Sample from the Torah:

THE FOUNDATIONAL CHAPTERS:
Genesis (B'reyshith) 1-5


CHAPTER 1

1. Originally [b'reyshith], Elohim brought the heavens and earth into existence [from nothing, and set them in perfect, finished order].

Originally: at first, or "in the former state"; literally "in beginning". Elohim: the name emphasizing the Creator's justice, but also any "mighty ones", whether in the spiritual realm or human judges. Another form of the word for "create" or "bring into existence" means "to make fat". Compare this with the note on verse 2. The actual Hebrew word order could translate as, "[The One who was] in the beginning created Elohim, Aleph-Tav of the heavens, and Aleph-Tav of the earth." Aleph and Tav are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, spelling a word which grammatically marks a direct object following it, but when we remember that Y'shua was called the "Alpha and the Omega", the Greek equivalent of the Aleph and Tav, we have a parallel to the Renewed Covenant statements that he is in the category of elohim (Yochanan 20:28), having proceeded from the Father (as the light in v. 3) and participated (as His Word, which is lesser than Him, yet of the same essence, expressing His thoughts precisely) in the remainder of creation (Yoch. 1:1-5); that he is the firstborn of creation (Colossians 1:15); and that he is the "beginning [first in a series or leader] of the creation of YHWH" (Rev. 3:14).

2. But the earth became a ruin and a desolation, and an obscuring darkness [hung] over the surface of the primeval depth; and a mighty wind was fluttering intensely over the surface of the waters.

The primeval depth: often used for an ocean or a surging mass of water, but translated "abyss" (a scene of disaster or place of punishment) in the Greek Septuagint. Apparently there is a gap here between the original creation and a reconstitution after some sort of cataclysm--probably related to Satan and his accomplices' being cast down to earth and judged. This age of the reign of a now-disembodied race of spirit beings may explain the appearance that the earth is more ancient than the 6,000-year history of mankind. "A mighty [or god-like] wind fluttered... over...": Alt., a spirit of Elohim intervened deliberately upon..." On another level, "a ruin and desolation" could be trans-lated "empty space and a void", and the mystical retelling continues: the Endless One, wanting to share Himself yet being All in all, created a "vacuum"--a space within Himself, yet that was "not Himself", so He could fill it with creatures who could know and enjoy Him. A mother's womb is an excellent illustration of this idea. Into this empty space, He sent a single point of light, the maximum amount of His nature that this new universe could tolerate:

3. Then Elohim said, "Let there be light", and light came into existence.

This "light shining in darkness" is the description of creation within mystical Judaism, which correlates well with the Renewed Covenant's "In the beginning was the word...with Elohim...In him was life, and the life was the light of men... The light shone in darkness... (Yochanan 1:1-5). "Light" as conceived in Hebrew could just as well be translated "energy".

4. And Elohim gazed at the light, because it was good, and Elohim distinguished the light from the darkness.

5. And Elohim called the light "day", and the darkness He called "night". And the evening [setting or folding back] and the morning [dawning, daybreak] together constituted one day.

* * *
6. And Elohim said, "Let there come to be a space between the waters; let it divide the waters above from the waters below."

Space: vault, dome, attenuated substance "beaten out very thin"; i.e., atmosphere.

7. And Elohim organized this expanse and divided the waters which were under it from the waters which were above it, and so it came to be.

Possibly a crystalline "window" of ice in a heat sink 11 miles above the earth's surface, where extra water was held in reserve for a special contingency, 7:11. It would also act as a receiver for the "music of the spheres", screen out much of the sun's harmful radiation and produce a stable, "hothouse" climate, even-tempered throughout the world; these allowed for the radically-longer lives seen in the chapters ahead.

8. And Elohim called the space "Heavens", and there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

9. And Elohim said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let dry land appear." And so it came to be.

10. And Elohim called the dry land "Earth", and the collection of waters He called "the Sea", and Elohim saw that it was good.


11. And Elohim said, "Let the Earth bring forth tender sprouts, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees producing fruit akin to itself on the earth. And so it was.

12. And the earth bore tender sprouts, the herb yielding seed according to its own kind, and the tree producing its fruit which has its seed in it, according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good.

13. And the evening and the morning became a third day.

* * *

14. And Elohim said, "Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to divide between the day and the night, and let them be for signs [15:5; Psalm 19:1; Rev. 12:1] and for seasons [appointments, Lev. 23:2], and for days and years.

15. "And let them come to be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to illuminate the earth", and this is exactly what happened.


16. Moreover, Elohim appointed the two great luminaries, the greater one to to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night, and also the stars.

