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Which of these is an eight-day festival of lights that takes place in early December and commemorates the recapture of the temple in Jerusalem?
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Hanukkah
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Did all of the Israelites leave Egypt at the time of the Exodus or did some remain in Egypt?
Firstly, it needs to be understood that there are not two creationaccounts but two 'parts' to the one account. The reason for thisassertion will be explained below.The common ancient practice, as evidenced in other ancientliterature, was to write one main account and then to write asecond part or section which expanded on the first or some aspectof it. This is precisely what we have in the creation account whichspans Genesis 1 and 2.Secondly, it needs to be understood clearly that the DocumentaryHypothesis or JEDP Theory from the 19th Century has been repeatedlyand thoroughly refuted in terms of the main presuppositions onwhich it is based. It thus has no basis as a factual theory. Inparticular, this theory totally ignores the findings of archaeologywhich refute its false presuppositions. It is archaeology, with itsgrowing evidence of ancient literature which has furnished exampleswhich highlight this ancient literary device.Thirdly, in relation to the two parts of the one account thedivisions are these. The first part of the account is generallychronological in that it gives a summary of the total creation overthe period of the six days into the seventh day of rest. Thisaccount proceeds from Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a.The second part of the one account begins at 2:4a and dealsspecifically with the creation of man. It is non-chronological,which is why some people see a non-existent contradiction betweenthe two parts. Understanding the different emphasis removes thismisunderstanding.Summary:The simple reason there appears to be two creation accounts is thatthis is an ancient literary usage. This usage takes a generaloverview and then later takes a particular part and expands uponit. There are thus not two accounts but different parts of the oneaccount.AnswerRe-thinking the single creation theoryFirst, one has to keep in mind that these ancient writings are froma Hebratic people, and only they can make known their spiritualbeliefs and practices.In my research on this very subject, I have found information thathas changed my understanding of the creation story that I learnedfrom childhood through Sunday School.Christ in John 4:22, is speaking to a Samaritan woman concerningwhom they worship, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what weworship: for salvation is of the Jews."To lean the truth, we need to look to the Jewish teachings, and notthe translations by modern man or their interpretations.And this I have done.Numbers are very significate to Jewish faith.Let's look at the numbers 7 and 8.In kabbalistic teachings, the number seven symbolizes perfection -perfection that is achievable via natural means - while eightsymbolizes thatwhich is beyond nature and its (inherently limited) perfection.Some examples:a) God created the world and its natural order in seven days.b) Between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot there are sevenweeks. During these weeks the Jews work on perfecting their sevenemotions (love, fear, compassion, ambition, humility, bonding andreceptiveness)-one emotion per week. At the conclusion of theseseven weeks they have sufficiently perfected themselves to beworthy of receiving the Torah on Shavuot. A completed person hascontrol over all seven emotions.c) The Holy Temple's menorah, which served to illuminate thenatural world with the holy glow of spirituality, had sevenbranches.e) There are seven colors of the rainbow and seven musical notes.When something has seven parts, it symbolizes that it has reachedits state of completion: the seven notes of the diatonic scale makeone complete octave, etc.Eight, on the other hand, is symbolic of an entity that is one stepabove the natural order, higher than nature and its limitations.That's why Chanukah is eight days long-The greatly outnumbered Maccabees' resolve to battle the Greekswasn't logical or natural. They drew on reservoirs of faith andcourage that are not part of normative human nature. They thereforemerited a miracle higher than nature - a miracle that lasted eightdays - and to commemorate this, the Jews light on Chanukah aneight-branched menorah.It was a command by God that all Jewish baby boys were to becircumcised on the eight day after their birth to consecrate themto god. In Judaism, circumcision is considered a symbol of thecovenant between God and the Jewish people. In