Genesis

The Problem of Genesis

Sami Zaatari

In the book of Genesis, specifically the first six chapters, we get an in depth account of the beginnings of man and life.

It becomes instantly clear that these first six chapters are like a bad script, filled with inconsistencies, and contradictions.

It is the aim of this article to show these contradictions and inconsistencies, once doing so this will cast doubt on whether God really revealed these books.

So with that said let us proceed to exposing the inconsistencies of Genesis.

We first start with Genesis chapter one, which basically gives the details of man's creation, and essentially the creation of everything. When we read creation of life we read that God created Adam after he created the animals, as it says verses 20-25:

20And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:20-25)

So as you can see the animals and the fish were created before man, the text makes it clear that a list is being given in an order of which came first. For instance you see that God says he made the creatures of the sea, and that was the fifth day, then he goes to day six and mentions the fact that he made animals of the land, hence it is clear that an order of creation is being made in terms of a time frame.

Now after God mentions the fact that he created the fish, and the animals of the earth, he then goes on to say he created man. We see this in Genesis chapter one verses 26 onwards:

26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

So everything is simple and clear, God made the fish first on day five. Then on day six he started by making the animals of the land, and after creating them he made Adam.

However so a problem arises when one goes and reads Genesis chapter two. When we go read Genesis chapter two we find that God created Adam before the animals! We read this in verses 18-20:

18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. (Genesis 2:18-20)

So as you can see the time frame has no shifted, now God creates Adam first, and then God makes the animals. We get a new twist to the story as well, we now find out that Adam also named the animals as well!

So we have a crystal clear contradiction, the Christian has no way out of this mess. In Genesis chapter one the context and text is crystal clear, that God is listing the order of creation according to their time frame, which came first etc.

This is the first problem.

Now the second problem comes with the whole issue of eating the apple. We all know the story, which Adam and Eve were forbidden from eating from the tree. Yet notice what I just said, I said Adam AND Eve were forbidden from eating from the tree. Yet when we read Genesis we see that only Adam was told to not eat from the tree, there is not a single verse in Genesis which commands Eve to not eat from the tree! We read God forbidding Adam to eat from the tree in Genesis chapter two verse 17:

Notice how the rule only applies to Adam, the text says and God commanded THE MAN. The Christian may respond and say oh well God was addressing both Adam and Eve, and since Adam ruled over Eve God addressed Adam specifically. However so this response completely fails because there is another problem for the Christian, God commanded Adam to not eat from the tree BEFORE HE CREATED EVE! Eve was not even created when God made this command! Let us quote Genesis chapter 2 from verse 16 onwards:

16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. (Genesis 2:16-23)

Notice the time frame. God commanded Adam to not eat from the tree when Eve wasn't even created! So basically Genesis is clear, only Adam is forbidden from the tree, not Eve since no where do we see God commanding Eve to not eat from the tree. So the Christian response wont work, God was NOT addressing both Adam and Eve, he was only addressing Adam since Eve didn't even exist yet!

So why was Eve punished when God never told her to not eat from the tree?

Now the Christian may reply back by quoting Genesis chapter three verses 2-3 where Eve says:

2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (Genesis 3:2-3)

This does not refute my claim; it makes it worst since the Bible is now making Eve a liar! I challenge the Christian to show me where God commanded Eve to not eat from the tree; we clearly saw that it said ADAM, not Eve. Hence this verse doesn't refute me at all, it makes the problem worst.

Secondly, notice Eve says if we eat from the tree we shall die, this is another problem because once again this threat was given to Adam ONLY. I already quoted Genesis chapter 2 verses 16-17, which showed that Adam was forbidden from the tree, and that Adam would die if he ate from it, no where did it mention Eve at all! Hence quoting these verses don't refute me, they just show confused the author of the Bible is.

As I said, it is inconsistent, and it is like reading a bad script. In Genesis chapter two we see that only Adam was disallowed from the tree, and had a threat of death over him if he ate from it, not Eve. Hence in Genesis chapter three when Eve says she too is banned from the tree this makes no sense since the text never says she can't eat from it, nor does it say she will be punished! Hence we have a very inconsistent confused author who wrote a very bad script.

Last but not least since Eve was never forbidden from the tree, then why was she punished?!

The Quran is very clear unlike the Bible, in Surah two verse 35 we read:

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YUSUFALI: We said: "O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden; and eat of the bountiful things therein as (where and when) ye will; but approach not this tree, or ye run into harm and transgression."

Notice how the Quran mentions Adam AND Eve, Allah instructs Adam to live in the Garden with his wife, and to eat and enjoy, except from the forbidden tree, hence you can see that Allah is giving commands to BOTH Adam and Eve since God keeps including Adam's wife in his commands. The Quran includes them both in its context, not Adam alone. Notice the Quran also gives the command to Adam while his wife is PRESENT with him, unlike the Bible where God made the command to Adam before Eve was even created!

We are still not done with the problems of Genesis; we have already shown two so far.

Now we go to the third problem. See folks, in the Bible there are TWO trees, not one, the two trees are the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge. Adam was only forbidden from eating from the tree of Knowledge, we see this in Genesis chapter two verses 9-17:

9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. 15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:9-17)

So as you can see there are two trees, and Adam is forbidden from the tree of knowledge.

Yet here comes the big problem, when we read about the tree of life we learn that if one were to eat from it one would live for eternity! We see this in Genesis chapter three verse 22:

22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: (Genesis 3:22)

So Adam could have eaten from a tree that would make him love forever! In fact God eventually realized this was a problem so he fixed it, we read Genesis chapter three verses 22-24:

22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24)

So God realizes the big problem so he decides to kick Adam out of the garden, and then puts a sword to protect the tree of life. We must ask ourselves shouldn't have God done that from the start? This shows how incompetent God is! Imagine if Adam and Eve ate from the tree of life, they would have become gods themselves since they would live forever and never die!

