Eden Revisited #4: Humanity’s Origins

The Bible says God formed a living man from dust and Breath.  That is not very detailed.  Yet, for the last several centuries, believers have insisted on a scientific understanding of our origins that match it—it and a long list of additional stipulations.  Without the unbiblical constraints of perfectionism, science actually aligns with the Bible.

Genesis One is a wide-angle overview of everything.  God created all the animals then did “something” to make humankind into His image.  Chapter two gives a few more details as a close-up scene.  However, both chapters imply that God started with the same process to make animals (dirt) that He used for people (dust).  Humans are not separated from nature.  We are not lofty entities.  We are part of this world.  Only God’s choice makes us different from any other animal.  Even Adam had to realize that he was different.

Dust and dirt are not clay.  Genesis does not say God sculpted a human-form from clay then magically turn it into flesh and blood.  Scientifically, humans come from a long lineage of almost-humans, not-humans, and not-even-mammals.  That lineage reaches back to the first living thing.  It formed from the same molecules that make up Earth and the rest of the universe.  Dust and dirt works very well to describe that event.  The Bible leaves out all the interesting details described by science, but the two begin at the same place.

The molecules that make up RNA and DNA are easy to come by, even in space.  God constructed everything from the same building blocks.  Yet no one knows why or how such common components became cellular with the capability to eat and multiply.  Biblically it is simple.  God made creation so that it would.  Scientifically, we have a lot to learn, yet even among atheists the consensus is, life is very likely to form anywhere the right conditions occur.  If God exists, then His will designed life to arise and evolve from dust.

Genesis One says a new creation would be God’s “image.”  Genesis two and three do not use that term.  However, verse 3:22 says that the people became like God after they received the knowledge of good and evil.  Being like God in this chapter is the “image of God” from Chapter one.  God made us to become His image, yet we were not the “image,” until we were able to think like God.

To be continued:

[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]

Also in this series:

Eden Revisited #1: Powerful Love vs. Limited Perfection

Eden Revisited #2: A Safe Place to Grow

Eden Revisited #3: The Garden River

Eden Revisited #5: Creation of Death

Eden Revisited #6: Curse? What Curse?

Eden Revisited #7: Original Sin Theology

Eden Revisited #8: The Lesson of Blessing

Also see series:

Genesis Revisited

Eden Revisited

Eden Revisited #3: The Garden River

The Eden story includes a detailed report of a river complex then never mentions it again.  Yet, this “out of context” passage hints at our natural origins.  Without the unbiblical constraints of perfectionism, humanity’s lineage started outside the garden.

The river passage separates two versions of man’s arrival in the garden.  The river ran through Eden and the garden.  Then outside, it divided into four rivers that flowed through distant lands where commodities existed.

Believers speculate on the meaning and placement of this passage.  Many scholars have used it in the attempt to locate Eden.  Each time they ended in failure because the Tigris and Euphrates do not share headwaters with two other major rivers or even with each other.  They conclude this source was lost in the Great Flood or the worldview of the ancients contained an underground river where the four great rivers originated.  They then pick two large rivers that they think fits the descriptions.  Their reasoning often shows philosophical prejudices for those chosen.

Others say this passage is symbolic for the “river of life” or a spiritual description of the human body.  These tend to get very mystical and impart unbiblical philosophy.

A few say the river section is a late insertion, which interrupts the flow of the Eden story.  They tend to downplay or ignore the text.

These popular interpretations do not answer my questions.  Why did distant rivers and lands have names but not the one that flowed through the garden?  If later people named them, then why place the passage in context with the creation of man?  If the passage is purely metaphysical, then why is an interpretation not included; why must we guess?  If the Great Flood altered the landscape, then why would we consider that any of these rivers exist today?  Why remember them at all? 

More importantly, if God inspired the Bible, what was the reason He wanted this passage included at this point of the story when it provided no literal map and a very sketchy metaphor?

The text does not provide evidence that it was meant as a metaphor where we glean theological meaning.  The writing lacks mystical phrases to develop supernatural implications.  I believe that God inspired the biblical creation texts and their placement.  We must address a passage about nature as a description of nature.  We must set aside our preconceived ideals and let nature interpret them.

Nevertheless, the rivers still do not match any river system today.  Does that matter?  Not really.  Inspiration requires truth not perfection.  As a natural metaphor, the named rivers do not need to be huge rivers or even entire river systems.  They might describe a small river with many channels, with names transferred to or adopted from the larger rivers.  The lands could represent groups of people that later became city-states.  Within this kind of metaphor a literal description is drawn.  All the people who would fill these lands came from one source.  No matter where we live, humanity is one family.

