talking snake

[Confused Ape]

I see it as them being one with nature until they became self-aware, then the garden went to hell in a handbasket. Everything that was "good" became dualistic. I can also see the so-called punishments as simply being the consequense of a new thought process. Of course your interpretations may vary, but I'm not forcing anyone to adhere to my thoughts.

I see that as being symbolically true. The myth was developed by people who had no idea what caused natural disasters etc. They thought that bad things only happened to bad people so if things went wrong in their lives they put it down to being punished for sinning.

(this cherrypicker can also see the creation account as an almost accurate metaphor for the big-bang too).

I've always loved the first three verses of Genesis.

I found an interesting Comparison Between Egyptian And Hebrew Creation Myths using the Heliopolis version.

Day One Egyptian Version

- Creation of light
- In the beginning there was only water, a chaos of churning, bubbling water, this the Egyptians called Nu or Nun. It was out of Nu that everything began.
- Then the sun god Ra emerged out of primeval chaos, he came out of a blue giant lotus flower that appeared on the surface of the water.
- Ra gave light to the universe


Day One In Genesis

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

Day Five, Six And Seven

Creation of Life - Khnum created the living creatures on his potter's wheel.
- He modeled the animals, plants and people of the earth.
- A detailed description of how he created humans is found at Esna Temple. It describes how he orders the bloodstream to cover the bones, and makes the skin enclose the body. He then makes the respiratory system and the food digestion.
- In contrast with the Hebrew mythology, the work of Khnum was seen as a continuous task, he was seen as a deity sitting on his potter's wheel constantly working in creating life.

Knhum

In working with the silt, the very soil that the ancient Egyptian potters used, he became the great potter who not only molded men and women, but who molded the gods themselves and the world.

The ram-headed god was 'Lord of the Cataract' a god of the yearly inundation and the fertile black soil that came with the flood. Khnum was also seen as a fertility god because of his association with the fertile silt. Pottery was created out of the soil of the Nile, and it was believed that he created the first humans - and the gods - on his potter's wheel with this silt. In Iunyt (Esna) it was believed that it was he who molded the First Egg from which the sun hatched, and thus was a creator god who was 'Father of the Fathers of the Gods and Goddesses, Lord of Created Things from Himself, Maker of Heaven and Earth and the Duat and Water and the Mountains'.

Hmmm. The Hyksos were thrown out of Egypt and some of them ended up in Canaan.