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The purpose for this Thesis is to attempt to answer a group of questions posed to me as a Christian. Some of these questions were presented as simple inquisitiveness and some were presented to challange my faith and the whole concept of GOD. I must mention here that "FAITH" is belief without sight. We may not "see" or understand all we read in the Bible, but we sense in our hearts that the words we read there are true.
Faith does not require "KNOWING" the answer to the Biblical mysteries, but still it is exciting to speculate on the meaning of the Biblical stories.
It is in the spirit of the verse below that I am undertaking to answer some of the questions presented to me.
1 Peter 3:15 "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."
The questions are:
1 What is the true Sabbath Day?
2 Why didn't Adam die the day he ate the fruit as God said he would?
3 After Cain killed his brother Able, who were the people he thought would kill him?
4 Where did Cain get his wife?
5 Who were the people that filled the city Cain built?
The question about the Sabbath is of intrest to all.
Adam was told he would die "in the day" he ate the fruit, yet he lived to be 930 years old.
The questions about Cain are particularly interesting as according to the Genesis account, if read litteraly, there were only three people alive when Cain was afraid that anyone finding him would kill him. They were Adam, Eve and Cain himself. The same three are all that are recorded when Cain took a wife, so where did she come from? And only five are alive when he built a city.
Now there are the obvious answers.
1 The Sabbath day is the seventh day of our week.
2 Adam died a spiritual death.
3 Cain was afraid of other sons & daughters of Adam and Eve not yet mentioned in Genesis.
4 Cain's wife was one of these un-mentioned people.
5 The people that filled the city that Cain built were also part of these un-mentioned children of Adam & Eve.
Now that's real simple, and it has a certian logic to it. However, if there are other possible answers, which are held as truths by other Christian believer's, we owe it to ourselves as Christians to explore these possibilites. That is the purpose of this writing. To explore these other beliefs, rather we agree with them or not. So lets get on with the process.
First we must consider the source of the Genesis material. It appears there are two sources. In other words it seems there were two writers, each writing his own book of Genesis, and each writing from his own perspective. The first thing that will be noticed is that two names of God are used in the writings. The first name used in Gen.1-1 is Elohim; which translates in English to God, this is in the creation story given in Gen.1. The second name is given in the alternate version of the creation story in Gen.2-4. This name used here is Yahweh or Lord.
If you read through Genesis carefully you will see these two versions of the name being used alternately. You will also notice that these names lineup into two groups of stories one of which uses one name of God (Lord), and the other which uses the other name of God. (God) These disparaties are obvious in the Hebrew language they were written in, but virtually disappear in the English translation. These groups of stories are called doublets.
There are two accounts of the creation of the world, Gen.1-1 & Gen.2-4, two accounts of the number of animals to be taken onto the ark of Noah, Gen.6-19 & Gen.7-2 and many other accounts of the same story being told twice. When you read the book of Genesis anytime you see the word God in a portion of a story it is an extract from one version of Genesis, and when you see the word Lord it is an extract from another version. These two versions have been woven together using the most discriptive parts of each version to make one story
This is not so unusual. There are four versions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each is written from the perspective of the author, and none of which are exactly alike. If someone attempted to write one Gospel using these four sources he would come up with a Gospel with suttle differences in the timing of events, or even the places of these events. The casual reader may not notice these differences, but the critical reader would. Having made this fact known, perhaps the reader can appreciate the difficulties in unravaling the true meaning of the stories related in Genesis as some Christians percieve them. After all, if some parts of each version were included, then some parts were omitted. And who knows, it may be that these omitted parts would have given us a deeper insight into Gods early dealings with mankind. But let's get on with the interpretation.
The Jews have a system they call, Kabalah. It is pronounced CAH-BAH-LAH. They believe that certian books of the Bible, and Genesis in particular, are really a blueprint from God. It is from one perspective actual stories of humankind, From another perspective it is spiritual truth from God. And on a final level, it is human psychology in it's relationship to God, or God revealing the true nature of man in the symbolisims of the Genesis story.
This is the point that is important for this Thesis, for as you know, psychology is full of images and architypes that posess meanings not apparent to us at first glance. As we will see, all of the characters in the Genesis story fall into this catagory. Though based on real people, they serve a symbolic purpose.
Using this system many possible answers to the questions posed in Genesis are reached. One possible answer concerns the length of a day and Adams death within that day. And that is that a thousand years are but a day to the Lord. This comes from the fact that scripture states in
Gen. 5:5 "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died."
But it is also recorded in:
Gen. 2:17 "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."
