The Bible and the Torah

[uvn477]

I have heard that the original Hebrew texts contain much more than what is included in the Holy Bible. An example would be the story of Lilith in Genesis. I'm not sure if this is true since I have not gotten my hands on a Torah yet but I've heard that there's a story of the first woman named Lilith who was intended to be the spouse of Adam. However, because of her wickedness and ambition to rule over Adam she was cast out and became mother to all demons. I have looked in the Bible and it does seem like there is a hole between the sixth day and the creation of Eve.

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

This was in the sixth day before Eve was created. Yet the Bible states that both males and females were created at the time. Does someone know the answer to this?

[M45510G1C]

Some have suggested that Lilith's name may be referenced in the Old Testament Isaiah 34:14: The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. This translation of Lilith is a Hapax legomenon ( A word or form that occurs only once in the recorded corpus of a given languag).

However, some interpret the passage in Genesis 1:27

[Guest shiloh357]

Gen. 1:27 is a synopsis concerning the creation of Eve. Just as Gen 1:1 is a synopsis of creation, yet the Scriptures go on to fill in the details.

Had Lilith been real the Scriptures would just come out and tell us. God does not seek to keep us in the dark. That is not the nature of truth.

The creation story was written after the fact, not as it was occuring, so it is not some mysterious thing that the creation of man and woman would be mentioned in the same verse. Eve was created on the sixth "day" with Adam so there really is no reason to believe that Adam had another wife prior to Eve.

[Leonard]

I have heard that the original Hebrew texts contain much more than what is included in the Holy Bible. An example would be the story of Lilith in Genesis. I'm not sure if this is true since I have not gotten my hands on a Torah yet but I've heard that there's a story of the first woman named Lilith who was intended to be the spouse of Adam. However, because of her wickedness and ambition to rule over Adam she was cast out and became mother to all demons. I have looked in the Bible and it does seem like there is a hole between the sixth day and the creation of Eve.

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

This was in the sixth day before Eve was created. Yet the Bible states that both males and females were created at the time. Does someone know the answer to this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Brother:

There are GOBS of religious writings by Jews and Christians which never made it into the Bible. The Torah is technically, the first 5 books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Jewish Torah is substantially the same as you will find in ANY Bible. Different translators may come up with a little different phraseology for the same passage, but they are almost all based on the Hebrew Masoratic Text these days.

Fact is, the Jewish religious authorities never considered the Lilith myth to be part of the inspired Word of the Lord. Most regarded it as purely fictional, so they never included it in their canon. As far as we can tell, the Lilith myth only goes back to the time of the Babylonian captivity (ca. 586 B.C.), whereas Jews were honoring the Torah from at least 1250 B.C.!

As far as your question regarding the creation of Eve in Genesis 1:27, you have probably reached a fallacious conclusion. You seem to have approached the text as you would any Western text. And you have approached it with your mind set to very Greek catagories of interpretation. The Bible--especially the Old Testament--is however, an oriental book. The ancient Jews did not think in the same strictly logically ordered structure we are taught to. Nor did they write in the same way, or for the same effects we do.

A very typical Rabbinical way of writing is to give a quick 'overview' of the 'big picture' without worrying about getting each event in strict, chronological order, or every detail set in stone with microscopic precision, then going back and focusing in very sharply on whatever the 'most important' part of the story might be, with sharper detail. This occurs several times in the Bible itself, such as in the Apostle Paul's writings (remember Paul was trained as a Rabbi), notably in Romans 6, 7, and 8. This is precisely what you are looking at here in Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2. In chapter 1 is the 'big picture' overview of the whole creation, without too much detail, however in chapter 2 Moses 'focuses in' on the details regarding the 'important' part: The creation of Adam and Eve.

Many regard the chapters as being contradictory, because they are trying to force a very Western (and very Greek) way of understanding literature onto this oriental text. I trust this will be of some help in your investigations.

[EricH]

The idea that the Torah is expanded from what we have in our current translations and Hebrew OT is new to me

[Guest preach1]

The Holy Bible is the only book that a person needs to obey in order to understand God and His righteousness...

You question ought to be how can I be saved...

Avoid follish questions that bring about strife...

Many people get confused trying to read other books that contridict the Bible..

In the book of Genesis God created Adam and Eve.. It is hilarious to think that there was a woman before Eve...

Adam and Eve took of the forbidden they were driven out of the garden....

Eve allowed the serpent to deceive her..

I am telling you, Dont be deceived by false docrtine or teachings of MEN, they will confuse you every time....

That is why it is so important to be under a pastor who can rightly divide the Word of God...

Romans 10:14-16 Faith comes by hearing...

These forums are good, but not all TRUE.. TRUTH is knowing who Jesus is and having faith in Him...

Pray that God will lead you to a bible believing church...

[dgolvach]

Did God lie when he stated that we would preserve his word for all generations?

Who Is The Preserver?

That God has promised to preserve His word should be obvious to the most casual reader of the Bible. He not only loved man enough to give him His word in the first place, but He also promised to keep it pure, somewhere, for every generation. Psalm 12:6-7 is very plain on this.

6 The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

Other verses to study concerning preservation are: Deuteronomy 8:3; Psalm 119:89, 144, 152, 160; Isaiah 30:8, 40:6-8, 59:21; Jeremiah 30:2; Matthew 4:4, 5:17-18, 24:35; John 10:35; 1 Peter 1:23-25; etc. These verses prove to anyone who is willing to believe them as they stand that God has sworn to preserve His word. The way many of our fundamentalist friends handle them, however, is with double-talk and flawed logic. These characters will quickly agree that God has preserved His word, but then turn around and maintain that it is impossible for it to be preserved without error! Their reasoning behind this is since man is fallible, errors must have been made in copying the manuscripts, thus corrupting them to some extent; how much though they cannot determine. It is amazing how they can contradict themselves in the same breath and claim to be credible. How can something be preserved and not be preserved at the same time? How can God give His pure word, promise to preserve its purity, and then preserve it and it not be pure without Him being a liar (Romans 3:4)? These so-called scholars cannot produce one Bible in any language from anywhere on earth they believe to be completely pure and inerrant. What would this say about God's integrity if it were true? Did God fail in His promise? Perish the thought! When the Psalmist said "thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them..." in verse 7, he is referring to the "pure words" in verse 6! Furthermore, these "pure words" are not just some of God's words, they are all "The words of the Lord...." If God cannot keep His word pure and free from error, what makes these people think he can keep their SOUL! Both are spoken of as preserved (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Concerning the words being purified "seven times," it is interesting to observe that the King James Version is the seventh major English translation. The six translations before it were: Wyclif's Bible (1382), Coverdale's Bible (1535, using Tyndale's New Testament from 1525), Matthew's Bible (1537), The Great Bible (1539), The Geneva Bible (1560), and The Bishop's Bible (1568). Each of these Bibles was (and still is) a valuable translation, but the King James of 1611 is the purest