Podcasts about enuma

Enuma Okoro, is a Nigerian-American author, essayist, curator and lecturer.  She is a weekend columnist for The Financial Times where she writes the column, “The Art of Life,” about art, culture and how we live. And is the curator of the 2024 group exhibition, “The Flesh of the Earth,” at Hauser & Wirth gallery in Chelsea, New York. Her broader research and writing interests reflect how the intersection of the arts and critical theory, philosophy and contemplative spirituality, and ecology and non-traditional knowledge systems can speak to the human condition and interrogate how we live with ourselves and others. Her fiction and poetry are published in anthologies, and her nonfiction essays and articles have been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Aeon, Vogue, The Erotic Review, The Cut, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Bazaar, NYU Washington Review, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and more. Her Substack, "A Little Heart to Heart" is a labyrinth towards interiority, exploring the fine line between the sacred and the ordinary in our daily lives. Find it at Enuma.substack.com and learn more about Enuma  at www.enumaokoro.comIn this conversation, we explore Enuma's journey, the ways myth, art, and storytelling shape us, and how we can use them as tools to reimagine both our personal and collective realities.  For more information on the MythMaker Podcast Network and Joseph Campbell, visit JCF.org. To subscribe to our weekly MythBlasts go to jcf.org/subscribeThe Podcast With A Thousand Faces is hosted by Tyler Lapkin and is a production of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. It is produced by Tyler Lapkin. Executive producer, John Bucher. Audio mixing and editing by Charles Mallett.All music exclusively provided by APM Music (apmmusic.com)

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In this final episode of the season, we are joined by none other than the author of 'Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent' herself, Enuma Okoro!! Enuma joins Charity, Colleen, and Jeff to share the inspirations behind her book, personal insights on faith, the significance of untold stories in the Bible, and the challenges of maintaining faith. Continuing with our Advent story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, they discuss the challenges and blessings of waiting on God's “inconvenient timing.” The four also reflect on God's presence in everyday life and the importance of recognizing divine manifestations in people and situations we least expect.   This season, as Advent falls on the heels of a contentious election season here in America and amidst the reality of war and violence around the world, we here at the Transforming Center wanted to approach the Advent podcast season with the awareness that many people are deeply in need of space and hope right now. TC staff member Charity McClure and ministry partners Jeff James and Colleen Powell will be walking listeners through Advent with the intention of broadening and deepening the practice and experience of silence as a way to hold that space. Using Enuma Okoro's book 'Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent, which highlights the story of Elizabeth and Zachariah, for inspiration and wisdom, Charity and Jeff will be joined by guests as they explore themes of lament, barrenness, waiting, dependence on God, community, friendship, and hope.   Enuma Okoro is a Nigerian-American author, writer, lecturer, curator, and arts and culture critic. Her globally read column, “The Art of Life,” reflects her broader research and writing interests: how the intersection of art, philosophy, spirituality, ecology and culture can speak to the human condition and interrogate how we live with ourselves and one another, and how we relate to the more-than-human. She has contributed to a number of different publications and is the author of Reluctant Pilgrim and Silence and other Surprising Invitations of Advent. You can find more from her over on her substack A Little Heart to Heart, Letters about life and living, art and spirit, and staying curious and courageous. Mentioned in this episode: Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent by Enuma Okoro (You can also purchase this resource through The Upper Room!) Enuma's Substack A Little Heart to Heart Poem reference:  Gerard Manley Hopkins' Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places   Music Credit: Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist Journey from Advent Music in Solitude Help us expand our online and digital presence so that we can make teaching, practices and experiences more accessible for you as you continue to seek God in your life and leadership! To contribute towards our year end fundraising efforts, you can GIVE HERE.   Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive special bonus episodes that take the conversation deeper with a practice or continued dialogue.  Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!     The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.   *this post contains affiliate links