If Adam lived 930 years, then he did not die in the day as we percieve a day. Therefore, a "day" must have a different meaning than the 24 hour period of time we know.
We need to look for some other period of time for the day spoken of by God.
There is a verse in the Book Of Psalms which may help to explain a day of God.
Psalms 90:4 "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."
So, from the fact that Gods word cannot be broken, and considering that Adam lived 930 years, and Psalm 90 states that a thousand years are as yesterday, then a day must be a thousand years. Therefore, Adam died within the allotted time. That is, the same day he ate the fruit. Or so the theory goes. Not our theory, but one many people subscribe to.
But it goes even further.
"For a thousand years in thy sight are.........as a watch in the night."
A watch in the night was one hour. If an hour is a thousand years, then a day would be 24,000 years long. That means the six days of creation were 144,000 years long.
In the Bible, each day begins at dusk one day and ends at dusk the next day,
"And the evening and the morning were the first day."
The proponants of this theory propose that when God told Adam
"for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."
he was actually saying that Adam-kind, or man-kind would die within that period of time. And without intervention from God,
"no flesh would be saved alive".
Therefore, Adam-kind would die within the allotted "day", that is within that 24,000 year day.
The Genesis story tells us that each day ended with;
"The evening and the morning were the first day."
"the second day" and so on till the seventh day.
The seventh day is not mentioned as having an end. Instead it says:
"On the seventh day God rested......."
God is no longer creating, therefore he is at rest. And there are those verses in the letter to the Hebrews that indicate he is still at rest.
Hebrews 4:3 "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he has said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."
4:8 "For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."
So, following this scenario, it is still the Sabbath or seventh day. And as that day started at dusk on the sixth day, and mankind still lives in darkness, it is still night. Half of the Sabbath day is not yet finished. In our short little lives, we imitate God and rest on the seventh of the solar days, but the Sabbath day of the Lord is still going on. The voice of the Lord walked in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam was cast out at that time as stated in Genesis and Adam-kind has lived in darkness ever since.
So, that takes care of two of our questions,
1 What is the Sabbath day?
2 Why didn't Adam die the day he ate the fruit?
Thats two down, three to go.
One of the greatest, most mysterious entities in the known universe is aware that you are reading this. This entity is simultaneously dangerous and protective, stupid and brilliant, evil and saintly, guilty and innocent, worldly and naïve. It is your subconscious mind.
Over the eons the minds of human beings have developed in two parts. One is the conscious mind. That's the part you think you think with.
The other part of the mind is the subconscious mind. This is the part that you are usually not aware of, yet it determines much, sometimes most, of what you do.
The subconscious mind works in surprising ways. For one thing, it does not know the difference between reality and fantasy. Or the products of our imagination which are often the same thing.
The Kabala theory holds that the soul, or spirit of man is connected with the sub-conscious mind. There is indication in the Bible that this is so.
Jesus said
"Who so ever looketh upon a woman and lusteth after her, has committed adultry with her in his heart."
This is true with the sub-conscious mind. Remember, it can not determine the difference between fantasy and reality. The sub-conscious mind will consider the fantasizing about a woman the same as if the act had actually taken place.
This is true of all the information you put into the sub-conscious mind.
This is partly because the subconscious mind is limited to deductive logic. An example of deductive logic is the touching of something hot. The sub-conscious mind will fear fire because it is painful to the touch and therefore will avoid it. The conscious mind will study fire and develop ways to manufacture, contain and control it.
The subconscious also works differently from the conscious mind because one of the really important jobs of the subconscious is to keep subconscious processes sub- or unconscious. That is, to keep it's self separated or isolated from the conscious mind. It is aware of the conscious mind but the conscious mind is unaware of it and of it's influences .
In the previous study we discovered that the ancient Jewish study form known as "Kabalah" holds that the Pentatuch, or first five books of Moses, are actually a blueprint from God. The proponants of this theory hold that, if this blueprint were fully understood, mankind would have at his diposal the means to structure a society free from war and the pain and suffering that plagues mankind today.
A part of the "Kabalah" theory holds that the Pentatuch, and the Book of Genesis in particular, is actually the "Psychology" of God as he deals with mankind. That the stories related are actually the images of the Human Psycological condition. And much like the images we see in our dreams at night, these images may appear to convey one meaning but when studied closely convey an entirely different meaning.