Lesser one: possibly not the moon, which is not always visible, but a softer, more diffused "lighting effect" refracted by the "waters above", which would act as a natural tranquilizer.

17. And Elohim set them in the heavens to give light on the earth
18. and to regulate the day and night, and to make a distinction between the light and the darkness; and Elohim saw that it was good.

19. And the evening and the morning became the fourth day.

The creation week is often seen as a microcosm of human history, in which each "day is as a thousand years" (Ps. 90:5); the Messiah, the Light of the World, entered the human scene at the end of the "fourth day" of this "world week". A 6,000-year-old universe need not conflict with the appearance of age. Trevor Norman and Barry Setterfield compared 163 measures of the speed of light through the centuries and found it (well beyond the expected margins of error) to be slowing down in a cosecant-squared curve. Graphs of "light-year"- based accounting and earth-revolution-based time converge about that long ago by this measure. The electric permittivity of space has not changed, but the magentic permeability has been "stretched out" (cf. Yeshayahu/Isaiah 42:5; Yirmiyahu/ Jeremiah 10:12). The "red shift" may be caused by this decay in the speed of light. The reason for such universal entropy is found in Gen. 3:17ff.

* * *

20. And Elohim said, "Let the waters teem with an abundance of lively animals, and let birds fly over the face of the expanse of the heavens.

Lively animals: "swarmers having a soul of life, with the nuance of merriment.

21. Elohim also created the great reptiles, and every amphibian [living soul that creeps] with which the waters swarmed, each according to its category, and every species of winged bird according to its kind.

Cross-bred species are possible but last only one generation, being sterile.

And Elohim saw that it was good.

22. And Elohim blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the sea, and let the birds multiply on the earth."

23. And there were evening and morning, the fifth day.

* * *

24. And Elohim said, "Let the earth bring forth living animals as befits its nature: quadrupeds, creeping things, and, from the earth, its living things, each after its own kind. And so it happened.

25. And Elohim fashioned from the earth its living things, and likewise the beasts, as well as everything that moves on the ground, each reproducing true to its own kind, and Elohim saw that it was good.

26. And Elohim said, "Let Us make Man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts, and all the earth, and all the living things that crawl upon the earth."

Us: Elohim is a plural word with singular verbs (Yochanan/John 1:1ff; 10:30, etc., make it clear that while what Philo called "the lesser or second YHWH" was not entirely separable from "the" YHWH (the "One without end" in mystical terms), still he was subordinate to the Father, whom no one could ever survive seeing. He is called YHWH's "branch" or "arm", and makes known to us as much about the Father as our finite beings can tolerate, Yoch. 1:18, so that Y'shua can indeed say "He who has seen me has seen the Father" without contradicting the fact that he was sent by the Father, worships the Father as his Elohim, and promises to one day raise us to his level, 1 Yochanan 3:2). In our image: able to relate to "Us". Likeness: resemblance of moral character. Rule over: guide toward the fullest potential and benefit of all.

27. So Elohim created Man in His own image. In the image of Elohim He created him; male and female He created them.

It seems there may be two "Elohim" beings spoken of here, one being Y'shua, and the other being YHWH Himself, whose image could only be seen as reflected through Y'shua. The "Ancient Adam" once bore the full image of the Godhead", which has in it both masculine and feminine qualities, until the two were separated (see below) in order to be able to voluntarily come back together. Some of this image was lost (ch. 3), but at the right time in history the messenger and Message of YHWH was "made flesh" (by YHWH) and there again existed a Man "in whom the fullness of the 'Godhead' dwelt bodily", who could rightfully be called "the image of the invisible Elohim" (Colossians 1:15; 2:9), who revealed and manifested as far as possible the One no one can ever see. (Yochanan 1:18) His obedience (at the precise point at which the first Adam failed, see Philippians 2:6) made it possible for others to have the certainty of sharing the restoration in the Day in which we see him. (1 Yochanan 3:2)

28. And Elohim blessed them, and told them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and bring it into subjection to yourselves, and rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and over all living things that crawl on the earth."

29. And Elohim said, "Here, I have given you every seed-bearing herb on the face of the earth, and every tree on which there is seed-bearing fruit [or with its seed in itself--themselves a source of protein and an anti-disease agent]; this will be your food

Seed-bearing fruit: or "fruit with its seed in itself", seeds themselves being a source of protein and an anti-disease agent. A vegetarian state lasted until the Deluge, 9:3, and it appears we will return to such a condition in the "time of the restitution of all things", Yeshayahu/Isaiah 11:1-9. After the Flood, meat was permitted, but later in the Torah limits are also placed on which types of meat the righteous and discerning person will eat (See also 7:2).

