I have a Masters in Intercultural Communication in addition to two degrees from Fundamentalist Bible Schools.
Yeah? Well I'm Catholic.
I have very carefully scoured the texts, including the Hebrew,
And your unfamiliar with PARDES!? weird...
Much of what I have said is conclusions that I reluctantly arrived at.
...
It is not what I think the Bible says, but what the writer was trying to say.
You honestly think that? Or are you just sayin'?
Because, from your posts here, you seem to have an agenda.
You seem to want to maintain the Bible's literal inerrancy while keeping it in tune with modern science and you are interpreting the text in whatever way you have to in order to acheive this.
I am also a scientist and am well trained in the scientific method. I know what bad science is, and cherry picking facts that fit my preconceived notions is bad science. I don't do that with the Bible either.
But that is
exatcly what you are doing in multiple threads here. Do you not see this at all!?
You cherry pick facts from Genesis to support your Garden of Eden theory and ignore all the ones that contradict it. And the ones that you can't ignore you twist into wild interpretation until they fit within your preconceived notion.
I'm baffeled at how you can think that you are doing the exact opposite of what you are actually doing!?
By the way, I haven't heard the terms Peshat and Derash. Can you explain them? Thanks
Did you see this part right here:
The difference.
That its a different color and underlined means that you can click on it and it will link you to another page.