Genesis
Introduction

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Absurdities
Contradictions
Science and History
Family Values
Women
Injustice
Sex
Interpretation
Cruelty and Violence
Prophecy
Intolerance
Homosexuality
Good Stuff

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SAB Genesis Search

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Genesis Interpretations

1. "In the beginning" 1:1
   When was the universe created?

2. "In the beginning" 1:1-2
   The Gap Theory

3. "Let the earth bring forth grass ... living creatures." 1:11, 1:24
   Does the Bible teach evolution?

4. "Let them be for signs." 1:14
   Does the Bible condemn astrology?

5. "And God made the beast of the earth." 1:25
   The Christian Identity and Aryan Nations folks say that "beast of the earth" and "beast of the field" refer to all non-human animals and non-white humans. They consider all people of color to be without a soul and on the same level as animals, such as cattle, fish, and birds.

6. God gave humans dominion over every other living thing on earth. 1:26

7. "And God said, Let us make man in our image ... male and female" 1:26-27
   Is God both male and female?

8. "God created man." 1:27
   When was Adam created?

9. One way of dealing with the two contradictory creation accounts is to say that the reason there are two different stories is that there were two different creations. This has been a common interpretation historically, and it is still found taday. Pre-Adamites 1:27

10. "Be fruitful and multiply." 1:28
    This verse is used to justify Christian opposition to birth control, concern for the environment, and animal rights. The earth was made for humans, and they can do as they damn well please with it.

11. "I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth."
    Is it okay to smoke marijuana?

12. "To tend and keep it"
    Some believers claim that this verse requires them to be environmentalists. 2:15

13. When will Armageddon occur? 2:22

14. Is polygamy OK? 2:24, 4:19, 16:3, 25:1, 25:6, 26:34, 28:9, 31:17, 32:22

15. In Christian Identity theology, the serpent is a black male ("beast of the field"), possessed by the devil, who seduced Eve. Cain is the child that is born from this union, the evil son of the devil and the first Jew. All Jews are descended from Cain. 3:1

16. "I will put enmity ... between thy seed and her seed." 3:15
    The Two Seed Theory

17. "And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him." 4:15
    "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." 9:6
    Does God approve of capital punishment?

18. "And the LORD set a mark upon Cain." 4:15
    The mark of Cain and Racism

19. "And Cain knew his wife." 4:17

20. Do angels have sex? 6:2, 4, 19:1-4

21. Who were the sons of God? 6:2

22. "He sent forth a raven." 8:7

23. "But ... the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." 9:4
    Blood Transfusions

24. "And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him." 9:24
    What did Ham do? Did he just look at his naked father or was there something more to it than that? Some commentators have suggested that Ham committed homosexual rape on his drunken father, and that this was why Ham's descendants were eternally punished with slavery.

25. Does God approve of slavery? 9:25-27, 16:8-9, 17:12-13, 17:24, 17:27, 24:35-36, 26:13-14

26. "Nimrod ... a mighty hunter before the Lord" 10:8-10

27. "Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided." 10:25
    Some creationists believe that this verse refers to continental drift, which, they say, began to occur during the days of Pelag (which means "division"), about 100 or so years after the flood. But many other creationists disagree.

28. "Terah ... begat Abraham."
    Who was Abraham's father? Azar or Terah (Quran 6:74)? Which is right, the Bible or the Quran? 11:26

29. Say, I pray thee, thouart my sister."
    In the LDS Book of Abraham the same silly story is told, but it is God, not Abraham, who concocts the lie. 12:13

30. The Theocratic War Strategy 12:13, 20:2, 26:7

31. What was Sodom's sin? 19:4-5

32. "And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking."
    What did Sarah see? 21:9

33. "God gave thee ... plenty of ... wine."
    Is it OK to drink alcohol? 27:28

34. According to the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical book of Judith, God not only approved of the violence in Genesis 34, but he gave Simeon the sword that he used to kill all the males in the city. 34:1-31

35. "Pharaoh's birthday"
    What about birthdays? 40:20