30. "and the food of every earthly creature, and for every bird of the heavens, and for every creeping thing in which there is a living soul." And so it was.

31. And Elohim looked at everything He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And evening and morning became a sixth day.

Parallels between the two sets of three days:
Day 1 - lights Day 4 - light bearers
Day 2 - heavens & waters Day 5 - their inhabitants
Day 3 - land Day 6 - its inhabitants


CHAPTER 2

1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished with all things necessary to them.

2. On the seventh day, Elohim completed the workmanship [message] which He had been constructing, so He ceased on the seventh day from setting everything in order.

3. And Elohim gave the seventh day His blessing and set it apart from the others, since on this day He had rested from the work involved in creating and appointing everything.

The holiness of the Sabbath was established from the very start.


[YEAR 1 / 4000 BC]

4. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the Day when YHWH set them in readiness,

YHWH: or Yahweh, the name by which He revealed Himself to Moshe (Moses) and the prophets.

5. and there was not yet any shrub of the field on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprung up, for YHWH (Elohim) had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the soil.

6. And a mist ascended from the earth and watered all the face of the ground.

Mist ascendeed: or a surge welled up, probably from the "fountains" reserved for the event in 7:11; 2 Kefa/Peter 3:5-7.

7. And YHWH (Elohim) formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the spirit [breath] of life, and the man came to be a living soul.

Spirit of life: included the direct image of Elohim, distinct from the kind of soul that animated other creatures.

8. And YHWH (Elohim) planted a garden to the east of Eden ["luxury, delight"], and there He placed the man whom He had formed.

Garden: "Paradise" in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.

9. And YHWH (Elohim) caused to spring up from the ground every kind of tree that is aesthetically pleasing, and good for food. The Tree of Life was in the middle of the garden, as was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

10. And a river went out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it was divided and became four heads.

The imagery of four heads shows up often in Scripture: notably the appearance of the angelic beings called cheruvim, Yechezqel/ Ezekiel 1:6; 10:14; Rev. 4:7. Note that the garden is not in Eden, but east of it. A river that divides rather than converging show us something of the different physics that may have been in operation in the antediluvian order. We will see the same type ofthing restored after Messiah returns, flowing both east and west from his throne.

11. The name of the first was Pishon ["spreader"]. (It is the one that makes a circuit encompassing the land of Chavilah [India, 10:7], where there is gold,

12. and the gold of that land is good; there are also bdellium gum resin and onyx stone there.)

Onyx is a priestly stone (Ex. 28:20) first worn by Lucifer--in Eden (Yechezqel/Ezek. 28:13ff; cf. Gen. 3:1).
13. And the name of the second river is Gihon ["Gusher"]. (It is the one that surrounds the whole land of Kush).

The Gihon surfaced just to the east of Yerushalayim/ Jerusalem. Chizqiyhahu/Hezekiah channeled it into city to form the Pool of Shiloah, where healing was found--Yoch./ John 9:7. This internal water source that enabled the city to withstand an Assyrian siege is a picture of the Holy Spirit, which can provide for us illumination on the "water" of YHWH's Word within in any circumstance, Ps. 87:7; Yoch./John 7:38.

14. And the name of the third is Chiddeqel [Tigris] (it is the one going east of Assyria), and the fourth river is the Ferath [Euphrates]. [See 3:24.]


15. And YHWH (Elohim) took the man and put him into the garden of Eden, to cultivate it and care for it.

16. And YHWH (Elohim) gave the man orders, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree in the garden,

17. "but of the Tree of the [Experiential] Knowledge of Good and Evil you may not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you will certainly die."

While Adam and Chavvah did not fall over dead during the same 24-hour period, the process of physical death did begin, along with the immediate psychological fragmentation evidenced by their shame, terror of Elohim, and blame of one another. They died spiritually, separated from their Source like an unplugged electrical appliance. But by the logic of Ps. 90:4 and 2 Kefa/ Peter 3:8, man cannot live more than 1,000 years. Though pre-Deluge conditions allowed very long lives, no one surpassed 1,000 years.

18. And YHWH (Elohim) said, "It is not good, the man being alone. I will make a helper suited [fitting, correlated] to him."

19. So out of the ground YHWH (Elohim) fashioned every living being of the field and every bird of the heavens, and brought each to the man, to see what he would call it.

20. And the man gave names to every animal and bird of the heavens, and every being that lives in the field, but as for Adam ["a human being"], no helper suited to him could be found.

