Much more to Genesis

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
Proverbs 25.2

As the Preacher of Proverbs claims, to search out a matter is the glory of the kings! So, let us have a search out of what God has concealed.

Have you ever felt that there is more in the Bible that it actually seems? Come on, let us have a look at what genesis holds!

People other than humans from genesis

Ever wished to see people other than humans?
I seems that they actually existed. Just take a look at this verse.
There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6.4

Reading the verse carefully, you will notice that not one but three non human people are mentioned here.
1. Giants
2. Sons of God ( we all find mention of them in Job1.6 and Job2.1)
3. Mighty men old and renown

Creation of plants and animals

I always feel that if scientists and theologians work together, their findings would take better strides. 

The best example is the evolution. Let us take a look at the verses.

Plants

The Lord God created plants on the third day

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.
(Genesis 1.11-13)

Bible also says that

This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
Genesis 2.4-6

From the above two verses, we can conclude that the earth brought forth the flora, but it was not to be seen (let us be clear that, it was there but was not to be seen) until the mists rose. So, the flora grew up just like it does today and didn't make a dramatic appearance. 

Animals and birds

The Lord God created the fishes and birds on the fifth day 

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
(Genesis 1.20-23)

And He created the animals (along with the humans) on the sixth day.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(Genesis 1.24,25).


Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.
(Genesis 2.19)

So, from the two verses above, we can conclude that just like the humans, animals and birds were also created out of the ground (the main difference is that, He breathed the breath of life into humans and that was not the case of animals and birds)!


The position of the garden of Eden

 In my childhood days, I have often wondered where the garden of Eden might have been. Come on, let us take a look at the verses.

The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed
Genesis 2.8

From this verse, we can be very sure that, the garden of Eden was a part of the Eden, and not the entire Eden itself.

Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Genesis 2.10-14

Let us take a look at the places mentioned in the verse
1. Havilah (I am not sure where Havilah is)
2. Cush (The modern day Ethiopia)
3. Assyria (A small part of Turkey and Syria and a chunk of northern Iraq)

4. Euphrates river (It starts from mount Ararath runs through Turkey, Syria and Iraq and flows right into the Persian Gulf)

Pictures speak better than words. Take a look at this map

To be short, the Eden covered the entire region of the Arabian plateau and a part of Africa. 

What's more?

An alternative route of Gihon. 

The violet line suggests an alternative path of the river Gihon. Why?

It is a known fact that the red sea is the place where Arabian plate and African plate meet. These plates are constantly moving away from each other. As a result, the red sea continues to rift away.

Click here to read about the red sea rift.

The possibility is that, if the red sea goes on rifting, then there may have existed a time when these two plates were so near that only a fissure was present and it was the Gihon river.

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Thank you for your valuable time!

Do comment if you have found more such verses or if you have any alternative theories. 

Suggestions are most welcome!

And if you like this article, please give a tick on the check boxes below.

Have a wonderful day! 

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You may also be interested in Does God allow trials and temptations? (Click this topic to view)

The conclusion to the confusion

I always feel as if my soul is split into two. One part writer one part artist. There is always an irresistible pull from both these sides.
When I first started this blog, I couldn't simply decide on what to use this blog for. Eventually, I started the only writing thing.
And today I have successfully created another blog for my other side!
Feeling happy and balanced.
Will update about it sooner.

Jack of two trades master of none.

My most favourite imaginary characters

           As I had nothing to do worthwhile yesterday night, I made a list of seven of my most favourite imaginary characters from books. And seven is my favourite number too. It also happens to be my birthday date😉
          
(P.S. the above photo was taken at Manapad beach. Maybe I will write about it on a later date.)

1. Gollum

        At present, I am half way through 'the Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkien. It presented an interesting compilation of imaginary characters right from hobbits, elves, dwarves, trolls, eagles, wolves to skin changers (well, I have read only that far). And I haven't encountered any humans till now. (I wonder if Gandalf is a human). I found the book much more interesting than the movie. (My brain tells me, Isn't it the case with most of the books?). The book (though old) is very pleasant to read with not too much of action and not too much of boring stuff.

       Out of all the above mentioned characters, this creature Gollum stood out. The author begins it with an interesting note by saying "I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum — as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face." And there is more that I love about him. Just read and enjoy.
     
