Your View of the Author's Interpretation

Use this forum to discuss the August 2019 Book of the month, "I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation: Old Testament Stories" by Val D. Greenwood.
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Your View of the Author's Interpretation

Post by ab2020 »

Several discussion threads on I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation have touched on the author's opinions and choice of what to include or not include in the book. In what ways do you most fervently agree or disagree with the author's interpretation? Is there any place in which you think (or know) that the author's interpretation is downright wrong?
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Post by Brenda Creech »

I am so glad you asked this question! I fervently disagree with the author's statement on the first page in regards to creation, and I quote: " it Is certainly more correct to say that the earth was organized than to say it was created, for it was not created out of nothing." The author goes on to state "it was created from materials that were available in the universe..." It is my belief, based on Scripture I have read all my life that God "created" everything. And I believe that includes the universe as well! So my opinion of creation is very different than the authors. The rest of the book is excellent and I enjoyed reading it, however, I just disagree with his thoughts on creation.
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Post by Alison Alissa »

Since there is this phenomenon called Judgement day,I take all views while I am looking forward to meeting the Creator and clear my doubts.I believe since the first Day of creation God has been rearranging the world.Imagine the prayers we say,God has to rearrange according to what God sees is best to one`s interest.I am somehow in agreement with Greenwood`s view.
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Post by Brenda Creech »

Alison Alissa wrote: 13 Aug 2019, 09:03 Since there is this phenomenon called Judgement day,I take all views while I am looking forward to meeting the Creator and clear my doubts.I believe since the first Day of creation God has been rearranging the world.Imagine the prayers we say,God has to rearrange according to what God sees is best to one`s interest.I am somehow in agreement with Greenwood`s view.
I agree that God has to rearrange things for the purpose if what's best for us - I was just making the point that He couldn't organize something He had not yet created which is how I take the author's meaning. Thanks for responding and sharing!
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B Creech wrote: 13 Aug 2019, 08:16 I am so glad you asked this question! I fervently disagree with the author's statement on the first page in regards to creation, and I quote: " it Is certainly more correct to say that the earth was organized than to say it was created, for it was not created out of nothing." The author goes on to state "it was created from materials that were available in the universe..." It is my belief, based on Scripture I have read all my life that God "created" everything. And I believe that includes the universe as well! So my opinion of creation is very different than the authors. The rest of the book is excellent and I enjoyed reading it, however, I just disagree with his thoughts on creation.
Yes, this bugged me too! Especially since it clearly says in Genesis 1 that the earth was "without form, and void" which literally means EMPTY NOTHINGNESS
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Post by Samy Lax »

My thoughts are quite similar to those already shared by the readers above. If the earth was created out of materials that were already present in the universe, who created the universe and those materials in the first place? Isn't it God who created all those too? It's so good to read everyone's viewpoints on the matter!
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Post by Chrystal Oaks »

ab2020 wrote: 12 Aug 2019, 20:41 Several discussion threads on I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation have touched on the author's opinions and choice of what to include or not include in the book. In what ways do you most fervently agree or disagree with the author's interpretation? Is there any place in which you think (or know) that the author's interpretation is downright wrong?
I honestly can't answer these questions. Greenwood stated that he used the King James version for his book because it was directly translated from the Hebrew language. However, any translation between languages automatically sets up errors because of human interpretation and the possibility of no word availability of the language being translated to. As a result, the word picked is the one closest in meaning, but even this can skew the original interpretation. So, Greenwood could be both right and wrong.
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Post by Erin Dydek »

