It was notable for me that there is no mention of hell, just heaven. One of the main interests for me in reading the Bible this year is to see how it tackles the idea of hell. To my mind, hell is one of humanity's worst inventions, and fire & brimstone preachers and religious fundamentalists who like to send their enemies to hell while maintaining an unshakeable faith in their ascension to heaven are the most odious people to walk the planet. So it's good to see that these sowers of discord and division find little basis for their conception of hell in the opening passages of Genesis.
Notable too that the first animals mentioned are "great whales". My understanding of evolution is that whales emerged as a species after the last main extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, whereas sharks actually survived that catastrophe (amazingly, sharks inhabited this planet around 500mn years ago, before even trees evolved). It's arguable that the "great whales" here could be sharks.
Early on, we also get to some sections that offend modern sensibilities. First, the idea (1.26) that man gets "dominion" over the animals: Darwin thankfully overturned this idea that human beings are somehow aloof and removed from the tree of life. I know that a lot of religious people still struggle with the idea that we're animals, and closely related to monkeys, but it's time for them to face facts and move on. The legacy of this passage is the awful treatment that many animals have endured in the past few millenniums. Only in recent decades have their been really major advances in animal welfare, thanks to activist philosophers like Peter Singer.
Also problematic for me is the passage where God intervenes to take a rib off the sleeping Adam to create Eve. The clear suggestion is that woman is a secondary creation, and that childbearing is God's punishment for women. This is so objectionable that I don't even know where to start.
On the plus side, I like the geographical descriptions here that remind me of Milton's Paradise Lost (such as the passage about the four rivers out of Eden – including the Euphrates and Pison) and the beautiful imagery, especially (in 3.24) when we arrive East of Eden, to find cherubims and a flaming sword "to keep the way of the tree of life".
One thing that struck me too reading these opening books of Genesis, is that it feels like God is learning in the early stages too, just like the humans Adam & Eve, i.e. God shouldn't have said something along the lines of "don't touch that button" (in other words, the apple from the Garden of Eden), as human instinct is always to do so. Milton, in Paradise Lost, and other Christian apologists have used this section of Genesis as the basis for their concept of original sin, to disastrous effect.
Also, God shouldn't have made two humans (Cain & Abel) compete for his approval, as inevitably one will always come out on top, and the other will get resentful. It's as if God doesn't yet understand the human nature inherent in us all.
A few more notes:
4.16 Cain "went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod" – I had forgotten that this well-known phrase about sleep being the "land of Nod" came from the Bible.
4.20 Jubal is the father of music (harp & organ) – the root of jubilee and jubilation?
5 Lots of people "begetting" other people.
6.14-15 Noah, who's restored God's faith in humanity, makes the Ark out of "gopher wood" (still not convincingly identified, though most likely cedar, according to Wikipedia). The stated dimensions (300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in width and 30 cubits in height) translate to 137m × 22.9m × 13.7m. That's not much longer than a large football pitch.
Notable too that the first animals mentioned are "great whales". My understanding of evolution is that whales emerged as a species after the last main extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, whereas sharks actually survived that catastrophe (amazingly, sharks inhabited this planet around 500mn years ago, before even trees evolved). It's arguable that the "great whales" here could be sharks.
Early on, we also get to some sections that offend modern sensibilities. First, the idea (1.26) that man gets "dominion" over the animals: Darwin thankfully overturned this idea that human beings are somehow aloof and removed from the tree of life. I know that a lot of religious people still struggle with the idea that we're animals, and closely related to monkeys, but it's time for them to face facts and move on. The legacy of this passage is the awful treatment that many animals have endured in the past few millenniums. Only in recent decades have their been really major advances in animal welfare, thanks to activist philosophers like Peter Singer.
Also problematic for me is the passage where God intervenes to take a rib off the sleeping Adam to create Eve. The clear suggestion is that woman is a secondary creation, and that childbearing is God's punishment for women. This is so objectionable that I don't even know where to start.
On the plus side, I like the geographical descriptions here that remind me of Milton's Paradise Lost (such as the passage about the four rivers out of Eden – including the Euphrates and Pison) and the beautiful imagery, especially (in 3.24) when we arrive East of Eden, to find cherubims and a flaming sword "to keep the way of the tree of life".
One thing that struck me too reading these opening books of Genesis, is that it feels like God is learning in the early stages too, just like the humans Adam & Eve, i.e. God shouldn't have said something along the lines of "don't touch that button" (in other words, the apple from the Garden of Eden), as human instinct is always to do so. Milton, in Paradise Lost, and other Christian apologists have used this section of Genesis as the basis for their concept of original sin, to disastrous effect.
Also, God shouldn't have made two humans (Cain & Abel) compete for his approval, as inevitably one will always come out on top, and the other will get resentful. It's as if God doesn't yet understand the human nature inherent in us all.
A few more notes:
4.16 Cain "went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod" – I had forgotten that this well-known phrase about sleep being the "land of Nod" came from the Bible.
4.20 Jubal is the father of music (harp & organ) – the root of jubilee and jubilation?
5 Lots of people "begetting" other people.
6.14-15 Noah, who's restored God's faith in humanity, makes the Ark out of "gopher wood" (still not convincingly identified, though most likely cedar, according to Wikipedia). The stated dimensions (300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in width and 30 cubits in height) translate to 137m × 22.9m × 13.7m. That's not much longer than a large football pitch.
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