Updated April 15, 2021: This topic of the "firmament" is also of great interest to atheists. A popular anti-creationist made a 40-minute YouTube video critical of this article. We may have hit a nerve. A favorite claim of many atheists is that the Bible teaches that the earth is surrounded by a solid domed sky. Instead, the Bible actually teaches that the firmament of Day Two is the crust of the earth, which divided water below the crust from the waters on the surface. Documenting this thereby rebuts that widespread false allegation. When we first published this article, that extra bonus was unexpected. So we've embedded and responded to Brett Palmer's video including by pointing out that the Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, below, corroborates this understanding of the "firmament" as first referring to the earth's crust (i.e., biblically, to paradise, to heaven on earth). And we show that the Bible's Hebrew word for firmament, raqia, from the verb raqa, refers not only to the heavens above, but explicitly, to the crust of the earth. And we present the meaning of the Syrian geographical place name, Raqqa, and extend to antiquity the etymology of the English word, rock. At Real Science Radio (which airs on America's most-powerful radio station), we teach Dr. Walt Brown's Hydroplate Theory as the best understanding of the global flood, geology and the relevant scriptures. If the following is correct, all flood models based on the "canopy theory" and "plate tectonics" are false.On Day Two God Made the Crust of the Earth: Dr. Walt Brown's Hydroplate Theory helps to understand the global flood, geology and the relevant scriptures. On Day Two of creation, God formed the crust of the earth, called the firmament (Hebrew: raqia), which extended for miles above a worldwide subterranean ocean, and the crust of course also held waters upon its surface. If this is true, we would expect to read in the Bible that initially, the surface of the earth was covered only with water, and that then God made the earth's crust above the water. And consistent with the Hydroplate Theory (which describes a layer of water at least one-mile thick that was perhaps dozens of miles below the earth's surface), in fact the Bible teaches that God: - "In the beginning God created... the earth. ...and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:1-2). Then God, - "laid out (raqa) the earth above the waters" (Psalm 136:6). And, - "by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth [was] standing out of water and in the water" (2 Peter 3:5). - "Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament" (Gen. 1:7). So, "The earth is the Lord's... For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters" (Ps.24:1-2). Where the Water Came From: The global flood then began when those "fountains of the great deep were broken up" (Gen. 7:11) for the pre-flood earth had been "standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water" (2 Peter 3:5-6). Those waters had been stored up for global judgment if needed. For when "the heavens were made," the Bible says of much of the Earth's water back then that God "lays up the deep in storehouses" (Ps. 33:6-7; see also Prov. 8:27-28). For God created not only the surface waters, for He "made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters" (Rev. 14:7 KJV [as with many versions; some like the NKJV say "springs of water"). Dr. Brown's book, In the Beginning, demonstrates powerfully that the world's major geologic features flow logically from these initial conditions. But some creationists who disagree point out that, "God called the firmament Heaven" (Gen. 1:8), claiming that this firmament must be either the atmosphere (e.g., Henry Morris) or outer space (e.g., Russell Humphreys). Heaven on Earth, Hell Beneath: However at RSR we show that, whether figurative or literal, the crust of the earth is the boundary between heaven and hell. It is consistent with Biblical history that God would originally call the crust of the earth "heaven." For at creation, "He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble (Job 26:10-11). And then, "He divideth (not raqa but raga) the sea with his power" (Job 26:12 KJV, Jubilee, Websters, etc.). God designated the region below the crust as the initial abode of those who may pass away. Hell is the holding prison for the unrepentant dead. "Hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming" (Isa. 14:9; etc.). For the newly-made earth, the Lord logically referred to everything from the crust and above as heaven. Hence dozens of verses indicate that heaven also refers to the earth's atmosphere as in "rain from heaven," the "dew of heaven," "birds of heaven," "dust from the heaven," city walls "fortified up to heaven," smoke rises "to the midst of heaven," "the heavens are shut" in drought, "frost of heaven," "clouds of heaven," "snow from heaven," "hail from heaven," and the east winds "blow in the heavens." Thus even after the Fall, from Genesis and Job, through the Gospels, Acts and Revelation, the Bible continued to refer to the atmosphere, one molecule above the ground, as heaven. Apart from this understanding, a Bible student might think that while the surface of the Moon is in "heaven", that the paradise God made on the surface of the Earth is not. Also, the Bible's thirty-two occurrences of the phrase "kingdom of heaven" appear only in the royal Gospel of Matthew, and some of these (Mat. 11:12; 13:24 with Mat. 13:38; 16:19; Mat. 18:1 with Luke 9:46; etc.) locate this kingdom of "heaven" at least partially on earth. Lucifer Fell from Heaven on Earth: "God called the firmament Heaven," because the earth's crust formed the boundary between heaven and the future hell. The firmament also divided the waters of the earth (Gen. 1:2, 6) which even reserved the floodwaters of judgment below ground. For God "lays up the deep in storehouses" so "let all the earth fear the Lord," (Ps. 33:7-8), because He "shut in the sea with doors" until in the flood "it burst forth and issued from the womb," (Job. 38:8). But after the Fall, which likely occurred within a week of Creation, earth lost its heavenly designation, for apparently God will never fully replicate the first earth. Only two detailed Bible stories involve happenings that occured prior to the Fall, the creation account and the record of Lucifer's fall. And both of these events refer to earth as heaven. Isaiah 14:12 describes "Lucifer" as "fallen from heaven," yet Scripture places him on earth at the moment of his fall. "You were in Eden, the garden of God," (Ezek. 28:13). And "you have said in your heart: "I will ascend into heaven... I will ascend above the heights of the clouds," (Isa. 14:13-14). "Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit," (Isa. 14:15). Even though he was on earth, Lucifer fell "from heaven," because prior to the Fall, the surface of the earth was part of heaven's realm. * Bible Students Understand the Firmament, But Get Confused at 1:8: See this explained in this five-minute segment, in our 2-hour flood video, that begins at 48:30. Just click and the video will start at the correct point... Consider the flesh. Notice that just as gravity pulls our physical flesh down toward the center of the earth, the Fall created the world system which relentlessly pulls our spiritual flesh, drawing us down toward the lowest depths until death, and then the believer's released spirit soars upward to heaven, whereas the unbeliever's unfettered spirit falls downward, the firmament no longer keeping him out of Hades, thus his soul plummets into hell. C.S. Lewis wrote the preface to D.E. Harding's esoteric The Hierarchy of Heaven & Earth in which Harding wrote that "Hierarchy is... something like the ancient circles of heaven and earth and hell" (1952, p. 27), and that the "narrowest Hell would be widest Heaven if the Devil could only bring himself to turn round and look out from the Centre instead of in at himself" (p. 187). In the modern classic, Soul of Science, (1994, p. 38), Pearcey and Thaxton describe the view of Christian "medieval cosmology" that "at the very center of the universe was Hell, then the earth, then (moving outward from the center) the progressively nobler spheres of the heavens." Christians continue to affirm this hierarchy quoting Paul who was "caught up to the third heaven" (2 Cor 12:2), the first being the sky, the second is space, and the third God's habitation. King David even refers to the deep, as the "channels of the sea", where in the flood "the foundations of the world were uncovered", which were "the foundations of heaven" (2 Sam. 22:8, 16). Incidentally, the never-before-seen consequences of the flood caused the troubles David lists here. The lightnings, thunder, dark waters, thick clouds, darkness, volcanic eruptions, smoke, coal and fire, the earth shaking, and when the "channels of the sea appeared" only then the "foundations of the world were uncovered..." Moses Qualified His Last Four Uses of Firmament: Moses used the word firmament nine times in the creation account. He intentionally distinguished the last four occurrences from the first