fact, brisliterally means "covenant." The bris is on the eighth day sothat the newborn baby will by necessity live through a completeweek which must include a Sabbath. Once the baby has experiencedthe "holiness" of the Shabbos, he may enter into the covenant ofthe Jewish people.Now let's go to the scriptues.TWO CREATIONS OF MANCreation 1) THE GENTILES (People of Different Nations)Creation 2) MESSIANNIC LINE (Adam - Noah - David - Christ)DAY 6 "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after hiskind,"(A spoken command by the creator (the Word) and it was done. Theywere not "formed" by the hands of the creator, it was a command andthe earth delivered.)1st. he created - Cattle2nd. he created - The things that creep/crawls upon the earth3rd he created - The beasts of the earth. And "It was so."4th God is taking inventory and God made the beast of the earthafter his kind, and cattle after his kind, and every thing thatcreepeth upon the earth after his kind : and God saw that it wasgood."5th - Let us make man in our image, after our likeness : and letthem [plural, as in nations, races] have dominion over ALL livingcreatures, of those in the sea, in the air and of 'the beasts' andof 'the creeping things.' [God gave dominion over the earth tothese human beings that He just created.]Vs 27 - "So God created man in his own image, in the imageof God created he him; male and female created he them."Vs 28 And now God blessed them, and God said unto them, Befruitful, and multiply, and replenish [replenish as in repopulate?!]Vs 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it wasVERY good. Not just "good", as was exclaimed in verses 1:10, 12,18, 21, and 25, but VERY good. He was well satisfied. Chapter 2:1-3God says, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and ALL THEHOST OF THEM. (the "hosts" of heaven, the angels and the hosts ofthe earth, mankind, and creatures, both male and female)Genesis Chapter 2 - The Sabbath2&3 And He rested on the 7thday and He blessed and sanctifiedit. Now this part of the creation phase is complete. And He says, 4these are THE GENERATIONS of the heavens and of the earth, in theday, that the LORD God made the earth and heavens,for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, andthere was not a man to till the ground. 6 There went up a mist fromthe earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the LordGod formed man from the moistened earth, and breathed into hisnostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. (ThroughAdam, a Savior would be born, an "eternal" living soul) Adam wasthe beginning of a "special" race of people, a "saving" race.Next, pay close attention to the order in which things are createdhere, starting with the creation of Adam. The steps in which eachitem was created, is different from the 6th day creation where"man" was created last and animals and creeping things were createdfirst.1st Adam is formed. Genesis 5b - 7.2nd "God planted a garden3rd Now we have a river flowing out of Eden, watering the garden,parting and forming 4 rivers.4th Genesis 2:15 Heavenly Father put Adam in the garden.5th Genesis 2:18 LORD God said, "It is not good that the man shouldbe alone; I will make him an help meet."6th Genesis 2:19-20 "Out of the ground the LORD God formed everybeast of the field , every fowl of the air, {Notice this time the"earth did not bring forth every creature after his kind" as istold on the 6th day of creation, these creations were "formed" bythe creator. Another noticeable missing created item of the 6th daycreation are the creeping things! They were not created in thiscreation day and there is a reason that I will explain later.}[These are the "clean" creations, the animals to besacrificed to God in the temple.The Sacrifices - Leviticus 1:2 - cattle, 1:10 - sheep & goats,1:14 - fowl.]7th Genesis 2:21-25 God formed Eve.Adam was created FIRST in this creation where as the creation of"mankind, male and female" created on the 6th day were createdlast, a different creation, a different people. (The people of Nod,East of Eden, were of the 6th day race of people, one of manynations. Adam was created 2 days later, on the 8th day. The EightDay creations, as I've written, is symbolic of an entity that isone step above the natural order, higher than nature and itslimitations.)The 6th day creations were all "unclean or blemished" heathen andun-Godly humans and animals with blimishes and the 8th daycreations are "clean, Godly humans and the animals were withoutblemish".Genesis 6:19 "And of every living thing of ALL FLESH, two of everysort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee;they shall be male and female."Genesis 7 1-9Noah was ordered to take aboard the ark, seven ofevery clean beast and fowl, the male and his female, and