If I'm going to read chronologically through all of this (see last post), the first thing to do is to begin with the Torah. A lot of people think that the Torah is the entire Old Testament of the Bible, but actually it's not. The Torah is only the first five books of the Old Testament - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In Hebrew, these books are called Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, and Devarim, and they are also referred to as the Pentateuch.
To read the Bible chronologically, one would read Genesis chapters 1-22, and then jump to the book of Job. So that's what I'll be doing. However, I will be inserting passages from 'The Lost Books of Eden' into my reading of Genesis.
The Lost Books of Eden are pseudographical books that, for whatever reason, did not make it into the cannon of scripture. Technically, the first five books of the Old Testament could be considered pseudographia because no one really knows whether Moses wrote those books himself, or whether someone else wrote them in Moses' name (that happened a lot in ancient Israeli culture, I read). These books may or may not be completely accurate, but having read some of them last year I do find them somewhat supplemental in the sense that they give a fuller picture of what the culture, emotions, and hardships of well-known Biblical characters may have been. I also find interesting the large amounts of messianic prophesies that are in them. But we'll get there when we get there.
I don't know when the Lost Books of Eden were written, but one of the translations into English was completed in 1927. I am interspersing them with my reading of Genesis because their content is chronologically aligned with the events in the book of Genesis, not because the books themselves were written concurrently with the book of Genesis.
Needless to say my entries will be kind of lengthy, but except for today I probably won't be posting too frequently. I'll try to get into a rhythm with my posts, but since I am employed full time and a full time student - I can't make any solid promises about the frequency of my entries. So, there'll be time to digest each post, if you're following.
Genesis 1:1-10 (<~~ click to read Genesis 1 on BibleGateway).
Every time I read the creation account and the account of the fall, I have questions. The Bible honestly doesn't explain everything, and some people say that whatever is unexplained in the Bible must be unimportant. Perhaps things left unexplained in the Bible are unknowable - but I would never say that they are unimportant. Here is a list of some things that - if ever possible - I would want to have explained to me.
-Before the Bible discusses the creation of anything, it mentions that God's spirit moved over the surface of the waters (Gen. 1:2). Does this mean that water was in existence before God's creation on Earth? Could water have been uncreated? Later in the Bible (much later, in Revelations) we read about how there will be no more "sea." What does water represent that it would be something God wants to get rid of? Why doesn't the creation account ever mention the creation of water? And why is water important enough that it seems to be the very first thing that existed on earth?
-In Genesis 1:3, God says "let there be light," but he doesn't create the sun or the moon or the starts until a few days later. If this 'light' created on the first day isn't any of the heavenly bodies - what kind of light is it? Is it a metaphor for good and evil? Is it Jesus? But if the light is Jesus, and Jesus is the 'firstborn of all creation,' then why is water on the scene before this light appears? I've asked this question before and someone mentioned to me that perhaps the 'light' is God's glory. Maybe. But why did God have to create his own glory? Isn't his glory inherent to who He is, and therefore uncreated?
-Verse 4 talks about God deeming the light to be 'good,' and separating the light from the darkness. This makes me wonder if the light was just general goodness, and darkness was general evil. If this is the case, does that mean evil (darkness) always existed or pre-dated goodness (light)? If God is, by nature, good - why does goodness have to be created? And the fact that God had to separate the two implies that at some point literal light and darkness were merged together in some kind of indistinguishable mixture (that would be an interesting thing to see!), or that good and evil were once merged together in some kind of indistinguishable mixture - perhaps things are still that way, today.
-Verse 5 says, "Then there was evening, and there was morning, one day." How do we have evening and morning before the creation of the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars)? Especially when God's explicit purpose for the heavenly bodies was to be a measurement of time (Genesis 1:14)? Day and night apparently pre-date the sun and the moon. I want to make an interesting note here that a 'day' is always comprised of evening and then morning. The Bible is very clear about repeatedly mentioning the fact that evening comes before morning. Another implication of darkness existing before light.
Verses 6-9 discuss day two's creation of an expanse (heaven, sky) and it's separation from the waters above it and the waters below it. On day 3, God became really busy. He gathers all the waters that are below the expanse, and puts them together in one place (where were they before?) Then, he calls for dry land to 'appear' (instead of creating it in His 'let there be...' fashion?) Land is never explicitly created, and now that I'm thinking about it - neither is air. Why not? Why are these 'creations' not important enough to mention?
In Gen. 1:10, God calls the dry land 'earth,' and the gathered waters are called 'seas.' Then, he deems everything to be good and the third day comes to a close.
I don't want it to seem like my questioning of the Bible is a rebellious questioning, and I won't be questioning everything I read. But I am an inquisitive person with millions of unasked questions coming to my mind each day. Questioning is how I learn. And I'm not afraid to have my faith shaken, shattered, redirected, or strengthened - as long as in the end I can solidly back my reasons for believing what I believe.
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