The memory and insight required in classifying so many creatures demonstrates Adam's pre-fallen mental capacity. Naming also implies authority over the one named. But Elohim's main purpose here was to show Adam that he had no counterpart as each of the animals had. His realization of this is evident in v. 23.

21. And YHWH (Elohim) caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs.

Ribs: or "sides". Deep sleep: trance, stupor, numbing of senses.

22. Then YHWH (Elohim) formed the rib that He had taken from Adam into a woman, and brought her to the man.

The Second Adam, too, had part of His Body separated from Himself in a spiritual sense, and they will be reunited again in the end of days. They both have the same name (Yirmiyahu/Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16). The "sleep" of Messiah was also necessary for His bride to be formed. Romans 11:8 shows how the Gentiles similarly benefit from such a "sleep" (the same exact word in Hebrew) coming over the House of Israel. The same term is used in verse 8 for "deep sleep" is used in Yesh./Isaiah 29:10, the verse that Sha'ul quotes in Romans 11:8 in speaking of the "spirit of insensibility" that came over Israel so that another intent of YHWH could be accomplished.

23. And the man said, "[This time] At last, this is now bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh! For this one, the name shall be 'Woman', because this one has been taken out of man!"

Woman: Hebrew, ishah, the feminine form of ish (male human being).

24. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cling closely to his wife, and the two of them shall be turned into one unit of flesh.

25. And neither the man nor his wife wore clothing, yet they were not ashamed.

They were vulnerable (another meaning of the word for "naked" in Hebrew) but neither did anything shameful, not "knowing evil" (v. 17) nor even seeing any potential for the kinds of abuse that now ruin nearly every attempt to express the aesthetic beauty of the uncovered human body. (See 3:7.)




CHAPTER 3

1. Now the serpent was more crafty [subtle] than every [other] living creature of the field which YHWH (Elohim) had made. And he said to the woman, "Is it really true that Elohim has said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"

Serpent: "shining one", a dazzlingly impressive creature at that time (Yechezqel/Ezek. 28:133ff). Another animal speaks in Numbers 22:28-31, but here Chavvah/Eve does not seem surprised; in an uncursed world there may have been nothing unusual about talking animals, but apparently this one was either inhabited or influenced by Satan (the Adversary), the former archangel and "cheruv who covers", Lucifer, who had become the sworn enemy of Elohim and who was jealous of mankind's being given the rulership of earth which he had once possessed. His craftiness is shown in his reframing of the prohibition in an exaggerated form, throwing her off balance and influencing her to overreact.

1. And the woman told the serpent, "We may eat from the trees of the garden,

3. "but from the tree which is in the center of the garden, Elohim has said, "You shall not eat from it, nor shall you reach out to touch it, or else you'll die."

She added a "fence" to what Elohim said, a common human trait that breeds discontentment with Elohim's protective commands, making us forget all that we really are offered and opening us to the temptation to seek greater fulfillment through going outside the bounds He truly has set.

4. And the serpent said to the woman, "You won't really die as in 'death',

5. "because Elohim knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, understanding good and evil.

We would expect half-truths from Satan. While Elohim "understands" evil better than anyone (since it is anything that is contrary to His nature), He has never experienced it in the way Adam's race does now.

6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that to the eyes it aroused a craving, and that the tree was intensely desirable to bring insight, she took some of its fruit and ate it, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with [beside] her, and he ate it.

Good to the eyes...insight: Compare these three areas of temptation as seen in Matt. 4:2-10 and 1 Yoch./John 2:16. Satan took advantage of the innate traits in the woman that were necessary for sympathetic mothering, but her husband, who had been placed in authority over her to protect this area of vulnerability, knew better, and thus bore the greater guilt. Perhaps he loved her enough to wish rather to be condemned along with her than to retain his purity but lose her to Elohim's judgment.

7. And the eyes of both of them were indeed opened, but [only in such a way that] they realized that they were naked. And they sewed together leaves from a fig tree, and made for themselves loin coverings.

Some aspects of Elohim's image (1:27) were lost, so there may have been a perceptible change in their appearance. (See note on v. 21.) Satan's rule of the earth had been justly removed from him and given to Adam, but now he had usurped it again. But the Kingdom of Elohim could not be given to Satan; it was withdrawn to heaven until another Man could win it back (see 3:15). Until that happened, the Holy Spirit could only come upon people temporarily, for sin had not been completely atoned for.

8. And they heard the sound of YHWH (Elohim) walking around in the garden in the breezy part of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the face of YHWH (Elohim) among the trees of the garden.