The "Kabalah" theory holds that the images in Genesis are actually the images projected just prior to and during the early moments of the awakening of mankind from his Edenic dream state. And as it is in our lives, the more awake we become, the more of the dream we forget until the truth of the dream is all but lost to us. Finally, all that remains are a few images from the dream, and we do not really understand those. These dream images are a product of the Sub-Conscious Mind. It is thought that mankind did not posess the "Conscious Mind" in it's present state while he dwelled in The Garden Of Eden.
If you can relate this human condition to the Genesis story, you will have mastered this part of the "Kabalah" theory.
In the story of Genesis, Adam & Eve dwelled in the Edenic Garden. How long they were there we do not know. It could have been thousands of years. But if the "Kabalah" theory is correct, Adam & Eve were just representitive of the whole of mankind at that time. There could have been hundreds if not thousands of people represented by the original pair. What is certian is that at some point Satan approached Eve, or womankind, with an offer she couldn't refuse. She could be her own woman, controling her own destiny, if she would disobey God and eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Genesis 3 verses 6 & 7 records the incident:
6 "......she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."
7 "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked;...."
This event marks the entrance of the conscious mind into the human psycological condition. It was a quantum leap for mankind. It also brought the curse that God said would come.
"By the sweat of thy brow shall thou eat bread"
Mankind would no longer be satisfied with being hunter gatherers, but would begin farming and animal husbandry to feed himself. This has led to the civilization we have today.
After they ate of the fruit, how long a period of time passed before they knew they were naked? Was this process instantainious, or did it occur gradually over a long period of time?
The question now is, how long was woman in control before she passed the knowledge of good and evil to man? She must have been in control for at least a short period of time because she ate of the fruit first. Remember that these are dream images projected by the sub-conscious mind and interpreted by the newly awakened conscious state of man. And though the above verses seem on the surface to indicate that this transferrance took place rather quickly, it may indeed have been much longer.
What an idealic state for woman. Mankind in a sub-conscious state of child-like innocense and naivity while she was in a position of cleverness and subtility due to her newly awakened consciousness. She had the rule over man.
This may well explain the curse she recieved for her disobedience. Genesis 3:16 explains:
16 "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be unto thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."
So now man is the head and according to:
Gen. 3:23 "Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."
Remember now, according to the Kabalah formula, we're not talking about one man and one woman, but an entire clan of men and women as represented by Adam & Eve.
At any rate they are cast out of the Garden and then there are born to them Cain and Able.
Gen. 4:2 "....And Able was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground."
Or we could say the Adam clan of hunter gatherers branched off into two other clans. A herder clan and a farmer clan. These two clans made offerings to God and God excepted the offering of the clan of Able but rejected the offering of the clan of Cain. The clan of Cain was angry and rose up and killed the clan of Able.
In other words, Genocidal War! Now God places a curse on the Farmer clan of Cain for the death of the Herder clan of Able. This curse is so great that it prompts Cain to say
Gen. 4:13 "....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."
The Able Clan is dead but the Clan of Adam still lives, these are the people Cain fears. That answers that question.
Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the Land of Nod. There he had a son named Enoch and built a city and named it after him. According to the formula we are following, this means the Cain clan had an offshoot to another clan. This process continues, one clan offshooting to another clan. So as to the question: Where did Cain get his wife and the people to fill the city he built, they came from his own clan linage or from the Adam clan.
Here is the Cain clan linage;
Cain...Enoch...Irad...Mehujael...Methusael...Lamech
Lamech bore three clans of his own. They are:
Gen. 4:20"..Jabal, he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.
21 ...Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
22 ...Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron:..."
That is the last recorded line of Cain. They built cities, domesticated cattle, invented music and created metalurgy. In other words they began civilization.
But wait, there's more. Another son is born to Adam & Eve.
Gen. 5:3 "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth."
4 "And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:"
Did you get that, "..in his own likeness, after his image.." That means that the people of the Cain and Able clan were not like the people of the Adam clan. Perhaps they were Neanderthal, you know, the people who disappeared from the earth. Or maybe it only means Seth had Adams chin or his eyes. You decide.
Now as to the unusualy long life span of the Patriarchs.
"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son..."
This 130 years is thought to be the actual life span of Adam.
"And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years..."
This 800 years is thought to be the length of time the Adam clan continued before it lost it's identity in the rush of people that came onto the Earth. So the life of the Adam Clan was 930 years including the life of it's founder Adam. All of the antediluvian Patriarchs to Noah are calculated this way.
This Kabalah form of thought can be a confusing melay of clans and images but can also be revealing and enlighting. Except it or reject it, but consider it because many of your brothers and sisters in Christ believe this is the way it was.