The Book of Genesis

I was already a critical thinker at the age of 16. A personal situation caused me to read the Book of Genesis. I found it rather incoherent with logical gaps and contradictions such as, if Eve was the mother of mankind, who did her sons marry? Too much background information was missing. As a result of these issues, I declared myself to be an agnostic. In spite of this, however, I spent the rest of my life, along with my wife, in a search for God.

Such a search quickly encounters the war of the forces of good and evil, particularly raging in our current time. We begin then with the Book of Genesis from which I will select what I consider to be key passages bearing on the argument. In this series I will use the King James Version (KJV) unless otherwise noted. I will use this online source which also supplies a commentary for each chapter by Matthew Henry, 1710. Good commentaries are very useful in understanding the bible and essential for understanding the Revelation of John to be explored in a later article. I will use emphasis where I want to draw attention.

Before going farther, I would warn the reader that some material runs counter to the modern artifices of feminism and gender identity and may be found to be offensive. Proceed at your own risk or stop reading. These are part of the accelerated usurping of the order of things created by God, by the forces of evil.

The Creation of the Earth and the Heavens

Chapter 1 describes the creation of the earth and the heavens leading up to the creation of man in verses 26 and 27. Note that we are created in God’s own image.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:26-27.

Incidentally, our being God’s greatest creation is the reason why Satan and his minions want to destroy every last one of us.

Chapter 2 describes the creation of man with a little more detail.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

21 And 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;

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

Genesis 2:7, 21-22.

Of interest is the description of, among all other things that man was given dominion over, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden. This choice is the foundation of the introduction of evil into the world.

9 And 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.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 2:9, 16-17.

With Chapter 3 we have the entry of Evil into Eden in the form of a 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?

5 For 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.

20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

22 And 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:

Genesis 3:1, 5, 20, 22.

In the KJV as other modern bibles we are working from translations of Latin and Greek texts which in turn may be translations of Aramaic and Hebrew texts. Therefor, it is difficult to know if very fine points of interpretation are accurate. Such is the example of verse 1 above. If the serpent is more subtle than any beast that God has made, can we infer that God in fact did not create this serpent in Eden leaving it to be a fallen spirit’s manifestation?

Also note the use of the lower case when referencing “gods” in verse 5 and the use of theplural pronoun “us” in verse 22. We will come to see that this references the group of god-like spiritual beings that inhabit heaven, called the Elohim. This idea will be expanded on later in this article.

In Chapter 4 we are presented with the generations of man beginning with Adam and Eve and their first sons Cain and Able. Their stories are well known and we wont examine the evil involved here. We will, however, draw attention to the son of Cain named Enoch of whom we hear no further.

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

17 And 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.

18 And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

Genesis 4:16-18.

In Chapter 5 the genealogy of Adam and Eve continues.

18 And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:

21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:

22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:

24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Genesis 5:18, 21-24.

The lineage of Enoch is Adam→ Seth→Enos→Cainan→Mahalaleel→Jared→Enoch. Enoch was one of two men that God took directly to heaven without their dying. The other was Elijah:

And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

2 Kings 2:11.

Chapter 6 provides the origin of the Nephilim:

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

4 There were giants [or “fallen ones” or the Nephilim] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6:1-2, 4.

In the New Oxford Annotated Bible (NOAB) which I used for many years, verse 6:4 is translated as:

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.

NOAB. Genesis 6:4.

The phrase “sons of God” has engendered discussion as to its meaning. I have adopted the meaning as a referral to angels. The next video (16:31 minutes) elaborates on this point:

The following video (1:11:48 minutes) takes all of the references that I have selected above and weaves them into a coherent picture supported by other scriptural references.

At this point, you should have an understanding of the narrative of biblical creation, the works of the hand of Yahweh, the singular Elohim or God of gods. The video covers the nature of salvation through Christ which brings us up to date.

In the next article I will explore the Book of Enoch, an apocryphal early text that sheds additional light and support for the creation narrative and particularly of the forces of good and evil.

Articles in This Series

Refer to the series index in A New Direction.

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