Genesis 3

[IATIA]

What's more verse 22 tells us that before the fell from grace A&E were immortal.

"and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"

Why then the concern that Adam and Eve might eat of the tree of life if they were already immortal?

[Drich]

What's more verse 22 tells us that before the fell from grace A&E were immortal.

"and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"

Why then the concern that Adam and Eve might eat of the tree of life if they were already immortal?

Keep reading my post.

[C4RM5]

Genesis 3:

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

I was going through Genesis again for the lulz, and started thinking about this. The reason that god gives for kicking people out of Eden is that they could eat of the tree of life and be immortal. That they wouldn't need him "the man has become as one of us," God says. Nowhere in this is sin mentioned. Only fear and trepidation.

By the by, notice the plural "us" that is used. Who is God talking to?

There's also the implication that since the man does not have eternal life that he would have died anyway even without eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. So god is a liar too.

I think the "us" is reference to the trinity and if you read beyond the first book the is a great deal of talk about enternal life

[robvalue]

We call it the big book of multiple choice. It is so vague and contradictory that you can pull out whatever verses you like, and can interpret them to mean whatever you like. People have evidently done this repeatedly, hence the thousands of Christian denominations. This leaves two possibilities:

1) The perfect word of God is so badly written that not only do people completely disagree on what it means, they have been prepared to kill each other over it. God is OK with this and makes no attempt at correction or clarification.

2) It's just a book written by men who wanted to control people.

This is before you bring in all the other gods, which you dismiss as made up after no thought at all, just like their followers do to yours.

---

To quote the master Matt D:

You can't all be right, but you can all be wrong.

[strawdawg]

Us refers to the God head.

[abaris]

I think the "us" is reference to the trinity and if you read beyond the first book the is a great deal of talk about enternal life

Yeah, multiple personality disorder.

Also, the concept of trinity is far from original.

Egypt’s history is similar to Sumeria’s in antiquity. In his Egyptian Myths, George Hart, lecturer for the British Museum and professor of ancient Egyptian heiroglyphics at the University of London, shows how Egypt also believed in a ‘transcendental, above creation, and preexisting’ one, the god Amun. Amun was really three gods in one. Re was his face, Ptah his body, and Amun his hidden identity (24). The well-known historian Will Durant concurs that Ra, Amon, and Ptah were ‘combined as three embodiments or aspects of one supreme and triune deity’ (Oriental Heritage 201). Additionally, a hymn to Amun written in the 14th century BC defines the Egyptian trinity: ‘All Gods are three: Amun, Re, Ptah; they have no equal. His name is hidden as Amun, he is Re... before [men], and his body is Ptah’ (Hornung 219).

That's only one preexisting trinity in the region where jews adopted Yahweh. Also, when we're talking Genesis and the belief of the jews, we're not even at trinity's door. The jewish belief doesn't accept the trinity.

In contrast, Judaism is strongly monotheistic with no hint of a trinity. The Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) is filled with scriptures such as ‘before Me there was no God formed, Neither shall any be after Me’ (#Isa 43:10 qtd. in Isaiah), and ‘there is no other God...I am the Lord and there is none else’ (#Isa 45:14,18 qtd. in Isaiah). A Jewish commentary affirms that ‘[no] other gods exist, for to declare this would be blasphemous...’ (Chumash 458). Even though ‘Word,’ ‘Spirit,’ ‘Presence,’ and ‘Wisdom’ are used as personifications of God, Biblical scholars agree that the Trinity is neither mentioned nor intended by the authors of the Old Testament (Lonergan 130; Fortman xv; Burns 2).

That concept only came up with christianity and was again influenced by Greek and Roman culture.

These were not the only trinities early Christians were exposed to. The historical lecturer, Jesse Benedict Carter, tells us of the Etruscans. As they slowly passed from Babylon through Greece and went on to Rome (16-19), they brought with them their trinity of Tinia, Uni, and Menerva. This trinity was a ‘new idea to the Romans,’ and yet it became so ‘typical of Rome’ that it quickly spread throughout Italy (26). Even the names of the Roman trinity: Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, reflect the ancestry. That Christianity was not ashamed to borrow from pagan culture is amply shown by Durant: ‘Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it’ (Caesar 595).

[Natachan]

The trinity is a Christian concept. The book of genesis makes no mention of such a concept. It does make mention of multitudes in heaven, and of physical Gods. The God portrait painted by Genesis is a very human one. And I'm basing this on the text.

Also, bullshit they were immortal before. God states specifically that they weren't. The text doesn't support that they were. They had not eaten of the tree of life, so they were not immortal. There is no justification in the text of genesis to see any other meaning. God lied. He lies from time to time in the bible, it happens.

But then again, I'm simply reading the text as written. :p

[robvalue]

Why would you do that? :p

[Natachan]

Why would you do that? :p

Honesty. I'm not gonna project my BS onto the text. Let it stand on its own.

[robvalue]

It is quite amazing how words that aren't there are visible to Christians.

Someone called into the atheist experience claiming the bible had scientific knowledge of atoms. And of tectonic plate movement. Obviously he was full of shit when he produced the verses he thought described this.

I mean... If God knows everything, the fact that he may get 1 out of every 10 things he writes down right is not impressive. Especially if you have to take liberties with the text to even get that 1.