four, which all pivot around the central instance where God called the earth's firmament Heaven. Each of the four in the second grouping (Genesis 1:14, 15, 17, 20) is qualified separately by an exceptional repetition. The prepositional phrase "of the heavens" makes a distinction between the first firmament of the earth, and the second "firmament of the heavens." And if firmament means the "heavens," the very term "firmament of the heavens" would seem unnecessarily redundant, especially when repeated four times. However, the qualifier "of the heavens" is added so that the reader will not confuse this firmament of sky and space with the previous firmament of earth. Thus, readers alien to the notion of "heaven" on earth should nonetheless be able to separate the two firmaments, and understand God's meaning. Now, millennia after the Fall, God's own record of creation notwithstanding, sin has almost completely obscured the original perspective of the earth's surface as "heaven." The Things God Called Day and Earth: "God called the light Day." Yet like with the word firmament, Genesis has two very different meanings for light. Day 4 would be unintelligible without recognizing its initial meaning. "Then God made two great Days to rule the heavens"? No. The same is true for the dry land that "God called... Earth". If it had only one meaning, then the Earth would have been created on Day Two when the "Earth" appeared. Our Full Firmament Video: Above we pointed to a five-minute excerpt. Here's the full 30-minute segment out of our Global Flood video on raqia titled, Is the Day 2 firmament of Genesis the Earth's crust?: Kingdom of Heaven Lost on Earth: When man rebelled, earth became more like hell than heaven. Thus man's habitation on the surface of the earth lost its heavenly designation. The Bible describes Hell as below, bounded by the firmament. However in the beginning "God called the firmament Heaven" because that's where He placed Adam and Eve, above ground on the surface, in the heavens, in fellowship with Him, not in any other realm but in His kingdom, in heaven on earth. 2011 UPDATE - Atheists and the Solid Dome: YouTube anti-creationist Brett Palmer created a 40-minute rebuttal video (embedded here) of this little article on the firmament. Seems like we hit a nerve. Aside from Brett casting aspersions from the recently invented flat-earth myth, consider that as with many other atheists, he claims that the word firmament (Hebrew raqia) discredits the creation account by showing that Genesis cannot be God's Word because it merely echoes the ancient world's false belief in a solid domed sky above the earth. So, if raqia (firmament) refers not only to the heavens, but also to the crust of the earth, standing above a subterranean chamber of water, then atheists would lose a favorite argument. Raqia is the noun from the verb raqa meaning being hammered or spread out, as in working metal into a thin sheet or plate. "They beat (raqa) the gold into thin sheets" (Exodus 39:3). "The goldsmith overspreads (raqa) it with gold" (Isaiah 40:19; i.e., gold-plated). Similarly, God overspread the waters of the earth with the plates of the earth's crust, i.e., the firmament, what Walt Brown calls hydroplates. For "God made the firmament (raqia), and divided the waters which were under the firmament (raqia, the crustal plates) from the waters which were above the firmament" (Genesis 1:7). Please review again the verses listed below. For not only did God create "the sea and the fountains" (Rev. 14:7), if this understanding of raqia is is the Bible's actual meaning, then we would expect also to read that initially the surface of the earth was covered only with water, and that then God made the earth's crust above the water: - "In the beginning God created... the earth. ...darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Gen. 1:1-2 - God "laid out the earth above the waters" Ps. 136:6- "by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water" 2 Pet. 3:5 - "Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament." Gen. 1:7 "The earth is the Lord's... For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters." Ps. 24:1-2 When the Bible specifically links raqa to the earth (as in the passages below), and because words typically have multiple meanings, it is extreme to insist that raqia cannot refer to anything but the heavens. Genesis was written back when pagans wondered what held up the earth. Perhaps it rested on the back of a tortoise, or on a pillar, or was held up by Atlas. Yet the most ancient Scripture teaches that God, "hangs the earth on nothing" (Job 26:7), which is visually consistent with modern astronomical observation. For just as the firmament of the earth holds up the mountains, so too, the firmament "of the heavens" is strong enough to hold the earth.God Raqa the EARTH! Firmament (raqia) is used "of the heavens" commonly and eleven times the Bible speaks of God stretching out the heavens. Then there is something not included in the above video. Another three times the Bible says that God raqa the earth itself. This shows, unlike as stressed on YouTube, that raqia very naturally also refers to the earth. Dr. Walt Brown's book lists these verses but I'll repeat them here for Mr. Palmer's consideration: To Him who laid out (raqa) the earth above the waters… Ps. 136:6 Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth (raqa) the earth and that which comes from it… Isa. 42:5 “I am the Lord, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad (raqa) the earth by Myself;" Isa. 44:24 The firmament (raqia) of the creation account was iconic in ancient Israel, as the Tyndale Bible Dictionary says, "the firmament is always related to Creation." So the repetition and by two authors shows that the wording is deliberate. Thus these verses show an ancient awareness in Scripture that God raqa the Earth, that is, that His stretching out of the raqia of Genesis 1:8 readily refers to terra firma, or as the King James translators coined the word from the Latin, the firmament. Raqia and Heaven Both Refer Also to the Earth Raqa the Earth Heaven on Earth To Him who laid out (raqa) the earth above the waters...  Ps. 136:6 "He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble... He stirs up the sea with His power..." Job 26:10-12 Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth (raqa) the earth...  Isa. 42:5 "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Mat. 11:12; "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;" and "the field is the world..." Mat. 13:24, 38 I am the Lord... who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad (raqa) the earth by Myself  Isa. 44:24 "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" Mat. 16:19 [and 18:18] Etymology of Raqia: The word raqia relates to raqa as sharia (law) relates to shara'a (to ordain or decree). Further, the ancient Middle East commonly ended names in "ia," and in this particular example of early Hebrew usage, raqia, though not a proper name, is the name for something created by raqa. (Atheist Brett Palmer, though not especially reliable, does specifically agree with this explanation in his follow-up video.) Pillars of Heaven: Regarding the crust of the Earth being referred to as heaven, consider the "pillars" which formed beneath the crust, as Dr. Brown describes it, at many "locations, the [subterranean] chamber's sagging ceiling pressed against the chamber's floor. These solid contacts will be called pillars." Thus since they supported the Earth's surface, they could be referred to as "pillars of heaven", just beneath the surface, which would "tremble" when they were crushed in God's judgment of the great flood of Noah's day, When God, "stirs up the sea with His power", as Job put it. "He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble... He stirs up the sea with His power..." (Job 26:10-12). Earth's Foundation with Pillars Sunk into their Bases: This doesn't have to confuse Bible students. This five-minute segment at 1:04:22 depicts the pillars. Just click and the video will start at the correct point... * No One Before Or Since? Palmer says, virtually alleging omniscience for himself, that "no one before or since Enyart has ever asserted that two firmaments were created in the creation story." However, the nearly contemporaneous Babylonian creation epic states directly that heaven above and the "firm ground below" were called by the same name, that is, "heaven." First though consider Google. The claim then is that the term firmament refers to sky and space, and also to the sphere of the world. So, as the originator of this concept :) that firmament has two meanings, I am gratified that it's catching on. The Google results for "define:firmament" gives two meanings: The heavens or the sky, esp. when regarded as a tangible thing A sphere or world viewed as a collection of people * Not Half Bad and Not Half Right: Hey, for Google, that's not half bad, for the firmament (the Earth's surface) was called heaven so that Adam and Eve could be fruitful and multiply and fill the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Then regarding Palmer's