Monday, February 24, 2014

Questions in Genesis

We've spent the last couple of months exploring the early chapters of Genesis (1-4 and 12) at our church, this Sundays sermon is given over to a Q&A on any of the issues that the series has raised. Here are a few of the questions sent in so far:

  1. If Adams family were the only family on earth, how did his sons find women to marry who were not from his own family? It’s curious that Adam didn’t have daughters.
  2. Why did God allow Adam and Eve the choice of good and evil when the world was already perfect?
  3. Why didn’t God make men and women equal (Eve was created to be a helper)?
  4. Why did God choose a rib to form a woman?
  5. What does the Church of England teach about man being a separate creation from the animals?
  6. Why were we not meant to have knowledge if we were made in God’s image?
  7. Why put the tree of knowledge and the tree of life there. You know the consequences of someone eating the fruit of either tree so put them somewhere else that Man isn't going to pick the fruit from them.
  8. If you really wanted to mess with God's creation, why pick the tree of knowledge to point Eve at to pick fruit from. If eating the tree of life would give them a lifespan that, when combined with what they'd gained from the tree of knowledge, would make them like gods, then getting them to eat the fruit from the tree of life would cause lots more problems because if everybody lived extremely long lives then the Earth would reach the point where it couldn't support everybody far too quickly and it would be a horrible place to live. Nobody dying but still having to feed and look after everybody. Think Torchwood Miracle Day
Great, I'll have to watch Torchwood as part of my sermon prep... 

What would you answer? What questions would you ask?

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3 comments:

  1. Andy DM25/2/14 5:39 am

    On (1), Adam did have daughters, Genesis 5:4. The Bible doesn't name any and it's not clear if any of them is Cain or Seth's wife. The verse about Adam's daughters does appear after the verse about Cain's wife but Genesis isn't strictly chronological at that point, the whole of Genesis 5 has the feel of a footnote on Adam's family tree.

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  2. David Keen25/2/14 9:09 am

    Thanks Andy, I have a mental image of the early chapters of Genesis being written by two people, a storyteller and a family history buff, who keep elbowing each other out of the way to write their bit.

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  3. David Wilson25/2/14 1:45 pm

    For Q3 you might have a look at this: http://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/creation-and-sexuality/ (just out!) which has some interesting comments on the Hebrew lying behind 'helper' and 'suitable for'.

    For Q4, there is the old saying: God did not take Eve from Adam's head that she should rule over him, nor from his foot that he should rule over her, but from her side that they should rule together.

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