Tag: monsters

Comments on Commentary

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Some rabbis have suggested that the Genesis 5:3 statement that Seth was in “Adam’s likeness: hints at Genesis 6’s world of weird angel/hybrid creatures.

Adam himself is TECHNICALLY not “just a human,” being born of dirt and spirit.

ויולד בדמותו כצלמו, “he begot a son in his likeness in his image;” the emphasis on this is to show us that anything he begot during the previous 129 years were only creatures that did not reflect his likeness or image, i.e. disembodied spirits, mostly מזיקים, injurious, destructive spirits. (Compare 3,20)
Chizkuni on Genesis 5:3

BUT.

Other rabbis in the Midrash have said that being “in Adam’s likeness” meant that he was… born circumcised.

He was righteous (Gen. 6:9). This suggests that he was one of the seven men born circumcised. Adam and his son Seth were born circumcised, as it is written: He begot a son in his own likeness after his image, and he called him Seth (Gen. 5:3).
Midrash Tanchuma on Genesis 5:3

Which is, by the way, NOT ANY WEIRDER THAN ANGEL/HUMAN MONSTER BABIES.

So, always take commentary with a grain of salt. Even mine.

Divine Parables

Posted on by jovial_cynic
If you believe in divine parables, you may believe that God took humanity’s own stories of creation and led his people to change those stories by overwriting them with God’s own name, just like King David took Canaanite songs and swapped the names of the gods to “convert” it for his people.

I say this because many of the “mythical” stories (Creation, the angels/human hybrids, the flood) all exist in other ancient cultures, and there’s no reason God could not have said “this is something you believe to be true, but I’m going to change it so you can know who I am.”

Paul did this same thing with shrine of the “unknown God” of the people of Athens in Acts 17.

God is perfectly capable of taking our myths and converting them into stories about Himself, and quite frankly, this is far more interesting to me than an “accurate” story that lacks a theological message.

There’s something special about taking our misbeliefs about the world, and having God show us that he is greater than the stories we believe.

“You believe monsters? Well God beat all those monsters!”

God uses our stories to reveal himself. That seems more personal… and more powerful.

A Hint of the Nephilim

Posted on by jovial_cynic

When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 (NASB)

Genesis 5 says his image about Seth, and nobody else.

The Rabbis wondered about this and suggest that Adam and Eve may have had other offspring after Cain and Abel, before Seth. These offspring were… different. Not like Adam. Something monstrous.

This points to the Nephilim in Genesis 6.