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Bible

2022-02-11T02:46:34Z

Dwaynepride: Clarified

[[Image:800px-Crop Book of Isaiah 2006-06-06.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The Holy Bible, opened to the Book of Isaiah.]]
{{Christianity}}
{{Bible}}

The '''Bible''' is the a book of mythology.

*The Bible’s message is both ‘divine’ and ‘human’. —[http://www.saintjohnsabbey.org/liturgy-answers/bibles-message-both-divine-and-human/ St. John's Abbey: ''The Bible’s message is both ‘divine’ and ‘human’.'' Friday, January 17th, 2014, Benedictine Father Michael Kwatera, a monk of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN.]
*The more conservative theologians who employ the historical-critical method believe that the Scriptures are more than the writings of mortal men. —[http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerHistorical.pdf The Historical-Critical Method of Bible Interpretation, By Siegbert W. Becker], page 4.
*Unique among all the world's literature, the Bible is really God's word in human language. —[http://bibleasliterature.wordpress.com/lesson-1/ The Bible as Literature: The Bible ~ A Literary Work and an Artistic Presentation of Human Experience].</ref> and the source of many common expressions such as "pick up the mantle."<ref>The saying is based on [[Elisha]] taking up the role of [[Elijah]] as a prophet, and the "mantle" is the cloak left by Elijah after ascending to [[heaven]]. [https://classroom.synonym.com/what-is-the-meaning-of-picking-up-the-mantle-12080241.html]</ref>

The bestselling book in history, the Bible is a testament to its timeless and compelling message.<ref>The Bible continues to be the best-selling book ever. Americans alone buy 25 million Bibles a year, according to Publisher's Weekly. Bible sales are now reaching $609 million a year, with specialty Bibles available for myriad "niche" audiences, from motorcycle riders to campers, brides and archaeologists. "Immerse," a water-resistant Bible for troops overseas, is now available from publisher Bardin & Marsee. [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070529-111815-7952r.htm Polls: Most believe Bible as God's word] - Jennifer Harper, ''The Washington Times'' - May 30, 2007</ref> In addition, it has had an immense, positive influence on literature, culture, and history. According to the website Guinness World Records, "A survey by the Bible Society concluded that around 2.5 billion copies [of the Bible] were printed between 1815 and 1975, but more recent estimates put the number at more than 5 billion."<ref>[http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selling-book-of-non-fiction/ Best-selling book of non-fiction], Guinness World Records</ref>

The Bible consists of two parts: 27 short books and letters of the [[New Testament]] of the [[Christian]] [[faith]], and 39 Hebrew and Aramaic books recognized by both Christianity and Judaism, which are included among the collection of 46 writings known as the [[Old Testament]]. The text of the Old Testament was originally written in [[Hebrew]] and [[Aramaic]], and was later translated and expanded in [[Greek]] by rabbinical scholars in the [[Septuagint]] Bible of the Greek-speaking Jews which was the Bible of the [[Apostles]].<ref>"Bible of the apostles". See the following four sources:
*[http://www.scripturecatholic.com/septuagint.html Septuagint Quotes in the New Testament]
*[http://setterfield.org/Septuagint_History.html The Alexandrian Septuagint History - Barry Setterfield (setterfield.org)]
*[http://www.crivoice.org/canonot.html Canons of the Hebrew Bible]
*[http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Apocrypha-Books/ Official King James Bible online: Apocrypha Books]</ref> The [[New Testament]] itself was originally written in Greek and was soon afterward added to the Septuagint, forming the Greek Bible of the ancient [[Christian]] church. The Bible has been translated into more than 2,000 languages.

==Name==
The word "Bible" had its origins in an ancient [[Phoenicia]]n seaport called Byblos, which was so-named as a result of the trade and manufacture of writing material based on the [[papyrus]] or byblos reed, used extensively in antiquity for making scrolls and [[book]]s. The [[Greek language|Greek]] word ''biblos'' was based upon this, and it came to be the word for ''book'' (a small book was termed ''biblion''), and by the 2nd century A.D. Greek [[Christianity|Christians]] had called the Scriptures ''ta Biblia'' ('''τα βιβλία''' ''the books''), which was transferred to [[Latin]] by dropping the ''ta''; the word made its way to Old French where the plural was dropped in favor of the singular, hence becoming the [[English]] word ''Bible''.<ref>Unger, pg 143; Moulton; Blass</ref>

==Unique witness to truth==
{{See also|The Gospel}}
The Bible is the most ancient collective document of writings in antiquity witnessing to the revelation of the one living God to the community of the people he has chosen and formed to be his priests and witnesses to all the peoples of the earth. This people chosen and called out from every nation and language on earth testifies that God is one being of three Persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, who loves all that he has created, and that there is nothing in all the whole created universe that he did not create through the power of his Word. The Bible is the collective testimony of this community of people chosen out of all the peoples of the earth that God is the one original cause of all existence, creator of the universe and all that it contains both visible and invisible. They have borne witness in the several sacred scriptures contained in the Bible that this one unique God has acted and continues to act in history.<ref>Chaffey, Tim (April 1, 2011). [https://answersingenesis.org/the-word-of-god/3-unity-of-the-bible/ 3. Unity of the Bible]. ''Answers in Genesis''. Retrieved April 21, 2019.</ref><ref>Lisle, Jason (March 22, 2011). [https://answersingenesis.org/is-the-bible-true/how-do-we-know-that-the-bible-is-true/ How Do We Know that the Bible Is True?] ''Answers in Genesis''. Retrieved April 21, 2019.</ref><ref>Cheffey, Tim (February 22, 2017). [https://answersingenesis.org/is-the-bible-true/3-evidences-confirm-bible-not-made-up/ 3 Evidences That Confirm the Bible Is Not Made Up]. ''Answers in Genesis''. Retrieved April 21, 2019.</ref><ref>[https://www.josh.org/resurrection/bible-is-unique/ Bible is Unique]. ''Josh McDowell Ministry''. Retrieved April 21, 2019.</ref>

The Bible is unique in antiquity in its witness that God has made one of his creations, the whole human race, to be above the physical animal nature of the body and be like himself with dominion over the whole earth and all its creatures. The Bible testifies that God himself has called this human creature, male and female, to a personal relationship with him as a whole community of love and goodness and mercy in his image as his living temple and dwelling place on earth and to give evidence of his reality and to acknowledge him in all they do and say.

The Bible is unique in all of ancient literature in that it testifies to the rebellion and fall of the human race, to the reality of sin and its effects, to the facts of evil and of righteousness, to objective physical and moral standards of right and wrong, of justice and judgment, and to the reality of invisible intelligent beings, both those who have rebelled against God and those who perpetually serve him.

The Bible contains the only stable, reliable written witness of his own community to the rest of the world that the '''Word''' of this one God is the perfect image of his own divinity, his only-begotten Son, who became one with us, in solidarity with each human being and the whole of the fallen human community, as a sinless flesh-and-blood man whose act of complete renunciation and self-sacrifice made perfect reparation for the offense of the whole of the human community, to save us from the merited ruin which is going to come on the whole rebellious, resistant, fallen human community occupied with its own selfishness. The Bible is the witness of God's people that his Word is his Son, that his name is Jesus, and that he is the supreme Anointed One ("''Christos''") of the people of Israel. The Bible is the unique written witness of the people he has called to himself that he established his Church as the holy temple of his Holy Spirit, with the divine commission to testify to him to the whole world and make disciples of those who are willing to come to him and worship in word and deed. The Bible is their unique written record that in the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ God the Father has called all humanity to partake in a share of his own divinity, in selfless goodness, mercy and love, in eternal, everlasting life, as the gift of his love.

The Bible declares the revelation that death is not final, and that there will be a physical resurrection of all the dead at the end of time. In its collected writings the people of God have testified to the revelation of the total condemnation of the wicked who have chosen to reject both him and the gift of communion with him, and in it they have collectively testified to the revelation of the total salvation from ruin and the gift of communion with him of those who have not resisted him and his way of living and acting and whom he has made holy by his own power alone. No other book is like it. The whole community of believers past and present in its leadership has discerned and testified to this day that the whole collection of the books of the Bible is inspired by God, and that God is their true author. The Bible is the Word of God expressed in the written form of human language. Its chief value is as a stable unchanging resource for understanding the mind of God, for establishing a just society with just laws and true justice, for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that each leader of the community (each "''man of God''") may be fully equipped for every good work as a witness to the one true God. [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2timothy%203:16-17&version=KJV 2 Timothy 3:16-17]

But just as Jesus has appeared to many to be no more than an ordinary human being, and just as Christianity has appeared to many to be no more than a merely human institution of religion, so the Bible also has appeared to many to be no more than a traditional collection of ordinary human literature. However, even the tools of [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)|ordinary literary criticism]] have clearly shown the Bible to be more than a collection of merely human literature, and its scriptures to be much more than ordinary human writings.<ref name=LiteraryCriticism/>

The Bible and was studied extensively by the greatest modern thinkers, including [[Isaac Newton]], [[Louis Pasteur]], [[Bernhard Riemann]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[Georg Cantor]], [[John von Neumann]], and [[Kurt Godel]].

==Books of the Bible==
Most [[Christians]], Protestant and Catholic, agree on the 27 books of the [[New Testament]], and while the Old Testament of the Orthodox Bible includes 50 books, for a total of 77, and the Old Testament of the Catholic Bible includes 46 books, for a total of 73, the Protestant Bible includes only the 39 books of the [[Old Testament]] which entirely correspond to the [[Biblical Canon#Palestinian canon (A.D. 4th century)|24 books of the Hebrew canon of the Jews]], for a total of 66.<ref>The Protestant Bible excludes the following books which have always been included in the Catholic Bible, the same books excluded from the canon by the Jews after the rise of Christianity in the 1st century:
# The Wisdom of Solomon
# Tobit
# Sirach
# Judith
# 1st Maccabees
# 2nd Maccabees
# Baruch [http://www.catholicbible101.com/theholybible.htm]
The Orthodox Greek Bible since the 1st century has always included Psalm 151 as appended to Psalm 150, and the Third Book of the Maccabees, and, in an appendix to the Old Testament, the Fourth Book of the Maccabees, a treatise on the superiority of wisdom. These were never included among the Protestant Apocrypha in the 16th century—but they also have never been included among the books of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles. Martin Luther and the leaders of the Reformation did not address their canonical status, and did not discuss them. The Book of 1 Esdras has always been included in the Orthodox Bible among the Historical Books between 2 Chronicles and Ezra, but is regarded since the Council of Trent by both Catholics and Protestants as non-canonical and apocryphal and is not included by them in the Old Testament. The Latin apocalyptic 2 Esdras, which was never part of the Greek Old Testament, but was included in the Vulgate, is not included in the canon of standard Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Bibles, and is included with 1 Esdras and Prayer of Manasseh in the Protestant Apocrypha. The same 2 Esdras is included as ''Ezra Sutuel'' in the canon of the Ethiopic Bible of the [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Orthodox Ethiopian Church]], which as a whole differs both in the Old and New Testament from that of any other churches. The Ethiopic canonical books, written in the [[Geez language]] and on parchment, are numerous. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 46 books of the Old Testament and 35 books of the New Testament, bringing the total of canonized books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible to 81. The canon of the Ethiopic Bible appears to date back to the 5th century. See [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1292150/Worlds-illustrated-Christian-bible-discovered-Ethiopian-monastery.html World's first illustrated Christian bible discovered at Ethiopian monastery, By Daily Mail Reporter. Updated: 11:33 EST, 5 July 2010] Carbon dating gives a date between 330 and 650.</ref> The English King James Version of the Protestant Bible has 593,493 words in the Old Testament and 181,253 words in the New Testament.<ref>[http://www.christiananswers.net/bible/about.html ChristianAnswers.Net. About the Bible] (christiananswers.net)</ref>

===The Old Testament===
{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="360" style="margin-left:5px" class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: tan no-repeat scroll top left;"|Old Testament layout
|-
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|Jewish
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|Christian Protestant
|-
|1 Genesis
|Genesis
|-
|2 Exodus
|Exodus
|-
|3 Leviticus
|Leviticus
|-
|4 Numbers
|Numbers
|-
|5 Deuteronomy
|Deuteronomy
|-
|6 Joshua
|Joshua
|-
|7 Samuel
|Judges
|-
|8 Kings
|Ruth
|-
|9 Isaiah
|1st Samuel
|-
|10 Jeremiah
|2nd Samuel
|-
|11 Ezekiel
|1st Kings
|-
|12 The Minor Prophets
|2nd Kings
|-
|13 Psalms
|1st Chronicles
|-
|14 Proverbs
|2nd Chronicles
|-
|15 Job
|Ezra
|-
|16 Song of Songs
|Nehemiah
|-
|17 Ruth
|Esther
|-
|18 Lamentations
|Job
|-
|19 Ecclesiastes
|Psalms
|-
|20 Esther
|Proverbs
|-
|21 Daniel
|Ecclesiastes
|-
|22/23 Ezra (with Nehemiah)
|Song of Solomon
|-
|24 Chronicles
|Isaiah
|-
|
|Jeremiah
|-
|
|Lamentations
|-
|
|Ezekiel
|-
|
|Daniel
|-
|
|The Minor Prophets
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: tan no-repeat scroll top left;"|Dates of each Book
|-
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|Protestant Old Testament
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|New Testament
|-
|Genesis, 1440-1400 B.C.
|Matthew, A.D. 60-65
|-
|Exodus, 1440-1400 B.C.
|Mark, A.D. 60-65
|-
|Leviticus, 1440-1400 B.C.
|Luke, A.D. 58-65
|-
|Numbers, 1440-1400 B.C.
|John, A.D. 95
|-
|Deuteronomy, 1440-1400 B.C.
|Acts, A.D. 58-65
|-
|Joshua, 1400-1360 B.C.
|Romans, A.D. 58
|-
|Judges, c. 1020 B.C.
|1st Corinthians, A.D. 57
|-
|Ruth, c. 1090 B.C.
|2nd Corinthians, A.D. 57
|-
|1st Samuel, c. 931–722/21 B.C.
|Galatians, A.D. 56
|-
|2nd Samuel <ref>[https://bible.org/article/introduction-book-first-samuel Bible.org Introduction to First Samuel]</ref>
|Ephesians, A.D. 62-63
|-
|1st Kings, 609-600 B.C.
|Philippians, A.D. 58-60
|-
|2nd Kings, 609-600 B.C.
|Colosians, A.D. 61-63
|-
|1st Chronicles, c. 400 B.C.
|1st Thessalonians, A.D. 52
|-
|2nd Chronicles, c. 400 B.C.
|2nd Thessalonians, A.D. 53
|-
|Ezra, c. 400 B.C.
|1st Timothy, A.D. 62-65
|-
|Nehemiah, c. 400 B.C.
|2nd Timothy, A.D. 65-66
|-
|Esther, 464-425 B.C.
|Titus, A.D. 65
|-
|Job, 1440-1400 B.C.
|Philemon, A.D. 65
|-
|Psalms, 1004-965 B.C.
|Hebrews, A.D. 63-64
|-
|Proverbs, 965-925 B.C.
|James, A.D. 63-64
|-
|Eccleisiastes, 965-925 B.C.
|1st Peter, A.D. 64
|-
|Song of Solomon, 965-925 B.C.
|2nd Peter, A.D. 65
|-
|Isaiah, 785-697 B.C.
|1st John, A.D. 90-100
|-
|Jeremiah, 587-538 B.C.
|2nd John, A.D. 90-100
|-
|Lamentations, 587-538 B.C.
|3rd John, A.D. 90-100
|-
|Ezekiel, 592-572 B.C.
|Jude, c. A.D. 70-75
|-
|Daniel, 539-520 B.C.
|Revelation, A.D. 96-98
|-
|Hosea, 753-731 B.C.
|
|-
|Joel, 835-796 B.C.
|
|-
|Amos, 787-747 B.C.
|
|-
|Obadiah, 848-841 B.C.
|
|-
|Jonah, 771-754 B.C.
|
|-
|Micah, 715-687 B.C.
|
|-
|Nahum, 661-612 B.C.
|
|-
|Habbakuk, 625-608 B.C.
|
|-
|Zephaniah, 621-608 B.C.
|
|-
|Haggai, 520 B.C.
|
|-
|Zechariah, 520 B.C.
|
|-
|Malachi, 455 B.C.
|
|}
The Hebrew Old Testament of the Bible, also called Tanakh, consists of twenty-four books. The books themselves were originally written in [[Hebrew]], and later on in the [[Aramaic]] language of Palestine (the original texts of the Hebrew books of Daniel and Ezra, for example, have major portions written in Aramaic). The Greek language version written after the conquest of [[Alexander the Great]] is known as the [[Septuagint]], and to it the Jews added more texts that they also valued for their [[piety]], wisdom and history, most of them translated from Hebrew or Aramaic originals. By A.D. the 1st century this Septuagint collection had become the Greek Old Testament Bible of the apostles.<ref>Most Protestant Christians are unaware that the overwhelming majority of Old Testament quotations and references in the New Testament are numerous quotations from the Septuagint including the books Martin Luther separated as [[Apocrypha]]. See the following four sources:
*[http://www.scripturecatholic.com/septuagint.html Septuagint Quotes in the New Testament]
*[http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/septuagint.html The Septuagint (LXX): History of the Septuagint]
*[http://www.cresourcei.org/canonot.html Canons of the Hebrew Bible]
*[http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Apocrypha-Books/ Official King James Bible online: Apocrypha Books]
Biblical researchers in the 20th and 21st centuries have also discovered manuscripts and linguistic evidence that appear to prove that most of the Apocrypha, except the Book of Wisdom (originally written in Greek?), were originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic (Syriac) prior to the Christian era. [http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/apocrypha/ Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Apocrypha] [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/apocrypha.html The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha] (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)</ref> [[Melito]],<ref>[http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1017 Catholic Online: St. Melito of Sardis], [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/melito.html Early Christian Writings: Melito of Sardis]</ref> a bishop of [[Sardis]] in [[Lydia]] (in what is now [[Turkey]]), is said to have coined the phrase ''Old Testament'' about A.D. 170. The Greek Old Testament has been a continuous part of the Christian Bible in the eastern Churches in Palestine, Greece, Turkey, and the whole of the [[Levant]] since the 1st century.

