Genesis Rejuvenated - Explanations and Commentary on Verbatim Interpretations of the Bible.

Day Seven

On the seventh day, the powers-that-be set an example for all of us to follow. They take time to rest, and wash and pray. Later chapters of the Bible codify this into a rule - everyone in the community is both entitled and obligated to rest on the seventh day of the week.

Compared to the first six, the story of the seventh day is told in a very different way. In the beginning of days one through six, the powers-that-be annunciate their common vision of what should be done; then, each participant executes its agreed-upon function. In contrast, the seventh day verse is pure narrative, describing the fact that everything on heaven and earth rest from all of their processes and labors. When you read the ancient verse, word for word, you see a storytelling substance and style that is so different that you can sense the hand of a different writer at work.

The Persian shows the Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster, the law-giver of Persia, and calls it the divine law; the Bramin shows the Shaster, revealed, he says, by God to Brama, and given to him out of a cloud; the Jew shows what he calls the law of Moses, given, he says, by God, on the Mount Sinai; the Christian shows a collection of books and epistles, written by nobody knows who, and called the New Testament; and the Mahometan shows the Koran, given, he says, by God to Mahomet: each of these calls itself revealed religion, and the only true Word of God, and this the followers of each profess to believe from the habit of education, and each believes the others are imposed upon.

But when the divine gift of reason begins to expand itself in the mind and calls man to reflection, he then reads and contemplates God and His works, and not in the books pretending to be revelation. The creation is the Bible of the true believer in God. Everything in this vast volume inspires him with sublime ideas of the Creator. The little and paltry, and often obscene, tales of the Bible sink into wretchedness when put in comparison with this mighty work.

-THOMAS PAINE-

We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth that religion, or the duty which we owe our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The religion, then, of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man: and
that it is the right of every man to
exercise it as these may dictate.

-JAMES MADISON-

In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot … they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and
jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and
therefore the safer engine for their purpose.

-THOMAS JEFFERSON-

The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. And ever since the reformation, when or where has existed a protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate a free inquiry? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded.

But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets
will swarm about your eyes and hand,
and fly into your face and eyes.

-JOHN ADAMS-

I have undertaken to translate the Bible…. This was good for me; otherwise I might have diedin the mistaken notion that I was a learned fellow.

-MARTIN LUTHER-

Of publishing a book on religion, my dear sir, I never had an idea. I should as soon think of writing for the reformation of Bedlam, as of the world of religious sects. Of these there must be, at least, ten
thousand, every individual of every one of
which believes all wrong but his own.

-THOMAS JEFFERSON-

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says:
He is always convinced that it says what he means.

-GEORGE BERNARD SHAW-

Adam and Eve - Creation begins in conception.

Adam and Eve - Can we swim through the sea and up to the sky?

Adam and Eve - Plants seed seeds to reproduce themselves upon the Earth eternally.

Adam and Eve - The sun rules the day. It should not rule you.

Adam and Eve - The moon pulls the tides. It will not sway me.

Adam and Eve - We are over creatures more ancient and powerful than we are.

Adam and Eve - Cast in the mold of Elohim, male and female, side by side.

One possibility - God Dictated the Bible to Moses on Mount Sinai

No one knows for sure when the words of the Bible were first spoken by human beings or what language those people spoke. It is likely that Bible verse was chanted aloud and handed down orally from generation to generation for thousands of years before it was ever committed to writing.

Of course, There is a tradition that God dictated the first five books of the bible to Moses on Mt Sinai. While the Bible does not have a title page stating “God dictated these books to Moses” it does include passages that are consistent with this position; For example, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words; for after the tenor of these words, I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel”, (Exodus 34-27). Of course, it is hard to say whether, passages like this one refer just to the commandments or to the entire Bible.

Theologically, the Moses tradition complements the vision of God as a super-powered individual in a top-down relationship with human beings. This theology is widespread; many people believe that God rules man and gives man rules. Many people who see God this way also believe the Moses legend to be true and even believe that God has guided the hand of their favorite translation.

It is, of course, comforting to believe that the things you believe came from God’s lips to your ears. Since many people who think this way are actively involved in Jewish and Christian religious establishments, the Moses tradition is now widely accepted among modern Jews and Christians.

A probability – the Bible records a sacred covenant of the people for the people

Most Biblical scholars agree that the Bible was written by several authors. The Bible does not have a title page stating, “Several authors wrote these books,” but a careful reading of the original text does show different writing styles, dialects and world views. The scholarly consensus is that at least four different authors working in different eras and locations composed and/or recorded the Bible, and that these writers were amalgamating, synthesizing and transcribing the prevalent oral traditions of their day. Scholars have estimated the dates and locations in which the various authors worked.

Theologically, the multiple authors view compliments the vision of God as collective intelligence. Since moral imperatives are not personified into the form of any one being, there is no top down legislation. Instead, our collective human wisdom drives us to identify moral principles and codify laws. In this theology, the Bible’s power grows from the fact that it represents an agreement among the greater community, not from the claim that a supremely super-powered being dictated it.

In this sense, the Bible represents the first great social covenant. People with insight into the collective wisdom of their communities wrote the scriptures. Their communities ratified the Bible with their hearts and minds and feet. They took the Bible’s lessons to heart and agreed to live by its rules and taught its verses to their children and grandchildren for generations on end.

The Powers-That-Be Support Democracy

Biblical scholars agree that Genesis One was composed centuries after the later chapters. Those later chapters portray God with a human personality and relate stories of super-human exploits. They date back to the tenth century BCE, to the kingly courts of David and Solomon – to the time when the power of Israel’s monarchy reached its zenith. Scribes who worked for Kings like David and Solomon presented a top-down theology in which a super-powered male God appointed a super-naturally powered King to rule the people. In their version of this portion of Israel’s history, victories came with God’s power supporting His favorite nation. Defeats followed the failure of His chosen people to abide by His rules and follow His leaders.

