, but at Genesis 2:7 & 2:18-22, Adam is created from dust first, then the animals are referenced to have been made, and then Eve is created from Adam's rib.
In classical times, the majority position was that Woman was created twice, that Adam had two wives, the first known as Lilith, as attested in the Talmud and Midrash.
There you have the opening for explaining the people Cain lived among, if that is what you need to do.