of thebeast that are not clean, by two, the male and his female. Noah andhis family were righteous and without blemish, and through Noah,Christ would be born.Two creations, one "unclean" created on the 6th day and the other"clean" and special created on the 8th day.1Peter 3:20 "eight souls were "saved" by water." (We see thebaptism of Noah's family by water)The righteous/clean/saved people on the ark were:Noah and his wifeHam and his wifeShem and his wifeJapheth and his wife, the 8 saved souls.Genesis 2:5(b) - 25Stong's and NAS Exhaustive Concordances of the Bible :Strong's #120Word - h�·'�·��m, �·��mDefination: man, mankindNAS Exhaustive ConcordanceDefination: man, mankindNASB Translationany man (2x), anyone (4x), anyone's (1x), being* (1x), common sort*(1), human (19), infantry (1), low degree* (1), low* (1), man(363), man's (20), man* (1), mankind (9), men (104), men of lowdegree* (1), men's (3), men* (4), mortal (1), one (3), people (1),person (5), person* (1), persons (3), population (1), someone (1).Next compare both translations of "adam".GENESIS 1:26The creation of man/humansStrong's # 120 / Transliteration - �·��m / Heb. word -�ָ�ָ��/ Eng. MANGen. 2:5bThe creation of the man named Adam. A being or "entity that is onestep above the natural order, higher than nature and itslimitations".Strong's # 120 / Transliteration - h�·'�·��m / Heb.word�ְ�ָ�ָ֣� / Eng. MANNotice the number of characters, strokes and dots under both Hebrewwords above.The word translated for the Hebrew words "adam and ha-adam" intothe English translated word "man", should have been translated, insome instances, differently for a better understanding. To clarifythe differance between two separate subjects or better yet, twocreations.For example: Genesis1:26 the creation of manHebrew text:1) "way·y�·mer /2) ' �·l�·hîm, /3) na·'�·�eh /4)�·��m /5) b�·ṣal·mê·nū,"English Transliteration1) said /2) God, /3) make /4) 'man kind' /5) our image."I have given you the information, draw your own conclusions.Because before God created the earth and every living thing physically, he made them spiritually; therefore everything has a spirit, even the earth. Hence, two accounts. Put simply, because there were two writers, at least, of Genesis. The 'priestly' writer tells of a God that is personal, and more human-like. He tells of him walking in the Garden with Adam, and having human traits. The second writer, the 'Jahwehist' writer tells of a God that is more aloof and spiritual, and less personal.The evidence for this is overwhelming but easily missable in English translations of Genesis. In the original Hebrew the style of writing between the two writers of the Creation stories is obvious - as obvious as the difference between Tenessee Williams and Shakespeare, or Dickens and Harold Pinter.Are the Creation stories made up then? No, but most Biblical scholars and many Christians who are not Creationists (in the sense that Genesis should be taken word-for-word literally), agree that the stories are far more profound than mere stories of two people in a garden. Many Christians look deeper than the superficial stories of Adam and Eve, and find a real truth of humanity's arrogance and determination to do its own thing rather than obey God's will.The two accounts are sometimes seen by bible Scholars as representing God the Father (the Jahwehist, Spiritual God) and Jesus Christ, as God incarnate (The Priestly God).Finally, if one is to interpret Genesis correctly there are many questions that must be asked, and false assumptions about Genesis dispersed. As one example, we read that God forbade Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If, by knowing that eating of that tree would cause death and suffering, why did he put it there in the first place? To catch us out? That does not speak to me of a God of love, but a God out to trap us. Therefore, many scholars now agree that the Tree was part of God's plan - necessary in order that we have free will, and that the rescue package of Jesus Christ was already part of His plan even in the days of Genesis. A second example of incorrect assumptions is that most laymen would agree that the devil tempted Eve to eat of the fruit. However, nowhere in Genesis is the serpent (who actually did the tempting) equated with the devil. The devil, Satam, Beelzebub, Lucifer - however you wish to name him - is never mentioned in Genesis.Therefore, we must put aside preconceptions when looking at this ancient and important text - and that means also putting aside preconceptions about the writer/writers, the style, the reasons for writing and the depth underneath the superficial story. for it is only when we really study God's word that we begin to understand the mind of God and begin to have the ability to do His will.
