.
.
The Torah (Hebrew: תּוֹרָה) meaning “teaching,” “doctrine,” or “instruction” is the name given to the first five books of the Jewish Bible. In Hebrew, the five books bear the initial phrase in the text as their names: Bereshit (“In the beginning,”), Shemot (“Names,”), Vayikra (“He called”), Bamidbar (“In the desert,”) and Devarim (“Words,”).
The Pentateuch meaning “five vessels,” “five containers,” or “five-volume book” is the comparative term for the Torah in Christian theology. The Christians call the five books as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The Torah and the Pentateuch also known as “the five books of Moses,” form the first section of the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures.
Genesis is the first book of the Pentateuch. Its title in the Jewish Scriptures it is known as Bereshit, the opening Hebrew word, “in the beginning.” Its title in English, “Genesis,” comes from the Greek word γενέσεως of Genesis 2:4, literally, “the book of the generation (genesis) of the heavens and earth.”
Genesis 1:1–2:3 presents us a seven-day creation account where a God almighty whose mere word generates an exquisite universe. In this beautiful universe, humans play an intrinsic part.
The storyline of Genesis 2–11, find its origin in creation-flood stories found in Mesopotamian literature of the second and early first millennia.
In the Mesopotamian creation-flood accounts, the gods created the humans as immortal slaves to take care of the universe for them. The humans were needed to provide the gods with food, clothing, and pay homage to them in temples. In an unanticipated development, however, the humans grew in plenty and were so noisy that the gods were not able to sleep. Madly angered, the gods decided to destroy the human race by a universal flood. However, one man, secretly warned of the flood by his patron god, built a boat and survived with his family. Regretting their impetuous decision, the gods created a new version of mankind. They made the new human race mortal to ensure they would never grow numerous and disturb the gods.The authors of Genesis (Bereshit) adapted this Mesopotamian creation-flood story to suit their viewpoints about God and humanity. To illustrate, in Genesis we read that Noah, created by God before the floods, led a long life.
Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. The whole lifetime of Noah was nine hundred and fifty years; then he died. (Genesis 9:28-29)
These authors attributed the weakness of the gods to human sin in lieu of divine oversight.
When the LORD saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but evil, the
LORD regretted making human beings on the earth, and his heart was grieved.
So the LORD said: I will wipe out from the earth the human beings I have created, and not only the human beings, but also the animals and the crawling things and the birds of the air, for I regret that I made them. (Genesis 6:5–7)
The authors made God reaffirm mankind without modifying the original creation
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.
Fear and dread of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all
the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered.
Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.
Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life. Anyone who sheds the blood of a human being, by a human being shall that one’s blood be shed; For in the image of God have human beings been made. Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it. (Genesis 9:1–7).
In the biblical version God is just, powerful, and not needy.
.
Impressions 
Many, many different versions. Some day those aliens will return, too.
LikeLike
Hi Seldomblogger,
What I am going to say now might hurt you or other Christian friends of mine. I am a Catholic. Nevertheless, I too like you have delved into the sacred texts found in other religions. So, here is what I’d like to say.
First of all, we have to understand that Jesus was fundamentally a Jew. He was not a Christian. So, he would have followed the Torah word for word, whether it was exaggerated or not. Jesus as a human had no authority to change the sacred books even if he had found faults in them.
LikeLike
Hi tvaraj,
I am just like you, and I welcome your thoughts nevertheless. I agree that Jesus was fundamentally a Jew, but He did change several aspects of the Jewish laws which were a scandal to many..probably some of the reasons why the Sanhedrin thought he ought to die. Examples are the law of divorce, fasting, Sabbath rules, Korban, and much more. A lot of Moses’ laws were ‘reversed’ [eye for eye, etc], plus He introduced the concept of Resurrection [God of the living, not God of the dead Mk 12:27] which was previously unknown to contemporary Jews. People listened to Him cos I think He “knew a lot about the kingdom and abt His Father”. I dont say this cos I’m a catholic, but as a person who critically studies this. Yet the creation story still remains a mythical theology to me. I sometimes assume that He may have said a lot more (which may have included the creation mysteries too) but maybe it wasn’t deemed as relevant by the evangelist writers?
anyways, I enjoy these posts, so keep them coming
LikeLike
The creation accounts have always intrigued me. I have studied various accounts from different sacred texts. Would you think that if the Torahs had any exaggerations in them, would they have been corrected by Jesus?…Just a thought
LikeLike