this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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With Texas and other states forcing religion in public schools, this now is political.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 38 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Fun fact:

Genesis is the history of the Jews, not the history of human beings.

So when Cain and Seth (nobody remembers Seth!) were married, they married outside the faith.

Cain's wife came from Nod. Seth's wife isn't really mentioned.

Abel's wife is not mentioned, he may have been murdered first.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 29 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I'm not sure when the Torah was compiled/written, but this fun fact may be related to the other fun fact that the religion that Judaism evolved from was monolatrist or henotheistic. That is, they only worshipped their one god, but unlike modern monotheists they didn't reject the idea that other gods existed. Much like how a Greek who believes in Zeus and Poseidon might not have any problem believing that Ra and Isis exist, they're just not "the gods I worship".

It's not clear precisely when the early Yahwism transitioned into being monotheistic like they are today. It was probably a fairly gradual process.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 months ago

You tend to see the switch in the second temple period. At that point, Judaism was heavily influenced by Persian Zoroastrianism, which is expressly monotheist. There may be some pollination in both directions, too.

[–] Embargo@lemmy.zip 26 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is the weirdest way to find out where "Kane" and "Nod" come from in command and conquer.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The game hints that Kane is literally the Cain of the Bible.

"Nod" really just means "wandering". Cain went to the land of wandering around doing shit.

[–] CannedTuna@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 months ago

Yeah they refer to them as the sons of God marrying the daughters of man, defined as two different peoples. They also mention the Nephilim, or giants being around as well.

[–] JonsJava@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

TIL! Thanks for sharing

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

But then how were Cain's wife's ancestors created (in Nod?), if not from Adam? Is there at least one other act of creation? I get if it's not mentioned, but surely someone has written fanfic to fill in the gaps.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Again, Adam and Eve weren't the first people, they were the first Jews. It makes more sense if you catch the proper tense of the first line of Genesis:

In Hebrew:
 א  בְּרֵאשִׁית,
בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים,
אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם,
וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.

In Latin:
in principio creavit Deus caelum et terram.

The English you know:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The English you don't know:
In the beginning the Gods created the heaven and the earth.

Latin picks up the plural correctly. The King James version does not.

So you might ask, well, wait, if there are other Gods and other people, why aren't they mentioned?

Surprise! They ARE:

Exodus 20:2-3:

"2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

In other words, there ARE other Gods, but I am yours and you are mine and we are all together, goo goo gajoob!

Wait, that's not right. ;)

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

in principio creavit Deus caelum et terram.

There is no plural in Latin either. Deus and creavit are both singular.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

I may have misremembered the Latin angle, but the Hebrew is solid. From the excellent "Asimov's Guide to the Bible":

Asimov is also the guy who makes the "Begats" chapter make sense:

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Deus is translating "elohim" which is plural. Note the -im suffix for plurals. Modern Arabic has a similar suffix.

Elohim is frequently translated into a singular form to support monotheism. But it's definitely not a grammatical construct, like English's royal we.

Now, plural gods in Genesis 1 do not imply that the Genesis 1 creation only covered Jews. I don't understand that part.

In any case, I was really asking what modern biblical literalists say to resolve this "Seth picking up a wife in Nod" issue. I'm sure they have some kind of story or explanation, and frequently I find those kind of hilarious.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Roll forward to Exodus 1:1

"1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob."

Genesis - The creation of the people of Israel.

Exodus - The Israelites who went to Egypt.

It's a throughline.

[–] JonsJava@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 points 3 months ago

Is this a sneaky VtM reference disguised as a Twilight reference?