Friday, June 22 2007

Genesis 4-6

The fourth chapter of Genesis is the account of the first creation of children i.e. Adam and Eve were created as adults, so their children were the first children.

"Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of The Lord." And again, she bore his brother Abel." (Genesis 4:1-2 RSV)

Some interpret the verses above to mean that Cain and Abel were twins. There is no definite statement of that, however it is quite certain that Cain and Abel had a very similar physical appearance, just as Adam and Eve did (see Were Adam and Eve Redheads?). Eve was created from a part of Adam, so genetically they were nearly identical. The fanciful notion that Adam was "tall, dark and handsome" while Eve was "blonde and beautiful" would seem unlikely.

Cain and Abel were different in other ways though (see My Brother's Shepherd).

"Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to The Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell." (Genesis 4:2-5 RSV)

After the killing of Abel, Adam and Eve had other children (see Cain's Wife and The Line of Seth).

"Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch" (Genesis 4:17 RSV)

"And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, "God has appointed for me another child instead of Abel, for Cain slew him." (Genesis 4:25 RSV)

Genesis Chapter 5

Genesis chapter 5 is a genealogical account of the generations from Adam to Noah (see also What Happened To Enoch?).

"This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. Male and female He created them, and He blessed them and named them Man when they were created." (Genesis 5:1-2 RSV)

"When Lamech had lived a hundred and eighty-two years, he became the father of a son, and called his name Noah, saying, "Out of the ground which The Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands." (Genesis 5:28-29 RSV)

Genesis Chapter 6

Although it was obvious almost from the beginning that humans had become rebellious toward God's Eternal Law (see The Ten Commandments From Creation), by the time of Noah humanity had descended to the lowest point, a moral bankruptcy that will be seen only again in the time just prior to Christ's return (see the Fact Finder question below).

Noah and his wife were chosen to, in effect, be the new Adam and Eve since all humans are descended from Noah and his wife (her name was not recorded in the Scriptures).

"These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of Gopher Wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with Pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits [see How Big Was Noah's Ark?], its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits." (Genesis 6:9-15 RSV)

Fact Finder: (a) Did Jesus Christ specifically mention Noah and the flood? (b) Did the apostle Peter (see Peter's Ministry) also specifically refer to Noah and the flood?
(a) Matthew 24:37-42 (see also Could Christ Return Tonight? and The Raptures)
(b) 1 Peter 3:18-20 (see also Old Testament Baptisms and Planet On Fire!)

Today's Word
The Holy Bible was primarily written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. Today's Word examines the pronunciation and literal meaning of one of those actual words of the Holy Scriptures and how it is usually translated into English-language Bibles.

The Greek word pronounced crem-an-noo-mee means to suspend from. It is most often translated for use in English language Bibles as hang.

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This Day In History, June 22

1276: Pope Innocent V died in Rome.

1535: A month after the Pope had made him a cardinal, John Fisher was executed at Tower Hill in London after refusing to recognize King Henry VIII as supreme head of the English Church.

1559: Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book was issued. During her 45-year reign, Elizabeth I rejected the Catholic faith, adopting instead the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church.

1675: The Royal Greenwich Observatory was established in England by Charles II.

1772: Slavery was outlawed in England.

1815: Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated for the second and last time after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

1870: Scholars began translation work on the English Revised Version of the Bible. Released in 1881, the ERV became the textual basis for the American Standard Version (ASV), first published in the United States in 1901.

1911: King George V and Queen Mary were crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1933: Adolf Hitler banned all political parties in Germany other than the Nazis.

1940: 8 days after German troops entered Paris, France signed an armistice in the same railway coach in Compiegne where Germany surrendered on November 11 1918.

1941: Adolf Hitler's "Operation Barbarossa" began when over 150 German army divisions (3,000,000 troops and 3,300 tanks) invaded Russia across an 1,800-mile front between the Baltic and the Black Seas. It was, and is, the largest invasion of another country in history. See also Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Euro!

1976: Canada abolished the death penalty.

1990: The Allied "Checkpoint Charlie" was removed during demolition of the Berlin Wall.