PRIDE AND a drift away from the Creator is evident in today’s study, which features the generations of patriarchs between Adam and Noah.

We discuss the first city built (Gen. 4:17) and explain why we think the builder was Cain’s son, Enoch (not the Enoch who “walked with God,” who was a descendant of Seth). That was probably the ancient city of Eridu, home of the god Enki, lord of the abyss, site of the oldest and largest ziggurat in Mesopotamia.

We also discuss the pride of Lamech, descendant of Cain, and his boast that his death would be avenged seventy-seven times, the reason for the sudden emergence of civilization in ancient Sumer, and why the descendants of Cain may have been lured into creating a society based around cities rather than a rural or pastoral culture.

FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS have been messed up for millennia because of what happened in Eden.

This week, we discuss the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit, taking a deep dive into Genesis 3:16, a difficult passage that suggests husbands and wives have been cursed by sin to struggle with one another for control.

Then we talk about the curse directed at the serpent and explain why it has more to do with the Mesopotamian concept of the netherworld than why snakes don’t have legs. (Snakes never had legs.) We also deal with the old “serpent seed” heresy, which is debunked simply by reading Genesis 4:1. Cain was the son of Adam, not Satan.

Finally, we discuss the murder of Abel, speculating that at least one fallen entity whispered to Cain to encourage the shedding of his brother’s blood.

THE TREE in the middle of the garden proved to be a test and a trap—not just for Adam and Eve, but for the serpent as well.

This week, we discuss the location of Eden and explain why it was Jerusalem based on the identities of the four rivers named in Genesis 2:10-13. We also talk about the relevance of the rivers Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates to ancient cosmology, as reflected in Isaiah 47 and the ancient myth of the descent of Inanna (i.e., Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite, Venus, etc.) to the netherworld.

The we dig into the relationship of Adam and Eve, why the serpent wasn’t a serpent, why the seraphim may be griffins, and why the cherubim were not feminine angels with graceful wings, much less chubby little flying babies.

Here is the link to the article by Dr. Nicolas Wyatt that Derek mentioned, "A Royal Garden: The Ideology of Eden": https://wp.me/a57OIm-15p (link opens PDF document).

GARDENS WERE not just for growing vegetables in the ancient world.

This week, as we study days five through seven of Creation Week, we discuss the spiritual significance of gardens in the ancient world and their connection to the cult of divinized ancestors, especially dead kings—in other words, the mighty men who were of old.

We also discuss the identity of the “we” and “us” whose image we bear, the importance of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and dig into the original Hebrew behind English words like “sea creatures,” “birds,” and “breath of life.”

Here’s the link to the article on the purpose of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Derek mentioned during the study: https://answersingenesis.org/bible-questions/tree-knowledge-good-and-evil/

BACK TO the beginning! Today, we begin our study of the Old Testament for the second time, nearly five years after our very first dive into Genesis 1.

We discuss the meaning of various Hebrew words and their implications, and we explain why the first chapter of the Bible isn’t just a creation account, it’s a repudiation of the creation stories told by the cultures of the ancient world.