Adrian,
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You wrote: Aren't you being inconsistent, when here, you insist on reading
every word
literally, and yet reject the literal interpretation of days in Gen 1?
I do not reject a literal interpretation of Genesis 1. I read Genesis 1 quite
literally (vs. metaphorically or symbolically). I just read it with the
knowledge that some Hebrew words at the time Genesis was written had more
than one meaning. The word "day" in Hebrew is "yom." It is widely
acknowledged by scholars of the Hebrew language that "yom" was not just used
by ancient Hebrews to refer to a 24 hour period of time. In fact, they tell
us "yom" had "several meanings." And they inform us that one of its meanings
was "a period of time of unspecified duration." (see Vines Expository
Dictionary of Biblical Words, 1985, pg. 54)
You wrote: Also note that not all fruits have seed in them.
You may want to check the Hebrew. For the Hebrew refers to the trees being
the seed-bearers, not the fruit of the trees. "The interlinear Bible"
(Hendrickson Publishers 1986) renders these words in Gen. 1:29 as, "every
tree in which is the fruit of a tree seeding seed - it shall be food for
you."
And since all fruit trees are seed-bearing, it is clear that God told the
people whose creation is described in Gen. 1 that they were allowed to eat
the fruit from all trees, something quite different than He told Adam and
Eve. For this reason and others, I continue to believe that Gen. 1 is
describing God's creation of preadamic man and Gen. 2 is describing His
creation of Adam and Eve.
Mike
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