Did God really look at the world as being "very good" as being good?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robert_Sock
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Robert_Sock

Guest
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts clearly stated that the term “very good” in Genesis 1:31 refers to the evil inclination.
Genesis 1:31
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Aso notice that on the second day, God did not call it “good.”
6 Then God said: Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other.
7 God made the dome,* and it separated the water below the dome from the water above the dome. And so it happened.
8 God called the dome “sky.” Evening came, and morning followed—the second day.
Consistent with the Jewish notion the term “very good” refers to the evil inclination, Note the following versus:
Genesis 6:1-6
1 When human beings began to grow numerous on the earth and daughters were born to them,

2 the sons of God saw how beautiful the daughters of human beings were, and so they took for their wives whomever they pleased.

3 Then the LORD said: My spirit shall not remain in human beings forever, because they are only flesh. Their days shall comprise one hundred and twenty years.

4 The Nephilim appeared on earth in those days, as well as later, after the sons of God had intercourse with the daughters of human beings, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown.
Warning of the Flood.

5 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,

6 the LORD regretted making human beings on the earth, and his heart was grieved.
Yes, at one time the world contained only evil, but could not sustain itself. So God destroyed the world and included in it “good.”
 
Last edited:
A quick check of my Jerome Biblical Commentary indicates that while acknowledging that a disruption will follow as the result of sin (Genesis 9:2-4) Father Eugene Maly nevertheless says yes by his comment on Genesis 1:31 “The perfection of all creation is expressed by a superlative form. The order and harmony of the cosmos [expressed by the orderly arrangement] are totally in keeping with the divine ordering will.”

Father Maly, now deceased, was an internationally acclaimed scholar and author and longtime professor of Sacred Scripture at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary of the West. He wrote the treatment of Genesis for the Commentary.
 
Last edited:
We know that God is good - hence His handiwork - His creation must also be good .
 
Do you agree that there exists a paradox that if the God made the world “very good” in a truly good sense it’s odd that it turned so evil that God had to destroy it?
 
Yes, but its not irregular… God brought sons who changed the world out of barren familes (Abraham and Sarah with Isaac, and Elizabeth with John the Baptist.). God really likes paradox and irony
 
God did not destroy the world. He destroyed evildoers but spared Noah and his family and animals of all kinds. This shows that God still considered his creation to be good.
 
Do you agree that there exists a paradox that if the God made the world “very good” in a truly good sense it’s odd that it turned so evil that God had to destroy it?
Not really. " God saw that what he had made was very good "
What makes man like to God is 'free will ’ And God valued man so much that as soon as man fell from the original state of innocence God informed them (Adam and Eve ) that in the fullness of time he would send a perfect incorruptible woman who would be the mother of the Saviour who would crush the head of the serpent.
 
“GOOD” was reserved for days when He created living things…“VERY GOOD” was reserved for an assessment of the completion of His creative works…i like to also beleieve that “very good” was an indication that Satan was not yet present.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top