A spiritual view of Genesis

RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress

Yes it is well known that *Eve* is blamed for the "sins of mankind" a terribly primitive and uneducated view but understandable in light of the reign of 6000 years of Patriarchy and the Male gods of its religions
The outer teachings of Torah./Pentateuch are extremely weighted towards the supremacy of the Male and of course much of that is depicted in the OT and it doesn't get much better with Paulian view of Christianity, followed by the Early Fathers of Roman Church.
The inner teachings of the Hebraic texts, depicted in the Sepher Yetzirah, Zohar and others, understand the intrinsic nature of the Female Principle in Creation, then in Formation and she was/is indeed the Life Giver.
There is of course much more to discuss on these first two Chapters; also on the Nasach, translated as the Shining One (or Serpent as it's commonly known) , but that's very involved.
But I'd like to say something on the meaning of *sin* and *evil* from inner teachings.

Sin very simply means separation, and as Adam Kadmon moves from the world of Emanation, or Divine Thought, to Creation, Formation then to the Fall the more "sin" or separation occurs.

Evil is a bit more complex.
In the context of Chapter 1 v 31:

...and behold it (creation) was good...

*evil* did not form part of this creation, as opposed to previous creations that were not perfect and had to be "destroyed". But in the destruction of previous creations the "shells" somehow got mixed up with the latter worlds and they became the demons and fallen ones.
Another meaning of *evil* is when it's used in relation to the Tree of Life...the pillars or sides are depicted as Good and Evil
The two sides are the Force and Form kept in check by Love ( Life)... or the positive and negative polarities of existence.
When the negative side becomes unbalanced then unfortunately the biblical term of Evil is used.
Words of this kind do become emotive and can be used to hurt and destroy....in my view it's helpful to check the etymology of such words to understand their true meanings.

astra

RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress

Hi Astra,

Thank you very much for this - looks fascinating! I have printed it out and will certainly get back to you after I have digested it.

Thanks very much,

Love,

Judy

RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress

Dear Astra,

Well, I’ve been delighted and really interested reading your posts above. I know only too well, how long it takes to research and type it all out and it is soul-destroying when you realise that others don’t bother to read what you write properly, so I have been trying to do you justice! It sounds like you (how do you say it?) are a student of Kabbalah? I think it’s wonderful how many faiths are finding that the mystic teachings (once obscure and buried) are now so much in demand! I love hearing Sufi teachings, but then most Muslims would probably say it’s not Islam…….

As you said:

there are enormous problems to the accuracy of Genesis, as the source knowledge of Creation within English translation...but there does remain seeds of truth within the words that are written there and can truly Inspire

Astra, I too am not a Bible scholar, but you’ve hit the nail on the head there. To me, it’s what inspires that is important. If what you are understanding brings healing and reformation and a complete transformation of your thinking, then what does it matter if the actual words are not exact original, so long as the meaning is there?

Mary Baker Eddy observed:

The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like all other languages, English is inadequate to the expression of spiritual conceptions and propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms in dealing with spiritual ideas. (Science & Health 349)

English is certainly less adequate than Hebrew which is the most spiritual language there is. I was doing some research about the word "love". There are three words for it in Greek, but I believe it was about 13 in Hebrew – although many are now out of usage.

four worlds of the Kabbalah ( inner teachings)
The first being the Divine world and the last being this world, the world of Action, with Creation and Formation being the second and third worlds.

That’s a very interesting concept! I only ever think of either the spiritual and real or the material and illusory.

The inner teachings say that the Elohim proceeded from the Three in One aspect of the Holy One and are the creator gods of Genesis 1 and are feminine in nature. They are six in number, and they create the six Days, resting within the Seventh, (always ready to begin the next Octave of Creation again)

Did you see the discussion I had with Venetian? He also pointed out that Elohim was Three in One – love the fact that they are feminine in nature! Mary Baker Eddy was aware of the plurality (even though Bible scholarship in the 19th C was not as advanced as it is today) This was her view:

The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe. The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor does it imply three persons in one. It relates to the oneness, the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love. (Science & Health 515)

In divine Science, we have not as much authority for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity. (S&H 517)

(That was blasphemous in the 19th Century!!)

