The second day is the only day God didn't call "good".
"St. Jerome held that the reason why God did not pronounce the work
of the second day "good" is to be found in the fact that there is something
essentially evil in the number two, and this was echoed centuries afterward, afar off in
Britain, by Bede." A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, Chapter 1 by
A. D. White 1:8
"And God made the beast of the earth."
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. 1:25
God gave humans dominion over every other living thing on earth.
This couldn't be true, of course, since millions of other species existed for
millions of years before humans existed. But this verse is used by
fundamentalist Christians to justify their mistreatment of other species and
disregard for the environment. After all, they believe that God created the
other species just for them, so they can do whatever they please with them. 1:26
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-Adamites1:27(3)
"Be fruitful and multiply."
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. 1:28
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
"And Cain knew his wife." That's
nice, but where the hell did she come from?
Although the Bible doesn't say, Joseph Smith provided the answer
in "The Inspired
Version" of the Bible, which was his very own "translation". Here's what it says:
And it came to pass, that Cain took one of his brother's daughters to wife, and they loved Satan more than
God. - Gen.5:13
So according to Joseph Smith (and he ought to know!) Cain married one
of his nieces. He doesn't say, though, which of Cain's brothers was Mrs. Cain's father.
Another answer is provided by the Pre-Adamite theory.
4:17
The flood story in Genesis is confusing to read. The clean animals go into the ark by twos (6:19-20,
7:8-9)
and by sevens (7:2). The flood lasts for forty days (7:17)
and for 150 days (7:24, 8:3). Noah sends out a raven
(8:7) and a dove (8:8).
Why doesn't Genesis get its story straight? Because there were two separate accounts that were (somewhat clumsily)
interwoven. 8:7
"And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him."
"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Does God approve of capital punishment?4:15, 9:6
"And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger
son had done unto him."
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. 9:24
"Nimrod ... a mighty hunter before the Lord"
Who was Nimrod? The king who tried to construct the tower of Babel? The first pope? Elmer Fudd? Here are some links to help you decide.
10:8-10
"Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided."
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. 10:25
"Terah ... begat Abraham."
Who was Abraham's father? Azar or Terah (Quran 6:74)? Which is right, the Bible or
the Quran? 11:26
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
Was Hagar the first person to see God?
The SBL Study Bible note for this verse says, "Hagar identifies the angel as God himself...."
16:13
"And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking."
What did Sarah see that disturbed her so much?
Jonathan Kirsch suggests in The
Harlot by the Side of the Road that the "play" between Isaac and Ishmael may have been of a
sexual nature, noting that the same word is used to describe the behaviour of
Ishmael and Isaac as is used in 26:8 to describe Isaac's fondling of Rebekah. 21:9
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
