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Goodbye Jesus

God Is Not The Creator, Claims Academic


OpheliaGinger

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Professor Ellen van Wolde, a respected Old Testament scholar and author, claims the first sentence of Genesis "in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth" is not a true translation of the Hebrew.

 

She claims she has carried out fresh textual analysis that suggests the writers of the great book never intended to suggest that God created the world -- and in fact the Earth was already there when he created humans and animals.

 

Prof Van Wolde, 54, who will present a thesis on the subject at Radboud University in The Netherlands where she studies, said she had re-analysed the original Hebrew text and placed it in the context of the Bible as a whole, and in the context of other creation stories from ancient Mesopotamia.

 

She said she eventually concluded the Hebrew verb "bara", which is used in the first sentence of the book of Genesis, does not mean "to create" but to "spatially separate".

 

The first sentence should now read "in the beginning God separated the Heaven and the Earth"

 

According to Judeo-Christian tradition, God created the Earth out of nothing.

 

Prof Van Wolde, who once worked with the Italian academic and novelist Umberto Eco, said her new analysis showed that the beginning of the Bible was not the beginning of time, but the beginning of a narration.

 

She said: "It meant to say that God did create humans and animals, but not the Earth itself."

 

She writes in her thesis that the new translation fits in with ancient texts.

 

According to them there used to be an enormous body of water in which monsters were living, covered in darkness, she said.

 

She said technically "bara" does mean "create" but added: "Something was wrong with the verb.

 

"God was the subject (God created), followed by two or more objects. Why did God not create just one thing or animal, but always more?"

 

She concluded that God did not create, he separated: the Earth from the Heaven, the land from the sea, the sea monsters from the birds and the swarming at the ground.

 

"There was already water," she said.

 

"There were sea monsters. God did create some things, but not the Heaven and Earth. The usual idea of creating-out-of-nothing, creatio ex nihilo, is a big misunderstanding."

 

God came later and made the earth livable, separating the water from the land and brought light into the darkness.

 

She said she hoped that her conclusions would spark "a robust debate", since her finds are not only new, but would also touch the hearts of many religious people.

 

She said: "Maybe I am even hurting myself. I consider myself to be religious and the Creator used to be very special, as a notion of trust. I want to keep that trust."

 

A spokesman for the Radboud University said: "The new interpretation is a complete shake up of the story of the Creation as we know it."

 

Prof Van Wolde added: "The traditional view of God the Creator is untenable now."

source

 

She's just a woman, what does she know. [/sarcasm]

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Not that it would necessarily prove anything, but I wonder native Hebrew speakers have to say about it.

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"There were sea monsters. God did create some things, but not the Heaven and Earth. The usual idea of creating-out-of-nothing, creatio ex nihilo, is a big misunderstanding."

 

God came later and made the earth livable, separating the water from the land and brought light into the darkness./i]

 

I took the liberty of talking to one of those old displaced sea monsters. "]Yeah man, I remember it like it was yesterday. We'd swim around, eat some fish, and we'd get drunk. Then that retarded space bastard Yahweh showed up. Most of us got knocked out when he was moving things around. When I woke up last year things had changed a lot. And these little creatures, I think you call yourselves humans right?-were worshipping that retard that fucked up our good deal. Listen you guys,don't worship Yahweh, he's not a god, he's just some big alien asshole who likes to fuck with lower life forms.I talked to the Kraken and Leviathan, and they said while you humans are little bittie dudes, you come up with some amazing shit. You guys need to teem up with us and we'll send that shithead Yahweh back where he came from with a mountain shoved up his ass.

 

If you want to contact us, the Bloop will be taking calls at 555-5555.

 

I know we can do this little tiny dudes,

G

 

 

godzilla.jpg

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The Enuma Elis

 

1. When in the height heaven was not named,

 

2. And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,

 

3. And the primeval
Apsû
, who begat them,

 

4. And chaos,
Tiamat
, the mother of them both,—

 

5. Their waters were mingled together,

 

6. And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;

 

7. When of the gods none had been called into being,

 

8. And none bore a name, and no destinies [were ordained];

 

9. Then were created the gods in the midst of [heaven],

 

Read the rest if you like: http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/stc/index.htm

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