The numerals of infinity, called seven days, can never be reckoned according to the calendar of time. These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of error forever disappears and thought accepts the divine infinite calculus. (S&H 520)

however the god depicted in this world of Formation proceeds from the Elohim and is known exoterically as Yahweh (from a combination of Yah, which is the father and Elohim, pertaining to the mother.) but that name has much more complexity to it and a study of the Tetragrammation describes the deep meaning behind that name and its function as part of the creative process.

That’s v

RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress

I have a delightfully readable book which I mentioned on the Book Review pages (and where to get it) It’s called The Search for God – A spiritual history of a race of men who loved God so deeply that they set out to inquire about Him It’s written by a Bible scholar called Marchette Chute.

I am totally in empathy with her views about Genesis. Here is the introductory bit:

The first three chapters of the Book of Genesis have been discussed with more passion and fewer results than any other part of the Old Testament. They have been proven to be everything from God’s express and final revelation on the subject of his own creation to a re-working of the old Babylonian legend of Marduk with elements from the Sumerian thrown in. They have been compared with each other and found contradictory; they have been compared with scientific discoveries and found inaccurate; and they have been the storm center of a series of controversies that have ultimately proven nothing.

The weakness of all these explanations is that they ignore the fundamental problem that the three chapters present, a problem which is obvious to the most casual reader and yet one for which no satisfactory explanation has ever been given.

The first three chapters of the Book of Genesis do not tell of one creation of the world. They tell of two. In the first chapter and continuing into the second, God creates the world. Then, beginning with the fourth verse of the second chapter, another God creates a different kind of a world altogether.

This second creation is not an amplification or continuation of the first one. Everything has been "finished" (Gen. ii.1) in the first creation, including man, and the work has been pronounced "good." (Gen. i.31) Whereupon a new creator with a different title appears and makes man and the world all over again, by a different method and with different results.

These two creations stand side by side in the Book of Genesis, without connective and without explanation. Mankind is given two origins and two deities, and there is no suggestion in the text of how the two may be reconciled. They cannot, in fact, be reconciled. There is no point of contact between the two creators or between the two creations.
The Search for God by Marchette Chute.

RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress

Day 17

Now it’s Adam’s turn to be cursed and sentenced to a life of toil and trouble and hardship right up to death. Like with Eve’s curse, can you see how this could have affected global thought and expectation?

This translation from the Message Bible is vivid:

[Genesis 3: 17-19
The very ground is cursed because of you;
getting food from the ground
Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife:
you’ll be working in pain all your life long.
The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,
you’ll get your food the hard way,
Planting and tilling and harvesting,
sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,
Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;
You started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt."

The word Adam is from the Hebrew adamah, signifying the red color of the ground, dust, nothingness. Divide the name Adam into two syllables, and it reads, a dam, or obstruction........ Here a dam is not a mere play upon words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the supposed separation of man from God, and the obstacle which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and his creator. (Science and Health 338)

Even before the "fall" in the allegory of the Adam-dream, Adam had found himself in a beautiful garden which he had to dress and keep (quite pleasurable and certainly not as bad as toil!) and fruit was provided for food (although of course he was prohibited from eating that tree of the knowledge of good and evil.) Now of course, he’s been tempted and is being punished for it and not only that, but men for the rest of time are being punished, by this weak, vengeful god, sentenced to a lifetime of toil and burden!!

So, let’s compare all this with the spiritual account of Creation in Genesis 1. This is from The Message again:

Genesis 1:28
God blessed them.
"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
For every living thing that moves on the face of the earth."

Then God said, "I’ve given you
Every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
Given them to you for food."

All the good, the perfection, the completeness, the supply which is blessed is already here and then comes that word BUT and then the contradiction comes onto the scene. Doesn’t it often seem like that in life? Everything is going so well and it seems something just has to come up to ruin it all! Don’t accept it! This is just part of the Adam-dream - it is not the reality of Life which is all-good!

Our spiritual selfhood, God’s likeness, doesn’t have to toil - all we need is already supplied. We are blessed. We are given dominion and authority over all material beliefs and limitations.