9. And YHWH (Elohim) called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"

10. And he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I am naked, so I hid myself."

"I am...": not "was", though he was now physically clothed. He knew he was still vulnerable. Every aspect of his being came to be out of balance. "The light shone in darkness, but the darkness did not overcome it (or admit it)." (Yochanan 1:1-5) Either is true, but a failure to "admit" the light would parallel another (pure) kabbalistic metaphor, that of golden light being poured into earthen vessels (a metaphor for humanity, cf. 2 Corinthians 4:7) and causing them to shatter because it is to intense. Adam and Chavvah desired something that they could not contain. The job of Israel, the mystics say, is to regather the millions of shards of light from wherever they are found and reassemble the fallen Adam (which means "humanity"). They couch this idea in another metaphor, that of the "Primeval Adam", a symbolic "body" built of all the isolated aspects of "Godhead", or Elohim's image--that "point of light" (in 1:2, 3) refracted into many different colors so we could know Him in many ways. But although "all the king's men" have tried unsuccessfully to do put him back together again, "Israel" (the entity ordained to bring the restoration) is also one title of the Messiah (promised in v. 15 below), who would indeed make this regathering of Adam's seed possible. Understanding this imagery makes Rav Sha'ul (Paul)'s deep teachings understandable, for he ties all of these metaphors together by describing Y'shua the Messiah as "the second Man" (1 Cor. 15:47) and "the last Adam" (15:45), as well as the "firstfruits" and the "head of the body, those called out" (Col. 1:18). The head is what is born first, and the word "first" in Hebrew is based on "head". After him comes the rest of the body, who become, in a way, his "descendants" (Isa. 53:10), completing the picture as this new "race" recovers what Adam lost. This is the theme of the rest of Scripture, which is on fast forward until it reaches the beginning-point of Israel, the exception to the rule of "vanity of vanities" which began here in the garden, and the embodiment of YHWH's glorious solution to this tragedy. He finishes His work of repair by again pouring the same "light that shone out of darkness" into once-shattered human hearts (2 Cor. 4:6; see notes on 3:10ff below). The darkness at the time of Y'shua's crucifixion was also a harbinger of this "reconstitution" of the human race, the light that again shone out of this darkness.

11. And He said, "Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree about which I gave you orders so as to prevent you from eating?"

His fatherly prohibition had been intended to preclude such a predicament, not to withhold anything good from them.

12. And the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me"--she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

13. So YHWH (Elohim) said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent enticed me, and I ate."

14. So YHWH (Elohim) said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than every beast, and more than every animal of the field.

15. "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed: He will bruise your head, though you shall bruise His heel."

The myth of Achilles' heel probably originated from a memory of this promise. In crucifixion, one's heel was literally worn away as he pushed himself up to breathe. Note the picture of the crushed head in the story of Yael and Sisera (Judg. 4:21), and the reference to the serpent's seed in Matt. 3:7 and Yoch./John 8:44. The serpent's seed almost crowded out the human, but Elohim preserved it (Gen. 6:4, 9), The seed normally comes from the male, but Messiah did not have the seed of man in him. Geneticists have found that the reproductive cells carried by women are actually immortal until they are "poisoned" by fertilization, possibly due to a mutation acquired from the forbidden fruit itself which affects both genders but is carried only by the male. Only by being the "seed of woman" apart from a man (virgin-born) could the Messiah be truly the Second Adam, bearing the complete image of Elohim and thus capable of becoming fully righteous after passing the same tests Adam failed. When Satan the usurper was allowed to kill this Second Man, he lost his legal rights to earth, for he had become a murderer by killing one who had no sentence of death on him, since he had not sinned. Thus the legal deed to the earth could be given back to a Man. We can inherit His "spiritual genes" (1 Yoch./John 3:9; Isaiah 53:10, 11; Romans 8:29; Heb. 2:10).

16. To the woman He said, "I will greatly increase your pain and your [frequency of] conception: in pain you will bear sons, and your husband shall be your desire, but he will have authority over you.

Increase: since, due to the presence of death, mankind would now have to replace itself each generation, not just fill the earth once.



"Desire" can mean "ambition"; she would strive for dominance over him--for his position--but would not achieve it. In Messiah, this is ameliorated as she is given an equal position, but practical subordination must remain until our redemption is complete and abuse is rendered impossible.

17. And He said to the man, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it', the ground shall be cursed because of you; you shall eat from it in hard labor all the days of your life.

18. "And it shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat the herbs by means of agriculture.

The thorns seem more to be a statement about the course nature must now take, rather than a curse in themselves. They only result when an area once cultivated by man is abandoned again to nature. Elohim's mercy does shine through in that He did not rescind provision of food, but it would no longer come with the ease or joy he knew in the garden.