Nature gives us a literal reason for the insertion of lands at the creation of man but beyond the characters’ comprehension.  Outside the garden is where our lineage originated.

Instead of an unnatural instantaneous creation, God used evolution to produce all the lineages of animals, including that of humanity (Genesis One).  The river complex depicts places almost-humans lived.  They knew how to obey, speak, sew, and collect interesting objects, but they did not know shame or evil.  Out of those people, God chose one male to receive His Breath, a spirit, which gives life beyond the normal life of animals.  In doing this, God joined with nature to create something different (Genesis One).  He then transferred that spirit into a female and set the stage for them to choose desire over obedience.  That gave them lasting shame, but it also provided the possibility of becoming something greater, a true image of God (Genesis One).

Outside the garden, Adam and Eve transferred the Breath and Knowledge to their children.  Their children found mates from the almost-humans, and the legacy of the Breath and knowledge continued.  These almost-humans knew fear of strangers, since Cain said they killed vagabonds.  Fear is our birthright from the animal kingdom.  Growing past fear is our birthright from God.

The almost-humans knew symbolism, so they did not kill the one who bore God’s mark.  Instead, they respected him enough to help build a fortified community (city).  After many, many, generations went by, only the people who possessed the Breath and had knowledge of good and evil remained.  Humanity is one as our Creator is one.

In the safety of a garden, God changed two almost-humans into humans.  For our good, God let innocence end and sin exist so that humankind could become the image of God.

To be continued:

[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]

Also in this series:

Eden Revisited #1: Powerful Love vs. Limited Perfection

Eden Revisited #2: A Safe Place to Grow

Eden Revisited #4: Humanity’s Origins

Eden Revisited #5: Creation of Death

Eden Revisited #6: Curse? What Curse?

Eden Revisited #7: Original Sin Theology

Eden Revisited #8: The Lesson of Blessing

Also see series:

Genesis Revisited

Eden Revisited

Eden Revisited #2: A Safe Place to Grow

The setting of Genesis 2 and 3 is a garden inside a region called Eden.  Without the unbiblical constraints of perfectionism, this garden relays more than just idealistic beauty.

God filled this safe place with the best plants plus two special trees.  God made man and put him into the garden.  God made animals and presented them to the man inside the garden. 

The Bible never says this garden was heaven, represents heaven on Earth, or that it was even close to being perfect.  It never even mentions immortal life forms, which includes human.  The order that plants, animals, and people arrive in the garden does not dictate the order of their creation or the time it took to create them.  The text does not say plants, animals, or man originated inside the garden, or that only these few lived on the planet. 

Most accounts of this story require these kinds of additions.  But, if they are not biblical why am I held to believe them.  Instead of bolstering the story with truth, the story is actually lost in an ever-growing cloud of fantasy.  Such dogmatic ideals distort our understanding.

Genesis 2 does not mention weeds within the garden, but that does not decree their non-existence.  There is no need to add an unbiblical redesign to creation.  Using a natural interpretation, these plants simply did not bother the people living in the garden.  God tells Adam that humanity’s relationship with nature was about to change.  Instead of being gatherers, they were about to learn farming and husbandry.  Tilled soil would grow inedible plants that thinned their harvest.  Animals would take refuge in the thorniest bushes.  The children of Adam would call these plants evil and the land that grew them cursed because God made them grow efficiently.

Removing all those unbiblical additions simply lets the text say life began as God dictated.  He did not need to recreate anything just because humans sinned.  God also provided empirical evidence for us to determine the order and function of creation.  We must decipher nature without the overburden of mythical theology.  Through knowledge, He intended for us to identify and remove any untruth that hinders our understanding, no matter how sacred.  The study of nature will let us rule justly and appreciate even the parts that we consider cursed.

We require a shift in relationship perspective.  God created the plants, all the plants, even those we call evil.  Yet, He called them good.

To be continued:

[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]

Also in this series:

Eden Revisited #1: Powerful Love vs. Limited Perfection

Eden Revisited #3: The Garden River

Eden Revisited #4: Humanity’s Origins

Eden Revisited #5: Creation of Death

Eden Revisited #6: Curse? What Curse?