claim that, "no one before or since Enyart has ever asserted that two firmaments were created," Dr. Brown's book credits "two pastors" with showing him this simple heaven-on-earth understanding of Genesis 1:8. The pastor before me later publishing a book on the topic: Paradise: Past, Present, and Future, and of course since then, Walt Brown too has adopted this understanding. >* Babylonian Creation Epic: The ancient pagan world had a corrupted memory of biblical accounts. Compare for example Egypt's sun god arising out of the waters of creation with, "God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light.'" Likewise the flood of Noah's day is remembered in Babylon's Epic of Gilgamesh. Also, the seven tablets of Enuma Elish similarities to the seven days of the creation week include man's creation on the sixth day which is presented on the sixth tablet. The first creation tablet describes the "waters commingling as a single body" when "no marsh land had [yet] appeared", reminiscent of the firmament dividing the waters (Gen. 1:6-7) and the dry land appearing (Gen. 1:9). The truth reported by Moses in Genesis 1:8a, that God called the firmament heaven (referring to the crust of the Earth, i.e., God's kingdom of heaven, on Earth) is emphasized in the first lines of the first Babylonian creation tablet which state, "When on high the heaven had not been named, Firm ground below had not been called by that name." That is, before the term "heaven" even applied to sky and space, before that not even the firmament below had yet been called that same name, i.e., heaven. (This translation, "firm ground below had not [yet] been called by that name", appears in old-earth Oxford Prof. John Lennox' book Seven Days that Divide the World. Importantly, after discussing this matter personally with Dr. Lennox, RSR can report that he does not agree with our Genesis 1:8 interpretation, so in no way would he publish a biased translation to make our point.) For as Moses wrote, "God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament... And God called the firmament Heaven... Then God said, '...let the dry land appear.'" So whereas atheist video maker Palmer (see above) says that "no one before or since Enyart has ever asserted that two firmaments were created in the creation story", Brett can now consider that this Babylonian Enuma Elish creation epic parallels the Hydroplate Theory's understanding of the firmament as referring also, and originally, to the "firm ground below" the heavens. And thus, because God raqa the Earth, by creating the raqia, that is, the solid rock crust of the Earth, therefore, the etymology of the English word rock can now be traced back much further than the medieval Latin rocca. Not surprisingly then, studying geography we find that root word in the names of various ancient places in the region. For example, in 2015 Raqqa hit the headlines as the capital city of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS. An accurate understanding of Genesis is essential for understanding early history. Thus we can now trace the etymology of our English word rock to that very Epic of Gilgamesh flood account, with Gilgamesh being the king of Uruk, located in the south of the modern nation with a name that means "deeply rooted, well-watered", for God placed the water deep under the raqia which explains the name of the ancient place, Iraq. (See also Bob's draft comments on the Enuma text.) * Countries, Regions, and Peoples Ending in A and IA: Why do so many place names end in ia? God raqa the raqia to give mankind a place to live on the face of the Earth. In the web's most complete list of place names that end in ia, see about 120 significant geographical regions that end with -a or -ia, and others that sound like they end in ia, like Kenya and Libya. (RSR maintains this list.) Consider also, not unlike the city of Raqqa and the country of Iraq, the continent of Africa may have a related etymology, and consider also that in Arabic afar means dust, earth. And the names of many lands that do not end in -ia, as Egypt, still give a nod to the suffix when referencing their people, as with Egyptian, Akkadian, Persian, and the more modern Caucasian, with -ian equating also to the -yan as discussed at rsr.org/yan such as Aryan (meaning from the Sun land).* Seven-Day Week: The worldwide use of a seven-day week results from the creation account. And those seven days are named for the heavenly bodies (Saturn, Sun, Moon, etc.) as God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years." (On a related topic we interviewed Scientific American editor and atheist Michael Shermer for Real Science Radio. That full show is so much fun to listen to.) "Dr. Shermer, while much of the ancient world was worshiping heavenly bodies, could you at least agree that the Bible is correct on page one, where it states that the Sun is a light?" [Moses was correct also when he taught in Deuteronomy that the planets and stars are not gods and should not be worshiped.] "So can you agree that the Bible is correct in Genesis chapter one, that the Sun is not a god, but a light?" To which Shermer infamously replied, which you can hear in this 73-second excerpt (and transcript) that the sun is not a light. Wow. It's often difficult to have a reasonable discussion with atheists. Also, the worldwide use of blood sacrifices resulted from God commanding Adam and Noah to sacrifice animals prefiguring the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. * A Solid Dome Sky Belief Widespread Yet Not Intuitive: As Wikipedia reports, "The notion of the sky as a solid object (rather than just an atmospheric expanse) was widespread among both ancient civilizations and primitive cultures, including ancient Greece, Egypt, China, India, native Americans, Australian Aborigines, and also early Christians. It is probably a universal human trait to perceive the sky as a solid dome." Retrieved 8-27-11. However, with the many varied movements in the heavens of the Sun, Moon, planets, stars, comets, and meteorites, it's not intuitive that so much of the whole world would end up believing that the Earth had a solid-domed sky. Except, of course, if the ancients who populated the world after the global flood were misunderstanding the raqia of Day Two as referring to the heavens instead of to the crust of the earth. Conclusion: So, the Bible speaks of Earth using the same term, raqia, as for the firmament "of the heavens" (clarified that way in Genesis 1). Yet when the paradise of Eden and God's Kingdom of Heaven on Earth became "filled with violence," mankind began to forget that God made earth as part of His Kingdom of heaven. Thus, what changed was the common use of the term heaven for the Earth. © 2007 - 2017 Bob Enyart, RSR.org.com * RSR's Global Flood and Hydroplate Theory: Here's our best-selling flood video which is available also on DVD, Blu-ray, and download. We hope you enjoy this: Email: From Walt Brown to Bob Enyart on March 22, 2005: "Dear Bob, I like your proposal concerning Genesis 1:8a, and after much thought, have decided to include it [in the 8th edition of In the Beginning]. I have credited Pastor Diego Rodriguez and you as the originators of this very attractive explanation. ... Thank you for sending me your explanation. -Walt" Biologos: Note that Francis Collins' theistic-evolution group BioLogos uses their misunderstanding of the firmament in their effort to diminish the authority of Genesis. For example, "Genesis... says things that are at odds with what modern people know to be true of the world... The other cosmologies from the ancient world depict some solid structure in the sky. The most natural explanation of the raqia is that it also reflects this understanding. There is no indication that Genesis is a novel description of the sky." In other words, Collins claims that Genesis' presentation of the firmament [in contrast to the biblical and historical insights above] equates to that of pagan myths. As old-earth Christians, they therefore reject the global flood and many other biblical teachings. See this explained in our Trading Genesis video: Bio: Bob Enyart co-hosts Real Science Radio and pastors Denver Bible Church. Bob first had a technical career working: - at McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company on the Army's Apache helicopter - as a systems analyst for "Baby Bell" U S West - as a program manager for Microsoft, and - as a senior analyst for PC Week Bob became a believer in 1973, entered full-time Christian work in 1989, and in 1991 began hosting a daily show on America's most powerful Christian radio station, the 50,000-watt AM 670 KLTT. In 1999, the elders and pastor of Denver's Derby Bible Church ordained Bob into the ministry. In 2000, Derby planted Denver Bible Church with Bob as pastor and in 2015 as a host of Real Science Radio Bob was inducted into the Creation Science Hall of Fame. You can see Bob Enyart's materials online or call 1-800-8Enyart. If you enjoyed this article, you may also want to read Why Canaan was Cursed?, Polygamy in the Bible, and Slavery in the Bible. And you can hear Bob at RealScienceRadio.com!

