DOES THE BOOK OF GENESIS POSE MORE QUESTIONS THAN THE BOOK OF REVELATIONS?
Among questions frequently raised (concerning the Genesis account) are the following:

"If God created everything (Gen 1), why did he create problems for himself by creating a serpent (Gen 3.1) who would lead his creations astray? Why did God create a tree he did not want Adam and Eve to know about, and then go out of his way to warn them against it? God grew angry when he found out he had been defied. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, didn't he know? Why couldn't he find Adam and Eve when they hid? If God had not wanted Adam and Eve to taste the fruit of the forbidden tree, why didn't he warn the serpent? Could God have prevented the serpent from tempting Adam and Eve? If yes, why didn't he? If no, does that mean that the serpent Was as powerful as God?"--Harlan Ellison, from his classic short story, "Deathbird"

According to Gen 2.15-23 Eve was created after Adam had already been given the prohibition with regard to the forbidden fruit. Eve apparently heard the prohibition only from Adam. She believed the serpent (the craftiest of all creatures) and has been blamed for the Fall of mankind (by Paul in I Tim 2.14-15). Was Eve framed?

According to Gen 2.17 Adam was to die "in the day" that he ate of the forbidden fruit. Moreover, the phrase translated "you will die" is mot tamut in Hebrew. The same phrase occurs in numerous passages in the Old Testament. For example, in I Ki 2.37, Solomon threatens Shimei, "The moment you go and cross the Kidron Valley, know that you shall die (not tamut)." Sure enough, when Shimei violates the king's orders, he sends his hatchet man, and Shimei is killed. Other parallel passages support this one in showing that mot tamut refers to a punishment by execution which is to take place immediately after the transgression. However, Adam lived 930 years (Gen 5.5)! This fact vindicates the serpent, who told Eve correctly, that "in the day that you eat (the fruit)... shall not die...(but) your eyes shall be opened" (Gen 3.4-5). Eve, of course, understood that God's prohibition involved immediate death, as when she argued with the serpent, "but God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.'" (Gen 3.3) So apparently the serpent knew more about the truth of the matter than Eve! (The preceding two questions are from Don Morgan's Crusade Publications)

Why wasn't Eve startled by the talking snake? Was it common for animals in Eden to talk? Or is Genesis an allegory, like Aesop's Fables, which also contain talking animals?

Having brought "luminosity" into existence, Jehovah "divided the light from the darkness." How was this done? And how did light and darkness ever mix? Darkness is a minus quantity; it is simply the absence of light, as cold is the absence of heat. (The ancient Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, mentions Anu killing one half of Chaos (Apsu), and stealing his tiara of light, thus dividing the light from the darkness!)

Why did God not create two couples instead of one? Adam and Eve's sons must have had children by their sisters. Surely an all-wise and all-good Creator would have prevented the cradle of the race from being stained with incest.

After completing the work of Creation the Lord "rested." According to Exodus 31.17, he "rested and was refreshed," like someone mowing the lawn who takes a swig at a can of beer. According to Dr. Geddes, and other learned editors of an annotated Bible published in 1774, the true meaning of the Hebrew original is, "on the seventh day he rested, and fetched breath." (Sir William Donville, The Sabbath, p. 54) What a pretty piece of anthropomorphism! (The preceding three questions are from George Williams Foote's book, Bible Romances)

Why did God have to rest after he made the world? What does God do when he rests?
What does He do in His spare time? --graffiti

I've always wanted to ask, Why six days? What's the Lord's hurry? High labor costs?
--Wm. R. Fix, The Bone Peddlers

You ask me what God was doing before he created Heaven and Earth... He was creating Hell for people who asked questions like that -- Augustine of Hippo

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