Eden Revisited #7: Original Sin Theology

Eden Revisited #8: The Lesson of Blessing

Also see series:

Genesis Revisited

Eden Revisited

Eden Revisited #1: Powerful Love vs. Limited Perfection

God is love.  God is good, patient, and forgiving.  So, why does the first biblical interaction between God and people end in His intolerance and rejection?  Actually, it doesn’t.  Without the unbiblical constraints of perfectionism, the Eden stories reveal God’s true nature.

Long before Jesus was born, Persian, Egyptian, and Greek “perfection” ideologies seeped into the Hebrew cultural mindset in the same way they absorbed the neighboring Canaanites’ beliefs.  They did not realize it was happening.  Religious theology distorted God’s love into disrespect, patience into wrath, and forgiveness into condemnation.  Christian Gnosticism injected more stipulations.  Some of these remain imbedded as dogma to this day.

Readers cannot imagine the Eden stories or God without the burden of this altered perspective.  Believers say God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and completely just.  Yet, the “perfection” perspective represents God as ignorant of what was about to happen, incompetent to correct the problem, and over-reactive to the situation He created.

Perfectionism makes sin more powerful than God, since it easily corrupted His perfect universe and forced Him to retreat to heaven.  Perfectionism elevates His purity until He became intolerant of sin and redeems only those few who follow a narrow set of vague rules.  Pitilessly, He sends everyone else to everlasting torment.

Except, those actions make God just like the gods of the Persians, Egyptians and Greeks.  If God is no different from all the others, then He too is a myth.  But, that is not who He is and not what He made.  If God wanted perfectly proper people, then we could not be tempted. 

A natural interpretation of the Eden stories removes the overburden of unbiblical perfectionism.  It proclaims that the Creator is not like all the other gods.  He retains control over events that only seem to disrupt His plan.  He devised the scenario in the garden, which means the opportunity to sin was good for humanity because we now have the choice to not sin.  He set the conditions for free will and laid out just consequences when sin happened.

When you read the Eden stories, remember God’s love, patience, and forgiveness guides His actions.  He is in control.

To be continued:

[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]

Also in this series:

Eden Revisited #2: A Safe Place to Grow

Eden Revisited #3: The Garden River

Eden Revisited #4: Humanity’s Origins

Eden Revisited #5: Creation of Death

Eden Revisited #6: Curse? What Curse?

Eden Revisited #7: Original Sin Theology

Eden Revisited #8: The Lesson of Blessing

Also see series:

Genesis Revisited

Eden Revisited

Genesis Revised – The Second Genesis

The natural interpretation continues with the “second” creation story in Genesis.  The Bible is an anthology.  By the time the Jews compiled it, there were multiple versions.  They decided to keep two.  They use different literary forms, yet tell the same story.  Without the overburden of unbiblical “perfectionism,” the ancient texts match the evidence perfectly.

Genesis 2

⁴ This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. (NIV)

This passage echoes the shorter version in Genesis 1:1.  Scholars are not sure if this line belongs at the end of Day 7 or starts the repeated creation story that separates Genesis 1 from the garden story.  Nevertheless, these two passages state the same sentiment.  Only worship the God with enough power to create everything.

⁵ Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, ⁶ but streams (mist) came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. (NIV)

The order is from the human viewpoint, yet “man” is like an afterthought, as if the writer was amazed at the concept he envisioned.  This passage does not say mist watered the garden.  Nor does it support teachings that dictate no rain until the Great Flood.  No biblical writer claims God changed the physics of Earth’s atmosphere because of sin.

The text relays something much more insightful.  Long before Aristotle, a Hebrew poet encapsulated the creation using the concept of causality.

Before there was man (Day 6), there was a time before plants.

Before there were plants (Day 3), there was a time before rain.

Before there was rain (Day 2), there was a time of mist.

Scientifically, when Earth was very young, it had little atmosphere and no oceans, but there were still vapors that dampened the ground.  We can see this happening on many of our solar systems moons.  Then, our planet changed.  Water stared falling from the sky letting life flourish.

Without additions, both versions of the Genesis creation match standard science.  Miraculous.

That ends the creation of all that became our universe and our planet.  The next part of the Genesis story focus on one species, ours.

[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]

Also in this series:

Genesis Revised – Introduction + Day 1, The Big Bang

Genesis Revised – Day 2, Opening Sky and Ocean

Genesis Revised – Day 3, Opening Land

Genesis Revised – Day 4, Filling the Universe

Genesis Revised – Day 5, the Evolution of Life

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v24-25, the Land Animals

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v26-27 and “God’s Image”

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v28-31 “Dominion”

Genesis Revised – Day 7

Also see series:

Genesis Revisited

Eden Revisited

Genesis Revised – Day 7

Rejoice in creation’s seventh season interpreted by nature!  The structured circular poetry concludes in a blessing of rest and contemplation.  Without the overburden of unbiblical “perfectionism,” the ancient text guides us into the next phase of human development.

