A few thoughts:
- Everything in the Bible that’s been translated into English ought to be considered suspect. I don’t know Hebrew, but I have studied at least the book of Genesis in some depth comparing with the Hebrew transliteration and my own hermeneutical understanding.
a. “Genesis.” This is Latin, not Hebrew. In Hebrew it’s “bereshit” which occurs in that exact formation only once in the whole language, namely, as the first word in the book of Genesis/Bereshit. While usually translated as “in the beginning,” a friend of mine who is a Jewish Rabbinical student explained to me once that to flavor the understanding properly in English, one might say “once upon a time in a time beyond all time.” Thus, this is a metaphorical/symbolic/allegorical account.
b. The word “God.” There is no single word for God, but several. In the creation myth it is Elohim, which is not only a verb, but is plural and not necessarily personal (I have a friend who says Elohim is feminine as well but I haven’t seen the evidence for this). While some people translate it as “gods” it can also mean “powers.” It needs to be pointed out, that oftentimes we never have and never will have perfect translations of one language to another. You have to understand it in the spirit of the text. At other point, reference is made to a YHWH, and an Adonai. Never simply “God” so plainly and singularly.
c. The word “created.” The Hebrew word is “barah” meaning to shape or give form. Elohim doesn’t create from nothing, Elohim/the powers give form.
d. Understanding Elohim as a verb meaning “powers,” we thus come to understand the seven days of creation as something like thought-forms, and the word Elohim describing a becoming into something.
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“Made in the image of God” First off, I hope you read my point #1, because it is necessary. Secondly, we need to understand this in context and look again to the original Hebrew. The context shows that we have the creation of birds, and each reproduces itself according to it’s kind. We have the creation of animals and beasts of the earth, and each reproduces itself according to it’s kind. Clearly, what is being discussed here is DNA which is self-replicating. The clincher is the discussion of the creation of herbs and plants, each bearing seed according to it’s kind. Seed=DNA=self-replication. Now, then it comes to the creation of man. And Elohim says, “let us create man in our own image.” So what this is literally saying is, that “the powers of creation” will form man in their own image. In the Hebrew text, the letters Lamed-Mem-Nun occur in all the instances of animals begetting after their own kind, plants bearing seeds according to their own kind, and, you guessed it!, man being created in the image of the powers of creation. In other words, humans are the seed of Elohim, the seed of the powers of creation, or, the seed of God! This is why on the seventh day, God rests… because he has created man, who in his own image will continue on with the creative work.
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The prime directive. Interpretations which try to say that Genesis commands humans to take “dominion” over the earth again fall prey to language mistranslations and misunderstandings. After creating every species, God says “be fruitful and multiply.” He says to humans “be fruitful and multiply.” Then, he commands ALL the creatures including humans to fill the earth and replenish it. I ask, how does one “dominate” all other beings while still allowing them to fulfill their God-given purpose of being fruitful and multiplying while replenishing and filling the whole earth with creatures? It’s a contradiction! Which highlights the mistranslation and misunderstanding going on here. A different word than “dominate” is needed. While some people have tried to translate the Hebrew וְ כִ בְ שֻׁ ה instead to something like subdue, this still isn’t perfect, and perhaps we’ll never have a perfect translation. But the prior context and the following context give the clues to how it should really be understood. The following context is that YHWH says that the human will “sway” or “move” within all the fishes of the sea, all the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the earth. Of course he would, because human beings carry within them the powers of creation and so are intimately and inextricably connected to all other living beings.
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Maybe I’ll share my own translation of the first chapters of Genesis.
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Adam & Eve. The whole story of Eve being created from Adam’s “rib”? It probably didn’t happen. The Hebrew word there is transliterated as “angular organ” and probably refers to Adam’s penis. In other words, and in fitting with the whole “self-replication according to it’s kind,” Adam and Eve come together in the union of sex and that’s why the text then says they cling to each other and “become One flesh.” For without Adam, Eve could not birth. And without Eve, Adam would perish (“adam” in Hebrew means “dust/soil” and eve is written as “chavah” meaning “life” – this is a great understanding of masculine/feminine… the masculine drops from the tree of life and dies, returning to dust, but feminine lives on forever and ever from mother to mother). Thus, Eve is the “helper” that God brings to Adam.
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The original instructions! The Native American idea of Original Instructions is thus written there beautifully in Genesis. Be fruitful and multiply, make love, tend the earth and care for all beings as we are all related. Yet how many people actually read it that way?
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Jesus. Lots more context to understand here. Jesus comes from the Essene cult and is a Nazarene, hence the phrase “Jesus of Nazareth.” Samson was also a Nazarene. The Nazarenes took vows of diet and generally lived in the wilderness, and also refused to cut their hair (if you recall, it was the source of Samson’s power). A Nazirite was essentially something like an Indian Saddhu. They were ascetics and spiritual seekers. Surely this tidbit fills in the Jesus character more fully.
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Jesus abolished the very concept of sin and removed the mediators (priests) between God and Man. According to Jesus, the church is a rotten place because it is full of priests (the passages about “sepulchre for dead man’s bones”) and most of his parables are really expressing the truth of how shitty and unaccountable humans are in general. Jesus admonishments to “resist not” to evil is the same as the meditative practice of becoming unattached to your thoughts and sensations, acknowledge them but don’t resist them!
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In all likelihood, Jesus’ “lost years” were spent in Tibet learning Buddhism. There is a sutra that says as much, naming him “Isa,” beloved of the animals.
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John the Baptist was living in the wilderness preparing “the way” and looked to Jesus as the fulfillment of this journey.
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Jesus criticized the priests, theologians, and theology in general. He considered them all distractions from true relationship with the living God. When he says, “not one jot or tittle will pass from the Law,” he’s referring to Moses and the Prophets, who said things very differently than the priests who are responsible for such hogwash as Leviticus. It was Moses and the various prophets who always jumped out and said, “Israel, change your ways! Repent!”
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Repent from what? Repent from the violation of Original Instructions as in the book of Genesis. Jesus found his way back into Eden, the kingdom of God which is “among you and within you,” and he strove to share that insight and that message. And he was just a man, not the God Christianity makes him out to be. Jesus makes it clear, that whatever power he had, didn’t come from him but came from above, from the Father.
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Moses is a really cool, indigenous story too but I’m running out of steam here!
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Paul was an imperial Roman who sabotaged Jesus’ attempt at a Buddhistic movement from the inside, like a trojan horse. Paul created Christianity, a religion that celebrated the death of Jesus whereas Jesus celebrated the life of living things. It was a religion that told women to shut up and be quiet, and which established churches and priests, even though Jesus destroyed both churches and priests and inequalities between men and women. Paul established a religion that told slaves to be obedient and for citizens to respect their leaders and pay taxes, even though Jesus was a political radical who lived to subvert the social order. I could go on and on. The gospel writers do some very intentional writing-between-the-lines to spell out Paul as the Anti-Christ. One of the keys is Paul’s original name, Saul. In the Old Testament, Saul was the tyrant king who set out to kill David, the true heir to the throne of Israel. The gospels also say Saul was anointed as Paul by Ananias, who was in a later story struck down dead by God for living a lie and preaching false doctrine. Lol!
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Jesus is perfectly compatible with rewilding and ought to be considered a spiritual forerunner and pioneer of rewilding. Christianity, on the other hand, is NOT compatible with rewilding or human freedom spiritual or material but is instead a trap to keep humanity enslaved by their own conditioning and domestication.