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The Holy Bible

The Creation of the world

In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The earth was dark and empty, and the Spirit of God moved over it.

God said: "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that light was good and God divided light from darkness. God called light day and darkness He called night.

Evening came and morning came: the first day.

God said: “Let the water on the earth be divided from the water in the sky. God called this heaven. And He saw that this was good.

Evening came and morning came: the second day.

God said: "Let the waters under heaven all come together, and let dry land appear." And so it was. God called the dry land earth. The waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good.

God said: "Let grass and flowers and trees grow on the earth, each giving seeds of its own kind." And so it was. And God saw that this was good.

Evening came and morning came: the third day.

God said: "Let there be lights in heaven to divide day from night, and let them mark feasts, days and years. Let them be lights in heaven to shine on earth." And so it was. God made the two great lights: the greater light for the day, the smaller light for the night, and the stars. God set them in heaven to shine on earth, to mark the day and the night and to divine light from darkness. God saw that it was good.

Evening came and morning came: the fourth day.

God said: "Let the waters be full of living things, and let birds fly above the earth under heaven." And so it was. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the seas. And let the birds multiply upon the earth."

Evening came and morning came: the fifth day.

God said: "Let the earth give every kind of living thing." And so it was. God made every kind of wild beast, every kind of cattle, every kind of land reptile. God saw that it was good.

God said: "Let Us make man in Our own image and likeness, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and the reptiles that crawl upon the earth."

God created man in the image of Himself, in the image of God He created him, man and woman He created them.

God blessed them, saying to them: "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth and conquer it." God said: "See, I give you all the seed-bearing plants that are upon the whole earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit. This shall be your food. To all wild beasts, all birds of heaven and all living reptiles on the earth I give all the plants for food." And so it was. God saw all that He had made, and indeed it was very good.

Evening came and morning came: the sixth day.

On the seventh day God rested, because His work was done. He blessed the seventh day as a day of rest for everyone.

+ + + ADAM AND EVE + + +

God gave the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, a garden to live in, the Garden of Eden, which was called Paradise. And God said: "You may pick all the flowers and eat the fruit of every tree except one. You may not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you will most surely die."

One day the devil, in the form of a serpent, said to Eve: "Has God really told you not to eat the fruit from any of the trees in this garden?"

"Oh, no!" answered Eve. "We eat the fruit of every tree except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told us not to touch that tree; lest perhaps we die."

"No," said the serpent, "that is not true at all. You would not die. God does not want you to eat the fruit because, if you do, you will be as wise as He is."

When Eve saw that the fruit looked very good, and that it would make them wise, she picked some of the fruit and ate it. She gave some to Adam, who was with her, and he ate it.

When Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit, they knew they had done wrong and were sad and ashamed. That evening God walked in the garden of Paradise. When they heard him, Adam and Eve were afraid, and hid in the trees. God said, "Adam, where are you?"

And Adam answered, "When I heard You in the garden, I was ashamed and hid."

And God said, "Why were you ashamed? Have you eaten the fruit of that tree, the fruit I told you not to eat?"

"The wife You gave me - she gave me the fruit," said Adam, "and I ate it." Then God said to Eve, "Why did you do this?"

Eve said, "The serpent tempted me and I ate."

God spoke to the serpent. "For doing this," He said, "you will crawl on the earth and eat dust all your life. And there will be a feud between you and the Woman, and between her seed and your seed. It will crush your head and you will lie in wait for her heel."

And God said to Adam and Eve: "You will have much pain and sorrow because of what you have done. You must earn your bread from the earth by the sweat of your brow, until you die and go back to the dust from which you were made."

God sent Adam and Eve away from Paradise into the world, and set an angel with a flaming sword to guard the gates of the garden.

+ + + Cain and Abel + + +

Then Adam knew Eve, and she bore two sons; the older was named Cain and the younger Abel.

Cain became a farmer and Abel a shepherd.

One day Cain and Abel made offerings to the Lord.

Cain made an offering out of the crops the land had given him, and Abel offered a firstborn from his flock.

Because of his faith, Able offered to God a more pleasing sacrifice than Cain. (Heb 11:4) God showed that He was pleased with Abel by accepting his sacrifice. But He was not pleased with Cain. Cain was angry because of this, and his face clouded.

God said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face clouded? If you want to do right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not want to do right, sin is at the door like a crouching beast, hungry for you, and you must be its master."

But Cain said to Abel, "Come, let's go out together."

When they were in the fields, Cain turned upon his brother Abel and killed him.

And then God said to Cain, "Cain, where is your brother Abel?"

Cain answered, "How should I know? Am I supposed to keep watch over him?"

But God said, "What have you done, Cain? Your brother's blood cries out to Me. As a punishment you will be a wanderer, and will have no home."

Cain was sorry for his deed, and God promised He would not desert him entirely.

Cain went to live east of Eden.

The third son of Adam and Eve was called Seth. Eve said, "God has given us another son to comfort us for Abel."

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