Did we come from slime or dust?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CurtisHouse
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CurtisHouse

Guest
Are we made from slime or dust as shown in Genesis 2:7? You think the Douay Rheims Bible was completely off on their translation or is there a better explanation? Could it be that slime in this instance was referring to mud as “the slime of the earth”? Even a chapter later, in Genesis 3:19, the same word is used (Hebrew 6083 if you have a Concordance nearby) to mean dust. Any insight on how to view that passage? Thank you in advance and have a wonderful and blessed week.

And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7, DRB)

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return. (Genesis 3:19, DRB)

then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7, NAB)

By the sweat of your brow, you shall eat bread,
Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken;
For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:19, NAB)
 
Dust may be a better word for what is being demonstrated because it is more vaporous and it disappears as if it were nothing, though it is sometimes also translated as clay.

It’s never translated as slime.
 
Last edited:
I think we’re all made out of dust and then some of us become slime.
 
Dust is more accurate. Remember the curse God puts on the serpent in Genesis 3:14?!

serpent1|504x378

That dust the serpent is condemned to eat is humanity. It shows the relationship us humans have with the demons (as in they are to forever harass us and are easily stepped upon)
 
Last edited:
St. Jerome, a wise translator, and thinker understood that nothing can be formed from pure dust, but dust needed to be fully wet to hold its human shape when intricately formed inside and out, so he chose to be clear with us that it was ‘wet dust’.
 
We are part of the earth and when you leave you will return every atom back to the planet. Call it dirt or slime its still earth.
 
The Douay-Rheims translators were influenced by the Vulgate which translated the corresponding Hebrew noun with limus, which means mud. Note that our English word, slime, is etymologically related to limus. In addition, at the time of the Douay-Rheim’s translation, slime in English generally meant mud.

St Jerome probably had in mind Isaiah 64:8, where humans are said to be clay while God is the potter (cf. Romans 9:21).
 
Slime also means mud or mortar in an archaic sense.

Slime ( n. ) Soft, moist earth or clay, having an adhesive quality; viscous mud.

Slime ( n. ) Any mucilaginous substance; any substance of a dirty nature, that is moist, soft, and adhesive.

Slime ( n. ) Bitumen.

Slime ( n. ) Mud containing metallic ore, obtained in the preparatory dressing.

Slime ( n. ) A mucuslike substance which exudes from the bodies of certain animals.

Slimed ( imp. & p. p. ) of Slime

Sliming ( p. pr. & vb. n. ) of Slime

Slime ( v. t. ) To smear with slime.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top