Bill Moyers wrote a great book called “Genesis” containing perspectives by a mixed bag of world
famous religious experts. Some were selected due to their views concerning the Bible and its God. The words are intrinsically
important within their own contexts.
Was man alone? Was Eve presented to Adam to serve as his helper?
Does God put delicious, but forbidden fruit, in the middle of a garden? Then, does God create a evil serpent and place
it near naïve Adam and Eve? Is this a set up or what?
Does the serpent ask the Bible’s first questions and initiate the first conversation?
So, Are Adam and Eve not supposed to learn the knowledge of good and evil?
Is it because wisdom belongs to God alone?
God makes a command Eve turns into an option. Eve is the one who makes it all happen.
Do these Bible stories teach us about God or about ourselves? If it is about God, then what about God?
Did Eve get Adam in trouble? Could sin, introduced by a woman, be but a bum rap?
God didn’t want Adam and Eve to grow up like parents don’t want their children to mature and become sexually
aware. God is jealous.
The Bible sets it up that Adam either obeys God or the woman. Is one bad, one good?
Didn’t the serpent, in essence, call God a liar? Did the serpent prove God to be a liar?
Was God angry because He was disobeyed?
The serpent can’t be right for wouldn’t that make God wrong?
Did Eve trust the serpent to tell the truth and not God?
Is the Bible’s first incident of trust, misplaced trust?
Why did God put forbidden fruit and the serpent in the garden?
When God gave man choice, did He gave man keys to vehicles that drive Him nuts?
Why did this all-knowing God ask questions? Isn’t that more of a human quality?
In ancient times, wasn’t the snake a symbol of fertility, wisdom and health?
Didn’t God even initially introduced prohibition, limitation and boundaries?
Adam and Eve both denied, pointed the finger and covered up. Great lessons God taught.
For Eve to be born from man (taken from his rib) is a reversal in reality.
Does God change His mood, shame His children and kick them out of the house?
What’s wrong with one’s knowing that one is naked?
Does to be created in God’s image mean we are free to choose evil as well as good?
Was God insane and suffering from the beginning?
Bill Moyers: To wrestle is the embrace of adversaries, not love. A
Jewish friend of mine said: I wish Jacob had lost because our people have paid a price far greater than that wound on the
thigh. It isn’t worth it to have been chosen.
John Barth: Professor / writer: But that’s to miss the other
side of God, the terrifying side of God. I would like your picture of God to be like the God in the Bible, but as I read it,
it’s only half the picture. The other half is that He is a mysterious, terrifying, wounding adversary against whom we
all struggle. The God whom Jacob confronts terrifies him.
Some ancient Rabbinical commentaries:
Women walk at the head of the funeral procession because woman brought death into the world. Why does a women menstruate?
Because, she shed the blood of Adam. This is her punishment and why it is called the curse.
Romulus killed his brother, Remus, yet
Rome was names after Romulus. Why would Romulus be honored the cities name and not his brother, the innocent victim? Which
is a truer myth, Romulus and Remus or Cain and Abel?
Karen
Armstrong, former Nun, author of the book - The History of God: I don't like the image of God sniffing the sweet smell of
meat. As a nun, God was terrifying for me. God behaves just like an inadequate human being.
Rabbi
Burton Visotzky: In Jewish theology there are 613 commandments that we are obligated to do for God.
Rabbi Burt Visotzky: Rabbis don’t normally ask questions about
women.
Burt Visotzky: I am a rabbi and I have a vested interest
in promoting rabbinical tradition. I recognize that friendliness to women is not part of the tradition.
Wow Rabbi! That's a smokin dose of reality.
Karen Armstrong - former nun and writer: God (in Genesis) is an undeveloped
child. He doesn’t know what He is doing. He has got to grow up and learn like the rest of us how to relate to other
people.
Pastor Eugene Rivers III: What would have happened to Abraham if he
had not lied about what his relationship was with the woman? Listen, I can imagine lying. Here’s a black dude in the
inner city. He’s got a white wife. A couple Egyptian brothers roll up on the brother with a white wife. Now this guy’s
not a complete fool "Yo baby, we work together, right? Pretend you’re my boss. You’re not my wife right, because
if you’re my wife, you may be a widow by the end of the evening.
What? Was Abraham black? Really?
Burton Visotzky: As long as humanity
has free will, God has to learn again and again how to relate to His creatures.
Bill Moyers: Do you like this God?
Lewis
Smedes Ph.D. Seminary Professor: In my experience God is not very friendly.
What one
person, who you know, would be impacted if sent to this site?
Any corrections, feedback or comments?
Thank You!
