The Creation of God by Jacob Hartmann (color ebook reader TXT) đź“–
- Author: Jacob Hartmann
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It seems to have a priestly ring, this forbidding and preventing ordinary mortals to become intelligent. The story is so framed as to express the line of conduct of the higher towards the lower, of the slave towards his master, of the laborer towards his lord; and the 19th verse expresses the subjugation of the poor ignorant creature: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” It is the church and the priest that have taken care to keep the dust in the eyes of the masses. They are the cherubim with a flaming sword that keep the masses away from the tree of life.
Chapter iv relates to the crime of murder. God instigates the crime. Abel kept sheep. Cain tilled the ground. Cain brought vegetables to God, and Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and fat. God’s taste ran in the meat line; he was somewhat of an epicurean. He respected Abel and his offering, but did not respect Cain’s. Then God asks Cain why he is cross, and after Cain kills his brother Abel, he, God, says: Where is thy brother Abel? And God dispossesses Cain and drives him east of Eden to Arabia. A very arbitrary landlord this God.
Chapter v: The fourth chapter winds up with Enos the son of Seth. Verse 26: “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” Now, Adam lived 930 years, Seth 912 years, and Enos 905 years. God during this period was wholly occupied with these people. Murder is the only incident of importance during the first thousand years. God takes a long rest for nearly 2,000 years before anything of importance occurs.
This chapter treats of the genealogy, age, and death of the patriarchs from Adam to Noah.
The records of creation are by no means harmonious. There are no less than one hundred and twenty opinions on the subject. The difference between the latest and remotest dates is no less than 3,268 years. Here are some of the dates of the supposed creation of the world. They may be interesting to some, as showing the uncertainty and inaccuracy:
Here we give the genealogy of Adam and his line:
We may venture to make a very strong interrogation mark after these years. They are, however, in harmony with the rest of the story. Noah closes the fabulous period. We hear no more of God’s doings until we come to Abraham, 1921 B.C. And Abraham reached the age of 175 years only.
Chapter vi, on the sons of God, etc., is next. I beg to remind the reader we are still in Chaldea, near the Gulf of Persia; near the river Euphrates; near the garden of Eden, where God created man; where we found gold and precious stones; the place where murder was committed; near Arabia, etc. The geographical location is important, and let the reader also remember that the whole tract of land where all these transactions are supposed to have taken place is not so large as any moderate-sized state in our Union.
If you will examine a map of this particular region, it will help to bring the truth to your mind, and add considerably to your understanding. It is also well to bear in mind that in this small territory the art of agriculture was pursued, as well as fruit-growing, sewing was invented and aprons were made, and Eve had an apron before she had a dress, and this high state of civilization existed as soon as man and woman appeared on earth! What a contrast with other barbaric, savage, and uncivilized tribes! Eve had a decided advantage over the young female that was captured when Columbus landed December 12th. She was perfectly naked; so says history.
Verse 2: “The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives all which they chose.”
Sons of God! Was God married? If so, to whom? How many wives had he? How many sons and daughters? Where was God’s residence, if he had any? Were his domestic relations pleasant or not? Was his family large or small? Pray give us some information. Our theologians will tell us, “Ah, that has a spiritual meaning.”
Verse 3: “And the Lord [not God] said: My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.” Who?—God? “Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty.” This is a crafty statement, because it shows that the average length of life was the same as it is now, with some few exceptions, and as the fabulous age was past, the only way to get out of the difficulty was to give timely notice that extraordinary ages should not occur again.
Verse 4: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Who were these descendants of God that became mighty and men of renown?
After God’s sons intermarry with the daughters of men, the affairs of man grow worse, instead of better. And God grows despondent:
Verse 5: “And 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.”
Think of God’s sons causing all this wickedness on earth. He ought to have brought them up better. What can we expect of a God that cannot raise his own children properly?
“Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart.” This exhibits the profound ignorance of God. Though he made man, he did not know what the various organs in the body were for. He ought to have known that the heart does not think. Its function is to circulate the blood—a truth which was not discovered until 1618 by Harvey, of England.
Verse 6: “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”
Ha! God has a heart, and he has flesh, and he has sons; he knows what is good, evil, wickedness; repents and grieves; and has domestic relations with—evidently ladies, by whom he has children.
We will not mind the preparations of the ark, or the shipbuilding instructions given by God. A God that knew something of mechanics, shipbuilding, dimensions, measurement, etc.—no wonder theologians call God a designer, an architect. He showed some skill in the construction of this boat.
As soon as Noah had everything prepared, had loaded his cattle, etc., food and provender, God was ready to destroy his own sons and their relations by drowning them.
1 Weights and measures were invented about this period. ↑
As to the region where the deluge occurred—on the northern edge ascend the Persian mountains; on the east the steep and lofty parallel chains of the Indo-Persian boundary mountains, and on the south the plateau for a thousand miles along the Persian gulf and Arabian sea is bounded by the wild terraced regions of Beloochistan and Faristan. The second division includes the mountainous regions of Armenia, Koordistan, and Azerbijan. Here the table-land is compressed about half its general width. From this plateau, of which a part is mentioned in scripture as the “mountains of Ararat,” rises the volcanic cone commonly styled Mount Ararat, to the hight of 17,212 feet above the sea level.
The highlands of Syria rise gradually from the neighboring desert to the hight of 10,000 feet in Libanus and Antilibanus, and slope steeply in terraces down to the narrow coastlands of Phœnicia and Palestine.
Of the Syrian and Arabian lowlands, the south is hot and arid, with almost no oasis; but the north is watered by the Tigris and Euphrates.
Near this isolated corner of Asia, in the neighborhood of the Persian gulf and the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, where the deluge is supposed to have occurred, in the lowlands of that region, Chaldea, immense chains of mountains run in several directions, with highlands 10,000 feet above the level of the sea.
Verse 4: “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.”
This deluge is supposed to have taken place about 2348 B.C. Hale puts it at 3154 B.C. The sons of God came upon earth and married the daughters of men about 2948 B.C.; about this date ought to be nearer the flood. Noah was 600 years old when he floated in his ark.
We will consider, first, a general deluge.
A deluge over the whole earth is an impossibility.
1. We have to take in consideration the inequality of the earth’s surface—lowlands, highlands, hills and mountains, plateaus, etc.
As to mountains: Asia possesses no less than sixty or seventy mountains, the highest being some 29,000 feet above the sea’s level—the Himalaya, Everest.
Africa boasts of some thirty or forty mountains, the Kenia and Killamandja being 20,000 feet above the level of the sea, the other mountains grading downward in hight.
Europe is adorned with some seventy or eighty mountains, Mount Blanc being the highest, others ranging downwards.
South America boasts of some forty or more mountains, the Tupengater being the highest, 22,450 feet above the level of the sea.
North America counts some seventy or more mountains, Mt. Elias being 17,900 above the level of the sea.
We have plateaus and table-lands ranging from 10,000 feet above the level of the sea downward to near the sea’s level.
The great basins between the highest points of the
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