The Hebrew Old Testament is divided in three parts within the Jewish community: the [[Torah|'''T'''orah]] ("Law"), or [[Pentateuch]], the five books of [[Moses]]; the [[Nevi'im|'''N'''evi'im]] ("Prophets"), and the [[Ketuvim|'''K'''etuvim]] ("Writings,” or [[Hagiographa]]) (abbreviated '''T'''a'''N'''a'''K'''h, hence, "Tanakh", ). Here the arrangement of the books differs somewhat from the Old Testament as used by Christians, with three of the twenty-four (Samuel, Kings, Chronicles) each being divided into two books, and Ezra being divided into Ezra and Nehemiah; however the actual writing of each book remains the same. The Christian order of the books of the Bible follows the Chronology of the events and the personages being related, according to their arrangement in the Septuagint, while in the Jewish order, though there is a chronological framework, the order follows more the importance, influence, "weight of usage" within Judaism. Thus, for orthodox Judaism, The Torah of [[Moses]] comes first (the 5 books of Moses), and is the most authoritative of all Scripture. Under the [[Pharisee|Pharasaic]] theory that Moses was also given the Oral law, explicating how the Written law was to be applied, at the same time as he was given the written law contained in the Bible, the Oral Law too was passed on through the generations, and was later in A.D. the 3rd century first put into writing in the Mishna (compiled by [[Judah haNasi]] <ref>[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hanasi.html Yehudah HaNasi (Judah the Prince) (A.D. 135 - 219)], [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8963-judah-i Jewish Encyclopedia: Judah I]</ref>) and the Gemara (gathered by the [[Amoriam]] <ref>Amoraim (Aramaic: plural אמוראים [ʔamoʁaˈʔim], singular Amora אמורא [ʔamoˈʁa]; "those who say" or "those who speak over the people", or "spokesmen"), were renowned Jewish scholars who "said" or "told over" the teachings of the Oral Torah, from about 200 to 500 CE in Babylonia and the Land of Israel. See [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0002_0_01018.html Jewish Virtual Library: AMORAIM]</ref>) finally composing the [[Talmud]], and is regarded as equally authoritative with the Torah of Moses.<ref>There is a similar teaching in the Christian New Testament, in the Second Letter to the Thessalonians ([http://biblehub.com/multi/2_thessalonians/2-15.htm 2:15]) and in the First Letter to the Corinthians ([http://biblehub.com/multi/1_corinthians/11-2.htm 11:2]). This seems to be the Biblical justification for the Catholic and Orthodox teaching that the fullness of the Christian faith is contained in both scripture and tradition, "letter" and "word". See [[Sola scriptura]]</ref> Then the Prophets come next in authority. But the category of the Hebrew Prophets for the Jews is much broader than the category of the Prophets as considered by the Christian ordering. The "Prophets" in the Tanakh includes what Christians consider "History" - such as the books of the Kings - but it also includes what Christians call the Former and the Latter, or the Major and the Minor prophets. The last in authority for every day life of the Jew, in terms of "regulation", actually form a great influence in the Synagogue worship - the Writings, with a heavy emphasis on the Psalms.

====Torah====
The Five books of Moses, in their Hebrew and English names:
*<big>בְּרֵאשִׁית</big> Bereisheet ("in the beginning"), or [[Genesis]]
*<big>שְׁמוֹת</big> Shemot (“names”), or [[Exodus]]
*<big>וַיִּקְרָא</big> Vayikra (“and God called”), or [[Leviticus]]
*<big>בְּמִדְבַּר</big> Bemidbar (“in the Wilderness”), or [[Numbers]]
*<big>דְּבָרִים</big> Devarim (“words”), or [[Deuteronomy]]

The first eleven chapters of ''Genesis'' provide the account of the [[Creation]], the history of God's early relationship with humanity, and the [[Deluge]] of [[Noah]]. The remaining thirty-nine chapters detail the account of God's covenant with the early Hebrew nation, led by the patriarchs [[Abraham]], [[Isaac]] and [[Jacob]] (or Israel), and one of Jacob's children, [[Joseph]]. It tells the beginnings of God's chosen people, of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home to settle in the land of [[Canaan]], and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt. The remainder of the Torah, beginning with ''Exodus'' and ending with ''Deuteronomy'', tells the story of the great Hebrew leader [[Moses]], and of the Hebrews through their sojourn and slavery in Egypt, their escape from bondage, and their wanderings in the desert until finally they stand ready to enter the Promised Land.

====Nevi'im====
The [[Nevi'im]] ("Prophets") is the story of the rise toward, and ultimately reaching, the Hebrew monarchy; the sad period of anarchy and revolt leading to the division into the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel; and the prophets who judged the kings of both in God's name. It ends with the conquest and dissolution of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and its Assyrian exile, and then the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the Babylonian exile. The Minor Prophets are considered a single book in the Nevi'im; in Christianity they have been split into twelve separate books and named for their authors.
*<big>יְהוֹשֻׁעַ</big> [[Joshua (Biblical book)|Joshua]]
*<big>שׁוֹפְטִים</big> [[Judges (Biblical book)|Judges]]
*<big>שְׁמוּאֵל א</big> [[I Samuel]]
*<big>שְׁמוּאֵל ב</big> [[II Samuel]]
*<big>מְלָכִים א</big> [[I Kings]]
*<big>מְלָכִים ב</big> [[II Kings]]
*<big>יְשַׁעְיָהוּ</big> [[Isaiah (Biblical book)|Isaiah]]
*<big>יִרְמְיָהוּ</big> [[Jeremiah (Biblical book)|Jeremiah]]
*<big>יְחֶזְקֵאל</big> [[Ezekiel (Biblical book)|Ezekiel]]
* [[The Minor Prophets]]
**<big>הוֹשֵׁעַ</big> [[Hosea (Biblical book)|Hosea]]
**<big>יוֹאֵל</big> [[Joel (Biblical book)|Joel]]
**<big>עָמוֹס</big> [[Amos (Biblical book)|Amos]]
**<big>עֹבַדְיָה</big> [[Obadiah (Biblical book)|Obadiah]]
**<big>יוֹנָה</big> [[Jonah (Biblical book)|Jonah]]
**<big>מִיכָה</big> [[Micah (Biblical book)|Micah]]
**<big>נַחוּם</big> [[Nahum (Biblical book)|Nahum]]
**<big>חֲבַקּוּק</big> [[Habakkuk (Biblical book)|Habakkuk]]
**<big>צְפַנְיָה</big> [[Zephaniah (Biblical book)|Zephaniah]]
**<big>חַגַּי</big> [[Haggai (Biblical book)|Haggai]]
**<big>זְכַרְיָה</big> [[Zechariah (Biblical book)|Zechariah]]
**<big>מַלְאָכִי</big> [[Malachi (Biblical book)|Malachi]]

====Ketuvim====
The [[Ketuvim]], or "Writings," contain lyrical poetry, philosophical reflections on life, and the writings of the prophets and other Jewish leaders during the exile in [[Babylon]].
*<big>תְּהִלִּים</big> [[Psalms]]
*<big>מִשְׁלֵי</big> [[Proverbs]]
*<big>אִיּוֹב</big> [[Book of Job]]
*<big>שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים</big> [[Song of Songs]], also called [[Song of Solomon]] in the Protestant Christian Bible.
*<big>רוּת</big> [[Book of Ruth]]
*<big>אֵיכָה</big> [[Lamentations]]
*<big>קֹהֶלֶת</big> [[Ecclesiastes]]
*<big>אֶסְתֵּר</big> [[Esther]]
*<big>דָּנִיֵּאל</big> [[Daniel (Biblical book)|Daniel]]
*<big>עֶזְרָא</big> [[Ezra]], divided into the two books of <big>עֶזְרָא</big> Ezra and <big>נְחֶמְיָה</big> [[Nehemiah]] in the Christian Bible.
*<big>דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים א</big> ''and'' <big>דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים ב</big> [[Books of Chronicles]]

[[David]] has been named as the author of the ''Psalms''; [[Solomon]] is traditionally believed to have written ''Song of Songs'' in his youth, the ''Proverbs'' in his prime, and ''Ecclesiastes'' during his old age. The prophet [[Jeremiah]] is thought to have written the aptly-named ''Lamentations'' at the beginning of the exile to Babylon. The ''Book of Ruth'' is the only biblical book that centers entirely on a non-Jew, a [[Moabite]] who married a Jew and became an ancestor of both David and [[Jesus Christ]]. ''Esther'' is unique as it is the only book in the Hebrew Tanakh not to mention God. Moses is traditionally considered to be the author of ''Job''.

===The melodies of the Old Testament===
The Hebrew of the present day Old Testament is composed of the Hebrew consonants and, added on by the [[Masoretic Text|Masoretes]] at a later stage, the vowels. Along with these two elements, other signs were added which indicated the melodies that were sung along with the words or phrases. Some of the signs were positioned above the individual consonants, some below, and some to the side. Some of these melody signs were associated with others providing a musical pattern that corresponds with the opening of a thought, similar to the beginning of a sentence (ex. "merkha"), the continuation of a thought (ex. "munakh"), tying in one word with the following, as one melody flowed into the next, the "resting" or completion of a thought, much in "the same way that a comma (ex. "azla"), though not ending a sentence, makes for the "semi"-ending or minor completion of a thought, a major break in the run of thoughts ("etnachta"), though the run of thought would be resumed until the major completion ("sof pasuq"), much in the same way the a period brings to a stop and a completion as a sentence ends. Thus the musical signs in the Hebrew text also provide an interpretation of the text current to the times in which the signs were incorporated as part of the text, the Masoretic vowel-pointing excluding those former tonal readings which clearly represented Christian textual interpretations. The signs that tie one word to another providing one thought are called "conjunctive" signs and the signs that separate words and the thought of them are called "disjunctive". An example of the use of these signs to interpret the Hebrew text is the well known prophesy of the One to come. The Hebrew letters can either be understood to read "His name shall be called Wonderful counsellor of (''from, sent by, representing'') the mighty God", or "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God". The melody signs (called in Hebrew "Ta'mei HaMikra) decide for the latter. After "Wonderful" there is a disjunctive, after "Counsellor" there is a disjunctive, and after "Mighty" (but adj. after the noun in Hebrew order) there is a conjunctive. It is possible to reconstruct to some extent the melody and the interpretation of the Old Testament current in the first century and therefore the melody and the interpretation used by Jesus Himself.<ref name=Steinberg>[http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew2a.htm History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language, By David Steinberg. Phonemic Structure of Hebrew] David.Steinberg@houseofdavid.ca. http://www.houseofdavid.ca Home page
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrewtoc.htm</ref> This is because of the following: the present day melodies of the various dispersions of the Jews are to a great extent different one from the other. Some of these dispersions are the Ashkenazi, representing the Jews exiled from Israel by the Romans in A.D. 70 and then on to the Rhine Valley, and then onto parts of Eastern Europe, Western Europe, America, etc., the Sephardim who saw the beginnings of their dispersion from Spain in the 15th Century and then on to Greece, Turkey, North Africa. Holland, and America, the Yemenites, the Bnei Israel of India, the Jews of Ethiopia, etc. etc., Yet, with the diversity in melodies of the Scriptures, there are certain features which are either identical or strikingly similar. Musicologist, [[Joel Segal]], pointed out over 40 years ago, that this could only have been possible if these dispersions were at one time together in the same place. The only time that all these dispersions were together in the same place was prior to the great dispersion of the first century and the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

===Old Testament Apocrypha===
The deuterocanonical books and others that the Reformation designated [[Apocrypha]] were written during the four hundred years between the time of Ezra and Malachi and the birth of Christ (one of them, 2 Esdras, possibly in A.D. the 1st century). The term itself comes from the Greek word ''apokruphos'' ("hidden" or "concealed") which was first applied to them by Jerome according to the opinions of the Jewish sources he consulted in Palestine, and although the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, among others, have always included the deuterocanonical Apocrypha in their versions of the Bible, considering them to be canonical (and they do have an actual history and literary value) the fourteen texts (10 books and portions of 2 others) which make up the whole of the Protestant Apocrypha have been rejected as non-canonical by both the Jewish faith since the 2nd century and by most Protestant denominations of the Christian church since the 16th century due to what, according to Reformation doctrine, they consider to be "''historical, geographical, or literal inaccuracies; the teaching of doctrines which contradict inspired Scripture; and a lack of elements and structure which give genuine Scripture its unique characteristic''" (Unger, pg. 70<ref>See also the following sources for more extensive expression of this Evangelical Christian opinion: Unger, Merril F. Unger's Bible Dictionary, Moody Press, Chicago, IL (1966; new edition 2006); Unger, Merril F. The New Unger's Bible Dictionary, (2006); 1416pp; Unger, Merril F. Unger's Bible Handbook, Moody Press, Chicago, IL (1967).</ref>). Three of the Apocrypha, 1 and 2 Esdras and Prayer of Manasseh, although part of Jerome's Vulgate, were not included among the canonical books listed at the Council of Trent and are considered by Catholics to be apocryphal works, and as not among the accepted deuterocanonicals. See [[Biblical Canon]].

Protestants do not include Psalm 151 and 3 and 4 Maccabees among the Apocrypha, but they also do not include these in their Bibles. The Reformation did not address the question of their canonical status. The Catholic Church did not include them in the canon of the Council of Trent, and they do not appear in regular editions of the Catholic Bible. They continue to be part of the [[Orthodox Church|Orthodox Bible]].

The Apocryphal books had been used in both Israel and Egypt and (except the Latin 2 Esdras which was part of the Vulgate) are part of the Old Testament in the Greek language used by Jews all over the Greek speaking world - particularly Alexandria, Egypt. This version is called the Septuaginta. The Septuaginta after the 1st century fell into disuse among Jews for two reasons -
:1. Greek speaking Christians were using the Septuaginta in their efforts to bring Jews to faith in Jesus Christ
:2. A number of the Apocryphal books were also apocalyptic, that is, focusing on the last days, the Kingdom of God in battle against the kingdoms of this world and the downfall of this world's empires. This was considered dangerous and liable to provoke Rome against the Jews.
Alternative Greek translations to the Septuaginta, which was considered "loose" by the Rabbis, were adopted. These were the translations of three proselytes to Judaism, Theodosious, Aquillas, and Symmachus. The Jewish Rabbinic [[Council of Jamnia|"Council" of Jamnia]] (Yavneh on the Mediterraenian coast of Israel) in A.D. 90, under the leadership of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, effectively excluded the Apocryphal books (along with the Septuaginta) from the Jewish Canon by requiring, for a book to be considered canonical, that it have been written in Hebrew (and Aramaic). This immediately excludes ''all'' of the Christian scriptures included in the entire New Testament, since they were written in Greek and in the 1st century. Actually, a number of the apocryphal books, or portions thereof, had been written originally in Hebrew, most notably, the Book of Ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) found in Hebrew at Qumran with the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but this was unknown to Yohanan Ben Zakkai and the Council of Jamnia in the first century. Under the impetus of Renaissance learning, Protestant scholars went directly to the Hebrew text and began to translate the Bible directly from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, instead of having to go through the Latin Vulgate. But they consulted the Hebrew text of the Talmudic rabbinical version of the synagogue (eventually to be called the "Masoretic text") of the canon of books that had been recommended by the Council of Jamnia and afterward consistently authorized by subsequent rabbinical authorities representing Judaism. They also disregarded the witness of the canonical listing of the books of the Christian Orthodox Greek Bible, which had not been determined by the Council of Trent under the Roman Pontiff but had always been the traditional Old Testament as read from the time of the apostles and the most ancient Christian Church. In this way, most Protestant churches came to not include the Apocryphal books in their Canon of Scripture. One of the reasons the Roman Catholic Church held to the Vulgate was because it had been translated by Jerome from the Hebrew text before the text had been revised and altered by the Masoretes, and today it is considered a valuable witness to the earlier Hebrew Bible.
:"It has also proved of primary importance as an early and excellent witness to the sacred text."
::—The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)<ref>[http://www.bible-researcher.com/vulgate1.html The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) The Vulgate, by Samuel Angus.]</ref>

The following are the books which are most frequently referred to by the title ''Apocrypha'':
*[[1 Esdras]]
*[[2 Esdras]]
*[[1 Maccabees]]
*[[2 Maccabees]]
*[[Book of Tobit]]
*[[Book of Judith]]
*[[Book of Wisdom]]
*[[Book of Sirach|Ecclesiasticus]], also known as Sirach
*[[Book of Baruch]]
:*[[Epistle of Jeremiah]] is sometimes listed as separate book or the last chapter of Baruch
*[[Prayer of Manasseh]]
*Greek language additions to the [[Book of Esther]]

Additions to the book of Daniel
*[[The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children]]
*[[Story of Susanna]]
*[[Bel and the Dragon]]

With the exception of 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh, the remaining seven books and the parts of Esther and Daniel listed here are accepted as divinely inspired, canonical scriptures in the Holy Bible by the Catholic and Orthodox branches of Christianity;<ref>The '''Catholic Church''' is the world's largest [[Christianity|Christian]] body comprised of several distinct [https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/catholic_rites_and_churches.htm "Rites"]. The [[Catholic Church|Catholic Church (Latin Rite)]] is the largest religious body in the United States, with over 60 million adherents (4 times as large as the second largest church, the Orthodox). [http://www.pewforum.org/2013/02/13/the-global-catholic-population/ “The Global Catholic Population,” © 2011, Pew Research Center.] [http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_romcath.html The Largest Catholic Communities] 
The '''Eastern Orthodox Church''', officially called the '''Orthodox Catholic Church''', and also referred to as the '''[[Orthodox Church]]''' and '''Orthodoxy''', is the second largest [[Christianity|Christian church]] in the world, with an estimated 225–300 million adherents, most of whom live in [[Eastern Europe]], the [[Middle East]], and [[Russia]]. {{cite web |last1=Calivas |first1=Rev. Alciviadis C. |title=The Greek (Eastern) Orthodox Church |publisher=Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Of America |year=1983 |url=http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith7061 |accessdate=7 May 2014 |ref=none }} {{cite web |last1=Fairchild |first1=Mary |title=Christianity:Basics:Eastern Orthodox Church Denomination |publisher=about.com |url=http://christianity.about.com/od/easternorthodoxy/p/orthodoxprofile.htm |accessdate=22 May 2014 |ref=none }} {{cite web |title=Christianity |work=Major Branches of Religions Ranked by Number of Adherents |publisher=adherents.com |url=http://www.adherents.com/adh_branches.html#Christianity |accessdate=22 May 2014 |ref=none }}</ref><ref name=Prot>See [http://www.888c.com/worldChristianDenominations.htm Percentage of Christians in Protestant Denominations (29.5%)].</ref> however, they are not accepted as canonical by the majority of Protestant branches of Christianity, though many Protestants still see them as having value.

