@littleman has been messaging me personally but I have been unable to answer his question. Can anyone please assist? I was reflecting on a time when there was only one "man" on earth, "Adam." -Genesis 2:7; 3:17. Also, there was only one prohibition at that time. -Genesis 2:17. Would you, by any chance and based on "the word of God," know when this one religion became two? -1 Thess. 2:13. thank you
If we take the biblical text at face value, the question is unanswerable. 1. The command not to eat from a particular tree because obsolete once it was violated, for they were banished from the garden and no longer had access to the tree. 2. People are said to have first “called upon the Lord” during the time of Seth’s son, Enosh (Gen. 4:26). We don’t know what this means, though. 3. The Rabbis understand the first command to have been the exhortation to “be fruitful and multiply.” 4. Overall, the text just doesn’t give us enough information to draw any conclusions about religious practices. From a historical-critical perspective, these texts are understood as composites, in which originally separate accounts that were reflective of pre-Exilic traditions from both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, were spliced together and edited into a single whole. As such, they are said to tell us more about later Israelite beliefs and practices, than they do about any mythical or primeval history.
Hi Bert Greetings in Christ JESUS Reading your interesting post above, I pored myself over the Scriptures to decipher the old enigma you have posted, so I will try to bring some light about the matter acording my own view; I hope my view on the subject be improved by you and other readers. Analyzing the matter according your own words, first I would say that there was not any kind of religion, I meant, GOD have not invented any kind of religion; who invented a religion was the Devil, and Cain was the first to adopt it and he tried to please GOD through his belief in the dead religion invented by the Devil. ONLY ONE MAN ON EARTH? The first point: The main point of your post is about Genesis 2:v.7 and 3:v.17 you quoted, so to understand better the creation you should had read the prior verses of Genesis 1:27-28, that say: V. 27 - So GOD created MAN (human gender) in His own image, in the image of GOD created He him; MALE and FEMALE created He them (both). (Remember: Paul Apostle said: It is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbe1it that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural(ANIMAL); and afterward that which is spiritual.-1Corinthians 15:v.45-46) V. 28 - And GOD blessed them(both), and GOD said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. That said, according the Word of GOD above quoted -the Word is GOD - MAN and WOMAN or MALE and FEMALE were LITERALLY created. GENESIS 2:v.7 (AND 1 CORINTHIANS 15:v.48) Second point: GOD revealed later He had formed man of the dust of the ground - Genesis 2:v.7- animal nature - It is written that as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy-1Corinthians 15:v.48. He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth-John 3:v.31. So God's work was not yet complete, the breath of life was still lacking, then GOD breathed the breath of life and man became a living soul. As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.1Corinthians 15:v.48 And only after GOD had breathed the breath of life in the natural man He had created, and man became a living soul -Genesis 2:v.7- , then GOD continued working with man according His plan -Genesis 2:v.21 to 25- : 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a WOMAN (a different woman, as the body of Christ), and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called WOMAN, because she was taken out of Man. (AFTER THIS EVENT) 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. What KIND OF LANGUAGE was spoken by Adam and Eve? Hebrew Vowels | Pure Bible Forum (and see www.sinaiticus.net ) POST #4 JESUS said: My Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he BREATHED on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. John 20:v.21-23 Paul the Apostle made a comparison and interesting revelation based in the Word of GOD above quoted -the Word is GOD-, and sent to the Church of the Lord in Ephesus, as below: Ephesians 5:v.28 to 32 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a GREAT MYSTERY: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. - CHRIST AND HIS BODY - 2Corinthians 2:v.11 - For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of GOD knoweth no man, but the Spirit of GOD. - THE WORD IS GOD- THE WORD IS GOD. GREAT MYSTERY. | Pure Bible Forum (and see www.sinaiticus.net )
Genesis 1:v.26- 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. GOD- had planned to make man in His image, but how? | Pure Bible Forum (and see www.sinaiticus.net )
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. Ecclesiastes 7:29 The angel of the Lord, John the Baptist, said: He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. John 3:31 JESUS said: Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world - John 8:23. He that is of GOD heareth GOD's words - John 8:44. The Word is GOD - John 1:1. - Great mystery, great mystery. Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, INVISIBLE, the only Wise GOD, be Honour and Glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Historical-critical aka documentary hypothesis. I was taught this many years ago but I have now rejected it in favour of historical-grammatical exegesis. This is much better.
There is a raft of tools in the kit bag of academics as they help us probe the depths of Scripture. I certainly do not write off the Historical-Critical method, as I am convinced that it helped us understand scripture better. The Historical-Grammatical Method also provides another level of insight. The basic intent of these methods is to understand, as best as we are able, what the writer of the text intended when the words were first committed. Now that does not have to be the final say in terms of the text, however, it is valuable. Sometimes we are not so comfortable with some of the things we discover, however, that does not make them wrong. Sometimes we need to be uncomfortable. I have not been convinced by arguments attempting to debunk the documentary hypothesis, which I find in the main credible and useful.
1 Thess 2:13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. Where the two religions?
"And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!" I think it is a mistake to assume that OUR understanding of what is meant by - 'the Word of God' - is actually the same as what the author of the above passage undestood the term - 'the word of God' - to actually mean. Many today consider the words of scripture, (The Bible), to be the 'Word of God' and equate that with 'Christianity'. Particularly with Reformed or Protestant Christianity. Neither of these, either The complete Bible or Protestant Christianity actually existed at the time this passage of scripture was written. It is more likely, where it refers to 'the word of God' it refers specifically to the words of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and in a general sense to everything he taught his Apostles to teach others. Thus the two religions became two separate religions from the moment that one 'religion' obeyed and transmitted the words of Christ to others and the other 'religion' is anyone who tries to suppress them and prevent others from hearing them. Neither of them are actually religions, both of them are attitudes to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who consistently spoke the words of God. .