Why are there creation stories?
Firstly, it needs to be understood that there are not two creation accounts but two 'parts' to the one account. The reason for this assertion will be explained below.The common ancient practice, as evidenced in other ancient literature, was to write one main account and then to write a second part or section which expanded on the first or some aspect of it. This is precisely what we have in the creation account which spans Genesis 1 and 2.Secondly, it needs to be understood clearly that the Documentary Hypothesis or JEDP Theory from the 19th Century has been repeatedly and thoroughly refuted in terms of the main presuppositions on which it is based. It thus has no basis as a factual theory. In particular, this theory totally ignores the findings of archaeology which refute its false presuppositions. It is archaeology, with its growing evidence of ancient literature which has furnished examples which highlight this ancient literary device.Thirdly, in relation to the two parts of the one account the divisions are these. The first part of the account is generally chronological in that it gives a summary of the total creation over the period of the six days into the seventh day of rest. This account proceeds from Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a.The second part of the one account begins at 2:4a and deals specifically with the creation of man. It is non-chronological, which is why some people see a non-existent contradiction between the two parts. Understanding the different emphasis removes this misunderstanding.Summary:The simple reason there appears to be two creation accounts is that this is an ancient literary usage. This usage takes a general overview and then later takes a particular part and expands upon it. There are thus not two accounts but different parts of the one account.AnswerRe-thinking the single creation theoryFirst, one has to keep in mind that these ancient writings are from a Hebratic people, and only they can make known their spiritual beliefs and practices.In my research on this very subject, I have found information that has changed my understanding of the creation story that I learned from childhood through Sunday School.Christ in John 4:22, is speaking to a Samaritan woman concerning whom they worship, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews."To lean the truth, we need to look to the Jewish teachings, and not the translations by modern man or their interpretations.And this I have done.Numbers are very significate to Jewish faith.Let's look at the numbers 7 and 8.In kabbalistic teachings, the number seven symbolizes perfection -perfection that is achievable via natural means - while eight symbolizes thatwhich is beyond nature and its (inherently limited) perfection.Some examples:a) God created the world and its natural order in seven days.b) Between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot there are seven weeks. During these weeks the Jews work on perfecting their seven emotions (love, fear, compassion, ambition, humility, bonding and receptiveness)-one emotion per week. At the conclusion of these seven weeks they have sufficiently perfected themselves to be worthy of receiving the Torah on Shavuot. A completed person has control over all seven emotions.c) The Holy Temple's menorah, which served to illuminate the natural world with the holy glow of spirituality, had seven branches.e) There are seven colors of the rainbow and seven musical notes. When something has seven parts, it symbolizes that it has reached its state of completion: the seven notes of the diatonic scale make one complete octave, etc.Eight, on the other hand, is symbolic of an entity that is one step above the natural order, higher than nature and its limitations. That's why Chanukah is eight days long-The greatly outnumbered Maccabees' resolve to battle the Greeks wasn't logical or natural. They drew on reservoirs of faith and courage that are not part of normative human nature. They therefore merited a miracle higher than nature - a miracle that lasted eight days - and to commemorate this, the Jews light on Chanukah an eight-branched menorah.It was a command by God that all Jewish baby boys were to be circumcised on the eight day after their birth to consecrate them to god. In Judaism, circumcision is considered a symbol of the covenant between God and the Jewish people. In fact, brisliterally means "covenant." The bris is on the eighth day so that the newborn baby will by necessity live through a complete week which must include a Sabbath. Once the