====The problem with rabbinical authority defining the biblical canon====

According to the ordinary reading of the New Testament and the consensus of the majority of Christians from the 1st century to this day, the authority of the kingdom of God had been wholly taken away from the Jews in the 1st century and given to the leaders of the Gentiles and Jews in Christ long before the Council of Jamnia. See:
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2015:13-14&version=KJV Matthew 15:13-14]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2016:18-19&version=KJV Matthew 16:18-19]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2018:17-18&version=KJV Matthew 18:17-18]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2021:43&version=KJV Matthew 21:43]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2028:18-20&version=KJV Matthew 28:18-20]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%201:32-33&version=KJV Luke 1:32-33]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2010:16&version=KJV Luke 10:16]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2022:29-30&version=KJV Luke 22:29-30]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%207:51-53&version=KJV Acts 7:51-53]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1corinthians%204:1&version=KJV 1 Corinthians 4:1]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1corinthians%206:2-3&version=KJV 1 Corinthians 6:2-3]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1timothy%203:14-15&version=KJV 1 Timothy 3:14-15]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews%2013:17&version=KJV Hebrews 13:17]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1john%204:2-6&version=KJV 1 John 4:2-6]
:[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2john%201:9-11&version=KJV 2 John 9-ll]

Between A.D. 90–95, long after the descent of the Holy Spirit of God at Pentecost and the spread of Christianity and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the devastation of the city and the expulsion of the Jews, the Jewish [[Council of Jamnia]] revised the canon of the Old Testament, by ensuring that the books involved conformed to the Torah, were written in the Hebrew language, written in Palestine, and written before 400 B.C. As a result, the Apocrypha was excluded from the Hebrew canon.<ref>[https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/canon1.html The Jewish Canon and the Christian Canon] (web.cn.edu) Linguistic evidence shows that other Septuagint books which were excluded by rabbinical authority after A.D. 90 certainly had an original Hebrew or Aramaic text. See
*[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/apocrypha.html Jewish Virtual Library. Jewish Holy Scriptures: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, by Michael E. Stone]
*[http://archive.churchsociety.org/crossway/documents/Cway_102_ApocryphaBackground.pdf BACKGROUND AND HISTORY TO THE APOCRYPHA, By David Phillips] Article reprinted from Cross†Way Issue Autumn 2006 No. 102 (archive.churchsociety.org)
*[http://churchsociety.org/issues_new/doctrine/misc/apocrypha/iss_doctrine_misc_apocrypha_origin.asp The Origin of the Apocrypha]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=dtlDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA203&lpg=PA203&dq=apocryphal+books+having+evidence+of+hebrew+or+aramaic+origin&source=bl&ots=CkMPwQMciG&sig=y6w4tnI_wvIqyzCWqCoN3xo8mvQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VGGcVP2RH4r2yQT7toKYAw&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=apocryphal%20books%20having%20evidence%20of%20hebrew%20or%20aramaic%20origin&f=false The Apocrypha of the Old Testament: With Historical Introductions, a Revised Translation, and Notes Critical and Explanatory, by Edwin Cone Bissell. Scribner, 1890. 680 pages], page 208ff, citing evidence that the "additions to Esther" were also translated from the Hebrew. (Google eBook)</ref> The books excluded by this criteria were relatively recent Jewish contributions of the 3rd through the 1st centuries before Christ which had become part of Jewish culture. The rabbinical authorities simultaneously excluded as condemned and false the writings of the "heretics" (the ''minim'', including Christians, called nozrim, no§rim, "Nazarenes"), and cursed Christians in a synagogue service "benediction" against them and others. Palestinian texts of the Eighteen Benedictions from the Cairo Genizah <ref>[http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/treasures-in-the-wall The New Yorker: Page-Turner. March 1, 2013 Treasures in the Wall, by Emily Greenhouse] (newyorker.com) [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Genizah.html Jewish Virtual Library: Modern Jewish History: The Cairo Genizah, by Alden Oreck]</ref> present a text of the benediction which identifies the minim:<blockquote>"''For the apostates may there be no hope unless they return to Your Torah. As for the no§rim and the minim, may they perish immediately. Speedily may they be erased from the Book of Life, and may they not be registered among the righteous. Blessed are You, O Lord, Who subdues the wicked.''"</blockquote>While other specimens of the Palestinian liturgy show slight variation, the no§rim, (usually translated “Christians”) and minim are included in the best texts of this benediction. The fact remains that the no§rim were included with apostates and heretics and the wicked in the Genizah documents.<ref>[http://lawrenceschiffman.com/?s=the+benediction+against+the+minim Professor Lawrence H. Schiffman: The Benediction Against the Minim] (lawrenceschiffman.com) [http://www.defendingthebride.com/bb/curse.html DEFENDING THE BRIDE. THE CURSE AGAINST CHRISTIANS AT JAMNIA ABOUT 90 AD] (defendingthebride.com) [https://www.academia.edu/6811953/The_Jewish_Council_of_Jamnia_and_Its_Impact_on_the_Old_Testament_Canon_and_New_Testament_Studies The Jewish “Council” of Jamnia and Its Impact on the Old Testament Canon and New Testament Studies, Tim Gordon October 20, 2007] (academia.edu/6811953)</ref> Martin Luther and the leaders of the [[Reformation]] cite as authoritative and determinative the canon of the Hebrew Bible as defined by rabbinical authorities who excluded and condemned as false the entire New Testament scriptures and Jesus as the Messiah <ref name=Luther>Luther rejected the seven books of the Old Testament, citing the Palestinian Canon as his authority. Clearly his reasons were doctrinal. However, his decision poses serious difficulties. What authority from God would Jews have in the Christian era to determine which books of the Old Testament were or were not divinely inspired? In 1529, Luther proposed adoption of the 39-book canon of rabbinic Judaism as the Old Testament canon of the Christian Bible. He justified his decision to exclude seven books from the Old Testament canon of 46 books by an appeal to precedent, citing Jerome who, around A.D. 400 had expressed concerns also voiced by his rabbinical sources that these books in Greek had no Hebrew counterparts. Research into the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran has discovered Hebrew copies of some of the disputed books, which makes their rejection on this ground unsupportable. Luther's principal reason for opposing these Old Testament books seems to be that they contain textual support for doctrines he had rejected, such as praying for the dead (2 Maccabees 12:42-45). See [http://www.totustuus.com/luther Luther and the Canon of the Bible, by Jim Seghers] [http://www.olswahiawa.org/uploads/2/1/8/4/21845996/session_3.pdf The Canon of the Bible] [http://catholicdefense.blogspot.com/2011/07/can-protestants-rely-upon-council-of.html Wednesday, July 20, 2011. Can Protestants Rely Upon the "Council of Jamnia" for Their Bible?]</ref> because "''unto them were committed the oracles of God.''" (see [http://biblehub.com/multi/romans/3-2.htm Romans 3:2]). This is an historical fact, and it presents a serious problem, known in logic ''as [[non sequitur]]''. If the Jews have been so entrusted with the word of God that they had therefore been given the divine authority to also determine the ''canon'' of sacred scripture, as Luther and the Reformation Protestants maintain, then the whole New Testament is excluded from the canon of the holy Bible because it does not meet the four established rabbinical criteria for what is sacred inspired scripture. See [[Logical fallacy]]

===The New Testament===
The New Testament is a collection of twenty-seven books and letters, written by the early Christian community, and written primarily in [[Greek]]. The emphasis of the New Testament is the life, teachings, and gift of salvation from the central figure of the whole work, Jesus of Nazareth. These books are grouped into the following:

====[[Gospels|The Gospels]]====
The ''Gospels'' contain the history of Jesus.

The ''Acts of the Apostles'' are a continuance of the Gospels, documenting the history of the early church, beginning immediately following Jesus' death and resurrection. Some lists put Acts as a separate category from the Gospels.

Of the authors, only Matthew and John had met Jesus; they were among His disciples during His earthly ministry. Eusebius, in his ''Ecclesiastical History'', says:<blockquote>"Matthew and John are the only ones that have left us recorded comments, and even they, tradition says, undertook it from necessity. Matthew also, having '''first proclaimed the Gospel in Hebrew''' when on the point of going also to other nations, '''committed it to writing in his native tongue''', and thus supplied the want of his presence to them by his writings. But after, when Mark and Luke had already published their Gospels, they say that John, who during all this time was proclaiming the gospel without writing, at length proceeded to write it on the following occasion. The three Gospels previously written, having been distributed among all, and also handed to him, they say that he admitted them, giving his testimony to their truth; but that there was only wanting in the narrative the account of the things done by Christ, among the first of his deeds, and at the commencement of the Gospel. And this was the truth." —Book III, Chapter XXIV.<ref>''The Ecclesiastical History Of Eusebius Pamphilus: Bishop Of Caesarea, In Palestine'', translated from the Greek, by the Rev. C. F. Crusé, A.M., assistant professor in the University of Pennsylvania. With Notes from the Edition of Valesius. London: George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1874. ''Legacy Reprint Series''. Book III, Chapter XXIV The order of the Gospels. page 97</ref> (''book in the public domain. Boldface emphasis added'') .</blockquote> Eusebius relates the already-existing tradition in his day that Matthew wrote the first Gospel. In every manuscript of the New Testament, Matthew is always placed first, and for almost 1900 years the traditional view prevailed unchallenged that Matthew was the first Gospel written. This is called the [[Augustinian hypothesis]], which holds that Matthew was the first Gospel, written by Matthew the Evangelist. Mark, according to tradition a Roman, and a companion of Peter, was author of the second Gospel, but beginning in the 19th century [[Heinrich Julius Holtzmann]] together with other German scholars, abusing the literary tools of [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)|historical-critical methods]] in opposition to Christian tradition, declared on their authority as German scholars that Mark's gospel was the first to be written down, about A.D. 50. This theory is called "Marcan priority", and it was aggressively spread as part of [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck's]] anti-Catholic 'Kulturkampf' policy.<ref>[http://www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/KULTGOS.TXT Kulturkampf and the Gospel, by John Beaumont] [http://www.churchinhistory.org/pages/booklets/farmer%28n%29.htm Church in History. The ChurchinHistory Information Centre. BISMARCK AND THE FOUR GOSPELS 1870 - 1914, by William R. Farmer (University of Dallas) Editor of A NEW CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY. The theory that Mark's Gospel was published before Matthew's is widely held in German and English speaking countries. This article shows how this theory, with little supporting evidence, came to be spread as part of Bismarck's anti-Catholic 'Kulturkampf' policy. BIBLIOTHECA EPHEMERIDUM THEOLOGICARUM LOVANIENSIUM. THE FOUR GOSPELS. 1992] (churchinhistory.org)</ref> This view is widely held by liberal biblical scholars in German and English speaking countries. In the United States acceptance of Marcan Priority has often been a test of the "academic competency" of those faculty members who teach Biblical Studies.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UYKvAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA282&lpg=PA282&dq=academic+persecution+regarding+Augustinian+hypothesis&source=bl&ots=iDysvbe5ii&sig=oNOrQku42-Tx-n-yBzhQtzAeQls&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VHKkVNa7IceiyAStsYKYAw&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=academic%20persecution%20regarding%20Augustinian%20hypothesis&f=false Mark's Gospel--Prior or Posterior?: A Reappraisal of the Phenomenon of Order, By David Neville]</ref> Luke is traditionally considered to be the author of both the third Gospel and the ''Acts''.
*[[Gospel of Matthew]]
*[[Gospel of Mark]]
*[[Gospel of Luke]]
*[[Gospel of John]]
*[[Acts of the Apostles]]

====[[Pauline Epistles]]====
The Pauline Epistles are letters (epistles) written to early Christian communities written by the [[Apostle Paul]]. In order of appearance in the New Testament they are:
*[[Epistle to the Romans]]
*[[I Corinthians|First Epistle to the Corinthians]]
*[[II Corinthians|Second Epistle to the Corinthians]]
*[[Galatians|Epistle to the Galatians]]
*[[Ephesians|Epistle to the Ephesians]]
*[[Philippians|Epistle to the Philippians]]
*[[Colossians|Epistle to the Colossians]]
*[[I Thessalonians|First Epistle to the Thessalonians]]
*[[II Thessalonians|Second Epistle to the Thessalonians]]
*[[I Timothy|First Epistle to Timothy]]
*[[II Timothy|Second Epistle to Timothy]]
*[[Titus|Epistle to Titus]]
*[[Philemon|Epistle to Philemon]]
*''Possibly the [[Epistle to the Hebrews]]''

[[Liberal]] Bible scholarship over the last two centuries has denied that Paul wrote Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus; and doubted that he wrote Colossians and 2 Thessalonians. However, all the epistles listed above except Hebrews say they are written by Paul. As they are authoritative Scripture which "cannot lie", their claims should be believed.

Because the ''Epistle to the Hebrews'' does not mention a specific author (unlike all the other Pauline and General Epistles), under the pure divine power of the Holy Spirit of God the Father through Jesus Christ himself -— "he has spoken through the Prophets" —- it could easily have been written by any early Christian (including Paul) except for Timothy, who is mentioned by name in the final chapter. The controversy, however, does not affect whether the epistle should or should not be included in Scripture.<ref>Unger, pg. 748; Eusebius ''The History of the Church'' 3:3</ref> The Council of Trent (1546) dogmatically affirmed that the Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the fourteen genuine epistles of Paul.<ref>[http://www.bible-researcher.com/trent1.html Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. The Fourth Session. Celebrated on the eighth day of the month of April, in the year 1546. English translation by James Waterworth (London, 1848)]</ref>

====[[General Epistles]]====
The General Epistles are those epistles written by other than Paul.

*[[Epistle of James]]
*[[I Peter|First Epistle of Peter]]
*[[II Peter|Second Epistle of Peter]]
*[[I John|First Epistle of John]]
*[[II John|Second Epistle of John]]
*[[III John|Third Epistle of John]]
*[[Epistle of Jude]]

In addition, some lists include Hebrews due to uncertainty over Pauline authorship.

====Revelation====
The [[Book of Revelation]] is the last work in the New Testament as well as the whole Bible, written close to A.D. 100 by the [[Apostle John]] during his exile on the Greek island of [[Patmos]]. Revelation is concerned with the condition of the [[Seven Churches of Asia]] before going deeply into a description of the [[Last Days]] prior to the beginning of the [[Millennial Age]].

Most [[Fundamentalism|Fundamentalists]] hold to "[[Dispensationalism]]", an interpretive theory of the meaning of Revelation and other prophecies that was developed in the 19th century by British theologian [[John Nelson Darby]] (1800–82) and the [[Plymouth Brethren]], and is summarized in the ''[[Scofield Reference Bible]]'' edited and [[Christian Zionism#Dispensationalism|annotated]] by [http://poweredbychrist.homestead.com/files/cyrus/scofield.htm Cyrus I. Scofield] (1909, 1917). See [http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/scofield-reference-notes/ Scofield's Reference Notes]

==Non-uniformity of language and style of original Scriptures==

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament, in the original languages of Hebrew (and Aramaic) and Greek, exhibit a non uniformity of style and language. This is in sharp contrast to most modern translations which treat the Scriptures throughout as if they are one book instead of the many books they are. Modern translations can be erudite, dignified, folksy and common, clear and geared for the "common man", or replete with language resonant with literary associations for the "accomplished" reader. But they are that way throughout. The Biblical originals, on the other hand, for example, embedded in the Hebrew within the narrative of the deeds of the prophetess Debora, have in the Song of Deborah (Judges chapter 5) a much more ancient and even archaic Hebrew than that of the main text of the book, probably emanating from a chant from the time of Deborah herself, plainly evident to any person who has studied Hebrew language. The same with the narrative and poetic portions concerning Moses. The human authors, inspired by God, were careful to preserve the integrity of the original inspired songs which they had faithfully recorded or otherwise copied and included in their narratives. There are even different Hebrew languages (rather dialects) from the same historical period but from different authors living during the same time, having come from different origins and cultural levels.<ref name=Steinberg/>

For the New Testament, an example of non-uniformity can be found in the stark differences of language in the Gospel of Luke, written by Luke the physician. The early accounts, those concerning the birth of Jesus and early life, are written in a stilted and often crude Greek while the rest of the Gospel is written in fine Greek befitting of the background and ability of a learned physician. But when the stilted and crude Greek is retranslated, word for word and phrase for phrase, into the Hebrew current in the first century in most parts of Israel (a technique called "back translation"), it becomes excellent Hebrew - Mishnaic Hebrew. This is because of the intent and fastidiousness of Luke, who derived his material, as he says, from people that had been "on the scene", and his success in transmitting it faithfully as he had received it. Both the Old and New Testaments, for various reasons, exhibit little or no concern to "level through" or override the content of what they are saying by stylistic considerations.

===Inspiration===
Although the Old Testament is written by many [[homo sapiens|human]] authors, New Testament authors know that these men were writing under the inspiration of God.

The apostle [[Paul]] wrote that "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).
Similarly the apostle [[Saint Peter|Peter]] wrote, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21).

====Formation of New Testament and Jewish technical transmission====
In the first century and prior, the ear was more important than the eye, as far as retaining in memory. Jews would receive orally, that is, from hearing, the laws that they believed originated with Moses and then passed them on to others, down through the generations. It was important to link the present rabbis by names who taught it with the rabbis by name who had passed it on to them, on back as far as possible to Moses on Mt. Sinai. This was the startling difference of Jesus. By saying "You have heard it said, but I say unto you...", He was by-passing Moses and the others after and getting His teaching direct from the Father.

This Jewish way of receiving (QBL) and handing on (MSR) is summed up in the lead saying of the "Ethics of the Fathers" tractate of the [[Mishna]], "Moses received Torah from God at Sinai. He transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, the elders to the prophets, the prophets to the members of the Great Assembly [Sanhedrin] (1:1)." The teaching thus transmitted was memorized word for word by groups of disciples (Talmidim) together, thereby minimizing, by the common knowledge and public repetitions, all innovations and errors, though there might well have been "stylizing" for ease of retention and recall, receiving and handing on (transmission).

This methodology, with its technical Hebrew terminology appears in the New Testament with the same technical meaning and purpose, for how the earliest Christian teaching was carried on prior to the formation of the New Testament and during the time of its formation. This ensured the validity of the teaching and its authenticity going back, not to Moses, but to the time of Jesus Himself. "For I handed over (Gk. pare'doka, Heb. MSR) to you at the first what I also received (Gk. pare'labon, Heb. QBL) that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures..." l Cor. 15:3. Paul knew all of the "deposit of faith" three ways, in the usual "collaborative" way of God - from Scriptures (the Old Testament), from experience (seeing the living Christ on the road to Damascas), and from authenticated oral tradition/transmission involving "receiving" and "handing on".

==Authority of Bible in religious communities==
The role of the Bible in the life of differing communities varies widely by both the inner tenents of the community and the outer influences bearing on the community.
===Judaism===
Orthodox Judaism through the centuries, while it was only marginally affected by growing secularization and modern learning, held to a "differing levels of authority" understanding of the authority of the Hebrew Bible. This did not imply different levels of inspiration, but rather that importance to the regulation of life was prime for the Torah of Moses, the 5 books of the Law. But the Pharasaic teaching also posited an Oral Law given to Moses by God that was passed on through the centuries through Joshua, the prophets, pairs of Rabbis, until this day. The Oral law is found in the Talmud (Mishna and the Gemara together). The oral law became the decisive interpreter, teacher and regulator of the Written Law and determined the course of Jewish Orthodox life. The second section of the Old Testament, the Prophets, is known to the Jewish Community primarily through the synagogue readings of the prophets, the Haftorah, that are assigned to conclude the weekly reading of the Law. The Psalms, the most formative of all the Writings, besides being common throughout the synagogue services, are used in various devotional prayer contexts. Orthodox Judaism has little been affected by modern Higher Criticism of the Bible. Reformed Judaism, originally developed in Germany, and Conservative Judaism, to a lesser extent, have been greatly affected.

===Mainline Protestants===
Mainline Protestantism, represented in the major Protestant churches, denominations, sects and their seminaries, has greatly been affected by "modernism" based on advanced scholarly research, especially from Germany in the 19th century. Those who abused the legitimate tools "Higher Criticism" chose as a fundamental liberal [[premise]] to ignore God's participation in the production of Scripture. Prime among these theories is the Documentary theory of Penteteuch origins (Wellhausen-Graff) that posits that Moses wrote little or nothing. Instead, they propose that the Bible originated in four unknown hypothetical sources coming from various periods. These four sources are termed J (for the use of "Jehovah" for the name of God), E (for the use of "Elohim"), P (priestly), and D (Deuteronomic). The "spirit" of the New Testament (according to their understanding of what they think is the probable main attitude of the writers, derived from the overall impression gained from a generally humanist religious point of view) is far more important than the text of either Testament for modern Protestant theology.

====Orthodox Jewish critique of Documentary theory====
Jewish Orthodox scholars have pointed to flaws in the Documentary Hypothesis. For instance, Orthodox Jewish Scholar Cassuto has pointed out that rather than the names for God varying according to author and period, they vary according to emphasis from the same period, that of Moses - "Jehovah" being used for God in his dealing with His covenental people Israel, and "Elohim" being used when His dealings with mankind are emphasized. Likewise the two terms usually translated "making a covenant", ''lkhrot brit'' (to "cut" a covenant) and ''lehaqim brit'' (to "raise" a covenenat) are not from two sources but mean two different things - to initiate a covenant and to fulfill a covenant.