19. "By the sweat of your face shall you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you have been taken, because you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Unfallen man, with no fears or emotional stress and a perfect physical efficiency, must have had a slower metabolic rate and hence little need for sweat. Animals react to us with hostility chiefly because they detect sweat, whereas they are more friendly toward children who do not know enough yet to fear them. Linen garments, which symbolize purity, do not produce sweat, and that is what will be given to the saints in the resurrection. The intensity of the Messiah's sweat (Luk. 22:44) made the true bread (Yoch./John 6:50ff) available to us without the need for our own rigors.

20. And the man called his wife's name Chavvah ["life-giver"], because she became the mother of all who are alive.

21. And YHWH made garments of skins for the man and his wife, and thus He clothed them.

Skins of animals that He slaughtered so their blood could provide temporary atonement, or simply skin as we now know it, because formerly what ran through their veins was more like light, and their bodies held a glow which was now missing. Blood as we now know it, which carries the soul in it, is the corrupted form of this light which bore Elohim's image in a much fuller way.

22. Then YHWH (Elohim) said, "Look! the man has become like one of Us, able to know good and evil, therefore, so he doesn't stretch forth his hand and take from the Tree of Life also, and eat, and live forever."

23. YHWH (Elohim) sent him out of the Garden of Eden as well, to work the ground out of which he was taken,

24. and He drove the man out. And He stationed the cheruvim from the east to the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword whirling around, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

Cheruvim: a class of angels associated with guarding holy places--more like winged sphinxes than the unthreatening baby "cherubs" of Western art. Notice YHWH's mercy in not allowing mankind's bodies to become immortal while their spirits remained fallen. He thus gave them hope of regaining their lost estate when they would die physically. Since the Chiddeqel and the Ferath are "east of Eden", though the topography had evidently changed, and judging by where the Gihon (2:10-14) still originates, we can surmise that Eden may have been at the location of none other than Yerusahalayim/Jerusalem. The idea that "Yerushalayim is a city compacted together" or "joined to itself" (Psalm 122:3) is generally interpreted as meaning "the place where heaven and earth meet". Revelation 21 speaks of a Heavenly Jerusalem, and Hebrews 9:8-24 tells us that the Temple on earth was a copy or shadow of the one above it. Thus YHWH would have shown His greatest pictures of redemption--the provision of a ram in place of Yitzhaq (22:8-14) and the Temple sacrifices (an exact replica of what is in heaven, Heb. 8:5)--at the same location, and finally solved the sin problem once and for all on another "tree" at the site of Eden itself. In this regard, it is fascinating that the eastern gate to the city is now closed, awaiting Messiah's return to reopen the rivers of Eden (Yechzq./Ezkl. 44:1-3) but it is visible from another garden directly east of the city, where the real battle for the salvation of the world was won, Markos 14:32-36.


CHAPTER 4

1. And the man [intimately] knew his wife Chavvah, and she conceived and bore Qayin, and said, "I have acquired a man with YHWH!"

With YHWH: i.e., with His help, or perhaps "toward [the promise of] YHWH": she thought he might already be the redeeming seed promised in 3:15, but the right time was not to come for another 4,000 years. Qayin means "possession", and is related to the word "acquired" here.

2. And she continued to bear his brother, Hevel. And Hevel became a keeper of flocks, and Qayin a tiller of the soil.

Hevel means "a breath", "vapor", or "vanity", perhaps a prophecy of the fleetingness of his life. It seems Qayin took up his father's occupation, and Hevel his mother's (if being called "mother of all living" in 3:20 before
she bore children meant she practiced animal husbandry). This parallels with
another set of twins: Esau, the elder, whose occupation pleased his father
but not YHWH, and Yaaqov, a "man of tents" (symbolically one who learned all
he could about the way of righteousness) who was favored by both his mother
and YHWH. A "keeper of flocks" also symbolically means one who watches over
the welfare of others, while Qayin was literally a "servant of the ground"
(see v. 5).