Scripture Reading (for the next three weeks): Genesis 1:1-3:24Last week I attempted to make three simple points:(1) Simply assuming that a text should be read literally is not a “safer” approach than being open to figurative understandings—that is, that assumption runs the “risk” of forcing a wrong interpretation of the text.(2) Texts that are meant to be understood non-literally can convey information—they are not so open to interpretation that they can mean anything at all. Even in cases when the message lacks specificity or clarity, the message still has a limited semantic range. Put simply, non-literal text can have meaning, be interpreted correctly, and be interpreted incorrectly.(3) Finally, the early chapters of Genesis have been interpreted non-literally since the dawn of the church (and before). The accusation that only modern Christians, yielding to the pressure of modern science, have conveniently interpreted the text figuratively is simply false. To interpret the text non-literally is not a departure from established church (or Jewish) tradition.All three points can be summarized as follows: genre is key to reading a text. Reading poetry like historiography or historiography as poetry is dangerous. Neither approach is likely to reach truth.I am well aware that, so far, I have not offered a shred of evidence that the early chapters of Genesis should be read literally or otherwise. That has been intentional. All I have attempted to show is that considering a non-literal interpretation is not offensive in itself and foreclosing that interpretation a priori may force a reader to reach the wrong conclusions.So, with all that in mind, the time has come to read the text. 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.2 Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. 3 God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light! 4 God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day.6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. It was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning, a second day.9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.” It was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good.11 God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds and trees on the land bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds.” It was so. 12 The land produced vegetation—plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good. 13 There was evening, and there was morning, a third day.14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons and days and years, 15 and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. 17 God placed the lights in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth, 18 to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.20 God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 God created the great sea creatures and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 23 There was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.24 God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” It was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”27 God created humankind in his own image,in the image of God he created them,male and female he created them.28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the animals of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has living breath in it—I give every green plant for food.” It was so.31 God saw all that he had made—and it was very good! There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.1 The heavens and the earth were completed with everything that was in them. 2 By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created—when the Lord God made the earth and heavens.5 Now no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 6 Springs would well up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. 7 The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.8 The Lord God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the orchard.)10 Now a river flows from Eden to water the orchard, and from there it divides into four headstreams. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it runs through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is pure; pearls and lapis lazuli are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it runs through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it runs along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it. 16 Then the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.”18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him.” 19 The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field, but for Adam no companion who corresponded to him was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man's side and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,“This one at last is bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh;this one will be called ‘woman,'for she was taken out of man.”24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become one family. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.1 Now the serpent was shrewder than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard'?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; 3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.'” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, 5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”6 When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” 13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”14 The Lord God said to the serpent,“Because you have done this,cursed are you above all the cattleand all the living creatures of the field!On your belly you will crawland dust you will eat all the days of your life.15 And I will put hostility between you and the womanand between your offspring and her offspring;he will strike your head,and you will strike his heel.”16 To the woman he said,“I will greatly increase your labor pains;with pain you will give birth to children.You will want to control your husband,but he will dominate you.”17 But to Adam he said,“Because you obeyed your wifeand ate from the tree about which I commanded you,‘You must not eat from it,'the ground is cursed because of you;in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,but you will eat the grain of the field.19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat fooduntil you return to the ground,for out of it you were taken;for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”20 The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. 24 When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.Does Genesis Belong to the Literary Genre of Myth?We must face the million-dollar question: are there clues in the text of Genesis that would lead the reader to believe that it is not to be taken literally? Notice that the question focuses and begins with the text itself. The endeavor is to read the text the way it “wants” to be read. This interpretive exercise is not starting out with modern beliefs and reading the text the way a modern reader may want to read it.However, before we start this conversation, I want to address why we are having this conversation at all. Spoiler alert—the ending of the story is this: when we focus on the potential concordance between science and Genesis we are asking the wrong questions. Not only will this result in wrong answers, it will keep us from asking the right questions! Ultimately, that is what I want. I want to take Genesis seriously—dead seriously. I believe in Genesis. I believe it is scripture. I believe it is true. My view of everything is shaped by it. So I am eager to discuss the truths that Genesis truly means to convey. An yes, I believe Genesis is historical just not historiography. It conveys real world truths in figurative language.Ok, back to the myth discussion. (Most of the discussion in this week's blog comes from William Lane Craig's In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration. Sometimes the discussion is a summary of his work, sometimes it is a straight copy. I would certainly fail for plagiarism if this blog were a paper.)Before You Stone Me—A Definition of MythThe word myth is nowadays used to refer to a false fact, statement, or story. If I told you that chewing bread while chopping an onion will prevent teary eyes, you might respond, “That's just a myth.” If I were calling Genesis a myth in that sense—well, go ahead and stone me. It would be well deserved.When I use the term myth in this discussion, I mean something else entirely. I am using the term as another element in the set containing poetry, epic, biography, and historiography. I am not using myth as a synonym for lie, fiction, wives' tale, or falsity. Explained differently, I am using myth the way a folklorist would.In the field of folklore, a myth is a sacred narrative explaining how the world and man came to be in their present form. Let's break down this brief definition. First, a myth is a linguistic composition, either oral or literary. Second, it is a narrative; that is to say, it is a story, which involves characters and a plotline. Third, it is a sacred narrative—it has religious significance in the culture in which it is embraced. This implies that it will have something to do with a deity as one of its principal figures. Fourth, (and this is implied) it is a traditional narrative, one that is handed down over the generations, not a recent, free composition.Myths are narratives that, in the society in which they are told, are considered to be truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past. They are to be believed and may be cited as authoritative. They are the embodiment of dogma and are often associated with theology and ritual. Their main characters are not usually human beings but deities, heroes, or animals, whose activities are set in an earlier age, when the earth was different than it is today, or in another realm such as the sky or underworld. Compare this to, for example, legends. Legends are similar to myths, but they take place in the current era, not in the remote past, and are not considered sacred. Compare myths also to folktales. Folktales are narratives that, in the society in which they are told, are regarded as fiction. The events they relate may or may not have happened. They are not to be taken seriously as dogma or history.Finally, myths are often highly metaphorical rather than literal. Let's focus on Ancient Near Eastern myths to provide evidence of this point. The first example we can examine is the Mesopotamian myth Enuma elish. As a scholar put it, “[n]o one but a lunatic . . . could ever arrive at the theory that [the earth and sky] were originally formed by splitting the body of a dragon in half.” We can be confident that no ancient Babylonian looking to the sky expected to see the desiccated flesh and bones of Tiamat overhead, nor did he expect to find the Tigris and Euphrates flowing out of Tiamat's eye sockets. These are figurative images. The same could be said for Egyptians and their myths. In Egyptian mythology, for example, the sky could be depicted as the goddess Nut arched over the earth with hands and feet touching the ground. No Egyptian looking at the sky expected to see the body of a naked woman arched above him. Sadly, when we refer to ancient peoples as believing these things literally, it is us who do not understand and impose an overly literalistic interpretation of their myths. So, are the early chapters of Genesis a myth? To determine what is a myth, one can look for certain elements that are shared by most myths (i.e., “family resemblances”). We can summarize these family resemblances as follows:(1) Myths are narratives, whether oral or literary.(2) Myths are traditional stories handed down from generation to generation.(3) Myths are sacred for the society that embraces them.(4) Myths are objects of belief by members of the society that embraces them.(5) Myths are set in a primaeval age or another realm.(6) Myths are stories in which deities are important characters.(7) Myths seek to anchor present realities such as the world, mankind, natural phenomena, cultural practices, and the prevailing cult in a primordial time.(8) Myths are associated with rituals.(9) Myths express correspondences between the deities and nature.(10) Myths exhibit fantastic elements and are not troubled by logical contradiction or incoherence.By the way, these characteristics of myth come from folklorist, scholars who study myths of many different cultures and religions—not from biblical scholars. In other words, this is not an attempt to draft a definition of myth that will conveniently fit the Genesis account.Application to Genesis 1-11Let us apply the list of elements above to the early chapters of Genesis and see if Genesis might belong to the genre of myth.