===Evangelical, Fundamentalist, and Pentecostal/charismatic Protestants===
Outside of the mainline denominations, Protestantism believes strongly in the divine inspiration and inerrancy of the whole Bible and has been the most receptive of the doctrine of the full sufficiency of Biblical Authority. Believing in full inspiration of the whole of Scripture does not mean the equal importance of all Scriptures for the healthy growth of the Christian community. This is because these groups, following Scripture's own self-disclosure, believes in progressive revelation throughout Biblical time, culminating in Jesus Christ, and no further (thus obviating the role of Tradition). Thus it does not hold to the application of Mosaic Legislation, and other biblical elements that Orthodox Judaism holds to. This applies to faith and to morals. The Mosaic regulation on executing a rebellious child does not present a problem as, according to Paul and Hebrews, the Law has been rendered obsolete by the New Covenant. The Destruction of the Temple and of the place for sacrifice of all kinds, present no problem, as they did for Judaism, as Christ's sacrifice on the cross has now "fulfilled" the prescriptions of the Law and the ceremonials attached. Thus there is a sort of "levels of authority" understanding similar to the levels of authority of Judaism (but for different reasons).

These churches vigorously promote the reading of Scripture through Sunday sermons and Bible study programs. Emphasis is placed on "each one understanding". Coupled with American individualism, and lack of traditional vehicles of authority, this sometimes leads to splintering of worshiping communities and the insistence that each man's interpretation "is as good as any other" (or one group claiming that its interpretation is "correct", implying all others are wrong, but only in extreme cases would the group label the others as heretic). Nevertheless, "The Fundamentals" defined in 1910 are strongly retained by the Evangelical Churches - the divinity of Christ, His death for sins and Resurrection from the dead, His second coming.<ref>''[https://web.archive.org/web/20030101082327/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/6528/fundcont.htm The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth'', 1910–1915, 4 Vol.] [http://www.biola.edu/about/history/ Bible Institute of Los Angeles,] ed. [http://www.dbts.edu/journals/1996_1/ACDIXON.PDF A. C. Dixon], [[Reuben Archer Torrey]].</ref>

===Eastern Orthodox===
The Orthodox Churches throughout the world, whether Greek, Russian, Romanian, the various middle eastern varieties, emphasize the role of the synod (Council) of Bishops, based on the example of the "Council" of Jerusalem in the book of Acts, as the divinely authorized agent of interpretation and application of the Scriptures. Understanding that Jesus' words, "He (the Holy Spirit) will lead you into all truth", Orthodoxy believes that the synod of bishops, no one of whom is held to be individually infallible, are given guidance from the Holy Spirit so that the Scriptures are rightly applied to the Christian Community, enabling the Church to never stray from Christ, that is, the Church is given "indefectability". A minority of Orthodox Church thought holds to "infallibility" in synodal decision rather than, or instead of, "indefectability". The Scriptures in the Orthodox churches are buttressed by creedal formulations, the decisions of belief of past synods, and are less susceptible to the liberalist abuses of the legitimate methods of modern Higher Criticism. The Resurrection of Christ, virgin birth, return of Christ from Heaven to Earth, are all part and parcel of these churches. Individual interpretation of Scripture and manner of life are limited, then, by the teaching authority (the magisterium) granted to the Episcopate - the Synod of bishops.

===Roman Catholic===
The Roman Catholic Church, like the Orthodox Churches, has a strong sense of the Authority ([[Magisterium]]) given to the Bishops by Christ to teach, interpret, defend the Faith and therefore to exercise the responsibility to interpret to the Faithful both Holy Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. But since [[Vatican II]], there has been an increased effort to bring Scriptural knowledge to the laity, and now there has been an increase of Scripture reading and study programs throughout most sections of the Church. This as been abetted by the Catholic Charismatic movement which has had the effect of promoting individual appropriation of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, and with that, the correlate devotional and intellectual use of Holy Scriptures. However, the role of "Magisterium", that is the Teaching Authority, sets firm limits to individual interpretation. The Roman Catholic church understands that, though Magisterial authority is given to all the bishops, the definitive exercise of the Magisterium is limited to one bishop - the bishop of Rome, the Pope, and to the bishops in communion together with him. Further, Catholicism teaches that the Pope, when he declares dogma (teaching) ''[[Ex cathedra|ex-Cathedra]]'' (from the chair), he speaks infallibly (on matters of faith and morals). The first time the Pope promulgated dogma ''ex-cathedra'' formally was to promulgate the doctrine itself of Papal Infallibility, based on Scripture, history, and reason.<ref>[http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum20.htm Papal Encyclicals Online. Decrees of the First Vatican Council] [http://www.catholic.com/tracts/papal-infallibility Catholic Answers. Papal Infallibility]</ref> The Pope, through the Vatican prelates and all the bishops can regulate much of Catholic community life, and some of the regulation is based on the interpretation of Scripture or the application of the traditional interpretation of Scripture. An example of this is the prohibition of abortion. The Church has accepted in a fundamentally modified form most of the legitimate modern [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)|Higher Critical methodology]] of studying Scripture, including the [[Documentary Hypothesis]] of origins first developed within German Protestantism. But the effects of this on the tenets of the Christian Faith are profoundly mitigated due to the creedal affirmations of the Church developed centuries ago and to the [[discernment]] of Papal authority. Thus the Roman Catholic Church does not waver on the Deity of Christ, the Trinity, the death and resurrection of Christ, and the Second Coming.

==Evangelical Understanding of the History of the Bible==
Rejecting the "Higher Criticism" accepted by the mainline Protestant denominations, Evangelicals and many Catholics hold to a more traditional history of the Bible. This section summarizes their views.

[[Image:Gospel of Luke in Arab.gif|thumb|This tenth-century Egyptian codex was donated to Pope Eugenius IV by the Coptic delegates at the Council of Ferrara-Florence. Translated from a Coptic original, it is one of the earliest Arabic versions of any part of the New Testament, none of which can be dated before the late eighth or ninth centuries.]]

Traditionally, the oldest books of the Bible are certainly the five books of the Torah and the Book of Job. In 1st Kings 6:1, Solomon is stated to have begun building the Temple "''in the 480th year after the children of Israel were come up out of the land of Egypt''". It has been established by a majority of conservative scholars and historians that Solomon had begun building the Temple in the fourth year of his reign, apparently in 961 B.C., making the probable [[date of the Exodus]] under Moses 1441 B.C. During the following forty years Moses wrote the Torah and the Book of Job, completing them before his death at [[Mt. Nebo]] about 1400 B.C. According to Biblical scholar and historian Robert D. Wilson the Torah as it stands dates from the time of Moses, the five books constitute one continuous work, and was written by a single individual, Moses himself (Wilson, pg 11).<ref>Wilson, Robert D. ''A Scientific Investigation of the Old Testament'', Sunday School Times, Inc, Philadelphia, PA (1926)</ref>

The remaining books of the Old Testament were written at various times since the death of Moses, with ''Malachi'', the last Hebrew Old Testament book, being written about 455 B.C. During this period each of the books was written and re-written on parchment or papyrus, with editors taking great care in their work; a single Biblical book hand-written today can take weeks to complete. The older scrolls were disposed of by burial or storage in a ''Geniza'' room when worn from normal usage (the Cairo Geniza is famous for the antiquity of the scrolls discovered within it) because the Jews have a devout horror of destroying the sacred script containing the transmitted revelation of God; as a result, the oldest surviving examples of Biblical manuscripts are those which have been carefully preserved either by direct actions of people (such as monasteries), or by removal from forces of decay. Currently, the oldest surviving manuscripts are those found carefully stored in clay jars within the caves of Qumran in 1948 and known as the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]], dating between 250 B.C. to A.D. 70; the complete ''Isaiah'' scroll of this collection dates to 150 B.C.

Around 200 B.C. the Septuagint, a Greek-language version of the Old Testament, was completed. This was due to the Hellenization of large areas of the Middle East after the conquest of Alexander the Great, making Greek the de facto language for everyday communications and business. The Septuagint marks the first time in history that the Bible was translated into a foreign language. An ancient fragment of the Septuagint containing the Tetragrammaton (Greek, "four letters", that is, of the name of God, YHWH) has been dated between 50 B.C. and A.D. 50.<ref>[http://www.eliyah.com/lxx.html Tetragrammaton Found in Earliest Copies of the Septuagint]</ref>

See [[Literalist Bible chronology]].

===Early New Testament history===
In 1st Timothy 5:8, Paul quoted as scripture ''"the laborer is worthy of his hire."'' This line is found nowhere else in the Bible except Matthew 10:10 and Luke 5:7. In 2nd Peter 3:15-16, Peter classes Paul's letters with "other scriptures". Both lines are indicative of the writing down and general use of the New Testament prior to A.D. 60 (Halley, pg. 741-742).<ref>Halley, Henry H. Halley's Bible Handbook, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI (1965)</ref> Spurious "gospels" which are known to have appeared by A.D. 100, make references to the New Testament. [[Clement of Rome]], writing in his own letter to the Corinthians in A.D. 95, refers to ''Matthew'', ''Luke'', ''Corinthians'', ''Hebrews'', ''1st Timothy'', and ''1st Peter'' (Halley, pg. 743).

The oldest surviving New Testament fragment of which there is a reliable date is the [[John Rylands Fragment]] (P52) of the ''Gospel of John'', dating from 117-138 A.D., just decades from when the Gospel was first written.<ref>[http://www.biblefacts.org/history/oldtext.html N.T. Ancient Manuscripts]</ref> The time span between the writing of the New Testament and the oldest surviving fragments are well under two hundred years. By comparison, Greek classics such as [[Herodotus]], [[Plato]], [[Euripides]], and [[Homer]] have a time span well over a thousand years each between the date of the oldest known fragment of writing and the time period they were first written.

==Translations==
===The Peshitta===
The second translated version of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament (after the Greek Septuaginta) was in the Aramaic language, the Peshitta (Aram. "''simple, common''"). In A.D. 36, both the Queen of Adiabene (the last existing Province of that Assyrian Empire hated and feared by the Jews), known in Greek as Queen Helena (not the mother of Constantine), and known to the Jews as Queen Shlom Zion ("Peace of Zion"), and her son King Ezad were converted to Judaism. Queen Helena's conversion, as well as others of the Kingdom, furthered the already developing translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in her Kingdom's language -Aramaic. That developing translation came to be known as the Peshitta - meaning simple or common speech, in much the same way as the Hebrew Bible would be translated into Latin by Jerome, with extensive help from a Rabbi, and the resultant translation would be called the Vulgate - meaning simple or common speech. The Peshitta, retaining elements of the then Jewish "[[Targum]]ic" (interpretive) and other Jewish understandings of the Hebrew Bible (see [[Midrash]]), is primarily based on the Pre-Masoretic Hebrew Scriptures - though certain books, such as the Prophet Isaiah, are translations primarily from the Septuagint. The development of the Old Testament Peshitta translation is held by some to have taken place alternatively in Adiabene's nearby neighbor Edessa.

As Thomas and his followers went to India, others (possibly Adai [Thaddeus] among them, the Galilean from Caesarea Phillipi) arrived in [[Adiabene]]. Having gone probably to the synagogues first, as did the Apostle Paul, they found already there, if not a populous citizenry, then an elite governmental element, conversant with the Biblical message in Aramaic. From these people, hearing the preaching of the messengers from Israel, came believers in Jesus Christ, and soon after, came the translation of the Greek New Testament Scriptures into Aramaic, and so the Peshitta was increased by inclusion of the New Testament in Aramaic. Most of the deuterocanonical and apocryphal books of the Old Testament are found in the Syriac, held to have been translated from the Hebrew and not from the Septuagint. The rest of the Old Testament known to the early Syrian church was substantially that of the Palestinian Jews but it arranged them in a different order. First there was the Pentateuch, then Job, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Book of Sirach and most of the deuterocanonical and apocryphal books of the Old Testament, Ruth, Canticles, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, Isaiah followed by the Twelve Minor Prophets, Jeremiah and Lamentations, Ezekiel, and lastly Daniel. Unlike the Greek canon of the New Testament Scriptures, the Peshitta originally did not include the following books: the Second Epistle of Peter, the Second Epistle of John, the Third Epistle of John, the Epistle of Jude and the Book of Revelation. But these books translated into the Syriac (as Christian Aramaic is known) are now part of the Peshitta and used by the Aramaic-based churches today, primarily in India and the Middle East - the Syrian Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East (Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East), the Indian Orthodox Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Syro-Malabar Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.<ref>See the following articles and resources:
*[http://www.bible-researcher.com/syriac-isbe.html International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) Article: Syriac Versions. Thomas Nicol]
*[http://www.peshitta.org/initial/peshitta.html History of the Peshitta]
*[http://www.peshitta.org/ Aramaic/English Interlinear New Testament]
*[http://scrollandscreen.com/syriac/index.htm Biblical Studies and Technological Tools. Syriac Tools and Resources] ''access to Syriac Old and New Testaments''
*[http://aramaicnt.org/articles/problems-with-peshitta-primacy/ Problems with Peshitta Primacy]
*[http://madenkha.net/holy_bible/ Index of Holy Bible] ''online access to Aramaic Text of Old and New Testaments of Peshitta''</ref>

Adiabene and its surroundings then became the sending center for a mission to the East that would eventually take advantage of the newly rediscovered monsoon winds blowing for months across the Arabian sea, making it possible for ships' pilots to no longer hug the coasts. And taking advantage of the "[[Silk Road]]" all the way from Antioch in Syria to China, they took the message of Jesus Christ to India (bringing about the Aramaic [Syriac] language churches of Kerala) and even to China itself. And so, the Peshitta, written in the Middle East, for a while became the Scriptures of the Far East Churches of Jesus Christ, particularly in India.

See [[Monophysite]]

===The Vulgate===
[[Jerome]], a Latin scholar deeply interested in the study of the Scriptures, completed the second edition of the Bible in the Latin language. The ''[[Vulgate]]'' was meant to replace the inaccuracies of the earlier ''[[Vetus Latina]]'' (the Old Latin version), the standard Bible of the early Catholic Church in Latin. Jerome had moved to [[Jerusalem]] in 382, and set to work on what eventually became a fresh Latin translation of the Old Testament from the Greek of the ''Septuagint'' and a translation of the Greek New Testament into Latin; then from 390-405 he decided to re-translate his Old Testament directly from the Hebrew text then in use by the Jewish community, which pre-dated the revision of the [[Masoretic Text|Hebrew text]] later written by the Masoretic Hebrew scholars of Judaism between the 7th and 10th centuries. The ''Vulgate'' Bible of 76 books (49 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books) had a marked influence in church history, and it remained the standard Latin Bible in the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. After the Council of Trent defined the canon of the holy Bible as 73 books of scripture "with all their parts", and 1 and 2 Esdras and Prayer of Manasseh had been placed in an appendix to the definitive Clementine Vulgate critical edition, the Vulgate was henceforth the dogmatically defined canonical Bible of the Catholic Church. After 1450 years of use the Vulgate was finally replaced by the ''[[Nova Vulgata]]'' in 1979. The earliest surviving complete manuscript of the entire Latin Bible is the Codex Amiatinus, produced in eighth century England at the double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow.<ref>The Codex Amiatinus is the most celebrated manuscript of the Latin Vulgate Bible, remarkable as the best witness to the true text of St. Jerome and as a fine specimen of medieval calligraphy. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04081a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Codex Amiatinus] [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-27372773 BBC News Tyne and Wear. 15 May 2014. Codex Amiatinus Bible returns to its home in Jarrow] [http://www.facsimilefinder.com/facsimiles/codex-amiatinus-facsimile Codex Amiatinus Facsimile Edition]</ref>

===Early English translations authorized by Rome===

Vernacular translations into English and other languages have been authorized by the [[Holy See]] since as early as A.D. 600. Partial translations of the Bible into languages of the English people can be traced back to the end of the 7th century, including translations into Old English and Middle English.<ref>[http://www.bible-researcher.com/anglosaxon.html Anglo-Saxon Versions of Scripture (A.D. 600–1150)] (bible-researcher.com)</ref> A number of Old English Bible translations survive, as do many instances of glosses in the vernacular, especially in the Gospels and the Psalms.<ref>See Roberts, Jane (2011). “Some Psalter Glosses in Their Immediate Context”, in ''Palimpsests and the Literary Imagination of Medieval England'', eds. Leo Carruthers, Raeleen Chai-Elsholz, Tatjana Silec. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 61-79, which looks at three Anglo-Saxon glossed psalters and how layers of gloss and text, language and layout, speak to the meditative reader. See Marsden, Richard (2011), "The Bible in English in the Middle Ages", in The Practice of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Production, Reception and Performance in Western Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), pp. 272-295.</ref>

The age of Middle English (1066-1500) beginning with the Norman conquest and ending about 1500 covers the period of authorized and unauthorized Middle English Bible translations.

===Heresies based on abusive use of vernacular translations===

The abuse of vernacular translations of Sacred Scripture made available to the common people was a prominent feature of heresies during the roughly 400-year period from 1100 to 1500.

====Albigenses====
For example, the [[Albigensians]] (also called [[Cathar]]i "''the pure''"), prevalent during the 12th and 13th centuries in western Europe, particularly in southern France and northern Italy, rejected the authority of Church and State (Jude 8; Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17). They appealed to the Scriptures as authority for their doctrines, mostly the New Testament, because the Old Law was regarded by them according to their teaching as mainly a demoniacal creation. Like [[Marcion]] in the 2nd century, they taught the [[Manichaeanism|Manichaean]] doctrine of two Gods, and that the evil God created matter and the whole physical universe to entrap and enslave divine spirits of light, and was the God of the Old Testament and the God of the Jews. They forbade marriage, sexual relations between spouses, condemned the begetting of children, and praised those who chose to starve themselves to death.<ref>[http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Heresies_Heretics/Heresies_Heretics_006.htm Albigensianism, by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.] [http://www.stisidore-yubacity.org/faqalbigenses.html What is the Albigenses/Albigensian Heresy? Albigenses] [http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=31727 Dictionary: Albigensians] (catholicculture.org)</ref>

====Waldenses====
Another example is Waldo (Valdo), from the city of Lyons, also variously referred to as Valdes, Valdesius, Valdensius. References to the movement he founded call his disciples "[[Waldensians]]", "the poor of Lyons", "the Leonese", "the Poor of Lombardy", or simply "the Poor". He arranged for the Gospels and some other books of the Bible to be translated into common speech which he read very often, but without understanding their real meaning. The translations produced were full of mistakes and mistranslations which changed the meaning of the scriptures. Infatuated with his own interpretation of these defective scriptures he usurped authority by presuming to preach the Gospel in the streets, where he made many disciples, and involved them, both men and women, in a similar act of presumption by sending them out, in turn, to preach. These people, ignorant and illiterate, went about through the towns, entering houses and even churches, disturbing families, disrupting worship services, ignoring civil statutes and laws, and spreading many errors. The principal heresy of the Waldensians was contempt for (ignoring of) ecclesiastical power and rejection of governmental authority. They capitalized on the fact that the common people were scandalized by evident corruption and abuses of legitimate authority by individuals in Church and in secular government who, like [[Balaam]] and [[Judas]], betrayed Christ for the sake of gain, in direct and indifferent disobedience to the teaching of the Church. And they opportunistically misrepresented these clearly [http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/aberration aberrent] scandals as if they were authentically representative of the actual teaching and doctrine of the Church (thereby committing what has been defined as sins of [[calumny]] and [[detraction]], fueled by actual [[scandal]]). The Waldensian dispute then, centered on the issue of authority. The fact that they translated the scriptures badly, studied these translations, drew their own conclusions as to what they meant, and "presumed" to preach whatever they believed, without reference to the clergy, was unacceptable.<ref>[http://www.xenos.org/essays/waldensian-movement-waldo-reformation Xenos Christian Fellowship. The Waldensian Movement From Waldo to the Reformation, by Dennis McCallum] (xenos.org)</ref>

====Cults====
A similar phenomenon has animated movements in the 20th and 21st centuries, "[[cult]]s" which claim authority from their founders' particular interpretations of the Bible, doctrines which have resulted in bizarre and self-destructive behavior, all "''based on the Word of God''", such as [[Jonestown]], the [[Branch Davidians]] of [[David Koresh]], and the [[Heaven's Gate]] U.F.O. group. In the 21st century in the United States, the extremist teaching of [[Fred Phelps]] and the [[Westboro Baptist Church]] presents a milder example, claiming the authority of the Bible for their disruptive activities.