3. And in the course of time, it happened that Qayin brought a grain offering
to YHWH from the fruit of the ground,

Course of time: a term used for a bar mitzvah; literally, "from the
utmost end of days", so this is a prophecy of something future as well. As
the expansion seen in chapters 1-2 is now beginning to reverse, unity is the
byword of our day, and it will happen on both the "heavenly" and "earthly"
levels, so that while all of true Israel unites, all that is not Israel will
also unify against it, so that in the end there are only two real entities,
symbolized here by these two brothers, one of whom has his eyes on YHWH, and
the other who worships the earth and his own skilfulness. This is the
essence of the "beast" of Revelation. "From the fruit...": not necessarily
the firstfruits or the best (like Hevel's), but just a sampling or token, so
to speak. In the Temple, grain offerings were either not the main thing
required, but an added gift, supplementary to the blood slaughter,
contributions really to the priests and not to YHWH, or at best only accepted
from those who could not afford anything better (being thus the lowest of
offerings). Thus Qayin's gift was like one who washes his hands to come into
a king's presence while the rest of his body is still filthy. There was no
atonement in it. It was not even the fruit of a tree, but from directly on
the ground, which is precisely what was cursed.

4. And as for Hevel, he also brought an offering from the firstlings of his
flocks, indeed, the finest of them. And YHWH had regard for Hevel and his
offering,

Had regard: paid attention to, respected, gazed long upon (with
satisfaction).

5. but He did not show regard for Qayin or his offering. So Qayin burned
greatly with anger, and his face was downcast.

Although Qayin was not a shepherd like Hevel, both had to shed blood
(Heb. 9:22). Nothing originating from earth can substitute for the payment
of the soul, which is given by Elohim, and contained in the blood (Lev.
17:11). Downcast: toward not toward YHWH but toward the ground that he served
(v. 2). He took his eyes off the giver and onto the gift--the classic root
of all idolatry, which does not always despise YHWH, but sidelines Him.

6. So YHWH asked Qayin, "Why are you so furious, and why is your face
downcast?

7. "If you do what pleases Me, [isn't there] a higher position [for you]? But
if you do not do what is pleasing, sin is crouching at the door; its desire
is to [overwhelm] you, but you can take dominion over it."

Higher position:or exaltation/majesty, but the Hebrew term is also used
of the swelling of skin on a leper (Lev. 13:2), who had a diseasegiven as a
punishment when one sought a position that was not rightfully his. Yehudah
(Jude) 11 ties Qayin's sin to Bilaam's greediness and Korach's slander of
properly-constituted authority. The door was the place on which the lamb's
blood was later applied in order to keep the death angel from one's house
(Exodus 12:7). Sin also crouches at the doorways to our lives: our eyes,
ears, mouths, and sexual organs, so YHWH posted beards, peoth (hair on the
sides of our faces), and tzitziyoth (regulation tassels) at each to remind us
to screen what approaches them. Note the similarity of the last phrase to
3:16.

8. But Qayin challenged Hevel his brother, and while they were in the field,
Qayin rose up against his brother Hevel, and killed him.

9. Then YHWH said to Qayin, "Where is your brother Hevel?" And he said, "I
don't know; am I my brother's keeper [as in, shepherd]?"

10. And He said, "Don't you realize what you have done? The voice of your
brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.

Such an outcry is seen again in 6:13 and 18:20.

11. "And now you are cursed in a worse way than the ground which [at least]
opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Cursed in a worse way: or "cursed from the ground", since it would no
longer even respond to him (v. 12) --a far worse punishment than that given
his fathein regard to the soil (3:19).

12. "When you till the soil, it will no longer yield its potential to you.
You will be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth.

13. And Qayin said to YHWH, "My punishment is more than I can bear. See here,
You have evicted me from the land, and I will be banished from Your very
presence! On top of this I will be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth.
And anyone who finds me will kill me, for sure!"

Anyone: literally, "everyone"! Of course, he might live to see many more
people born, but who was there at this time but his own parents? They would
have to be his judges, and like Rivqah (27:45), they would have to do justice
and thus see both of their sons die the same day.

15. And YHWH said to him, "If anyone kills Qayin, he will be avenged
sevenfold." And YHWH set a mark on Qayin, so that anyone who found him should
not kill him.

A mark on the forehead is seen as a special seal of protection in Song of
Songs 8:6; Yochanan/John 6:27; 2 Tim. 2:19; Eph. 4:13; Rev. 7:3. In
Y'Hezq'el/Ezekiel 8 and 9, the mark of protection is given to those who do
not participate in the prototypes of "Easter" sunrise services, but rather
lament them, and they are passed over like those spared at Passover when
YHWH's wrath came on the idolaters. Thus Qayin, the man who would not kill a
lamb for atonement had to be marked, or taught the "way of Passover".

16. And Qayin went out from the presence of YHWH, and dwelt in the land of
Nod, east of Eden.

Presence of YHWH: geographically, the place bearing His name (Deut. 26:2;
2 Chron. 6:20). Nod: vagrancy, exile, wandering.