baby has experienced the "holiness" of the Shabbos, he may enter into the covenant of the Jewish people.Now let's go to the scriptues.TWO CREATIONS OF MANCreation 1) THE GENTILES (People of Different Nations)Creation 2) MESSIANNIC LINE (Adam - Noah - David - Christ)DAY 6 "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind,"(A spoken command by the creator (the Word) and it was done. They were not "formed" by the hands of the creator, it was a command and the earth delivered.)1st. he created - Cattle2nd. he created - The things that creep/crawls upon the earth3rd he created - The beasts of the earth. And "It was so."4th God is taking inventory and God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after his kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind : and God saw that it was good."5th - Let us make man in our image, after our likeness : and let them [plural, as in nations, races] have dominion over ALL living creatures, of those in the sea, in the air and of 'the beasts' and of 'the creeping things.' [God gave dominion over the earth to these human beings that He just created.]Vs 27 - "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."Vs 28 And now God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish [replenish as in repopulate?! ]Vs 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was VERY good. Not just "good", as was exclaimed in verses 1:10, 12, 18, 21, and 25, but VERY good. He was well satisfied. Chapter 2:1-3 God says, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and ALL THE HOST OF THEM. (the "hosts" of heaven, the angels and the hosts of the earth, mankind, and creatures, both male and female)Genesis Chapter 2 - The Sabbath2&3 And He rested on the 7thday and He blessed and sanctified it. Now this part of the creation phase is complete. And He says, 4 these are THE GENERATIONS of the heavens and of the earth, in the day, that the LORD God made the earth and heavens,for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6 There went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the Lord God formed man from the moistened earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. (Through Adam, a Savior would be born, an "eternal" living soul) Adam was the beginning of a "special" race of people, a "saving" race.Next, pay close attention to the order in which things are created here, starting with the creation of Adam. The steps in which each item was created, is different from the 6th day creation where "man" was created last and animals and creeping things were created first.1st Adam is formed. Genesis 5b - 7.2nd "God planted a garden3rd Now we have a river flowing out of Eden, watering the garden, parting and forming 4 rivers.4th Genesis 2:15 Heavenly Father put Adam in the garden.5th Genesis 2:18 LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet."6th Genesis 2:19-20 "Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field , every fowl of the air, {Notice this time the "earth did not bring forth every creature after his kind" as is told on the 6th day of creation, these creations were "formed" by the creator. Another noticeable missing created item of the 6th day creation are the creeping things! They were not created in this creation day and there is a reason that I will explain later.}[These are the "clean" creations, the animals to besacrificed to God in the temple.The Sacrifices - Leviticus 1:2 - cattle, 1:10 - sheep & goats,1:14 - fowl.]7th Genesis 2:21-25 God formed Eve.Adam was created FIRST in this creation where as the creation of "mankind, male and female" created on the 6th day were created last, a different creation, a different people. (The people of Nod, East of Eden, were of the 6th day race of people, one of many nations. Adam was created 2 days later, on the 8th day. The Eight Day creations, as I've written, is symbolic of an entity that is one step above the natural order, higher than nature and its limitations.)The 6th day creations were all "unclean or blemished" heathen and un-Godly humans and animals with blimishes and the 8th day creations are "clean, Godly humans and the animals were without blemish".Genesis 6:19 "And of every living thing of ALL FLESH, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female."Genesis 7 1-9Noah was ordered to take aboard the ark, seven of every clean beast and fowl, the male and his female, and of the beast that are not clean, by two, the male and his female. Noah and his family were righteous and without blemish, and through Noah, Christ would be born.Two creations, one "unclean" created on the 