(1) Myths are narratives, whether oral or literary.Not only the individual units of Genesis 1-11 work as narratives, but the first 11 chapters as a whole constitute a narrative as well. These chapters tell the story of primaeval events in roughly chronological succession. For example, the fall of mankind occurred after the creation of mankind, the flood occurred after the fall, and the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel occurred after the flood.(2) Myths are traditional stories handed down from generation to generation.Genesis 1-11 is universally recognized as comprising traditional stories. That is to say, the author of Genesis (traditionally held to be Moses), wrote down the traditions passed down to him. Most scholars adopt what is termed the “documentary hypothesis,” which explores the potential sources upon which the Genesis author relied.(3) Myths are sacred for the society that embraces them.Again, there is universal agreement that the narratives of Genesis 1-11 are sacred for Israelite society. Not only do these stories tell the acts of the God of creation, but more particularly they tell the acts of Israel's covenantal God, Yahweh. Sabbath observance and animal sacrifice, so central to Israel's cult, are already grounded in the early chapters of Genesis. Moreover, Genesis 1-11 provides the prehistory and foundation for Yahweh's call of Abraham to establish the nation of Israel in order to achieve the blessing of all mankind that was forfeited by Adam and Eve.(4) Myths are objects of belief by members of the society that embraces them.We see this fact clearly when later passages in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) reaffirm statements in the primaeval narrative. For example, in Exodus 20:8-11 we have a recapitulation of the creation week: “Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy. For six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, . . . . For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”(5) Myths are set in a primaeval age or another realm.The stories of Gen 1-11 are set in a primaeval age. The primaeval age in Genesis runs right back to God's creation of the world “in the beginning” (Gen 1:1). Moreover, the Genesis account narrates the creation of humankind as well as of plant and animal life. The origin of civilization and several of its inventions, such as metallurgy and music, are related. The origin of the world's languages is described. The period described is thus truly the primal age of mankind and the world.(6) Myths are stories in which deities are important characters.This element is controversial, but not for the reason you might think. Many folklorist do not consider the Genesis account to be myth because it does not involve many gods. In their view, monotheism is antithetical to myth. This seems to be a mistake, however. There is no reason that a monotheistic society could not use the genre of myth.(7) Myths seek to anchor present realities such as the world, mankind, natural phenomena, cultural practices, and the prevailing cult in a primordial time.This is the very heart of myth. In grounding present realities in the primordial past, the narrative functions to establish Israel's worldview. Notice, it does not ground the founding of Israel as a nation, at least not merely that. More fundamentally, the Genesis myth is universal in that it explains the origin of the world, the origin of humanity, and natural phenomena. All three of these ideas will be explored later.(8) Myths are associated with rituals.The narratives of Gen 1-11 do not seem to be associated with rituals, despite the motif of animal sacrifice. But inclusion of this eighth family resemblance probably reflects the influence of the so-called myth and ritual school, which is now widely rejected. While some myths have ritual associations, such a connection is missing from many myths.(9) Myths express correspondences between the deities and nature.The primaeval narratives of Genesis likewise do not express correspondences between deities and nature. But the absence of such correspondences from Genesis 1-11 is due to Israel's monotheism, in contrast to the polytheism of its neighbors.(10) Myths exhibit fantastic elements and are not troubled by logical contradiction or incoherence.Does the Genesis narrative exhibit fantastic elements? Is it untroubled by logical contradiction or incoherence? It seems that on both counts the primaeval narrative shares this family resemblance of myths, even if to several orders of magnitude less in comparison to Ancient Near Eastern polytheistic myths.(a) Anthropomorphisms. Despite God's transcendence so dramatically declared in Genesis 1, God is portrayed in the story of man's creation in Genesis 2 as a humanoid deity worthy of polytheistic myths, as he forms man from the dirt and breathes the breath of life into his nostrils. The same is true of the story of the fall in Genesis 3, where God strolls in the cool of the day and searches for the man and woman hiding among the trees. One must wonder whether the author meant these anthropomorphic descriptions of God to be just part of the storyteller's art or serious theology.(b) Narrative Inconsistencies. The author of Genesis seems untroubled by the apparent inconsistencies that occur in his narratives. It would have been easy for him to bring the account of the creation of man in Genesis 2 into accord with Genesis 1, rather than leave the apparent inconsistencies concerning the order of creation of man, the vegetation, and the animals. In Genesis 1, vegetation is created in the third day (Genesis 1:11-13):God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds and trees on the land bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds.” It was so. 12 The land produced vegetation—plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good. There was evening, and there was morning, a third day.Also, in Genesis 1 man is created after vegetation.Man is not made until the sixth day (see Genesis 1:28-30). However, in Genesis 2 we read the following (Genesis 2:5-7):Now no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. Springs would well up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.(c) Fantastic Elements. Before we can determine whether Genesis contains fantastic elements, we must explain that term. Miracles and fantastic elements are not the same. I believe in miracles! Fantastic means events that are so extraordinary or odd that, on their face, seem palpably false to the audience. I am not saying these events seem palpably false to us in light of increased knowledge of the world. Fantastic means palpably false to the original audience. Put another way, these are elements that both the original author and original audience understand to be figurative. Allow me to provide modern examples. If I told you I was diagnosed with cancer but after my church prayed for me I received a healthy diagnosis, I have not narrated a “fantastic element.” I have narrated a miracle which, even if you disbelieve it, you and I both understand that I mean for you to believe it. On the other hand, imagine that before you announce your wife's pregnancy I somehow find out, and when you ask me how I learned of it, I respond, “A little birdy told me.” That is much closer to a fantastic element. Both you and I, the speaker and the audience, understand that the statement is too odd to be taken as anything other than a literary device.So, are there fantastic elements in Genesis? I think so. The best example is the snake. The snake may very well represent Satan, but notice the actual description in the text, “Now the serpent was shrewder than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made.” In the story, the snake is a snake—just a snake. And no one is surprised by the talking snake! And the implication that the snake is shrewder than other animal is that other animals are like the snake (presumably they can also speak), just a little less clever. In fact, an ancient Jewish interpretation explains the reference to the serpent precisely in this literal manner, attributing the capacity to speak to all the animals in the orchard (Jubilee 3:28).Other great examples of fantastical elements are the trees of life and of knowledge of good and evil. Notice that in regard to the effect of eating the fruits of these trees there is no hint of miraculous action on God's part. The trees seem to be “magical.” God does not bestow eternal life if one eats from the tree of life. The tree does it. Man could event subvert God's punishment if he could simply get his hands on that fruit. “And the Lord God said, ‘Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever'” (Genesis 3:22).Conclusion and CliffhangerOk, there's my abbreviated argument that the early chapters of Genesis are myth. Now, allow me to return to the definition of myth and the entire reason I am spending time on this topic: Myths are narratives that, in the society in which they are told, are considered to be truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past. They are to be believed and may be cited as authoritative. Sure, the fact that they are truthful does not mean that they are literal—but they are truthful! So, what are these truths that story conveys? We won't have time to explore this until next week, but let me give you a brief taste of what is to come:Themes and Etiology(1) Origin of the World. Genesis 1 is obviously an etiological account of the origin of the world through God's creative activity. As such it is spectacularly different from the cosmic etiologies of Israel's neighbors. In contrast to Babylonian and Egyptian myths, there is neither theogony nor theomachy in Genesis; rather, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). All of physical reality is brought into being by an unoriginate and transcendent Deity.(2) Origin of Humanity. In Genesis 2 we have an etiological account of the origin of humanity that supplements the brief notice of mankind's creation in 1:26–27. In other myths in the Ancient Near East, humans are often treated as later creations of the gods for the purpose of relieving the minor deities of backbreaking labor. For example, in the Atrahasis Epic the minor deities are said to have labored for thousands of years before finally rebelling against their overseers, necessitating the creation of man to take over their labors.Scholars have often asked why the Pentateuch does not begin with the call of Abraham and the founding of Israel in Genesis 12. Commentators seem widely agreed that the reason the author prefixes the prehistory to the patriarchal narratives is his universalizing interest. He wants to show that God's original plan was to bless all mankind and that this aim still remains ultimately in mind through the election of Israel, which is now God's means of fulfilling his original intent. Moreover, Ancient Near East myths share an etiological interest in telling how mankind in general came to exist. For example, as cited above, in the Atrahasis Epic, in response to protests and rebellion of the lesser gods over their burdensome labors, the mother goddess decides to create man to take over the labor for them. Humans were created basically as slave labor for the gods. Such stories seek to answer the question of human origins in general. When read against this backdrop, Genesis 2 is seen to share a similar etiological interest—but with a very different answer!Finally, etiology comes explicitly to the fore in the closing comment on the story, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed” (Gen 2:24–25). The man and the woman are now man and wife. Marriage is thus God's plan for man and woman and is grounded in the primordial creation of man and of woman as his helper. The marriage relationship is taken to be the proper sphere for human sexual activity. This etiological note confirms that the author takes his story to be universal in scope, for marriage is not plausibly taken to be merely God's special provision for this specially created couple but his intention for all humanity.(3) Natural Phenomena. Etiological motifs concerning natural phenomena are also evident in Genesis 1-11. Such motifs are especially obvious in the account in Genesis 3 of the primordial couple's disobedience to God as a result of their seduction by the serpent. In the punishments pronounced by God on the serpent, the man, and the woman, etiological motifs abound. For example, the toil of farming is attributed to the fact that the land is cursed because of the man's disobedience. Thus, natural phenomena with which later Israelites would have been all too familiar are explained in terms of our primordial parents' fall into sin.Next week I want to explain these ideas further. I hope you give me the chance.