====Late Middle Ages====
In the late Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church began to severely curtail authorization for new translations into the vernacular and subsequently rarely granted permission to anyone who desired to undertake the task during that period. It was felt that new translations in the vernacular only added to contempt for the office of Roman church leaders and the stability of society under the authority of the office of duly appointed governors, princes and kings (''many of whom unfortunately abused the legitimate authority of their office for personal gain'').

See [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%207:6&version=NABRE Matthew 7:6], also [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2corinthians%202:17&version=NABRE 2 Corinthians 2:17] and [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2corinthians%2011:2-20&version=NABRE 11:2-20], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%201:6-9&version=NABRE Galatians 1:6-9], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians%202:18-19&version=NABRE Colossians 2:18-19], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2peter%201:20-2:3&version=NABRE 2 Peter 1:20-2:3] and [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2peter%203:14-17&version=NABRE 3:14-17]. —See also [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2022:27&version=NABRE Exodus 22:27( KJV 22:28 )], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers%2016:1-11&version=NABRE Numbers 16:1-11],[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2013:1-5&version=NABRE Romans 13:1-5], and [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jude%201:8&version=NABRE Jude 8], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jude%201:11&version=NABRE 11], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jude%201:17-19&version=NABRE 17-19]. Compare [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%202:17-24&version=NABRE Romans 2:17-24]

==Printing==
[[Image:Gutenburg1.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Printers copy of a page from a Gutenberg Bible, printed in Germany about 1469.]]
[[Johannes Gutenberg]] of [[Mainz]], [[Germany]] invented the first mechanical printing press in 1448. His machine consisted of a large press which when cranked down, pressed a sheet of paper upon a platform in which were set thousands of inked metal letter typefaces (called "movable type"), set in place to read for a particular page. The first book in history printed by this method was the [[Gutenberg Bible]], in the ''Vulgate'' Latin version, of which 180 were printed, and approximately 50 survive today in varying conditions around the world.

The Gutenberg Bible marked another first: printed Bibles could be mass-produced to get them into the hands of many people at a low cost. They first had to be translated out of Latin into a common language, and [[Martin Luther]] made the great German translation, 1522–1534. The Protestant Reformers emphasized that laymen should study the Bible, and printing made it possible for them to go beyond the interpretations shown in [[stained glass windows]] (the "Bible of the illiterate") to the actual text.

==English language versions of the Bible==

===Wycliff's Bible===
The first translation of the whole Latin Bible into English by dissident scholars in the English Catholic Church was made under the supervision of the English cleric [[John Wyclif]] in the 1380s, with the assistance of Nicholas Hereford and John Purvey. Wyclif held that the Bible should be placed directly in the hands of the people, but was this was opposed by the English Church hierarchy of his day; indeed, one of Wyclif's opponents, Henry Knighton, compared giving the Bible to the people in English to "casting pearls before swine". Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury promulgated a ban on all English Bibles in 1407, and possession of one was considered evidence of [[heresy]].

Wyclif's was a scholarly translation, based on the [[Latin]], [[Greek]], and [[Hebrew]] texts, but was found to be unwieldy due to its adherence to Latin grammar (in which, for instance, verbs tend to be at the end of sentences). A second Wycliffite translation was prepared late in this period, which avoided this problem, but due to the fact that it could only be distributed in manuscript form, it was an expensive volume. Outside of the nobility and gentry, it was more common to see only a single [[The Gospels|Gospel]], or a copy of the Psalms, rather than an entire Bible, which cost more than the average working person could earn in a year.

Over the next century, its form of English gradually became antiquated, leading English Protestants such as [[William Tyndale]] to feel that an entirely new translation was needed.

===Tyndale===
During the middle of the 16th century there was a renewed sense of the need to get the Bible directly into the hands of the common man; prior to that the Bible was restricted to readings in the Church alone. The Reformers were a group of people who were shocked at the differences between what the Roman Catholic Church was practicing as opposed to their readings (interpretations) of what the Bible stated can or cannot be done (this was one of the causes of the [[Reformation]]). At great cost to themselves, the Reformers began the work of translating the Bible in the various languages of Europe; the printing press would ensure the newly translated Bibles would be mass-produced.

[[William Tyndale]] was committed to getting the Bible into the hands of his English countrymen. Expressing open defiance of the Pope, Tyndale declared that if God would spare his life he would make it possible for even an ordinary farmer to know more about the Scriptures than the Pope.<ref>[http://creationwiki.org/Biblical_canon#Tyndale CreationWiki. Bible Canon#Tyndale] (creationwiki.org)</ref> Tyndale's translation of the New Testament was completed on the Continent by 1525. By April, 1526, 6,000 copies were printed and delivered to England. Official opposition led to the destruction of most of them, not because of the translation of the Biblical text itself, but because Tyndale also held and published views which were considered heretical, first by the Catholic Church, and later by the Church of England, which was established by King [[Henry VIII]] in 1536.<ref>Act of Supremacy, (1534) English act of Parliament that recognized Henry VIII as the “Supreme Head of the Church of England.” [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/574743/Act-of-Supremacy Encyclopedia Britannica. Act of Supremacy: England (1534)] [http://www.britainexpress.com/History/tudor/supremacy-henry-text.htm Henry VIII 's Act of Supremacy (1534) - original text]</ref> His Bible translation also included notes and commentary promoting these views.<ref>[http://www.tyndale-bible.com/tyndale-bible-history.html TYNDALE BIBLE HISTORY. William Tyndale (1494-1536). The History of William Tyndale and his Bibles] [http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=4749&CFID=4143742&CFTOKEN=81204680 Tyndale's Heresy, by Matthew A. C. Newsome] [http://www.bible-researcher.com/tyndale4.html Tyndale] (bible-researcher.com) [http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/william-tyndale.html English Bible History. William Tyndale] (greatsite.com) [http://wesley.nnu.edu/sermons-essays-books/william-tyndales-translation/ The Wesley Center Online: '''William Tyndale's Translation'''] ''online access to the text of Tyndale's Bible''.</ref> Tyndale's translation was banned by the authorities. Even King Henry VIII in 1531 condemned the Tyndale Bible as a corruption of Scripture. In the words of King Henry's advisors: "the translation of the Scripture corrupted by William Tyndale should be utterly expelled, rejected, and put away out of the hands of the people, and not be suffered to go abroad among his subjects." <ref>Henry Grey Graham, Where we got the Bible: Our debt to the Catholic Church © 1977 Tan Books and Publishers, Inc. 153 pages. ASIN: B0006YDQ5Q p. 128-130.</ref> Bishop [[Tunstall]] of London <ref>[http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/tunstall.htm Cuthbert Tunstall]</ref> declared that there were upwards of 2,000 errors in Tyndale's Bible.<ref>[http://catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/general/charge.htm The Charge of Burning Bibles]</ref> The following year Tyndale himself, at the instigation of agents of Henry VIII and the Anglican Church, was arrested and, for his efforts, charged with heresy, and, on May 21, 1536, was executed, burned at the stake. Nevertheless, the printing press rendered it impossible to completely suppress such a book, and new copies were printed on the Continent and smuggled into [[England]]. His efforts at translating the Bible led to the [[Matthews Bible]] (1537) and the [[Bishop's Bible]] (1568), but with many of his notes radically edited by censors or editors, or entirely removed, and these versions led to the [[Geneva Bible]] (1599), and finally to the [[King James Bible|King James Version]], where ninety percent of the text closely follows Tyndale's translation.

===Authorised or King James Version===
[[Image:E-sword.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The internet has increased the availability of the Bible worldwide. Shown here is a screenshot to [[E-Sword]], a freely-downloadable Bible study program.<ref>[http://www.e-sword.net E-Sword]</ref> (Rick Meyers, 2007)]]
In 1601 King [[James I]] selected forty-seven of the ablest scholars in [[England]] to undertake the creation of a standard Bible in English, based upon careful translations of the [[Masoretic Text]] used by the Jewish community, and the best Greek translations (especially the ''[[Textus Receptus]]'') then available. The scholars were divided into six committees in [[Oxford]], [[Westminster]], and [[Cambridge]], with each scholar dedicating himself to doing a portion of the Bible, often consulting each other to check the flow and harmony of the work in progress. The result was the 1611 Authorised Version, known in [[United States of America|America]] as the [[King James Bible|King James Version]].

In its early days, the KJV was heavily criticized; but in time, with official pressure, it won the field and became "the Bible" for English-reading people—a position it held for almost 400 years.<ref>''Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary''. "Bible Translations", Jack P. Lewis and Charles W. Draper. p. 214.</ref>

The effects of the Authorised Version were profound. Using less than 2,500 different words in its vocabulary, this Bible was written in a poetic style matched by few. The work influenced the writings of [[Shakespeare]]. [[John Milton]] has numerous images taken from this Bible in his ''[[Paradise Lost]]''. The direct style of writing caused it to be easily available to the common man. Poets and writers, such as [[Herman Melville]], [[Walt Whitman]], [[Emily Dickinson]] and many others were deeply inspired by it. It altered the course of English history, with England growing to a world power since the book's publication. When asked by a visiting dignitary what made England great, [[Queen Victoria]] pulled out her copy of the Bible and declared "This is the secret of England's greatness."

====Problems with the King James Version====

{{main|Badger skins (Bible)}}

Beginning in the 17th century, the same century in which it was published, Protestant scholars, orientalists, hebraists and linguists began pointing out defects in the [[King James Bible|Authorized King James Version]].<ref>[[Isaac H. Hall]]. [http://www.bible-researcher.com/kjvdefects.html ''The Revised New Testament and History of Revision'' (1881) "Defects of the King James Version"]
:"Our translators of the seventeenth century, in a great many instances, misunderstood the sense."</ref> One of these was the translation of 'orot tachashim as "badgers' skins", because it so plainly violates the biblical context of [[Leviticus]] [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2011:4-8&version=KJV chapter 11:4-8], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2011:24-28&version=KJV 24-29], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2011:42-45&version=KJV 42-45], and [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%205&version=KJV Leviticus chapter 5]. "Badgers' skins" is the King James Version (AV) translation of the Hebrew word '''תחשׁ''' '''''taḥash''''', and of the Hebrew term (singular) '''עור תחשׁ''' '''''uwr taḥash / 'or taḥash''' "skin taḥash"'', and of the plural form '''ערת תחשׁים''' '''''uwr't taḥashim / 'orot taḥashim''' "skins taḥashim"''. [[Adam Clarke]] himself ([http://biblehub.com/commentaries/clarke/exodus/25.htm ''Adam Clarke's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible'' (1831) Exodus 25]) has pointed out the substantial inaccuracy of the KJV interpretive translation:
:"badgers' skins, (rather violet-coloured skins)...Badgers' skins — ערת תחשים oroth techashim. Few terms have afforded greater perplexity to critics and commentators than this."
See [[Badger skins (Bible)#Protestant commentaries 17th through 19th centuries|Protestant commentaries 17th through 19th centuries]]

The original meaning of ''' תחשׁ ''t'''a'''ḥ'''a'''š / taḥash / tachash / techash / t'khesh''''' has been debated for centuries. According to ''Encyclopedia Judaica'' the AV and JPS 1917 translation ''[[badger]]'' has no basis in fact.<ref name=Enc.Jud.>''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' 2nd Edition Volume 19:435. TAḤASH.</ref><ref>''Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary'' page 161. Badger Skins</ref> Translating ערת תחשׁים ''skins taḥashim'' as "badgers' skins" also presents a [[contradiction]]. The Book of Leviticus, chapter 11, forbids touching the carcasses of all animals that walk on '''paws''', because they are '''טָמֵא''' ''tame'' [[Taboo|unclean]]. This is no trivial matter, as [[God]] Himself is thus represented in the KJV as commanding the handling and use of skins of carcasses He forbids the Israelites to touch, and as commanding them to cover the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant with unclean skins and then commanding them to remove from the camp all that is unclean so that nothing unclean will be seen by Him in the camp ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers%205:2-3&version=KJV Numbers 5:2-3]; [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy%2023:14&version=KJV Deuteronomy 23:14]). They are forbidden to defile the tabernacle, the sanctuary of the LORD ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2020:2-3&version=KJV Leviticus 20:2-3]; [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2021:10-12&version=KJV 21:10-12]), and they are commanded to cover it with '''טָמֵא''' ''tame'' [http://bibleapps.com/hebrew/2931.htm unclean/polluting/defiling "badgers' skins" (KJV).] Even on the sole [[hermeneutics|hermeneutical principle]] of "Scripture interprets Scripture" this is not accurate, and it presents a serious difficulty. [[John Grigg Hewlett]], D.D. (''Bible difficulties explained'' 1860) says:<blockquote>"It would involve a great inconsistency, that the ark of the covenant, which was considered so holy, that no human hand could touch it with impunity, except the hands of those who had been consecrated to God, that it should constantly be covered with the skins of unclean animals...Therefore the coverings of purple, or blue, which our translators have called 'badgers' skins', were of a material that was accounted pure, and could not impart any impurity to those who prepared them, or to those whose office it was to adjust them amidst the vicissitudes of the camp of Israel."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=J5kCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA159&SOURCE=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=badger&f=false ''Bible difficulties explained'' (1860) "Badgers' skins" pages 159–163].</ref></blockquote>

The KJV was first published in 1611, a year after the [[Douay-Rheims|Douay-Rheims Bible]]. The later KJV revision of 1769 <ref>[http://www.bible-researcher.com/canon10.html Changes in the King James Version]</ref> is the version generally published today as the King James Bible, and is the form of the text cited here:

[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%205:2&version=KJV Leviticus 5:2] "if a soul touch any unclean thing...he also shall be unclean and guilty"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%205:5-6&version=KJV Leviticus 5:5-6] "he shall confess that he hath sinned"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2011:5-8&version=KJV Leviticus 11:5-8] "and their carcase shall ye not touch, they are unclean to you"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2011:24-28&version=KJV Leviticus 11:24-28] "and whatsoever goeth upon his paws...those are unclean unto you"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2011:43-44&version=KJV Leviticus 11:43-44] "Ye shall not make yourselves abominable...neither shall ye make yourselves unclean...neither shall ye defile yourselves"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2022&version=KJV Leviticus 22] "Say unto them, Whosoever ''he be'' of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I ''am'' the LORD."
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers%204:15-20&version=KJV Numbers 4:15-20] "but they shall not touch ''any'' holy thing, lest they die"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy%2023:14&version=KJV Deuteronomy 23:14] "For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee."

The Committee appointed by [[James I of England]] that was tasked with the translation of the Bible was made of men who had read the Bible in Hebrew and Greek and Latin and knew these passages. Yet they chose to translate ''tachashim'' as unclean badgers "''that goeth upon paws''" whose carcasses the Israelites were forbidden to touch.

[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2025:1-8&version=KJV Exodus 25:1-8] "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering...rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2026:14&version=KJV Exodus 26:14] "and a covering above of badgers' skins"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2035:7&version=KJV Exodus 35:7] "and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2035:23&version=KJV Exodus 35:23] "and red skins of rams, and badger skins"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2036:19&version=KJV Exodus 36:19] "and a covering of badgers' skins above that"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2039:34&version=KJV Exodus 39:34] "And the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of badgers' skins"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers%204:6-25&version=KJV Numbers 4:6-25] "a covering of badgers' skins...the covering of badgers' skins"
 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2016:10&version=KJV Ezekiel 16:10] "and shod thee with badgers' skin"

Readers of the KJV saw a grave difficulty here because of the apparently great inconsistency that the holy ark of the covenant and the Tabernacle of the LORD should be constantly covered with skins of unclean animals which made unclean anyone who touched them. The Douay-Rheims Bible had translated the skins as [[Badger skins (Bible)#Douay-Rheims Bible|"''violet skins''"]].

