A lot of info from Genesis

Adam and Eve's story begins in chapter 2 verse 4.
From Genesis 1:1 to 2:4, whenever the Bible says God, the Hebrew word is Elohim which means God but it is a plural form (and the singular verb is used after that). After 2:4 the Bible says LORD God, which is Jehovah Elohim instead of God (Elohim). LORD is Jehovah in Hebrew - the most sacred word that the Jewish people don't pronounce. Whenever they see this word, they read it as 'Adonai'. After some research, I think Elohim is used when we want to talk about God who is the creator of everything. There must be a reason why Moses suddenly changed God's name (title?) from Elohim to Jehovah Elohim. I want to ask someone, because I haven't found a satisfying answer on line yet...too much information!!

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More things I learned since I started to think about Jewish roots... (regarding this portion of the Bible).

The Jewish people seem to talk about numbers a lot. Seven is the number of perfection. For 6 days God created and made things, then He rested on the seventh day. So there are 7 days in God's creation.

When God created and made things, He said 'it was good'. How many times? Six times He said 'it was good' and one time He said 'it was very good'.

Day 1...God saw that the light was good
Day 2.. He did not say it was good.
Day 3...God saw that it was good...He said it twice
Day 4...God saw that it was good
Day 5...God saw that it was good
Day 6...God saw all that he had made, and it was very good

In one book I was reading, there was a question. Why didn't God say it was good on the second day? I could not answer for 2 years. It bothered me. One answer I found was that God knew that the flood was going to happen and the water from above will come down to vanish the living things on the earth. So He was sad. Another website said that it was probably because God's work regarding the water was not done yet on the second day. Water was divided and the land showed. God did not say 'it is good' until a certain work was finished. The second answer makes sense to me.

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There was evening, and there was morning on 1st through 6th day, but not on the 7th day.

Oh, one more interesting thing I found was that Hebrew readers probably see that Cain and Abel had siblings ( besides Seth who was born later) in their Hebrew text. I am not advanced in Hebrew at all, so even when I read the description I cannot understand, but it looks like the way it is written causes the Hebrew reader to understand that they had siblings. I would love to know more because I always wondered where other people came from even though they all died during Noah's age.

One of God's commands to us is to be fruitful and multiply. He said that to Adam and Eve, and He said that to Noah and his wife, and his sons and their wives. He still cares about our next generations. I pray for our next generation.

(from 10/30/2008)