Now there is another problem, remember in Genesis chapter two God warned Adam that if he ate from the tree of knowledge he would die. Yet if Adam ate from the tree of life, and then went and ate from the tree of knowledge this would then mean that Adam could NOT be killed since he ate from the tree of life which gives you eternal life!

This is almost like a comedy script when you think of it! Do Christians really believe this?

We are still not done with the problems, we have brought four.

There is a fifth problem, and this has to do with God's knowledge. When we read Genesis chapter one, we read at the end that after God created everything he was satisfied because it was very good. As we see in Genesis chapter one verse 31:

31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

So God was happy and pleased. Yet here comes the problem, in Genesis chapter six we read about how corrupt and evil man became, and this made God regret making man! As we read in Genesis chapter six verses 5-6:

5And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

So God regretted making man, yet in Genesis chapter one he was happy with his work! It seems God was ignorant of the creature he created, it seem he was ignorant of the nature of man, the very same man he made! Remember in Genesis chapter one God was pleased with his work, so we assume he knew exactly what he created in man and what was to come with it, eventually that wasn't the case because as soon as man went bad God regretted making it! This shows how incompetent God is, and how ignorant he is as well.

Compare and contrast this with the Quran in surah two verse 30:

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YUSUFALI: Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not."

So notice Allah already knew that men would be violent and corrupt, the angels pointed this out because they were surprised by this, and the angels only knew what Allah told and taught them, hence the angels knew that man would be corrupt and evil based on the fact that Allah told them this. Yet notice how Allah responds back to the angels, he tells them he knows what they do not, basically that even though man will be evil and corrupt, there is still a wisdom from Allah in their creation. Unlike the God of the Bible, Allah already knows man will be evil and corrupt, and will cause mischief. Allah knows what he created, and he is not ignorant of our nature and characteristics, unlike the God of Genesis who became regretted making us when he saw the wickedness! Did he not know this when he created us?

In fact this gets even more bizarre, in Genesis chapter six verse 7 we see that God also regretted making animals! As we read:

7And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

So God also regretted the creation of animals!

Before continuing let me make it clear, I don't believe in any of this, I only believe in the Quranic accounts as the Genesis account is so false and such an insult to the true God. Remember I said the aim of this is to show that Genesis is not from God. I don't believe Allah is incompetent.

We are still not done with the problems, we have seen five so far.

The sixth problem comes concerning Cain. When we read Genesis chapter four we read about how Cain killed his brother Abel. After killing Abel Cain becomes a fugitive, and he flees to the land of Nod. Several problems arise, for starters when Cain kills Abel he becomes scared that everyone will want to kill him now, this means there were lots of people around at the time, as we read in Genesis chapter four verses 13-14:

13And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. (Genesis 4:13-14)

We also read that Cain found his wife in the land of Nod, which also means people were living in Nod, we read in verses 16-17:

16And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. (Genesis 4:16-17)

So now comes the problem, from where did all these people come?! Did they just magically appear from Mars?! Genesis is telling us that all these people were alive, yet Adam and Eve only begat Cain and Abel so far, so how did all these people appear?

This is a major inconsistency, as I said it is like reading a BAD script, and trust me folks, I study literature, any honest literary student will admit the first books of Genesis are plagued with inconsistency and contradictions.

We are still not done with the problems; we have seen six so far.

There is a seventh problem. The seventh problem concerns whether Adam knew he was eating from the forbidden tree. When one reads the story of Eve being deceived it gives the impression that Adam was not aware that the fruit was from the forbidden tree, I quote the short story for you from Genesis chapter three verses 1-6:

1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3:1-6)

Notice the serpent approaches Eve, and we can see that she is alone, and the serpent tempts her and succeeds. Eve likes the tree, and she eats from it. The text makes it clear that she took the fruit from the tree, now being a good wife Eve would take more fruit with her to Adam, and let him eat as well as she wants to be a good wife and let him enjoy the fruits as well. This exactly what the text is implying, no where is Adam present when Eve is near the tree and tempted, and the text says that Eve took fruit from the tree, and since Adam wasn't present this means she took fruit with her as well to wherever Adam was and then gave him the fruit to eat. So basically what we have here is that Adam was most likely not aware that the fruit he was eating from was from the forbidden tree since no where in the text does it imply that he knew anything about the fruits origin!

In fact we find further proof that this was the case, when read verses 11-13:

11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

So notice Adam tries to defend himself to God by saying it was Eve who gave him the fruit. This only makes sense if Adam did not know the origins of the fruit, since it is a lame excuse if he was present near the tree and knew the fruit was from the tree. Adam knew the fruit was forbidden from this tree, so therefore it makes no difference if Eve convinced him to eat from the tree since he knew it was disallowed, his excuse makes sense ONLY if he did not know the origin of the fruits, hence he says my wife gave me the fruit! Adam clearly says Eve gave him the fruit, and he did eat, it clearly implies what I earlier said, Eve took the fruits with her and gave some to Adam, hence he says she gave me and I ate.

So why would God punish Adam when all the evidence shows that Adam didn't know he was eating from the forbidden tree?!

It is crystal clear now that the first chapters of Genesis are filled with inconsistencies, contradictions, and cannot possibly be from the true God. Remember also we are only dealing with the first six chapters, imagine we examine the entire book of Genesis!

Christians must be honest with themselves and see these problems, and accept these problems, and then fix these problems by disregarding the Bible and upholding the Quran.

And Allah Knows Best!