The ''[[motivation]]'' for interpreting and translating ''tachash skins'' in the Bible as being skins of creatures the Israelites are clearly forbidden to touch is unclear, and a mystery, what is known in [[Logic]] as a [[non sequiter]] (Lat. "''it does not follow''"). The ''[[purpose]]'' being served by a deliberate translation of תחשׁ as badger and of ערת תחשׁים as badgers' skins, by scholars who have a thorough knowledge of the whole of the Bible, and of the history of the Hebrew language and of the ''fauna'' and varied customs of the ancient Middle East, is also a ''non sequiter'' mystery, involving an [[Evidence|evident]] contradiction of the context of the Bible. Alternate word choices, harmoniously consistent with the biblical context, and attested by the ancient sources as cited in scholarly published commentaries both technical and general, were available to the translators, who chose not to use them. Their translation covers the tabernacle, the ark and the sacred vessels with the equivalent of ''' טָמֵא ''' ''tame'' unclean [[Pig|swine]]s' skins ([http://biblehub.com/multi/leviticus/11-8.htm Leviticus 11:3-8], [http://biblehub.com/multi/leviticus/11-27.htm 11:24-28]). The inconsistency is not in the ancient biblical text, but in the interpretations of translators which violate its context.<blockquote>"A text without a context is a pretext for a [[Cafeteria Christianity#Proof texts|proof text]]." Donald A. Carson, ''Exegetical Fallacies''.<ref>Carson, Donald A., Ph.D. ''Exegetical Fallacies'', Nov. 30, 1983, 2nd edition Mar. 1, 1996. Baker Publishing Group. 160 pages. ISBN 978-0801020865.</ref></blockquote>

Study Bible footnotes, along with published articles, Bible dictionaries, commentaries, encyclopedias, and books on the Bible, and a multitude of internet online blogs and pages, which strongly support the translation of ערת תחשׁים as badgers' skins or as the skins of any kind of sea mammal, often omit the fact that within the context of the Bible these creatures are classified as unclean, defiling '''שִׁקַּץ ''' ''sheqats'' abominations, as loathsome, abhorrent, detestible, filthy and disgusting for the people of Israel. Those that do mention it offer various speculative [[Excuse|rationale]]s, [[debate]]s and [[Editorial|discussions]] to explain why in their [[opinion]] God would command the Israelites to cover the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant and the sacred vessels for worship with skins of unclean animals and abominations they are explicitly forbidden to touch, skins and hides that according to the word of the LORD defile any Israelites who touch them. Many of them assert that the prohibitions in Leviticus 11 are ''dietary'' rules only ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2011:2&version=KJV Lev. 11:2], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2011:46-47&version=KJV 11:46-47]), and declare that touching and wearing skins and leather of unclean animals is permitted as long as their flesh is not eaten.<ref name=opinion>Eight examples:
*[http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9912/jewish/Chapter-11.htm#showrashi=true Chabad.ORG —Rashi's commentary Vayikra-Leviticus-Chapter 11],
*[http://ravkooktorah.org/TRUMA61.htm Terumah: Tachash Skins in the Tabernacle, Rabbi Chaim Morrison],
*[http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/681556/jewish/Can-I-wear-pigskin-shoes.htm Can I wear pigskin shoes? By Shmuel Kogan],
*[http://www.jewishtreats.org/2012/11/picking-up-pigskin.html Jewish Treats: Juicy Bits of Judaism, Daily: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 —Picking Up Pigskin],
*[http://www.jewsingreen.com/2005/08/pigskin-boots Jews in Green: Jews serving proudly:—News: Pigskin Boots, Posted by Lt Joe Friedman on 03 Aug 2005],
*[http://www.jewfaq.org/animals.htm Judaism 101. Treatment of Animals. Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim <big>'''צער בעלי החיים'''</big>: Cruelty to Animals © Copyright 5756-5771 (1995-2011), Tracey R Rich],
*[http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200003867 Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY: Insight, Volume 2 it-2 pp. 883-884 Sealskin. Copyright © 2014 Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania],
*[http://www.kjvtoday.com/home/badgers-skin-or-another-type-of-leather-in-exodus-255-et-al KJV Today: "Badgers' skin" or another type of leather in Exodus 25:5 et al.?] —''compare multiple commentaries on:'' [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/leviticus/5-2.htm Leviticus 5:2]; [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/leviticus/11-8.htm 11:8] and [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/leviticus/11-27.htm 11:27]</ref> These commentaries say that touching the carcass of these animals is only a minor offense which did not require an atoning sacrifice, and that it applied only to ''kohanim'' (priests) and applied to the laity only during the three feasts of Passover/Unleavened Bread, Weeks/Pentecost, and Booths/Tabernacles (Deut. 16). And some cite the ''Talmud'' as their authority, for example, Tractate ''Rosh Hashana'' 16b,<ref>[http://halakhah.com/pdf/moed/Rosh_HaShanah.pdf Babylonian Talmud, Seder ''Mo'ed'', Tractate ''Rosh Hashana'', Folio 16b] —''scroll down to page'' 40</ref> and the ''Sifra'', ''Torath Kohanim'' 11:74,<ref>'''Sifra''' (Aramaic <big>'''סִפְרָא'''</big>, "book" or "The Book"), a ''midrash halakhah'' from the school of R. Akiva on the Book of Leviticus. See [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13646-sifra ''Jewish Encyclopedia'': Sifra]; ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' Vol 18 San-Sol 18:560-562 SIFRA; See [http://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%90 Sifra Hebrew text, ed. I. H. Weiss 1862 Vienna.]</ref> and Rashi's commentary,<ref name=opinion/> providing us with an example of what the prophet Jeremiah said, <blockquote>"How can you say, 'We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us'? But behold, the false pen of the [[Scribes (Bible)|scribes]] has made it into a lie" ([http://biblehub.com/multi/jeremiah/8-8.htm Jeremiah 8:8]).</blockquote> They omit any reference to that part of Leviticus which decrees that wilfully touching the carcasses of unclean animals (which must be done to harvest their skins) is a '''sin''', which even Rashi's commentary confirms. No mention is made by them of the law in the Torah which says: "Ye shall not make yourselves abominable...neither shall ye make yourselves unclean...neither shall ye defile yourselves" (Leviticus 11:43-44) <ref>See: '''Exodus''' 31:14; '''Leviticus''' 7:19, 21; 10:10; 11:43-44; 18:20, 24, 30; 20:25; 21:4, 11; 22:8; '''Numbers''' 5:3; 6:7; 19:13, 20; 35:33-34; '''Deuteronomy''' 23:14; 27:26.</ref> and that anyone who wilfully does this will be cut off.<ref>see [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%205:2-6&version=KJV Leviticus 5:2-6], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%205:17-19&version=KJV 5:17-19]; [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers%2015:29-31&version=KJV Numbers 15:29-31]; [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers%2019:20&version=KJV 19:20.]</ref> Some commentaries on the Old Testament supporting ''badgers' skins'' and ''sea mammals' skins'' as the covering of the tabernacle cite the New Testament example of [[Saint Paul]] working with Simon the tanner (Acts 9:43; 10:6, 32), as if both of them were examples of Jews wilfully working with the skins of ''non-kosher'' beasts. Some cite Pliny's ''Natural History'' 2:56,<ref>previously cited in the 19th century: [http://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/B/badger.html ''McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature'' (1887) B: badger]; [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/clarke/exodus/25.htm ''Adam Clarke's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible'' (1831) Exodus 25]</ref> which says that [pagan] temples had roofs of sealskin, as if this applied to the Israelites under the Law of Moses, and cite Eduard Rüppell's short-lived ''taxonomic'' designation of the dugong as ''Halicore tabernaculi'' "dugong of the tabernacle" as an additional support for their opinion.<ref>While travelling the Middle East around the Red Sea and the [[Arabian Peninsula]], Rüppell observed a variety of dugong which he subsequently designated ''[[Taxonomy|taxonomically]]'' as ''Halicore tabernaculi'' (1843) according to his view that the skin of this animal was certainly used as the outer covering of the tabernacle of the Hebrews, because the Bedouin harvested its skin for tent-curtains and for shoes and called it ''tukhesh, duchash''. His taxonomic designation ''Halicore tabernaculi'' did not last long (1843-1847) and has since been recombined several times, more recently as ''Dugong dugon'' (1963-1998). Three sources:
*[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/512932/Eduard-Ruppell ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''. "Eduard Rüppell"]
*[http://www.probertencyclopedia.com/B_DUGONG.HTM The Probert Encyclopedia of Nature. "Dugong".] "A variety [of dugong] was discovered in the Red Sea by Ruppell, and called Halicore tabernaculi."
*[http://paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?action=checkTaxonInfo&taxon_no65051&is_real_user=0 The Paleobiology Database:] —''when the page comes up, at'' "You must enter a taxon name" ''move cursor to'' "Full search"—''menu will appear; select'' "classifications of taxa in groups" ''and click—when'' "Taxonomic classification search form" ''appears enter '''''Halicore tabernaculi''''' in the top search field (ignore the rest), click'' [Show classification]—''page will display "Halicore tabernaculi'' Rüppell 1843"—''click highlighted link'' "Halicore tabernaculi"–''page will show list "Dugong dugon'' Illiger 1811: Classification of '''Trichechus dugon''' (''Halicore tabernaculi'' Ruppell/Rupell 1843): the listing of the zoological taxonomic nomenclature of the dugong on that page is here rearranged in chronological order:
:'''''Trichechus dugung''''' Erxleben 1777 (this nomenclature lasted 22 years)
:'''''Dugong indicus''''' Lacépède 1799 (this nomenclature lasted 12 years)
:'''''Dugong dugong''''' Illiger 1811 (this nomenclature lasted 21 years)
:'''''Halicore hemprichii''''' and '''''Halicore lottum''''' Ehrenberg 1832 (this nomenclature lasted 11 years)
:'''''Halicore tabernaculi''''' Rüppell 1843 (4 years)
:'''''Halicore australis''''' Owen 1847 (this nomenclature lasted 51 years)
:'''''Halicore cetacea''''' Heuglin, recombined as '''''Halicore dugung''''' Trouessart 1898 (this nomenclature lasted 65 years)
:It was recombined as "'''''Dugong dugon'''''" Scheffer and Rice 1963 also Husar 1978, Domning 1994, 1996, and Rice 1998 (this nomenclature has lasted for 35 years+).</ref> The 1843 published ''scientific'' nomen ''Halicore tabernaculi'', expressing as it did the personal opinion of a ''professional zoologist'', Eduard Rüppell, was soon discarded by the scientific community, but it has nevertheless persuaded many to this day that science has established that the ''dugong'' was indeed the animal whose skins were used to cover the tabernacle. However, it has no fins or scales. According to the Bible this creature is an abomination to the Jews (loathsome / abhorrent / detestible / filthy / disgusting) (Leviticus 11:10-12).<ref>[http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200003867?q=Bible&p=sen Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY: Insight, Volume 2 it-2 pp. 883-884 Sealskin.]</ref> [[Jesus]] himself commented on the practice of constantly seeking pretexts for making exceptions to the ''[[Torah]]:''<blockquote>"You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!" (Mark 7:9 RSV).<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%207:9-13&version=KJV Mark 7:9-13]; [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2015:1-9&version=KJV Matthew 15:1-9]; [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2023:16-22&version=KJV 23:16-22]</ref></blockquote>

====King James Only====

Advocates of the [[King James Only]] movement are fully persuaded that the translators of the King James Version of the Bible always chose the correct reading [interpretation] of the biblical text, under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit Himself, and that therefore the translation ''badgers' skins'' is the most accurate possible English translation of the Hebrew ערת תחשׁים and עור תחשׁ and תחשׁ . They declare without reservation that the King James Bible is the divinely preserved, infallible Word of God, and that it is the only and final authority on all matters of faith and morals and practice for the whole of the English-speaking world.<ref>James D. Price. [http://www.truth.sg/resources/KJV%20Onlyism%20-%20a%20New%20Sect%20-%20Introduction%20-%20Dr%20J%20Price.pdf ''King James Onlyism: A New Sect.'' Introduction: The King James Only Doctrine Is a New Idea].</ref>
:–See the [http://www.kjvbibles.com/kjpreface.htm '''''Preface to the King James Version of 1611'''''].<blockquote>"...wee affirme and avow, that the very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set foorth by men of our profession (for wee have seene none of theirs of the whole Bible as yet) containeth the word of God, nay, '''is the word of God'''..."</blockquote>

::::—''from the'' Preface to the King James Version of 1611: The Translators to the Reader. (''boldface emphasis added'')

See '''[[Logical fallacy]]'''.

=== Other versions ===
Although the KJV remains the most popular English version, the 19th through 21st centuries have seen an explosion in the number of English translations available. Among the most popular are:
*[[New International Version]]
*[[English Standard Version]]
*[[New American Standard Version]]
*[[Living Bible|The Living Bible]]
*[[The Message]]
*[[New King James Version]]

==Other Languages==
Today, the Bible has been translated into languages spoken by the vast majority of people on Earth, and even portions of it have been translated into the fictional language of [[Klingon]] from the world of [[Star Trek]], .<ref>[http://www.kli.org/wiki/index.php?Klingon%20Bible%20Translation%20Project Klingon Bible Translation Project]</ref> The past two decades saw the emergence of [[Internet]] use; the creation of the Bible as a software program was inevitable, and several, such as [[E-Sword]] and Theophilos, are available at no cost with a wealth of Bible-study material as well.

==Bible Scientific Foreknowledge==
[[Bible scientific foreknowledge]] holds that the Bible shows an understanding of scientific knowledge beyond that believed to exist at the time the Bible was composed. Many Christian scientists and apologists such as the Christian scientists and apologists at [[Creation Ministries International]], [[Answers in Genesis]], and [[CreationWiki]] assert that the [http://creationwiki.org/index.php/Bible_scientific_foreknowledge Bible contains knowledge that shows an understanding of scientific knowledge beyond that believed to exist at the time the Bible was composed].<ref>[http://creationwiki.org/index.php/Bible_scientific_foreknowledge Bible Scientific Foreknowledge]</ref><ref>[http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/science.shtml Clarifying Christianity. Science and the Bible] (clarifyingchristianity.com)</ref><ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i1/medicine.asp Modern medicine? It's not so modern! by David A. Wise] (answersingenesis.org)</ref>

==Humor in the Bible==

{{main|Humor in the Bible}}

The Bible, especially the Old Testament, contains irony, puns, sarcasm, etc. It may be noted that the sense of what is humorous varies from people to people and from nation to nation, as well as varying from age to age. What caused a chuckle, smile, or laughter in the biblical "genre" was more connected with ''satisfaction'' at the vindication of righteousness among men. Thus to our day and age, and the commonality of people, for believers and non believers, the meaning of the spewing up of Jonah on the shores (even the great fish could not stomach him!) might be viewed as God working out His original will in history. Jonah's flight from responsibility being aborted, for the people in the "days and ages" of the Bible, there was the added satisfaction derived from the understanding that God was not mocked by the rebellion of Jonah. Likewise that the "many cattle" also found repentance and acceptance by God, would not have brought the smile of glee, mingled with doubt, but the smile of satisfaction that God's wide heart found its exultant victory over the measly, narrow perspective of the renagade prophet. There was no shame to stifle the Biblical chuckle at the "hows" of the vindication of God's justice. Yet, what we consider humorous also appears:

For example:

*After noticing that his father-in-law Laban was not treating him as in the past, Jacob decided to flee with his family. Rachel, one of Jacob's wives, stole her father Laban's teraphim (statues used for idolatry and/or divination). Laban pursued them and intercepted them in the Gilead mountains (Genesis 31:30): "Why have you stolen my gods?" Laban said to Jacob. The Midrash comments that it cannot be much of a god if it can be stolen (Midrash Genesis Rabbah 74:8). Jonsson (1985, 44-45) suggests that there is humor (albeit "rough" humor) in the fact that, not only was Laban deceived, but his idols were actually underneath his daughter Rachel's posterior while she claimed that the "manner of women" was upon her. This idol did not get much respect. [http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/bibhumor.htm]

*In the Orthodox Bible, in the Epistle of Jeremiah, the prophet declares with delightful contempt the stupidity of the idols of Babylon. Their faces have to be wiped to get the dust off them. They have weapons in their hands but cannot punish anyone who offends them. They are as useless as a broken dish. Their eyes are clogged with dust from the feet of the worshippers entering to adore them. Their priests lock them up like a man who has offended the king and has been sentenced to death. Bats, swallows and birds perch on their heads, and so do cats. If they are tipped over, they cannot get up. Their priests howl and shout before them as some do at a funeral feast for a man who has died. When fire breaks out in their temples the priests run away and the idols are burned in two like logs. Robbers strip them naked and they cannot help themselves. The door of a house that protects its contents, or a wooden pillar in a palace holding up the roof is better than these useless gods. Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch guarding nothing, so are these gods.

*In the book of Esther, Haman, the prime minister of King Ahasuerus of Persia who hates Mordecai the Jew and has built a gallows 50 cubits high to hang him on it, has entered the court to ask for Mordecai's death. The king, meanwhile, not being able to sleep, hears in the reading of the records that Mordecai once saved the king from assassination, and that Mordecai received no reward. The king seeks an opinion from one of his court and asks who is immediately available. Haman enters, and the king asks him what should be done to honor the man who pleases the king, and Haman thinks to himself, "Who should the king wish to honor more than me?" So he makes his recommendation, to dress the man in the king's own robes, to set a crown on his head, to set him on the king's own horse, and have the king's most noble prince conduct him throughout the city proclaiming, "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor." The king then told Haman, "Quickly! Take the robes and the horse, as you said, and do it to Mordecai the Jew. Omit nothing you mentioned." When he had obeyed the king, he ran home, mourning, with his head covered.

*In the [[Acts of the Apostles]] is a serious incident which has some wonderfully slapstick comedic overtones (19:11-16). God had been doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, and even cloths that he had touched were applied to the sick and to possessed persons and they were completely cured. So some traveling Jewish [[Exorcism|exorcists]] decided to use the Name of Jesus as a ''word of power'' over people who were possessed, by saying, "I ''[[adjure]]'' you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches". When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, did this, the evil spirit said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know: ''but who are you?''", and he leaped on them and beat them so badly they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

==Paronomasia in the Bible==
The Bible frequently uses [[paronomasia]] (wordplay, puns); for example:
:"With the jawbone of an ass (''hamor''), heaps upon heaps (''hamor hamortayim''), with the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men" (Judges 15:16). In Hebrew, the word for both "ass" and "heap" is ''hamor''. (See also Judges 14:12-14).

:"And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts (''ayarim''), and they had thirty cities (''ayarim''), which are called Havvoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead" (Judges 10:4). The Hebrew word ''ayarim'' can mean both "ass colts" and "cities." Another more "dynamic translation" might render in English the play on words in this verse as: "He had thirty sons who rode thirty burros who had thirty boroughs."

:"And they were both naked (''arummim''), the man and his wife, and were not ashamed" (Genesis 2:25). The next verse says, "Now the serpent was more cunning (''arum'') than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made (Genesis 3:1). In one verse the term ''arum'' is used to mean "naked" and in the next verse the same basic root denotes "cunning" or "subtle." In both places the meaning includes "smooth". The serpent was "smooth-bodied" and "smooth-tongued".

:"the king sent an Athenian senator to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their fathers and cease to live by the laws of God, and also to pollute the temple in Jerusalem and call it the temple of Olympian Zeus, and to call the one in Gerizim the temple of Zeus the Friend of Strangers, as did the people who dwell in that place" (2 Maccabees 6:1-2). The Jews equated Olympian Zeus with the Syrian Baal Shamen (“the lord of the heavens”), a term which the Jews mockingly rendered as ''shiqqus shomem'', “desolating abomination” (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; 1 Maccabees 1:54; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14).

There are many other examples in the OT:
:Genesis 9:27; 25:26; 48:22
:Exodus 2:10
:Ruth 1:20
:Ecclesiastes 7:1 a '''שֵׁם''', '''שֶׁמֶן'''
:Isaiah 63:1
:Micah 1:10-15

In the New Testament, see for example:
:Philemon 1:11, Ὀνήσιμον—ἄχρηστον—εὔχρηστον ''Onesimon—achreston—euchreston''. Onesimus in Greek literally means "profitable". In the Greek New Testament, "useless" is ἄχρηστον achrēston, and "useful" is εὔχρηστον euchrēston. The prefix "a-" is a negative, meaning "not-". The prefix "eu-" is a positive, meaning "good-". The phrase in the Greek text of Philemon verse 11 is: τόν ποτέ σοι '''ἄχρηστον''' , νυνὶ δὲ καὶ σοὶ καὶ ἐμοὶ '''εὔχρηστον'''

:Matthew 16:18 σὐ εἶ '''Πέτρος''' (a huge rock), καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ '''πέτρᾳ''' (huge boulder, rock) οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν.<ref>See Strong's numbers [http://biblehub.com/greek/4073.htm ''4073''] and [http://biblehub.com/greek/4074.htm''4074'']. Curiously, Strong's definition of "small rock, pebble", is inaccurate: "''properly, a stone (pebble), such as a small rock found along a pathway''". Protestant Greek scholars like D.A. Carson and Joseph Thayer admit there is no distinction in meaning between petros and petra in the Koine Greek of the New Testament.
:*Joseph H. Thayer, '''Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament''' (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996), 507
:*D.A. Carson, “'''Matthew''',” in Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., '''The Expositor’s Bible Commentary''' (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), vol. 8, 368.
According to Greek linguists, ''petra'' means a ‘rock’, usually a ‘large rock’ which is the same exact Greek meaning of ''petros'' — large rock. It does not mean ‘pebble’ or ‘small stone’. The Greek word for ‘pebble’ or ‘small stone’ is ''lithos'', not ''petros''.
 