Writer Jamaica Kincaid is one of the best known writers on race and colonialism in the US. Her writing is biting and fearless, and she's been a keen observer of her native Antigua and the US since publishing her first essay in 1973. This week she joins Lilah together with the FT's Enuma Okoro in a recording made at the recent FT Weekend Festival in London. Then we share some conversations we had in person with listeners during the festival.-------Here's the link to leave us a message for our listener callout: https://sayhi.chat/6gci2We're challenging you to challenge us with a topic that most people would think is boring, and that you want us to make interesting on the podcast!—---- Want to stay in touch? We love hearing from you. Email us at ftweekendpodcast@ft.com. We're on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.-------Links and mentions from the episode:– Full recording of the conversation with Jamaica and Enuma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOB10hGIhwM&t=2s-Jamaica's classic book A Small Place about Antigua: https://tinyurl.com/mshm32ha-A great recent essay by Jamaica Kincaid on gardening: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/07/the-disturbances-of-the-garden-Enuma's essay on pleasure: https://tinyurl.com/59eda3vm-And another on how our spaces shape us: https://tinyurl.com/ycxt2uv4 -------Special offers for FT Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial can be found here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast-------Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer Jamaica Kincaid is one of the best known writers on race and colonialism in the US. Her writing is biting and fearless, and she's been a keen observer of her native Antigua and the US since publishing her first essay in 1973. This week she joins Lilah together with the FT's Enuma Okoro in a recording made at the recent FT Weekend Festival in London. Then we share some conversations we had in person with listeners during the festival.-------Here's the link to leave us a message for our listener callout: https://sayhi.chat/6gci2We're challenging you to challenge us with a topic that most people would think is boring, and that you want us to make interesting on the podcast!—---- Want to stay in touch? We love hearing from you. Email us at ftweekendpodcast@ft.com. We're on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.-------Links and mentions from the episode:– Full recording of the conversation with Jamaica and Enuma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOB10hGIhwM&t=2s-Jamaica's classic book A Small Place about Antigua: https://tinyurl.com/mshm32ha-A great recent essay by Jamaica Kincaid on gardening: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/07/the-disturbances-of-the-garden-Enuma's essay on pleasure: https://tinyurl.com/59eda3vm-And another on how our spaces shape us: https://tinyurl.com/ycxt2uv4 -------Special offers for FT Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial can be found here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast-------Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