17. And Qayin knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Chanoch.

The gene pool was still relatively unblemished, and inbreeding with his
sister (5:4)--the only possible source of a wife at that time--would not be a
problem. It was not overtly forbidden until Moshe's time.


And he built a city, and he called the city by the same name as his son,
Chanoch.

Early cities were often named for their first settler, 11:32. Near
eastern documents added a cuneiform notation to a proper name if it referred
to a city, except in the case of Unuk, which is linguistically similar to
Chanoch (Enoch). If it were the only city in existence when built, no such
classifier would have been needed. This name also ties directly to the word
for city in earlier languages (Uruk > Ur > Ir). The Deluge would have
destroyed the original, but it was common to rebuild on an ancient site.

18. And Irad was born to Chanoch, and Irad fathered Mechuya'el ["smitten of
Elohim"], and Mechuya'el fathered Methusha'el ["one of the few men associated
with Elohim"], and Methusha'el fathered Lamech ["Despairing"].

19. And Lamech took two wives to himself: the name of the first was Adah
["Ornament"], and the name of the second was Tsillah ["Shade"].

20. And Adah gave birth to Yaval ["Conduct", "Lead along"]; he was the father
of those who live in tents and possess livestock.

21. And his brother's name was Yuval; he was the father of all of those who
play the harp and the pipe.

Yuval: the root word for "jubilation" and the year of release; probably
tied more to lively music here. Pipe: probably the bagpipe.

22. And Tsillah also gave birth to Thuval-Qayin, the hammerer of every
engraving tool of bronze and iron.

The relative strength of the earliest patriarchs would make them seem
like gods to "descendants" who were showing signs of the
gradually-debilitating fall into sin. THUVAL-QAYIN was probably the real
personage behind the legend of Vulcan, the god of fire and metal-forge, the
smith of the Roman TUBIListrum. Qayin means "smith", and near eastern smiths
even today refer to iron splinters struck off the anvil as "TUBAL". The
Sumerian word for "iron" is BARZILLU, the Assyro-Babylonian way to say "son
of Tsillah".

23. And Lamech said to his wives Adah and Tsillah, "Hear my voice, you wives
of Lamech! Listen to my words, for I have killed a man for wounding me, and a
young lad for hurting me,

Tradition says the man he killed was Qayin (perhaps the reason for his
statement in v. 24).

24. "for Qayin is avenged sevenfold, but Lamech seventy-sevenfold!"

25. And Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son, and she called
his name Sheth [granted or appointed]"because Elohim has appointed to me
another seed in place of Hevel" (since Qayin had killed him).

A replacement is now granted for the one that was killed. This goes
along very well with the Jewish tradition that the first Messiah would be
killed in battle (in his case, spiritual battle), and a second Messiah would
come and reign permanently. In Y'shua's case they are one and the same
(since Mary is dead, and both Messiahs, according to this foreshadowing, have
to come from the same mother!), but Hevel and Sheth played out a rehearsal of
this theme. Paul also often compares Y'shua to Adam, since he took the place
of the one who fell and thus "died" to any right he had to rule the earth.
Y'shua is called "the second man" and the "last Adam" (1 Cor. 15:45-47).
Elohim is the title used here, unlike YHWH in v. 1 at Qayin's birth, because
Elohim is the name used when emphasizing His judgment and justice.

[Year 235 / 3765 BC]

26. And a son was also born to Sheth, and he called his name Enosh. Then was
it [that people] began to call on the name of YHWH.

"Call on": or call out, as in worship, or "call by" as in profaning it,
or using His name to refer to idols. The latter fits better with the
scenario of chapter 6. But instead (or also) it could mean those who had not
had a direct experience of YHWH (as Adam and Chavvah had) began to call on
His name as a result of Sheth naming his son Enosh (which means "mortal",
"frail", or "fragile"). Those who recognize their frailty commonly do turn
to the help that He provides. Calling on His name particularly as YHWH has
only been widely restored in the past few years. What momentous results will
this have spiritually?


CHAPTER 5


1. This is [has been] the book of the genealogies of Adam.

The repeated use of this term "genealogy"--also translatable as
"account", "generation", or "history"(throughout the book and in Num. 3:1, a
special usage in Ruth 4:18, and Matt. 1:1) may indicate that what preceded
each one was an account appended by the person named therein (Adam wrote
chapters 1-4, etc.), with the possible exception of notations later added to
Terach's, perhaps by Avraham. Moshe, the redactor and editor, would simply
have completed the account. In other words, most of Genesis was written by
eyewitnesses. Josephus writes, "Those who then lived...noted...with great
accuracy, both the births and deaths of illustrious men."

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