Genesis 2

¹ Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.  ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (NIV)

The poet concludes in rest.  He says God ceased creating.  That does not mean natural processes stopped.  Just like the continuation of Earth orbiting the sun, life continues, as always, to evolve.  The results God wanted had begun to unfold, so He waited.  God watched things change into what He wanted.  As always, He interacted gently with creation to further its development.  God concentrated one species out of many.  He grew one people out of nations.  God developed knowledge out of ignorance.

This “holy day” is not called Sabbath, a law instituted at Mount Sinai.  But like Sabbath, the Poet invites the reader to contemplate the loving details of God’s creation in relation to covenant with the Creator.  God expects us to take time to understand.  He makes this a sacred endeavor.

Day 7 does not end.  Poetically, that means Abraham, Moses and all the prophets lived in the seventh season God called holy.  Not just good, but holy.  God set this time aside as incredibly special, a time that would produce His likeness.  Biblically, that season died on the cross with Jesus.  Because of His death and resurrection, something new started and we become new creations.  We live in the eighth day, the time of new beginnings.

To be continued:

[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]

Also in this series:

Genesis Revised – Introduction + Day 1, The Big Bang

Genesis Revised – Day 2, Opening Sky and Ocean

Genesis Revised – Day 3, Opening Land

Genesis Revised – Day 4, Filling the Universe

Genesis Revised – Day 5, the Evolution of Life

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v24-25, the Land Animals

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v26-27 and “God’s Image”

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v28-31 “Dominion”

Genesis Revised – The Second Genesis

Also see series:

Genesis Revisited

Eden Revisited

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v28-31 “Dominion”

From all the life forms that lived on Earth, God chose one to rule all the others at the end of the sixth season.  Without the overburden of unbiblical “perfectionism,” the ancient text matches the evidence perfectly.

Genesis 1

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (NIV)

Well, we surely obeyed this command… sort of.

For most of our existence, we simply moved nature over, subjugated it, or helped it into extinction.  We are entering a new season of awareness.  To “rule” effectively we must understand nature but not just the parts we can domesticate.  This poet says God made everything then called everything “good.”  “Good” is not perfect, or passive, or unproblematic.  Everything means everything.  God made pathogens and tsunamis good for something.  We must learn to appreciate that something.  No other force or deity produced these things.  God is in control, always.  We should not condemn natural events as “natural evils.”  They were not given a choice to be anything different then what they are.  Only our choices include evil.

²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. (NIV)

This passage feels not quite scientific.  Some plants are poisonous or indigestible.  However, as in Days 3, 4, and 5, this list contains human perspective.  We are quite fond of grains and fruits.  Every culture has collected, cultivated, and domesticated multiple forms.  It is a hereditary obsession.  It is possible, that we simply do not understand how to process those poisonous plants into food or medicine.  Plus, animals eat more types of plants than humans.  That includes microorganism that decompose plant material.  Therefore, since all plants are “eaten” by something, the passage does not contradict science.

These verses do not insist humans were exclusively vegetarian.  They just do not mention eating animals.  Nor does the text, or any in the Bible, say there were no carnivorous life forms on Earth.  It just does not mention them outside of calling them “wild.”  The poet simply said God created plants for animals and humans to eat.

Poetically, this passage continues the intertwining of humans and nature started in Day 4.  We are part of nature, not separate, not an abomination.

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. (NIV)

God considered creation good, never perfect, even His imperfect humans.  He has given us time to tame our animal instincts, distinguish good from evil, and accumulate knowledge.  That shows the everlasting love, mercy, and forgiveness of our Creator.  We must strive to be one as our Creator is one.

To be continued:

[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]

Also in this series:

Genesis Revised – Introduction + Day 1, The Big Bang

Genesis Revised – Day 2, Opening Sky and Ocean

Genesis Revised – Day 3, Opening Land

Genesis Revised – Day 4, Filling the Universe

Genesis Revised – Day 5, the Evolution of Life

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v24-25, the Land Animals

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v26-27 and “God’s Image”

Genesis Revised – Day 7

Genesis Revised – The Second Genesis

Also see series:

Genesis Revisited

Eden Revisited