6th day and the other "clean" and special created on the 8th day.1Peter 3:20 "eight souls were "saved" by water." (We see the baptism of Noah's family by water)The righteous/clean/saved people on the ark were:Noah and his wifeHam and his wifeShem and his wifeJapheth and his wife, the 8 saved souls.Genesis 2:5(b) - 25Stong's and NAS Exhaustive Concordances of the Bible :Strong's #120Word - h�·'�·��m, �·��mDefination: man, mankindNAS Exhaustive ConcordanceDefination: man, mankindNASB Translationany man (2x), anyone (4x), anyone's (1x), being* (1x), common sort* (1), human (19), infantry (1), low degree* (1), low* (1), man (363), man's (20), man* (1), mankind (9), men (104), men of low degree* (1), men's (3), men* (4), mortal (1), one (3), people (1), person (5), person* (1), persons (3), population (1), someone (1).Next compare both translations of "adam".GENESIS 1:26The creation of man/humansStrong's # 120 / Transliteration - �·��m / Heb. word - �ָ�ָ��/ Eng. MANGen. 2:5bThe creation of the man named Adam. A being or "entity that is one step above the natural order, higher than nature and its limitations".Strong's # 120 / Transliteration - h�·'�·��m / Heb. word�ְ�ָ�ָ֣� / Eng. MANNotice the number of characters, strokes and dots under both Hebrew words above.The word translated for the Hebrew words "adam and ha-adam" into the English translated word "man", should have been translated, in some instances, differently for a better understanding. To clarify the differance between two separate subjects or better yet, two creations.For example: Genesis1:26 the creation of manHebrew text:1) "way·y�·mer /2) ' �·l�·hîm, /3) na·'�·�eh /4) �·��m /5) b�·ṣal·mê·nū,"English Transliteration1) said /2) God, /3) make /4) 'man kind' /5) our image."I have given you the information, draw your own conclusions.Because before God created the earth and every living thing physically, he made them spiritually; therefore everything has a spirit, even the earth. Hence, two accounts.Put simply, because there were two writers, at least, of Genesis. The 'priestly' writer tells of a God that is personal, and more human-like. He tells of him walking in the Garden with Adam, and having human traits. The second writer, the 'Jahwehist' writer tells of a God that is more aloof and spiritual, and less personal.The evidence for this is overwhelming but easily missable in English translations of Genesis. In the original Hebrew the style of writing between the two writers of the Creation stories is obvious - as obvious as the difference between Tenessee Williams and Shakespeare, or Dickens and Harold Pinter.Are the Creation stories made up then? No, but most Biblical scholars and many Christians who are not Creationists (in the sense that Genesis should be taken word-for-word literally), agree that the stories are far more profound than mere stories of two people in a garden. Many Christians look deeper than the superficial stories of Adam and Eve, and find a real truth of humanity's arrogance and determination to do its own thing rather than obey God's will.The two accounts are sometimes seen by bible Scholars as representing God the Father (the Jahwehist, Spiritual God) and Jesus Christ, as God incarnate (The Priestly God).Finally, if one is to interpret Genesis correctly there are many questions that must be asked, and false assumptions about Genesis dispersed. As one example, we read that God forbade Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If, by knowing that eating of that tree would cause death and suffering, why did he put it there in the first place? To catch us out? That does not speak to me of a God of love, but a God out to trap us. Therefore, many scholars now agree that the Tree was part of God's plan - necessary in order that we have free will, and that the rescue package of Jesus Christ was already part of His plan even in the days of Genesis. A second example of incorrect assumptions is that most laymen would agree that the devil tempted Eve to eat of the fruit. However, nowhere in Genesis is the serpent (who actually did the tempting) equated with the devil. The devil, Satam, Beelzebub, Lucifer - however you wish to name him - is never mentioned in Genesis.Therefore, we must put aside preconceptions when looking at this ancient and important text - and that means also putting aside preconceptions about the writer/writers, the style, the reasons for writing and the depth underneath the superficial story. for it is only when we really study God's word that we begin to understand the mind of God and begin to have the ability to do His will.
