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So, where did Eve come from?  We know that she was the wife of Adam from the time she came into the world.  But really, where did she come from?  Our usual explanation is that she was made from a rib taken from Adam.  The Hebrew word here (beitzah) may not actually mean rib.  It may mean only a bone of some sort.  It may only mean a non-specific “part.”  In any event, it is clear that something was taken from Adam, so that Eve could be given to him as his spouse.  But let’s look a bit deeper. One question that we might consider is whether the part that was taken from Adam was a “regular” part of the man.  For example, if God did take a rib from Adam to make Eve, then did He supernaturally replace that rib?  We really don’t know, nor does the text help us a whole lot.  Other than the possible translation of beitzah into rib, we cannot identify the part in question.  Then, there is the question of the method of removal.  How did God remove the part?  We know that He opened Adam up in some manner.  Whatever the manner was, it was not fatal. Do you think Adam was simply born with an extra rib on one side?  In that case, God [...]

We know that the man Abraham, first named Abram, fathered quite a number of sons during his life.  In fact, over ten of them are named in the Bible.  There can be no doubt from the biblical record that Ishmael, for example, was born quite some time before Isaac. However, when God spoke to Abraham regarding the sacrifice of Isaac, He referred to him as Abraham’s only son.  How odd. If one were a first son, then one could possibly be an only son.  However, given the fact that Ishmael was born to Abram some fourteen or fifteen years before Isaac was born makes Isaac neither “first” nor “only” in the category of sons of the patriarch.  Most of us don’t believe that God is either a liar or a fool.  But, in chapter 22 of Genesis, God spoke to Abraham and required him to go to a certain place and there sacrifice his “only son.”  So, let’s get that straightened out if we can. On a certain night about a year before the birth of Isaac, God had come to the man named Abram and had given him very explicit instructions concerning a particular covenant.  He – God – was formalizing a covenant of a very particular and unique nature that night.  That covenant involved the future of [...]

In a previous blog we examined the bloody history of Abraham and hinted at its relationship to the Christ.  God Himself began the history of blood by providing animal skins for coverings for Adam and Eve when they first decided they were smarter than God. One of the interesting aspects of Abraham’s bloody history is the how of it all.  Animals were a constant part of life and still are even though we have separated ourselves from their death in our modern economic systems.  The animals that were such a part of the lives of yesteryear were most frequently kept as food sources.  This required the dispatch of the animal at about the time the family or household needed meat.  Milk, and its derivatives, were also commonly harvested from the family’s animals.  More indirect uses were also assigned to the domestic animals, such as wool and skins.  All these harvestings were renewable except for meat, the most basic. To dispatch animals for food purposes was common practice and the various households found themselves needing to take the food quite regularly.  We know that Abraham was the leader of a sizeable group of people, maybe numbered in the thousands at times.  To feed such a sizeable population would require that many animals be harvested every day.  This was simply a [...]