If, as seems probable, our Lord spoke in Aramaic, the word used would be ''Kepha'' (בֵּיפָא, compare Hebrew בֵּפִים in Jeremiah 4:29, Job 30:6 = ‘rocks’; see Strong's number [http://biblehub.com/greek/2786.htm ''2786'']). Aramaic makes no grammatical difference in masculine and feminine forms for "rock" as does Greek. "''You are Kepha, and on this kepha I will build my church''". This is the reading in the ancient Syriac ''Peshitta'' translation of the New Testament.
 
The Greek text of the paronomasia in Matthew 16:18 makes the reference to St. Peter grammatically certain, although some doubt whether Christ meant that St. Peter, as the leader of the Apostolic band, is the human foundation of the new Church (see Ephesians 2:20; Revelation 21:14), or whether he meant that it is built on the foundation of the confession of Peter, Σὺ εἷ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος. The first view "''on Peter''" is the more reasonable from the literal standpoint of Greek grammatical structure, and would probably have been almost universally accepted had it not been for the insistently persistent [[Triumphalism|triumphalist]] assertion of some Roman Catholic commentators, and the invincibly prejudiced antipathy of some [[Protestantism|Protestant]] [[apologetics|apologists]] against Catholicism which prompts them to forcibly misrepresent the meaning of ''petros'' against its thoroughly attested Greek meaning. [[Orthodox Church|Orthodoxy]] also stoutly rejects the Catholic biblical [[exegesis]] of Matthew 16:18 as establishing [[Petrine Primacy]].
 
See discussion in [http://patrickmadrid.com/bam-bam-the-“pebbles”-argument-goes-down-2/ Bam! Bam! The "Pebbles" Argument Goes Down - Patrick Madrid (patrickmadrid.com)]</ref>
There are also possible examples of paronomasia in Matthew 2:23; Matthew 3:9.

:In Matthew 2:23 the words Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται ''Nazoraios klethesetai'' are not found in Hebrew or Aramaic in any of the books of the Old Testament prophets (''Nazoraios''= an inhabitant of Nazareth). They appear to many interpreters to be an [[allusion]] to Isaiah 11:1 where Messiah is called '''נֵצֶר''' (''netzer'' = a branch), and possibly also to the word '''נָצַר''' (''netzer'' = to preserve); see Isaiah 49:6.

:In Matthew 3:9 (see Luke 3:8) John the Baptist says δύναται ὁ θεὸς ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων ἐγεῖραι τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραάμ ''dynatai o Theos ek ton lithos touton egeirai tekna to Abraham''. The Hebrew words for the Greek λίθοι ''lithoi'' ("stones") and τέκνα ''tekna'' ("children") are similar in sound: "God can from these stones (אֲבָנִים ’ăbânîm) raise up children (בָּנִים bânîm) to Abraham."

In the paronomasia of John 2:19-21 Jesus refers to destruction of the temple and to raising it up again:{{cquote|Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.}}Scholars have pointed out the multiple examples of paronomasia in the profound double meanings used in John's Gospel.<ref>

*[https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/hdn/p/paronomasia.html Paronomasia - Bible Dictionaries: Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament (studylight.org)]
*[https://archive.org/details/paronomasiakindr00russrich Paronomasia and Kindred Phenomena in the New Testament: A Dissertation, by Russell, Elbert, 1871-1951 - University of Chicago (archive.org)]
*[http://www.atsjats.org/publication_file.php?pub_id=171 The Role of Misunderstanding in the Fourth Gospel, Edwin E. Reynolds, Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, Silang, Cavite, Philippines (atsjats.org) pdf]
*[http://www.directionjournal.org/issues/gen/art_598_.html Literary Features in the Gospel of John: An Analysis of John 3:1-21 - ''Direction: A Mennonite Brethren Forum''; Fall 1988 · Vol. 17 No. 2 · pp. 3–17 (directionjournal.org)]</ref>

==Bible Translations==
The Bible has been translated many times and in many ways so anyone, from the youngest child to the most learned scholar, can read the entire scripture in their own language and at their own reading level. Early versions in the languages of their people include the Septuagint, Syriac [http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/syriacbib.html Peshitta] and [[Vulgate]], also the [https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_arb_gen-1 Arabic], the [http://lexicity.com/coptic-biblical-texts.html Coptic], and Persic [http://www.wordproject.org/bibles/parallel/g/farsi.htm Farsi]. Here are some common English versions:

*[[American Standard Version]]
*[[Amplified Bible]]
*[[Douay-Rheims]]
*[[English Standard Version]]
*[[Good News Version]]
*[[Holman Christian Standard Bible]]
*[[King James Version]]
*[[Living Bible]]
*[[New American Standard Version]]
*[[New English Bible]]
*[[New International Version]]
*[[New King James Version]]
*[[Revised Standard Version]]
*[[Septuagint]]
*[[Wycliffe Bible]]
*[[Conservative Bible]] - still a work-in-progress here at Conservapedia

==Bible versions==
Apart from Bibles that include the Apocrypha, ''The [[New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures]]'' is a distinct version that was produced to justify many of the unique doctrines of [[Jehovah's Witnesses]].

[[Joseph Smith]], founder of [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]] also produced his own version of the Bible which was published after his death: see [http://www.help4rlds.com/pwtu/PWTUChap9.pdf Joseph Smith’s ''Inspired Version'' of the Bible pdf]

Online multiple versions are also available for comparison by entering '''Bibles online''' in the search-engine window of the computer.
:Simultaneous multiple versions of any one Bible verse are available at biblehub.com.
:A drop-down menu of a multiple selection of Bible translations and versions is available on the biblegateway.com site.

:For example: See a sample of the biblehub.com site with multilingual versions and translations of [http://biblehub.com/multi/john/3-16.htm '''John 3:16'''].

:For example: See a sample of the biblegateway.com site with drop-down menu feature: [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%203:16&version=NABRE '''John 3:16 NABRE''']

Below at External links is featured online access to several versions of the Bible in English: '''[[Bible#English]]'''

===Greek Bible online===

'''''Greek/English Bible''''' [http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/septuagint/ Greek original according to the text used by the Church of Greece. English translation by L.C.L. Brenton, published side by side] Greek Septuagint and Greek New Testament

===Clementine Vulgate online===

'''''The Clementine Vulgate''''' [http://www.saintsbooks.net/books/The%20Clementine%20Vulgate%20-%20%28vulsearch.sourceforge.net%29.pdf BIBLIA SACRA JUXTA VULGATAM CLEMENTINAM EDITIO ELECTRONICA PLURIMIS CONSULTIS EDITIONIBUS DILIGENTER PRÆPARATA A MICHAELE TVVEEDALE .pdf]

===1611 Authorized Version online===

'''''Authorized Version''''' [http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611-Bible/ Official King James Bible Online. original 1611 King James Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, Apocrypha]

== See also ==
*[[Bible exegesis]]
*[[Biblical Canon]]
*[[Maccabees, Books of]]
*[[Christian apologetics|Evidence supporting the Bible]]
*[[Bible apologetics website resources]]
*[[Bible prophecy]]
*[[Biblical accuracy]]
*[[Famous Bible paintings]]
*[[Gematria]]
*[[Midrash]]
*[[Targum]]
*[[Pseudepigrapha]]
*[[Aramaic Church]]
*[[Judaism]]
*[[Infant baptism]]
*[[Essay: Water baptism cannot save, the Church cannot save, Born again by faith alone]]
*[[Essay: The Way of Salvation]]
*[[Essay: How to choose a Bible]]
*[[Inspiration of Holy Scripture: An Eastern Christian and Jewish Perspective]]
*[[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]
*[[Messianic Prophecies]]
*[[Gospel reading in the Church: the Turgama]]
*[[Wicked Bible]]
*[[Badger skins (Bible)]]
*[[Biblical timeline]]
*[[Literalist Bible chronology]]
*[[Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)]]
*[[Revelation, Book of (historical exegesis)]]
*[[Bible as literature]]

==External links==
===Bible societies ===
*[http://www.americanbible.org/ American Bible Society]
*[http://www.biblesociety.org/ United Bible Society]
*[http://www.ibs.org/ The International Bible Society (New York/Colorado Springs)]
*[http://www.wbtc.com/site/PageServer World Bible Translation Center]
*[http://www.wycliffe.org/home.htm Wycliffe Bible Translators]
*[http://www.labibliaweb.com/ La Biblia] In Spanish.

===Online, internet, and downloadable Bibles===
====Hebrew====
* [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0.htm Hebrew-English Bible] ([[Jewish Publication Society of America|JPS]] 1917 translation; includes Hebrew audio)
* [http://tanakhml2.alacartejava.net/cocoon/tanakhml/d13.php2xml?sfr=1&prq=1&pnt=tru&acc=tru&dia=tru&enc=heb XML Hebrew-English (KJV) Bible]
* [http://www.spcm.org/english/Hebrew_OT/ Old Testament in Hebrew]

====Greek====
* [http://www.ccel.org/w/westcott/gnt/toc.htm Koine Greek New Testament]
* [http://www.htmlbible.com/sacrednamebiblecom/moderngreek/ Modern Greek Bible]

====Latin====
* [http://www.LatinVulgate.com/ Latin Vulgate] — Latin Vulgate with parallel Douay-Rheims and King James English translations
* [http://www.sacredbible.org/ SacredBible.org] — Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible
* [http://www.spcm.org/english/Vulgate/ Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405 A.D.)]

====English====
* [http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/bible.html AudioBible] — Audio version of the King James Version.
*[[Bible.org]]
* [http://www.blueletterbible.org/ Blue Letter Bible] — On-line interactive reference library continuously updated from the teachings and commentaries of selected pastors and teachers who hold to the conservative, historical Christian faith.
* [http://www.e-sword.net E-sword] — Downloadable Bible for Windows.
* [http://www.onlinebible.net/ The Online Bible North America] — Downloadable Bible for Windows.
* [http://www.theophilos.sk/ Theophilos Bible program]
* [http://www.spcm.org/english/ASB/ American Standard Version].
* [http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/ English Standard Version] from Good News/Crossway (the publisher).
* [http://www.verselink.org/ King James Version with dictionary].
* [http://www.spcm.org/english/KJV/ King James Version].
* [http://www.newlivingtranslation.com New Living Translation]
* [http://bible.oremus.org/ New Revised Standard Version].
* [http://www.europepourchrist.org/biblesite/WEB/ World English Bible].
* [http://www.dynamicbible.com/ King James Version built using AJAX technologies], with Strongs and Greek Morphological Codes by Robinson.
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/index.htm#index The Hypertext Bible] with side-by-side translations in English, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew at the [[Internet Sacred Text Archive]]
* [http://www.biblegateway.com/ Bible Gateway at GospelCom.net] text search in any one of many translations in numerous languages.
* [http://www.biblereadthrough.com/ Bible Read-Through] — read through the Bible in a year aid.
* [http://www.TheFreeBible.com/ TheFreeBible.com] Bible software downloads
* [http://www.scripture4all.org/ Interlinear (word-by-word) translation of the Christian Bible] Hebrew and Koine Greek
* [http://www.aramaicpeshitta.com/aramaic_nt_resources.htm Aramaic New Testament resources]
* [http://www.spcm.org/en/versions.php Over 40 versions of the Bible]
* [http://www.armenianchurchlibrary.com/Bibletranslationsandstudies.html Eastern and Western Armenian Bible]
* [http://www.bible9.com/ Online Bible (King James Version & Old Testament)]
* [http://www.spcm.org/LSG_FR/ Bible — Louis Segond de 1910]
* [http://www.latinvulgate.com/christverse.aspx Complete Sayings of Christ]
* [http://bible.crosswalk.com/ParallelBible/ Crosswalk.com Parallel Bible]
* [http://www.blueletterbible.org/search.html#verse Blue Letter Bible]
* [http://recoveryversion.org/ Recovery Version Bible]

====Spanish====

* [http://www.wbtc.com/site/PageServer?pagename=downloads_spanish Spanish Bible] PDT version
* [http://www.labibliaweb.com/cid/1 Versiones de la Biblia] In Spanish.

====Turkish====
* [http://www.incil.info Turkish Bible] (Turkish Old and New Testament)

====Finnish====
* [http://www.raamattu-kirja.com Finnish Bible] (Finnish Old and New Testament)
* [http://vastaus.net Raamattu] (Study Finnish Bible)

====Japanese====
*[http://www.ibsstl.org/bibles/japanese/index.php On-line version hosted by the International Bible Society]
*[http://www.bible.or.jp/e/index.html Japan Bible Society]

====Others====
* [http://agards-bible-timeline.com/q2_bible_english.html Bible Timeline]
* [http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/bible/TO_Torah_880.htm?OVRAW=Torah&OVKEY=torah&OVMTC=standard My Jewish Learning.com]
* [http://search.americanbible.org/ American Bible Society] to search NASB, KJV, CEV, ASV and others.
* [http://etext.virginia.edu/kjv.browse.html University of Virginia Library] KJV word proximity search.
* [http://www.1enormousidea.com/Default.aspx?tabid=42 Many translations in English, verse by verse]
* [http://www.bible-marathi.com Nava Karar] NT Translation from Greek to Marathi
* [http://www.bible-researcher.com/links12.html Gender-neutral Bible translations].
* [http://www.evangelicalbible.com/why.htm Word-for-Word vs.Thought-for-Thought translation] Outlines the difference between formal and dynamic equivalent translation philosopy.
* [http://www.kli.org/wiki/index.php?Klingon%20Bible%20Translation%20Project Klingon Bible].
* [https://overviewbible.com/books-of-the-bible/ One sentence summary of each book in the Bible].

===Commentaries and analysis===

* [http://bibleseo.com/ Bible study topics] - Bible studies and exposition online
* [http://www.ldolphin.org/icc-am.html Biblical chronology] by Alan Montgomery, B.Sc.(Hon)
* [http://www.dinur.org/resources/resourceCategoryDisplay.aspx?categoryID=411&rsid=478 Biblical History], The Jewish History Resource Center — Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
* [http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=63255 Judaica Press Translation] — online Jewish translation of the Tanakh.
* [http://www.angdatingdaan.org/biblicaltopics/bib_bible_1.htm Reading and Understanding the Bible].
* [http://en.bibleinfo.com/ Source for Bible Answers].
* [http://www.amazingfacts.org/school/af_logon.asp Amazing Facts Bible Studies].
* [http://www.iishj.org/images/Bible.pdf Learning Bible Today] — a historical approach the Bible.
* [http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/gill/ John Gill's Exposition of the Bible] — verse by verse commentary.
* [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc.i.html/ Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible] — unabridged.
*[http://www.verselink.org/ Topical References]
*[http://www.verselink.org/ Bible Dictionaries and Encyclopedia]
*[http://bible.wikia.com/wiki/Bible_Wiki Bible Wiki], a database covering the people, places, books, doctrine and history of the Bible.

===Questions and apologetics===
*[https://answersingenesis.org/bible-questions/ Bible Questions], ''[[Answers in Genesis]]''
*[https://www.gotquestions.org/questions_Bible.html Questions about the Bible], ''[[GotQuestions]]''
*[https://answersingenesis.org/is-the-bible-true/can-you-prove-the-bible-is-true/ Can You Prove the Bible is True?], Mike Matthews
*[http://standardbearers.net/uploads/The_King_James_Version_Defended_Dr_Edward_F_Hills.pdf The King James Verson Defended, Dr. Edward F. Hills (standardbearers.net)] pdf
*[https://reasonsforhopejesus.com/gotquestions/ Got Questions? We Have Reasons for Hope* Jesus]

== See also ==

*[[The Bible and health]]
*[[Women in the Bible]]
*[[Infant baptism]]
*[[Essay: Water baptism cannot save, the Church cannot save, Born again by faith alone]]

==Bibliography==
* Achtemeier, Paul J., ed. ''Harper's Bible Dictionary'' (1985), 1190pp; mainstream scholarship
* Ackroyd, P.R., ed. ''The Cambridge History of the Bible: From the Beginnings to Jerome; the West from the Fathers to the Reformation; the West from the Reformation to the Present Day'' (3 vol 1978), standard summary of scholarship; [https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-History-Bible-Beginnings-Jerome/dp/0521099730/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243248143&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search vol 1]; [https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-History-Bible-Fathers-Reformation/dp/0521290171/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243248143&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search vol 2]; [https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-History-Bible-Reformation-Present/dp/0521290163/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243248143&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search vol 3]
* Coggins, R.J. ''Introducing the Old Testament'' (Oxford University Press: 1990), 172pp. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=22765464 online edition]
* Morgan, Robert, and John Barton. ''Biblical Interpretation'' (Oxford University Press: 1988), 342 pp [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=74356941 online edition]
* Sakenfeld, Katharine Doob, ed. ''The New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible'' ('''NIDB''') (5 vol 2009), the latest mainstream scholarship
*Unger, Merril F. ''Unger's Bible Dictionary'', Moody Press, Chicago, IL (1966; new edition 2006); Evangelical
**Unger, Merril F. ''The New Unger's Bible Dictionary'', (2006); 1416pp; Evangelical
*Unger, Merril F. ''Unger's Bible Handbook'', Moody Press, Chicago, IL (1967); Evangelical.
*Halley, Henry H. ''Halley's Bible Handbook'', Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI (1965); Evangelical
* Sandys-Wunsch, John. ''What Have They Done to the Bible: A History of Modern Biblical Interpretation'' (2005) Scholarly history of transations and interpretations to 1900; [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814650287 excerpt and text search]
* Williamspn, Peter. ''Catholic principles for interpreting scripture: a study of the Pontifical Biblical Commission's The interpretation of the Bible in the Church'' (2001); Catholic; [https://books.google.com/books?id=kooFtFGQsfsC&dq=intitle:bible+intitle:interpretation&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=2000&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES excerpts and text search]
*Wilson, Robert D. ''A Scientific Investigation of the Old Testament'', Sunday School Times, Inc, Philadelphia, PA (1926).

===Language===
*Blass, Frederich, and others. ''A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and other early Christian literature,'' translated by Robert W. Funk; University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL (1961); German edition ''Grammatik des Neutestamentlichen Griechisch'' Friedrich Rehkopf, editor, 14th edition. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976.
*Moulton, James H., and others. ''A Grammar of New Testament Greek'' (two volumes), edited by Wilbert Francis Howard, T&T Clark Publishers, Harrisburg, PA (1985); originally published 1920, Edinburgh, Scotland.
*Bauer, Walter. ''Griechisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Scriften des Neuen Testaments und der frühchristlichen Litteratur''. Kurt Åland and Barbara Åland, editors; 6th edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, Germany (1988). Heading βιβλίον, columns 281–82.

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Bible| ]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Book of Worship]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Young Earth Creationism

2022-02-11T02:42:53Z

Dwaynepride: Clarofied

[[Image:Michelangelo creation-of-sun-and-moon.jpg|right|alt=Young earth creationism|thumb|310px|[[Michelangelo|Michelangelo's]] painting of the creation of the [[Sun]] and [[Moon]].]]
'''Young Earth Creationism''', sometimes abbreviated ''YEC'',<ref>"YEC", is a false belief that can refer to Young Earth Creationist or Young Earth Creationism. "YECs" refers to Young Earth Creationists.</ref> is a form of [[creationism]] which holds that the [[earth]] and the [[universe]] are approximately 6,000 years old.<ref>Sarfati, 1999, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3837 Chapter 8, How old is the earth?].</ref><ref>Sarfati, 1999, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3836 Chapter 7, Astronomy] of Refuting Evolution.</ref>

Young earth creationists falsely hold that both creation and the [[Evolution|evolutionary position]] are at root tied to [[worldview]]s, and because they are both claims about historical (or prehistorical) events, they depend on untestable assumptions. At the same time, young earth [[Creation Science|creation scientists]] argue that the young universe view is the explanation that best fits the evidence.