He was looking out of his pale lamp-like eyes for blind fish, which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking. He liked meat too. Goblin he thought good, when he could get it; but he took care they never found him out. He just throttled them from behind, if they ever came down alone anywhere near the edge of the water, while he was prowling about.

“Bless us and splash us, my precioussss! I guess it’s a choice feast; at least a tasty morsel it’d make us, gollum!” And when he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat. That is how he got his name, though he always called himself ‘my precious.’
   
         Three words to say, "just loved it".

The movie version of Gollum

 Click here to download the pdf of this story.
2. Kreacher

          While reading through all the seven volumes of Harry Potter, I often asked myself, why I did not like Dobby more? (I liked Dobby but not as much as Kreacher).

          I liked the author's lucid and easy writing style (that was what I felt). The story goes on smooth (except for the many many deaths) and filled with suspense. At last, the good prevailed over the evil. Yay! I also loved how the author pulled up loose strings, gave new explanations for it. (Maybe, I will follow this technique in my future books.) She also published additional information in other later books (maybe late timed character enlightenments). I enjoyed them thoroughly too.

           Coming back to our Kreacher and Dobby. Dobby seems that kind of fellow (should I say elf?) who values freedom, respect and friendship above others. Kreacher on the other hand, seems to value loyalty and love for his masters. The wonderful thing the author wrote that I loved was, how Regulus Black loved him back even with his life. Yeah, that made me love Kreacher more. He started loving Harry mainly for his affinity towards Regulus. So sweet of you, Kreacher. The author brings in the hidden fact that love changes people.

As downloaded from the Internet.

3. Kitsune

           I came across these creatures for the first time, when I read Vampire diaries. Actually, the author has taken this character from Japanese mythology. They are fox spirits or foxes that change into humans (Wikipedia states both). It also seems that the word "Kitsune" itself means 'fox' in Japanese.

           I enjoyed the author's vivid imagination (yes, I get her love for vampires), but felt that it was fulled with too much of romance😵. The triangle love made it only more and more complicated. Anyway, every author has got his own rights to write his ideology. We can see a kind of betterment in L.J.Smith's writing as she proceeds with each volume. Unlike Harry Potter, where the story has got the same hero and villain, here, each volume has got it's own villain. At times, the author's imagination takes wild turns (like bringing Elena back from the dead and again and again). She also at one point, brings everything back to square one. It is my personal opinion that she could have done it better. At places, the author seemed to jump from one scene to another. It felt
like the author was unable to project her multiple ideas one by one.

          Back to our kitsune. Though the author brings two bad kitsune siblings as the villians (and later a head kitsune as villain), I simply liked the idea of the kitsunes.

The author claims that the kitsunes have more than one tail.

Click here to see the Wikipedia page about kitsune
4. Peter Pan
           
          I don't think anybody from this planet needs an introduction about Peter Pan. Such an amazing character. Once again, unlike most of the Tinkerbell loving girls, I prefer Pan.

          I still remember the first time when I asked my father to buy me a Peter Pan book. He simply said "I will get you a cartoon CD. It is much cheaper, you know." (That means war!) And I refused to eat food. Ha ha!

          Recently, I found a free pdf of the same book online!
          Well, who wants to grow when you can simply sit and read!

Click here to download the pdf of this story.
5. The hatter

          "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

          The above words are the very words with which the author introduces the hatter. I do wonder from where he got the name MAD prefixed. In the story he points at March Hare and says that they quarrelled last March before the March Hare went mad. So, shouldn't the March Hare be called mad and not the hatter?

          The Hatter also continues with philosophy saying "saying what you mean and meaning what you say are different things". (Now, what did the hatter mean?) He also explains this philosophy with an easier philosophy of "I see what I eat and I eat what I see" (maybe, this makes more sense).

          Apart from this, the author also makes him say many a witty comments. "You must mean less. Because it is easy to have more of nothing." Absolutely wonderful, Mr. Hatter.

Twinkle twinkle little bat

How I wonder what you are at?

Up above the world you fly

Like a treetray in the sky.

Click here to download the pdf of this story. 