September 1, 2022 - Still today, education remains inaccessible to millions of children across the globe. In meeting their educational needs, extensive technology use has become helpful in expanding the quality learning environment. This Young Professionals' Network program features Sooinn Lee, the Co-Founder and CEO of Enuma, Inc. Founded in 2012, Enuma has developed multiple award-winning digital learning platforms for youth and children, including those from under-resourced environments. Join us for a timely conversation with Sooinn as she will discuss her ongoing work and achievements in providing children of various backgrounds with high-quality education, along with her far-reaching vision and goals. This discussion will be moderated by Jay Oh, Senior Director of Arts and Culture of The Korea Society. This program is made possible by the support from Yang Won Sun Foundation. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/special-events/item/1600-a-conversation-with-enuma-ceo-sooinn-lee

When on high, these 7 tablets give a Babylonian view of the world and creation, and also talk of the great flood. God bless you and thank you for listening! Please share and join us again tomorrow!

This week we look at Tiamat, the primordial sea goddess of the Enuma Elish. She battles Marduk and is defeated, and the firmaments of the world are created through her body. She is generally considered to be a monster or sea dragon that embodies primordial chaos. We relate her story to the myths of the Hittite Illuyanka, the Greek Python, and the Biblical Leviathan.

If you've ever dreamt of having more than one writing desk, this episode is for you.Enuma Okoro is an award-winning author. Among many other places, her work has been featured in the NY Times and the Financial Times. On this episode, she shares her passion for the writing life and how the practice of writing is soul care. Listen for: what it means to be a writerwhat it's like to write in multiple genreshow "not writing" can actually help you writeenumaokoro.com

It seems that Genesis, just like other ancient creation myths, teaches that God created the heavens and the earth from matter, and that the historic Christian view of creation is false. In this episode of the podcast, Daniel Houck discusses the doctrine of creation from nothing, its relation to the Enuma elish, and what Genesis 1:1 says about the nature of God. Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanielWHouck  Church: https://www.calvaryhillbc.org/ Books mentioned: Reconsidering Creation Ex Nihilo in Genesis 1

Deuxième épisode consacré au récit biblique d’Adam et Eve. En réalité ces noms Adam et Eve ne leur seront donnés lors de la toute dernière scène, après l’éviction du jardin d’Eden. Dans ce chapitre 2 du livre de la Genèse, ils ne seront jamais appelés ainsi. D’ailleurs, c’est par cet absence de tout nom, de toute être que débute notre récit.REFERENCE•«Au Large Biblique » est un podcast conçu et animé par François Bessonnet, enseignant bibliste et prêtre en Vendée. Si vous voulez en savoir plus je vous ai mis quelques références en notes. https://www.aularge.eu/blog/le-podcast/ •Image : Giusto de Menabuoi, Creazione di Adamo, XIVe – source : wikimedia-commons.•Musique : Erwan Marchand (D.R.)•Épisode enregistré en Vendée (85, France), janvier 2021 •Sous Licence Creative Commons (cc BY-NC-ND 4.0 FR)NOTES •Le récit de la création selon Gn 2,4-24 https://www.aelf.org/bible/Gn/2 •Jérémie, Dieu et le potier Jr 18 https://www.aelf.org/bible/Jr/18 •Poème mythique Enuma Elish https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enuma_elish •Épopée de Gilgamesh https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Une_Epopée_babylonienne/I.2SUIVRE AU LARGE BIBLIQUE •Instagram : Aularge.eu https://www.instagram.com/aularge.eu/ •Facebook : @Aularge85 https://www.facebook.com/aularge85/ •Le groupe Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/aulargebiblique/ •Twitter : @AuLargeBiblque https://twitter.com/AuLargeBiblique •Mail : podcast@aularge.eu •Newsletter : https://www.aularge.eu/blog/abonnement/ •RSS : https://www.spreaker.com/show/3266391/episodes/feed •Soutenir le podcast avec Tipeee : https://fr.tipeee.com/au-large-biblique

“We've tried to change the mission without changing the structure.” Enuma Menkiti Director of College Access, English Teacher “Within college, white supremacy culture is fully intact.” Imagine an educational system that brings healing power into communities. After being homeschooled by her mother, and developing a love of learning, Ms. Enuma Menkiti is able to imagine that possibility. In today's episode, Enuma is grappling with the conflicting concepts we face in education. The cost of obtaining an excellent education within a white space (#BlackAt), a few considerations when discussing “opting out” of college, what it means to take a “gap year” (and understanding the language of privilege), and designing a comprehensive post secondary plan are all topics of discussion. #Shoutout to The Freedom Crew and all the educators continuing to fight the good fight. When are all the Black educators going to get together? We're working on it, Enuma!

Mito de Deméter y Perséfone. Isis amamantado a Horus. Templo romano de Diana en Mérida. Himno a Gea. Enuma elish. Las Musas. La pregunta.

[Study: Accordance 10.4] Genesis chapter one is often used today as evidence in all sorts of faith vs science debates, but what was its original purpose? What was its message to its first, ancient audience—and how can we hear that message today? In this podcast, Dr. J compares and contrasts Genesis one with an ancient Akkadian creation story. The differences between the two tell us some very important things about the God of ancient Israel.

Location, location, location.  Choosing where to live can be one of life's most important concerns, but it's also a decision we often give little sophisticated attention.  Chosing a hometown affects your and your children's ability to fulfil your vocation, and be as virtuous as possible.  It can also affect your potential earning power.  We share about our experience in suburban wastelands, ask whether a good person should live in an urban environment, and why some who grew up in the city are nervous in the country.

Sumerians relate on baked clay how, 300,000 years ago, a team of tall, millenia-old human scientists (Enki, Ningishzidda and Ninmah) in Zimbabwe from the planet Nibiru to mine Earth's gold created us as a species of disposable, poorly engineered mine slaves by combining their genes with those of Homo Erectus, a compassionate human already on the planet for a million years. Advertise on Renegade Talk click the link for more Info http://renegadetalk.fm/Donations.html Thank You Renegade Nation Richie and Marla

Our guest Enuma Okoro is the reluctant pilgrim. Like many of us she has been searching for her spiritual home since she was a small child with roots in the Catholic Church, Christianity,and Islam she has searched world wide. Her search included time in Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, England, Minnesota, Bolivia, Honduras and now, Durham. Enuma is a graduated from the Duke Divinity School and has documented her search in her new book, "Reluctant Pilgrim: A Moody, Somewhat Self-Indulgent Introvert’s Search for Spiritual Community”

[Resources: Accordance 9] This podcast will show how to set up a custom workspace for any Study Bible. It will also review Zondervan's Archaeological Study Bible, a goldmine of information, a great introduction to how the fruits of archaeology can increase our understanding of the Bible. Designed with the conservative Christian in mind, this study Bible features 8000 study notes, 500 articles, 500 color photographs and 15 maps. Accordance makes it easy to explore all the features in this resource, especially when navigating among the articles in the five major categories: Archaeological Sites, Cultural and Historical Notes, Ancient Peoples and Lands, The Reliability of the Bible, and Ancient Texts and Artifacts.