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Should Genesis Be Taken Literally?
PatriotandLiberty ^ | 2023 | Russell Gregg

Posted on 11/09/2023 1:18:45 AM PST by spirited irish

A Babylonian tablet fragment found at Nippur, an ancient Babylonian site in the same general location that Abraham came from. The area outlined in black is a record about the Flood. There are more than 300 known records of the Flood world-wide, with about 30 of them in writing. Some are remarkably close in their details to the original—the biblical account.

Creationists are often accused of believing that the whole Bible should be taken literally. This is not so! Rather, the key to a correct understanding of any part of the Bible is to ascertain the intention of the author of the portion or book under discussion. This is not as difficult as it may seem, as the Bible obviously contains:

Poetry—as in the Psalms, where the repetition or parallelism of ideas is in accordance with Hebrew ideas of poetry, without the rhyme (parallelism of sound) and metre (parallelism of time) that are important parts of traditional English poetry.

(Excerpt) Read more at patriotandliberty.com ...


TOPICS: Apologetics
KEYWORDS: bible; genesis
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1 posted on 11/09/2023 1:18:45 AM PST by spirited irish
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To: sphinx; Jonty30; grcuster; Nervous Tick; reviled downesdad; sauropod; metmom; ViLaLuz; ...

ping


2 posted on 11/09/2023 1:21:10 AM PST by spirited irish ( )
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To: spirited irish
Should Genesis Be Taken Literally?

No. Not according to Dr. McCoy.

3 posted on 11/09/2023 1:31:02 AM PST by LittleBillyInfidel (This tagline has been formatted to fit the screen. Some content has been edited.)
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To: spirited irish

From the article:

Note: There certainly is repetition in Genesis chapter 1, e.g. ‘And God said …’ occurs 10 times; ‘and God saw that it was good/very good’ seven times; ‘after his/their kind’ 10 times; ‘And the evening and the morning were the … day’ six times. However, these repetitions have none of the poetic forms discussed above; rather they are statements of fact and thus a record of what happened, and possibly for emphasis—to indicate the importance of the words repeated.

Um - 10 and 7 both indicate a type of completeness or fullness according to God’s will. I imagine what the passages are telling us is that when God created everything that it was perfect. Until Adam and Eve sinned and went against God’s will.

This article seems pretty lame if that can’t even get that correct. Also, the Creation story was around a long time before writing. It, and other parts of the Bible, were oral traditions. It is amazing how they kept oral stories and histories accurate. They would recite them in groups. If somebody messed up a word it was then the next person’s turn in the group to continue the story - until he messed up.

If the only way one can keep a record of things is orally, you know they must have had a pretty good means of doing it and keeping it accurate. And I use the term “story” not that it was make-believe, but it was told in story format.


4 posted on 11/09/2023 1:36:22 AM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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To: spirited irish
The two parts of the flood story that are not believable are the ideas that human sin was involved, and the claim that nothing survived outside of the ark. Other than that, the story is believable.
5 posted on 11/09/2023 1:55:44 AM PST by ganeemead (everything )
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To: spirited irish

The origin(s) of the universe as we know it is not the same as an unexplained imaginary universe in ancient literature. The universal languages of mathematics, geometry, physics, astronomy, astrophysics, chemistry, biology and engineering as we know them evolved out of man’s fundamental trial, error and dumb luck approach to developing problem-solving methods and techniques. How else could we have survived the Ice Age? It’s obvious to me that we must have done the best with what we had with no help from “extraterrestrials”.


6 posted on 11/09/2023 2:53:04 AM PST by equaviator (If 60 is the new 40 then 35 must be the new 15.)
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To: 21twelve

Don’t discount the work of the Holy Spirit in Biblical accuracy thru flawed limited man.


7 posted on 11/09/2023 3:01:49 AM PST by reviled downesdad (Some of the lost will never believe the Truth and will hate you for it.)
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To: spirited irish

Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man. He kept the Sabbath and lifted it up out of legalism. And what is the 7th day Sabbath? A memorial to creation. Genesis, all of Genesis is as literal as the 7th day Sabbath.


8 posted on 11/09/2023 3:25:14 AM PST by vespa300
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To: reviled downesdad

The only eye witness. The rest, as God tells Job, “were you there?”


