Saturday, January 9, 2010

Back to the Beginning

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First we have the Tanakh as described by Wikipedia. The first part being The Torah ("Teaching", also known as the Five Books of Moses)to be Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Here is a Wikipedia link for Information on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Tanakh at Qumran

We know that orthodox Christians assume it was Moses writing all of this but that seems unlikely. Primarily because its doubtful that there ever even existed an actual "Moses".

Its possible that it was simply a conglomeration of various anonymous authors.






http://www.jafi.org.il/education/tor.../bereshit.html

While dealing with the story of the Garden of Eden, the Midrash also deals with the serpent. It declares that before causing Adam and Eve to sin, "it had legs" (Bereishit Rabbah, 19). According to this, the serpent was once a tall, splendid and regal creature. When its fate was decided and it is written that "upon thy belly shall thou go" (Bereishit 3:14), "the ministering angels descended and cut off its arms and legs" (Bereishit Rabbah, 20). This tradition gives the image of the enticing serpent an impressive dimension, that has repercussions on many viewpoints of the ancient world, which saw the serpent as representing forces of evil on one hand and as possessing supernatural powers on the other hand.


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