Did Adam and Eve go to Heaven?

I am listening to an Apologetics Lecture on CD right now by John Mark Reynolds, Ph.D., Director of the Torrey Honors Institute at BIOLA. (http://biola.edu/academics/torrey/). I am interested in everyone's opinion of something he brought up. God has no opposite. Satan is NOT the opposite of God, Satan is a perversion of something good – a fallen angel. Also evil is not the opposite of good, evil is the perversion of good. What says you?

I am currently reading the Word Biblical Commentary: Genesis 1-15 (by Wenham). So far it is very well written. He has some great observations on the first section of Genesis (1:1 - 2:3) that I find very interesting (maybe it is just the mathematician in me that likes all the numbers!):

For example, he mentions that "2:1-3 echoes 1:1 by introducing the same phrases but in reverse order: 'he created,' 'God,' 'heavens and earth' reappear as 'heavens and earth' (2:1) 'God' (2:2), 'created' (2:3). This chiastic pattern brings the section to a neat close which is reinforced by the inclusion 'God created' linking 1:1 and 2:3."

Then, here is what inspired the title to this post- "The correspondence of the first paragraph, 1:1-2, with 2:1-3 is underlined by the number of Hebrew words in both being multiples of 7. 1:1 consists of 7 words, 1:2 of 14 (7 x 2) words, 2:1-3 of 35 (7 x 5) words. The number seven dominates this opening chapter in a strange way, not only in the number of words in a particular section but in the number of times a specific word or phrase recurs. For example, 'God' is mentioned 35 times, 'earth' 21 times, 'heaven/firmament' 21 times, while the phrases 'and it was so' and 'God saw that it was good' occur 7 times."

What does it all mean? Perhaps it was just a way to make the passage easier to remember for oral tradition. Perhaps it is meant to indicate the beauty and symmetry of God and his creation. Any other thoughts?

Hey everyone - I found a new cool web app called library thing. You should check it out - www.librarything.com. It is a way online to compile, tag, share and explore your book collection and other like yours. It would be cool if we all set it up for ourselves and we could see what books we all have. You can review and recommend as well. Plus you can code your collection into your blog... can we set this up here?

Check out this press release from the Religious News Service: http://www.religionnews.com/press02/PR091205.html Prior to seeing this story I had been reading about the debate on Open Source Biblical Studies. I love seeing the push towards all of these areas. I believe that the area of Biblical studies will be enhanced to the same degree as the other worlds that are being affected by the open source movement... software, general knowledge, social networks. I would love to see an online Bible with full wiki'd tagged commentary.

The last few weeks as I have delved into deeper Biblical studies, I have been looking around at different blogs in this area. Here are the ones that I have added to my bloglines list:

http://biblical-studies.ca/blog/ "My musings on Biblical Studies, Biblical Hebrew, Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Popular Culture, and pretty much anything else that interests me!" - Very interesting blog as well as a great collection of resources.

http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/ "A weblog on ancient Judaism and its context" - Another site I highly recommend, great posts.

http://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog/ Another strong recommendation, great info and analysis.

http://biblaridion.blogspot.com/ "Welcome to Biblaridion, or 'little scroll'. On this 'little scroll' will be written my various and sundry musings on myriad topics but especially on the Bible." Really good stuff, less frequent postings.

http://servingtheword.blogspot.com/ "The Hebrew Bible and related matters ancient and modern, through the lenses of philology, anthropological linguistics and political theology." - What can I add to that explanation, except that this one is a worthy read.

http://manuscriptboy.blogspot.com/ Good stuff, mostly beyond my grasp at this point...

http://www.hypotyposeis.org/weblog/ "Sketches in Biblical Studies" - That about sums it up.

http://parablemania.ektopos.com/ "Some say I speak in parables. The reality is far more complex. Within these walls you may find musings on philosophy, theology, politics, and Christian apologetics (without parables -- I'm a much more competent straight-talker than storyteller)." - This is my primary resource for Commentary reviews and recommendations. Has recommendations for commentaries for every book of the Bible.

http://www.bsreview.org/weblog/blogger.html Bible software review, good for keeping up on Bible software updates and reviews.

http://www.wiredjesus.com/ "The Wired Wanderings of a Postmodern Pilgrim" - I subscribe to his podcast as well. Pretty interesting commentary from a Pastor, discusses current events, philosophy and life.

http://www.thinkchristian.net/ "Welcome to ThinkChristian.net, where we talk about Christ, culture and the ways that faith plays out in everyday life. We want to exercise our faith in every aspect of our lives: heart, soul and mind." - Some interesting thoughts on Christin thinking and how it applies to life.

http://ntgateway.com/weblog/index.html "Mark Goodacre's blog for academic New Testament studies and related material; sister of The New Testament Gateway." - Excellent resource, both the blog and the sister NT Gateway site. Definitely check it out.

http://exegetitor.blogspot.com/ "A network of highly cohesive details reveals the truth." - New blog, still waiting to see how good it will be.

http://christdot.org/ "Christ. Period." - Good all around site with news and information.

http://www.esv.org/blog "Keeps you up-to-date with the happenings of the English Standard Version Bible." - News, updates, and information about my new favorite Bible translation.

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/share/rss2.0/ "Weekly Memory Verse Plan from the ESV "Truth" Bible" - RSS Feed gives you the same verse everyday, a good way to get a verse in front of you every day.

http://www.everythingaboutthebible.com/ Interesting with a wide variety of topics.

http://christianmind.blogspot.com/ "'If Christians cannot communicate as thinking beings, they are reduced to encountering one another only at the shallow level of gossip and small talk. Hence the perhaps peculiarly modern problem - the loneliness of the thinking Christian.' - Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind" - Talks about Christianty in general.

http://www.christianorigins.com/ "Kirby's blog and sundry essays about early Christianity." - Self-explanatory.

http://macbiblioblog.blogspot.com/ "All things Macintosh for biblical scholarship. Providing news, help, and discussion for bible scholars using Macintosh technologies as a tool for doing their work." - For those of us who use good computers :-)

http://www.bigbible.org/blog/ Posts from a Bible scholar about his life and the world of Bible Scholarship.

http://www.jesuscreed.org/ "Exploring the Significance of Jesus and the Orthodox Faith for the 21st Century" - Pretty good commentary and analysis.

My favorite verse of today is 2 Timothy 3:7 - "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth." from ESV.

I just started reading "The Book of Genesis Chapters 1-17" by Hamilton from the New International Commentary on the Old Testament series. Very interesting read so far. The author is discussing the ten occurances in Genesis of the Hebrew 'elleh toledot in Genesis, which translates as "this is the account of X" or "these are the descendants of X" depending on the context. The first occurance of 'elleh toldeot, Genesis 2:4, is the only one which does not reference a person - "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth". Apparently there is debate whether the statement refers to the verses AFTER the statement, or refers to Gen 1:1 - 2:3. The author argues in favor of the reference to verses after 2:4. The interesting part is he sees 1:1 - 2:3 and 2:4+ as two complementary stories of creation - the first focusing on man's divine origins, and the second focusing on man's mundane origins. Further he notes that the first story shows man as HAVING authority - as per Gen 1:29 "you shall" vs. the second story showing man UNDER authority - as per Gen 2:17. This further emphasizes the divine vs. mundane focus of each section.

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