Thehorselover wrote: 13 Aug 2019, 15:12
B Creech wrote: 13 Aug 2019, 08:16 I am so glad you asked this question! I fervently disagree with the author's statement on the first page in regards to creation, and I quote: " it Is certainly more correct to say that the earth was organized than to say it was created, for it was not created out of nothing." The author goes on to state "it was created from materials that were available in the universe..." It is my belief, based on Scripture I have read all my life that God "created" everything. And I believe that includes the universe as well! So my opinion of creation is very different than the authors. The rest of the book is excellent and I enjoyed reading it, however, I just disagree with his thoughts on creation.
Yes, this bugged me too! Especially since it clearly says in Genesis 1 that the earth was "without form, and void" which literally means EMPTY NOTHINGNESS
I agree with you. Whenever I have read the creation story, I took the passage literally and believe that God really did create the world from nothing.
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I like how the book explains several things in the Bible that are hard to reconcile with modern science. It's important to remember that the Bible was written in a time before we'd made many modern discoveries, written by human beings who didn't know what we know today. They were doing their best to explain certain phenomena. So I like how the book tries to marry modern discovery with the Bible, such as explaining that God created the world out of the elements of the universe. That's a pretty interesting interpretation.
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Post by Philip Chepsingil »

The scriptures in the Bible gives meaning according to how it has been interpreted. What is written is the author's opinion. Not wrong or right to me.
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Post by Vickie Noel »

I have a problem with some of the author's interpretations and this is why I generally tend to avoid books that share personal opinions as to the meanings of the scriptures. One of such errors was whdn the author said that Cain's offering was not accepted because it was not inspired by faith and it wasn't a blood sacrifice. While the former is true, the latter is certainly not. The Bible does not say that God rejected his gift because it was vegetation, in fact, Numbers 15:9 showed that God accepted grain offerings as sacrifice. Also, at that point in history, humans ate only vegetation. (Gen. 1:29) And because the ground outside of Eden was cursed by God, Cain had toiled to produce his offering. (Gen. 3:17-19) Therefore, he offered hard-won, life-sustaining food!
However, the fact remained that fhe scriptures never anything about the quality of his gift as being the reason he was rejected, rather it was his heart condition and motive not being pure that resulted in his sacrifice getting rejected.
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Post by HeatherEi »

I think that the author can do whatever he wants. However, I think his interpretation should be well researched. In the Hebrew to English translations of the Old Testament, a lot of the meanings of the Hebrew words get lost in translation. So when studying and interpreting the Old Testament, one must understand the actual Hebrew words used as well as the context of that historical time to properly explain it to others.
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Post by HeatherEi »

Vickie Noel wrote: 01 Sep 2019, 15:29 I have a problem with some of the author's interpretations and this is why I generally tend to avoid books that share personal opinions as to the meanings of the scriptures. One of such errors was whdn the author said that Cain's offering was not accepted because it was not inspired by faith and it wasn't a blood sacrifice. While the former is true, the latter is certainly not. The Bible does not say that God rejected his gift because it was vegetation, in fact, Numbers 15:9 showed that God accepted grain offerings as sacrifice. Also, at that point in history, humans ate only vegetation. (Gen. 1:29) And because the ground outside of Eden was cursed by God, Cain had toiled to produce his offering. (Gen. 3:17-19) Therefore, he offered hard-won, life-sustaining food!
However, the fact remained that fhe scriptures never anything about the quality of his gift as being the reason he was rejected, rather it was his heart condition and motive not being pure that resulted in his sacrifice getting rejected.

I totally agree with you on this! I would like to know how the author came to the conclusion about why Cain's offering was rejected.
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Post by Syson Dolph »

A picture is worth a thousand opinions. There could other discoveries as time goes on.When all those views are merged together then one answer can be formed. For example what is education. One may say it is a key to success, one may it is learning how to read and write, one may say it is academics and sports, one may it is time when some teachers use this opportunity to bully pupils, learners or students. The question still remains what is education? If a question is what is creation? An answer may be creation is science, creation is geography, creation is God. One may say creation is how God used science and geography to make a splendid appearance of planet earth a merged answer. Every little detail seems the same only with different wording.
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Post by mensah2 »

I still doubt if the author has strong religious background. I see this as misinterpretation of the Holy Bible. The earth was created and not organized please.
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