A Deep Dive into Scripture
Did God say …? You will not die…! Gen 3:1, 4-5 God “spoke” all creation into being through “words.” The snake, who we have previously identified as a “demonophany,” the “dark side” of the Theophany motif in the Garden, attempts to undo creation by deceitful words. Since evil has no necessary existence independent of God’s … Read more
The story of Adam and Eve with the snake is disarmingly simple. We may dismiss it outright as ridiculously unscientific and impossible to believe or to take seriously. However, it refuses to go away. In fact, it demands to be taken at face value. The human race most certainly had an origin, and even though … Read more
Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. Gen. 3:1 We have seen that God created His great temple from the very chaotic elements of the watery deep, formless earth, and darkness. The great paradox is that He created something so firm and enduring on something … Read more
It is not Good that Man should be Alone; I will make him a helper to fit him. Gen. 2:18 The fact that Adam was in original solitude without a helper is repeated twice and acts like “bookends” to the creation and naming of animals (2:18 and 20). The primary meaning is obvious; Adam needs … Read more
It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper to fit him. Gen. 2:18 The most startling implication of this Scripture above is that creation, and even God Himself, is not enough for Adam. Why is this? We conclude with St. John Paul II in his magisterial Theology of … Read more
…for in the day that you eat of it you shall die. Gen. 2:17 As we view Genesis 1 and 2, we find that God made all things that make up His cosmic temple “good,” but not “good” in a finished sort of way. He left the three elements of chaos ─ darkness, the watery … Read more
God made the world binary. Everything comes in twos, whether in sets like man/woman, opposites like black/white, or dark side/bright side in positive-negative contrasts. Pagans observed this latter phenomenon and naturally concluded that reality was dualistic, where good and evil always existed alongside each other as equal powers, and are in eternal conflict. Their pantheons … Read more
… the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:9) Trees tend to be mere plants to us westerners with little or no spiritual symbolism. Not so with the Hebrews, and for that matter, all ancient peoples. Trees always had … Read more
And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food … Gen 2:9 It is, therefore, evident that the opinion is false of those who asserted that it made no difference to the truth of the faith what anyone holds about creatures, … Read more
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the East; and there he put the man he had formed (Gen. 2:8). This grand universe is the cosmic Temple of God! This is the essence of Genesis One. Every inch of it is full of His glory, for He fills all things (Jeremiah 23:23). … Read more