9 posted on 11/09/2023 3:28:32 AM PST by sopo
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To: sopo

That is my favorite part of the Bible...when God speaks to Job from the whirlwind. It really puts things into perspective for this puny human!


10 posted on 11/09/2023 3:33:22 AM PST by BamaBelle
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To: All

Text without context is pretext.


11 posted on 11/09/2023 3:46:36 AM PST by bennowens
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To: BamaBelle

amen


12 posted on 11/09/2023 3:59:34 AM PST by sopo
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To: spirited irish

The firmament is problematic for me. But then Ive always been a round earther


13 posted on 11/09/2023 4:09:13 AM PST by Wilderness Conservative (Nature is the ultimate conservative)
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To: spirited irish
Genesis 6:5-8 is interesting -

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

First, God was so dissatisfied with His creation that he decided to destroy almost all mankind, but also almost all of the birds and animals.

Second, He exacted collective punishment on mankind by drowning almost all, including infants and the unborn children.

14 posted on 11/09/2023 4:27:22 AM PST by FarCenter
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To: spirited irish

2 Timothy 3:16-17


15 posted on 11/09/2023 4:34:44 AM PST by stuckinloozeeana
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To: spirited irish

The Bible is filled with imagery, symbols, metaphors, etc. Does anyone really believe that there are gold-paved roads in heaven? “Rise up on wings as eagles”? Really? No...obviously not. I can see how, before science proved otherwise, that everyone believed the world to be flat. What, with the language of the bible...”four corners of the Earth” and “Pillars of the Earth”, etc. Likewise, the Earth and universe is Millions or even Billions of years old. It just is. I dont think that fact disproves God at all. It solidifies the existence of God for me. Hardcore Christians just cant seem to tolerate the notion that Genesis 1:1, written by Moses, is anything other than day one (24 hour period) of the existence of all things known and unknown. Time is of no consequence to the infinite wisdom of God. But it sure is a hangup for hardcore Christians. Paul even said in one of his letters to senior Church members to not argue about words: “Keep reminding them of these things [God’s faithfulness in the gospel]. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value and only ruins those who listen” (2 Tim. 2:14). “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” Hardcore Christian just seem to love to quarrel about the words in the Bible, dont they?


16 posted on 11/09/2023 4:44:11 AM PST by know.your.why (<>)
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To: spirited irish

Not lately- i saw them in 2021 and phil collins was frightening. When i first saw them in 1978 they were fantastic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20DbQpSwfVs


17 posted on 11/09/2023 5:06:15 AM PST by God luvs America (63.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: spirited irish
Try Chuck Missler’s First two lessons of "Learn the Bible in 24 hours." Very enlighten... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ3hESj__M8&list=PLRj8AJuzeJRwHdeFua3pzmwPB_JCS0mIq
18 posted on 11/09/2023 5:15:04 AM PST by unread (I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the REPUBLIC..!)
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To: reviled downesdad
"Don’t discount the work of the Holy Spirit in Biblical accuracy thru flawed limited man."

Bingo.! God's fingerprint is there, if you look for it, you'll find it.. :)

19 posted on 11/09/2023 5:18:46 AM PST by unread (I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the REPUBLIC..!)
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To: spirited irish

I read in this religion forum but rarely comment in here. But as a historian there is an important inaccuracy of fact in this article. And the misconception is repeated consistently and never corrected.

“Some are remarkably close in their details to the original—the biblical account.”

The Bible was not the original account, neither was the Babylonian account. The Sumerian accounts date to around 2,000 BCE and were the first accounts of the deluge.

The story of Noah’s Ark first appeared around 1,000 BCE in compositions that became part of the Jewish Torah and the Old Testament. Over a thousand years prior to this account, scholars from the ancient Sumerian civilization authored a remarkably similar account of the flood.

The time line is this:

Ziusudra, Sumerian era, 2,150 BCE

Atrahasis, Akkadian era, 1,800 BCE

Uta-Napishti, Babylonian era, 1,300 BCE

Noah, Israel, 1,000 BCE


20 posted on 11/09/2023 5:24:11 AM PST by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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