This is not to say that the scribes just made this all up at the direction of their King. What they were doing was selecting specific stories from a wide and rich tradition. They chose those stories that best reflected the wisdom of the community at the time, that is, “we are doing fine under the leadership of a wise and powerful monarch”.

But five centuries later, the Babylonians had conquered Israel and destroyed its Temple. Genesis One was written by rabbis living in exile in Babylon under the rule of a foreign king with a different religion. Obviously the idea that God appoints kings is unappealing to people who are enslaved by a foreign monarch.

By 500 BCE, the time had come for Israel’s theology to transform from top down to bottom up. The rabbis presented an alterative theology that better represented the collective wisdom of their tribe at the time. Genesis One begins with moral principles. Moral principles persist despite practical misfortunes.

Moreover, in Genesis One, the system of cooperative planning by the powers-that-be leads naturally to the concept of a social covenant. In a social covenant, moral laws and legitimate authority came from an agreement among community members to abide by laws and obey their government. In this sense, Genesis One is a revolutionary leap forward from all of the ancient traditions from all over the world.

Monarchs like Monotheism

So, the Bible and its history evidence two schools of religious thought. One holds that the powers-that-be delegated an example how to self govern. The other holds that God dictated the Bible to Moses thus handing down laws and authority from above.

Philosophically, the multiple author school is consistent with the principles of democratic government. Historically, the dictation school has been embraced by certain religious and political leaders who illegitimately leveraged the Bible to position themselves above their fellow men and women.

King James was one of those illegitimate leaders. James was King of England in the early 1600’s. He never won an election. James’ power came from two sources: he inherited control of the of the army and police, and lots of people – even some pretty smart ones – believed that God, personally, selected James, specifically, to have dominion over every person, place and thing in England.

The beauty of the system was that James didn’t have to use his police to force every person in his monarchy to obey his every whim, because many people believed that by obeying him, they were obeying Him. It’s great to be King. The police only had to imprison, torture and/or murder those few brave souls who openly questioned the bizarre proposition that God delegated dominion to an inbred crumpet eater.

Of course

William Tyndale believed that the way to God was through His Word, and that scripture should be available to all, even to the common people. He was the first person to translate the Bible into English and publish it to a widespread readership. For the first time in the history of England, people could read the Bible for themselves, without the assistance of the clergy.

The King of England and the clergymen of the Church of England banned the Tyndale translation and William Tyndale was, of course, burned at the stake.

Not Surprisingly

In 1611, King James ordered the Church of England to translate, print and distribute a “definitive” Bible. Not surprisingly, James’ Bible portrays God and depicts the events of creation in ways that are consistent with the immoral philosophy used to enforce the monarch’s power over the people of England. Specifically, James’ Bible portrayed God as a supremely powerful man – just like a king is – who sometimes does things that make no sense to anybody with any intelligence – just like a king does. Moreover, the King’s Bible conjures up the image of a super powered male God creating a male human being in his physical image. This makes it easy to line up the Sacred Scripture in support of the big fat lie that God delegates dominion to kings and their kids.

Unfortunately, the legend of God dictating the Bible to Moses (and supervising centuries of translation) discourages people from questioning even the most unjust and incoherent parts of King James version. Subsequent translations, while attempting to modernize and alter parts of the King’s Bible, nevertheless hold fast to the singular god-as-male- and sometimes-capricious perspective which persists to this day.

Sadly, to this day, illegitimate political leaders wrap themselves in misprinted pages of the Bible when they are trying to sell in immoral wars and disastrous economic policies. Just as ill-tempered religious leaders misquote Bible passages when they are trying to sell-in unjust ethical positions.

We the people

You do not have to reject your God-given intelligence to embrace the scientific insights of our God-given Bible. All you have to do is bypass later translations and let the ancient scripture speak for itself. Then you can see that the people who wrote the Bible understood and recorded scientific insights that were centuries ahead of their time.

Morally and politically, the same is true. You need not reject your God-given right to self govern in order to abide by the fundamental moral principle of our God-given Bible. The fundamental moral principle of the Bible is community self governance. The great faith of the Bible is in democracy. The Bible represents an agreement among people to abide by written rules which reflect the morals of their community.

Genesis One shows how nature’s powers and elements work together to create and develop the world. The idea of powers-that-be agreeing to a common plan and working as one corresponds to the fundamental principle of the United States Constitution – e pluribus unum –“from many, one”. Modern Americans, following the ancient Jewish model, write and ratify laws in accordance with common principles and procedures expressed in a written Constitution. In this sense, the ancient religious covenant and modern democratic constitutions share a common moral and political foundation and a community-wide agreement that we will rule ourselves for the common good based on the collective wisdom of our community.

Power to the People

The Bible says and shows how we, the human race, can transform the earth into a very good place for ourselves, our children and for our fellow creatures…

During the first five days of creation, the powers that be repeatedly visualize, vocalize and cooperatively execute each stage of the process of organizing, the clouds, the seas, the land, the plants, and the animals. So closely are these primal powers aligned in vision, verse and execution that we can best understand them as a single entity.

Then, on day six, the powers-that-be delegate the job of supervising the earth and all its creatures to humankind – giving us quite clear and wise instructions: prioritize the children, shepherd the animals, and tend to the earth.

The Bible seems to say that, on earth, the human race – when working together – plays the role that the powers-that-be play in the entire universe. The Bible gives us a model for how to play that role, to do as the powers-that-be do – collectively visualizing, vocalizing and executing plans for making the earth a very good place for all of us, for our children and for our fellow creatures. The powers-that-be have given us the raw materials and the models, now it is in our hands to work together to use them.