Skip to main content

We have the Power to Reflect the Image of the Creator or an Image of Wild Predatory Animal!


In the first story in Genesis, the Earth is a dry thing located inside a solid dome called “The Heavens” – but that’s not all “she” is. She is actively involved with the Creator in creating several very important things and she is one of the seven sacred spaces in story.

● The Creator spoke to the waters inside the solid dome and told them to “gather into one place.” The waters did it and the place they had previously covered became the first “dry thing” to exist. The Creator named it “Earth.”

● The Creator spoke to the Earth and told her to cause grasses, plants and trees to sprout. She did it.

● The Creator placed the sun and moon in the solid dome “to give light to the Earth.”

● The Creator spoke to the Earth again and told her to bring forth and an “Earth soul” for animals. She did it and then the Creator made the animals. The Earth soul gave them appetites, desires and longings linked to the Earth – the sacred space in which they must live. They ate the grasses and plants the Earth caused to sprout and grow; and that the sun and moon provide light for.

● The Creator spoke to the Earth again and told her to bring forth an “Earth soul” for humans. She did it and the Creator created the human. The Earth soul gave humans appetites, desires and longings linked to the Earth – the sacred space in which they must live. Human also ate food the Earth caused to sprout and grow; and that the sun and moon provided light for.

● The Creator also created humans “in his image.” This linked humans to the Creator and empowered them to do things like him – create new things by changing things that exist, speak and do things that are TOV (good for life) -- and he gave humans freewill. This empowered humans with the capacity “to speak and do things that are RA (bad for life).

● The Creator also endowed humans with a godlike function -- serve the creation by functioning as the Creator’s vice regents. In other words, function together as the representatives of the Creator to the rest of creation.

The rabbis developed methods for reading, studying and discussing the Hebrew text of the Bible -- halakhah and aggadah.

● Halakhah consists of laws, commandments, personals morals and spiritual discipline. 

● Aggadah uses narratives to reveal meaning, values, and ideas that affect lives. 

The first stories in the Bible are examples of aggadah. Let’s review some of the meanings, values, and ideas revealed above about humans:

● We have earthly appetites, desires and longings (like animals) that must be satisfied in order for us to survive as individuals and a specie.

● We have instincts (like animals), but we can exercise impulse control and self-discipline.

● We have freewill to plan and do things that protect and preserve lives, make lives more functional and increase the quality of life – reveal the image of the Creator.

● We have freewill to plan and do things that destroy and threaten lives, make lives less functional and decrease the quality of life -- reveal the image of a wild predatory animal.

You will get much more from reading stories in the Hebrew Bible, if you can find the meanings, values and ideas that are embedded in them.  

For those of us with Christian biblical heritages,
doing this literally transforms our understanding of
what Jesus taught and the purpose of his movement.

Thank you for reading this and please share and discuss it with others.

May your be blessed with, and bless others with, an abundance of TOV,
Jim Myers

☼ Help fund future emails like this one! Click Here to Donate.

☼ Subscribe to this Mail List so you won’t miss future emails. It is FREE! Click Here.

☼ Let people know what we do by “Liking” us on Facebook. Click Here.

☼ Visit the BHC website and you will find much more! Click Here.

* SOURCES & RECOMMENDED READING
● https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/aggadah-or-haggadah-jewish-virtual-library
● BHC Bible Study Text of Genesis

● The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John W. Walton.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It’s a Yod -- NOT a Jot and Tittle!

Not only did Yeshua read and speak Hebrew, so did his followers and disciples! Two very well known, but not accurately understood words in the Gospel of Matthew prove it – jot and tittle . For some reason jot and tittle stick in the minds of Christian Bible readers. But when you ask them what jot or tittle mean, you get a lot of conflicting and some really weird answers. Today, you are going to get the facts about what Yeshua originally said and how they ended up in English translations of the Bible as jot and tittle . Let’s begin by reading Matthew 5:18 from the King James translation: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. If you have not read the article “ From Yeshua to Jesus ” in Yeshua’s Kingdom Handbook please take a moment to read it online by clicking here before you continue. In it you will see how we began with the name “ Jesus ” and traced it through Lati
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Not Say RAQA! - Yeshua on Anger (Part 2)

In the last blog, we covered the first part of Yeshua’s lesson on Anger -- An Angry Person Should be Tried in Court like a Murderer – keep in mind that “anger” is the focus of Yeshua’s lesson. “Whoever says to a brother, ‘ RAKA ,’ shall be answerable to the Sanhedrin.” [i] Yeshua reveals that the seriousness of the offense has become greater by elevating the crime to the next highest court – the Sanhedrin . It is the highest court in the nation and would be the equivalent of our Supreme Court. What makes this offense more serious than murder, to keep things in the context established by Yeshua? It is because of what the angry person said out of anger – “ RAKA !” RAKA is the English transliteration of the Greek word found in the ancient manuscripts of Matthew. Interestingly, the Greek word is also a transliteration of a Hebrew word into Greek. Keep in mind that when a translator working on a translation of a Greek manuscript transliterates a Greek word, he only finds the
Post a Comment
Read more

The Prayer Yeshua Prayed Twice Every Day

One of Jesus’s earliest memories was no doubt watching and listening to his family when they gathered to pray the Shema at sunrise before the day’s work began and after the working work day was over at sunset . He also heard and participated in praying the Shema at their synagogue. He was surrounded by neighbors who also prayed the same prayer in their homes every day. The Hebrew word for prayer is tefilah . It is derived from the root Pe-Lamed-Lamed and the word l'hitpalel, meaning “ to judge oneself .” This surprising word origin provides insight into the purpose of Jewish prayer. The most important part of any Jewish prayer, whether it be a prayer of petition, of thanksgiving, of praise of God, or of confession, is the introspection it provides, the moment that we spend looking inside ourselves, seeing our role in the universe and our relationship to God. [1] Most of Jewish prayers are expressed in the first person plural, "us" instead of "me," an
Post a Comment
Read more