6. The blue umbrella 

           The book The blue umbrella by Mike Mason was recently presented to me by my sister. The author has got an amazing imagination regarding weather! (Yes, weather. You have read it correct.) The author brings in a wonderful character called Sky. Mr. Sky Porter. Sky has got a beautiful blue umbrella (that looks like the sky itself). He uses it to make beautiful weather and sends the weather all over the world. He befriends Zac and helps him to tackle his aunties.

          As the friendship grows, the seeds of doubts are sown. He wonders if Sky had a part in his mother's death, who was killed by a lightning. As the clouds of doubts clear away, the villians (Zac's cruel aunties) are destroyed and Sky adopts Zac and the ending is absolutely wonderful!

7. The wishing chair 

          The wishing chair by Enid Blyton was one of the first few that I read from our school library. I still remember how much shyness I had to overcome in order to go to the library and borrow a book (I also took with me a bunch of students just in case something goes wrong). As I read, I pictured myself as Mollie and went to all the places along with the wishing chair (I wonder who I imagined as Peter). Even after many years, I wished for a wishing chair (especially those times when I did not finish my homework). It was the first time I came across imaginary beings. The very first of them being pixies, brownies and goblins. As it was my first time reading those words, I searched for them in my dictionary and found the explanation for goblins alone. As a result, I imagined brownies to be completely dark brown in complexion and pixies to be somewhat small and asymmetrical with a pointed cap.

          It's been almost thirteen years since I read that book and the chair holds a very special place in my heart. All that I wish now is my own copy of the book.

Thank you for spending your precious time in reading this post! Please comment or share or +1 the post!

What is in the colour?

          That Sunday afternoon was very boring. I sat idly, watching my Sunday class students colour their books. It was a picture of Gabriel talking with Zachariah. Some were exhibiting their artistic abilities and some simply said with their faces that colouring was complete waste of time.
          Nothing was heard in the underground room except for the picking and dropping of pencils.
         Isaac broke the silence. "You cannot colour the angel's hair brown. It ought to be golden or silver."
          Jeremy looked at me with his face so solemn that he reminded me of a sinner who had come to make his confessions.
         "Why do you say so Isaac?" I asked.
         "Brown is for satan." he replied so cooly and continued with his colouring.
         I looked at my own fringe of hair that fell onto my cheeks. Jet black. So all angels are blonde? If brown hair is devil, then what is black supposed to be? Wait a minute, Isaac's hair is also brown. 
         "Who told you that?" I asked.
         "My grandma." he replied.
          Am I supposed to explain him that angels look so like humans that they were often mistaken to be humans? Did not Abraham, Gideon, Manoah and many others mistook them for humans? What about their wings? Hmmm... except for the wings of Cherubims and Seraphims, there is no mention of the wings. At least as far as I can recall.
         "Well, your hair is brown too." I tried not to sound offensive.
         "I am not holy enough." he replied with a sigh.
         Maybe his grandma was being too imaginative. Doesn't the Bible say that no sin is so crimson that His blood cannot wash? Aren't our most righteous acts rags in His eyes?
         "So holy people have golden or silver hair?" I asked keeping up with the conversation.
         "Yes. Like our pastor." he replied.
         I suppressed my laughter.
         "Is your grandma's hair silver?" I asked.
         "Yes." he replied with a proud smile.
         With a great difficulty, I tried to explain him the concept of grey hair and how it blossoms as we age. He only seemed to be confused more.
         "In God's eyes black, brown and white are the same." I said. "Remember the story with birds and water?"
         Only the week before, I told them Noah's story.
         "Yes. When Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit landed onto Him like a dove." he said. "SILVERY WHITE"
          Never thought that he would come up with such an apt example. Maybe his grandma told him that too. I should have added animals along with my reference to birds and water. My mistake. 
         "Remember the Noah's story I told you last week?" I asked.
         "Yeah..." he replied with a doubtful voice.
         "See how Noah gave equal importance to the raven and the dove? One black and one white?" I asked.
         "But grandma said ravens are unclean." he said.
          Now, how am I supposed to explain him the concept behind Peter's vision and how God had made everything clean? 
          Not a good idea. Think hard. 

         "Remember the story of Elijah when he was fed by the ravens in the Kerith ravine? Everybody is equal in the eyes of God, irrespective of the colour of their skin or hair or how they look or who they are." I told him.
         He thought of sometime and gave a nod.

         After sometime, he coloured Gabriel's hair the same shade as his. And so did the rest of the class.

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