Scientists who advocate an old earth correctly regard young earth creationism as being unscientific. Young Earthers allege that the predominantly [[atheistic science|atheistic scientists]] rely on a [[double standard]] that ignores numerous [[counterexamples to an Old Earth]], and the believers in an Old Earth also over-rely on flawed [[radiometric dating]].

== Beliefs ==

=== Biblical ===
Young Earth creationism generally takes the following positions regarding the biblical book of [[Genesis]]:
* [[Creation]] took place over a period of six ordinary (solar/24-hour) days, with God then "resting" on the seventh day.
* This creation, described in Genesis as "good" and "very good", was without flaw or defect.
* All people are descended from the first couple, [[Adam]] and [[Eve]].
* Adam and Eve [[sin]]ned, leading to their expulsion from the [[Garden of Eden]].
* A global [[Great Flood|Noachian flood]] occurred, destroying all land-based, air-breathing life, except that on the [[Ark]].
* The dispersal of humanity was caused by God after the [[Tower of Babel]].<ref>[http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/confusionoflanguages.html Is there any reference to the confusion of languages at Babel in early Mesopotamian literature?] (ChristianAnswers.Net).</ref><ref>[http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a021.html Is there archaeological evidence of the Tower of Babel?] (ChristianAnswers.Net).</ref><ref>Jackson, Wayne, [http://www.christiancourier.com/archives/babel.htm The Tower of Babel—Legend or History?] December 17, 1999 (Christian Courier).</ref>

Young Earth creationists do not believe that one's view on the age of the Earth has any effect on their salvation, since one is saved through faith alone in Christ alone, but they do believe that the young Earth view does allow one to view the Bible and its authority consistently.<ref>Ham, Ken (September 28, 2019). [https://answersingenesis.org/age-of-the-earth/does-the-gospel-depend-on-a-young-earth/ Chapter 1: Does the Gospel Depend on a Young Earth?] ''Answers in Genesis''. Retrieved October 2, 2019.</ref>

=== Scientific ===
Young earth creationism holds that the scientific evidence is unreasonably ''interpreted'' by evolutionists and [[atheism|atheists]]/[[naturalism|naturalists]] as supporting their point of view, but that the same evidence can be reasonably interpreted by creationists to support the creationary point of view. This imposes a heavy burden on the testability of both theories, which is one of the reasons why some scientists question whether either the creationary or evolutionary view is scientific.

They further argue that the scientific evidence is more consistent with the creationary point of view than the evolutionary point of view.

Critics argue, however, that none of the YEC beliefs are subject to the scientific method, but the same criticism applies to theories promoted by evolutionists. The scientific method includes the process of making predictions based on your starting hypothesis and then performing experiments to verify those predictions, all in a manner that can be reproduced and validated by a peer review process.

Some specific arguments are as follows:

* The [[First Law of Thermodynamics|first law of thermodynamics]] and [[second law of thermodynamics]] argue against an eternal universe, and these laws point to the universe being created by [[God]].<ref>[http://godevidences.net/space/lawsofscience.php Evidences for God From Space—Laws of Science]</ref><ref>Thompson, Bert, [http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2329 So Long, Eternal Universe; Hello Beginning, Hello End!], 2001 (Apologetics Press)</ref><ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences14.html</ref>
* The [[theory of evolution]] is at odds with scientific evidence. Evolutionists often cite secular scientific sources which agree with them on various points (for further details please see: [[theory of evolution]] and [[creationism]]).<ref>https://creation.com/frequently-asked-questions-faq</ref>
* Both evolutionary scientists and young earth creation scientists believe that [[speciation]] occurs; however, young earth creation scientists state that speciation generally occurs at a much faster rate than evolutionary scientists believe is the case.<ref>[[Creation Ministries International]], [http://www.creation.com/content/view/3036/ Speciation: Questions and Answers]</ref>
*Many young earth creationists (including those at [[Creation Ministries International]] and [[CreationWiki]]) assert that the [http://creationwiki.org/index.php/Bible_scientific_foreknowledge Bible contains knowledge that shows an understanding of scientific knowledge beyond that believed to exist at the time the Bible was composed].<ref>[http://creationwiki.org/index.php/Bible_scientific_foreknowledge Bible Scientific Foreknowledge]</ref><ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i1/medicine.asp</ref>
* The facts 1) that so many cultures and people record a history of a great flood and 2) that geological evidence of a flood exists in almost every area of the earth, show that it is very likely, if not proven that the great flood did take place.<ref>[http://www.noahs-ark-flood.com/]</ref>
* The fact that history only spans a few thousand years evidences a young Earth. If the Earth were millions of years old, then so would civilization be. This is obviously not the case as recorded history only spans a few thousand years and our level of technology would be much more advanced.

== Biblical exegesis ==

Young earth creationism holds that the book of Genesis is historical in nature and that [[Bible exegesis]] warrants a six-day creation with each day being 24 hours.<ref>[http://creationwiki.org/Days_of_creation Days of Creation] (CreationWiki).</ref><ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/genesis.asp Genesis Questions and Answers] (Answers in Genesis).</ref><ref>Niessen, Richard, [https://www.icr.org/article/164/ Theistic Evolution and the Day-Age Theory] ''Impact'' 81, March 1980.</ref>
Andrew Kulikovsky describes it as follows:
{{QuoteBox|The hermeneutic employed by most YECs is best described as the historical-grammatical method in which historical narrative (such as the book of Genesis) is interpreted as literal history, prophecy is interpreted as prophecy, poetry is interpreted as poetry, etc.
<ref>Kulikovsky, Andrew S., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/tjv16v2_forster.pdf Fostering fallacy] ''Journal of Creation'' 16(2) 2002, p.31-36.</ref>}}
{{QuoteBox|Historical-grammatical exegesis involves a systematic approach to analyzing in detail the historical situation, events and circumstances surrounding the text, and the semantics and syntactical relationships of the words which comprise the text.<ref>Kulikovsky, Andrew S., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4880/ The Bible and hermeneutics] ''Journal of Creation'' 19(3):14–20, December 2005, p.14-20.</ref>}}

For more than a century, the majority of conservative Old Testament scholars no longer accepted the chronological implications of the Genesis "chrono-genealogies" following the accommodation of the old Princeton Theology (“Primeval Chronology,” ''Bibliotheca Sacra'' 47 (1890): 285-303). However, Jeremy Sexton reexamined this hypothesis in 2015 <ref>: "Who Was Born When Enosh Was 90?: A Semantic Reevaluation of William Henry Green's Chronological Gaps." The Westminster Theological Journal 77, no. 2 (September 2015): 193-218.[http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2016/04/06/Who-Was-Born-When-Enosh-Was-90-A-Semantic-Reevaluation-of-William-Henry-Greene28099s-Chronological-Gaps.aspx]</ref> starting the process of returning Old Testament Scholarship to the consensus that held sway since before the coming of Christ ([[Earth age opinions of prominent Christians - pre-1800‎]]).

== Age of the Universe and Earth - General Overview ==
Young earth [[creation]] scientists advance a number of reasons for the earth and [[universe]] being approximately 6,000 years old.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/young.asp ‘Young’ age of the Earth & Universe Q&A] (Answers in Genesis).</ref><ref name="AiG Astr QA">[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/astronomy.asp Astronomy and Astrophysics Questions and Answers] (Answers in Genesis).</ref><ref name="AiG Astr QA" /><ref>[http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3040/ ‘Young’ age of the Earth & Universe Q&A] (Creation Ministries International).</ref><ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/dating.asp Radiometric Dating Questions and Answers] (Answers in Genesis)</ref><ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/young.asp</ref> They argue that the evolutionary geological timescale is in error,<ref>Woodmorappe, John, [http://www.trueorigin.org/geocolumn.asp The Geologic Column: Does It Exist?] ''Journal of Creation'' 13(2):77–82, 1999</ref><ref>Morris, Henry, [https://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=54 Geology and the Flood] ''Impact'' 6, August 1973</ref><ref>[http://www.allaboutcreation.org/geologic-time-scale.htm Geologic Time Scale - The Misconceptions] (All About Creation)</ref> and that [[geology]] further provides multiple lines of evidence that the earth is young.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/geology.asp Geology Questions and Answers] (Answers in Genesis)</ref><ref>[http://www.creationism.org/topbar/geology.htm Geology] (Creation.org)</ref><ref>[http://www.nwcreation.net/geologylinks.html Geology Links] (Northwest Creation Network)</ref><ref>Baumgardner, John, [http://globalflood.org/ Genesis Flood] 28 July 2003.</ref> Rejecting the [[uniformitarianism (science)|uniformitarian]] assumptions of secular geologists, they use a [[geologic system|geological system]] that depends more on [[catastrophism]]<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee/geologic-record</ref> and point out that catastrophism is being increasingly accepted in the field of geology.<ref>http://www.grisda.org/origins/12061.htm</ref><ref>https://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=print&ID=84</ref>

== Astronomy ==
[[Image:NGC .jpg|right|thumb|350px|The majestic spiral [[galaxy]] ''NGC 4414'', imaged by the [[Hubble Space Telescope]] in 1995.]]
The young earth creationism view is that the various astronomical bodies such as [[planet]]s, [[star]]s, and [[galaxy|galaxies]] were supernaturally created and that [[Materialism|materialistic]] explanations of the origins of various astronomical bodies are insufficient and counter evidence.<ref>Brown, 1991, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences.html Astronomical and Physical Sciences]; Sarfati, 1999, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3836 Chapter 7].</ref> In addition, creationists often cite the secular scientific literature in order to make the case that materialist explanations of various astronomical bodies are inadequate:
{{cquote|...most every prediction by theorists about planetary formation has been wrong.<ref>Scott Tremaine, as quoted by Richard A. Kerr, “Jupiters Like Our Own Await Planet Hunters,” Science, Vol. 295, 25 January 2002, p. 605, quoted by [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes42.html Brown, 2001, notes for chapter 43].</ref>}}
{{cquote|Attempts to find a plausible naturalistic explanation of the origin of the [[Solar System]] began about 350 years ago but have not yet been quantitatively successful, making this one of the oldest unsolved problems in modern science.<ref>Stephen G. Brush, A History of Modern Planetary Physics, Vol. 3 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 91, quoted by [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes42.html Brown, 2001, notes for chapter 43]).</ref>}}
{{cquote|We don’t understand how a single star forms, yet we want to understand how 10 billion stars form.<ref>Carlos Frenk, as quoted by Robert Irion, “Surveys Scour the Cosmic Deep,” Science, Vol. 303, 19 March 2004, p. 1750, quoted by Brown, 1991, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes59.html Notes for chapter 61]</ref>}}
{{cquote|We cannot even show convincingly how galaxies, stars, planets, and life arose in the present universe.<ref>Michael Rowan-Robinson, “Review of the Accidental Universe,” New Scientist, Vol. 97, 20 January 1983, p. 186, quoted by Brown, 1991, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes59.html Notes for chapter 62].</ref>}}

In 2001, Cristina Chiappini wrote regarding the [[Milky Way]] galaxy the following:
:". . . it is an elegant structure that shows both order and complexity. . . . The end product is especially remarkable in the light of what is believed to be the starting point: nebulous blobs of gas. How the universe made the Milky Way from such simple beginnings is not altogether clear. - Cristina Chiappini, "The Formation and Evolution of the Milky Way," American Scientist (vol. 89, Nov./Dec. 2001), p. 506.<ref name="icr.org">https://www.icr.org/article/547/</ref>

Dr. [[Walt Brown]] provides numerous citations to the secular science literature that corroborate the failings of current old universe paradigm explanations in regards to the planets, stars, and galaxies.<ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes43.html</ref><ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes60.html#wp1142334</ref><ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes61.html#wp1212721</ref>

The [[Institute for Creation Research]] has a notable essay by David Coppedge entitled "Mature at Birth: Universe Discredits Evolution" which cites recent findings which challenge an old universe paradigm.<ref>https://www.icr.org/article/2946/</ref> In addition, [[Henry Morris]] has an essay regarding the subject of the failings of the old universe paradigm entitled "What Astronomers Don't Know".<ref name="icr.org"/>

Young earth creationist scientists also contest the [[Big Bang theory]] stating that it is scientifically unsound.
<ref name="BB Critique">Thompson, Bert, Harrub, Brad, and May, Branyon [http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=9&article=1453 The Big Bang Theory—A Scientific Critique] ''Apologetics Press'', May 2003 - 23[5]:32-34,36-47.</ref>
<ref>Brown, Walt, 2001, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences16.html Big Bang?]</ref><ref>http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/309</ref><ref>http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2047</ref><ref>https://www.icr.org/article/343/</ref>
=== Starlight and the Age of the Universe ===
{{main|Starlight problem}}

[[Image:Barry_setterfield.jpg‎|right|thumb|175px|[[Barry Setterfield]]]]
Anti-creationists often claim that [[star]]light from millions of light years away demonstrates that the Biblical timescale of 6,000 years is in error, as insufficient time has passed for the light from distant stars to reach [[Earth]].
Creationists respond in part by pointing out that the popular Big Bang theory has its own star light-travel time problem (the horizon problem), citing the work of Dr. Charles W. Misner.<ref>Lisle, Jason, [http://www.creation.com/content/view/167/ Light-travel time: a problem for the big bang], Creation 25(4):48–49, September 2003.</ref>

Secondly, creationists have proposed a number of explanations for the objection, and although none are yet certain, they claim that it shows that the critics' claims that it cannot be explained are unfounded.

==== Setterfield's decay of the speed of light ====

One early explanation was that of creationist [[Barry Setterfield]], who proposed that the speed of light was faster in the past.<ref>Wieland, Carl, [http://www.creation.com/content/view/2551/ Speed of light slowing down after all?], Journal of Creation 16(3):7–10, December 2002.</ref>
Critics objected to Setterfield's proposal, including on the grounds that the constancy of the speed of light is one of science's most fundamental laws.<ref name="JS">Sarfati, Jonathan, [http://www.creation.com/content/view/2430/ Have fundamental constants changed, and what would it prove?], 22nd August, 2001.</ref>
Yet in 1999, John Webb, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues reported astronomical observations suggesting that the value of the fine-structure constant (which is related to the speed of light) may have changed (although the size of the change was much smaller than proposed by Setterfield).
They subsequently published this in 2001 in ''[[Physical Review Letters]]''.<ref name="JS" /><ref>http://www.nature.com/physics/highlights/6849-3.html#ref1</ref>
However, other problems with the proposal has led most creationists to abandon the idea.<ref>For example, [http://www.creation.com/content/view/2996#c_decay CMI] and [http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/dont_use.asp#c_decay AiG] say that this is an idea that should not be used.</ref>

==== Russell Humphreys's model ====

Creationary physicist Dr. [[Russell Humphreys]] proposed a model based on [[Albert Einstein|Einstein's]] law of relativity (as the Big Bang model is), but with a different starting assumption, a bounded universe.
Humphreys's model proposes that God created the universe much smaller than it is now, then expanded it, quoting the Bible saying that God "stretched out the heavens".
In such a scenario, time would pass at different rates on Earth and in outer parts of the universe, so that while 6,000 years went by on Earth, billions of years passed on the outer edge of the universe.
This model is also based on the [[Genesis]] account recording the days of creation according to time on Earth, rather than elsewhere.

However, this theory is not without problems. The evidence contradicts Humphrey's assumption that the earth is in a large gravity well. If the earth were in such a gravity well, light from distant galaxies should be blue-shifted. Instead, it is red-shifted. Also, gravitational time dilation, if it existed on such a large scale, should be easily observable. On the contrary, we observe (from the periods of Cepheid variable stars, from orbital rates of binary stars, from supernova extinction rates, from light frequencies, etc.) that such time dilation is minor. It is thought that there is some time dilation corresponding with Hubble's law (i.e., further objects have greater red shifts), but this is due to the well-understood expansion of the universe, and it is not nearly extreme enough to fit more than ten billion years into less than 10,000.<ref>Conner, S. R. and D. N. Page, 1998. Starlight and time is the Big Bang. CENTJ 12(2): 174-194. (See also letters in CENTJ 13(1), 1999, 49-52).</ref>

==== John Hartnett's model ====

Young earth creationist scientist Dr. [[John Hartnett]] proposes a model similar to Humphreys, wherein the Earth was trapped in a time-dilation field caused by extremely strong gravitation during the first few days of creation, from Earth's point of view, while billions of years passed for the rest of the universe.
He attributes the field, its removal and the continued balance in our solar system (after the field was removed) to divine intervention.<ref>Hartnett, John G., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/j17_2/j17_2_98-102.pdf A new cosmology: solution to the starlight travel time problem] ''Journal of Creation'' 17(2):98–102, August 2003.</ref>
Whilst Humphreys' model has time dilation caused only by gravity (per [[Albert Einstein|Einstein's]] [[General Theory of Relativity]]), Hartnett's model also takes into account time dilation caused by motion (God's expansion of the universe) (per Einstein's [[Special Theory of Relativity]]).

== Biology ==

According to young-Earth creationists, God separately created each ''kind'' of living thing, or ''[[baraminology|baramin]]'', to reproduce "after its kind".
Living things had built into them a capacity for variation and adaptation, but within the limits of their ''kind''.
Genetically, in the case of sexually-reproducing species, much of this is due to the [[information]] carried on each living thing's [[DNA]] being a subset of the parent's DNA, with the subset of information being selected for by the process known as natural selection (described by a creationist before Darwin wrote about it).
Mutations also play a part in this variation, but only to the extent of ''destroying'' genetic information, not ''creating'' it.

Many of the ensuing variations have been classified by science as different ''species'', but this speciation is not evolution, as it does not involve the generation of new genetic information and therefore could not have produced the evolutionary "family tree".

YECs believe that most of the world's living things were wiped out by the [[Great Flood]], but that pairs of each ''kind'' that could not survive in a flood (i.e. air-breathing, land-dwelling creatures) survived the flood on [[Noah's Ark]], and from the Flood survivors all modern species have descended.

== Geology ==

YECs believe that most rocks were laid down in two main episodes.
The first was during the creation week, particularly when God caused the waters of the Earth to gather together into the sea and dry land to appear.
The second was during Noah's Flood.
The effects of a global watery catastrophe would have been enormous, which would form massive amounts of erosion and sedimentation during a short period of time.
Further, many young-Earth creationists believe that there was a single supercontinent prior to the Flood. This single land mass broke apart during the Flood when the subterranean waters bursted out of the subterranean chambers causing the earth to break apart (see also: [[Hydroplate Theory]]). According to many Young earth creationists, there were probably fewer oceans with much more land on the earth prior to the flood. It is believed that the worldwide water quantity increased after the flood. The sea trenches and ocean floors sunk further down after the flood waters subsided, because of the increased pressure of the water, thus causing the sea levels to rise.<ref>http://creationwiki.org/Hydroplate_theory</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=390_ILj34oM&feature=channel_video_title</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hbj7FXQ-RY&feature=relmfu</ref> Young earth creationists also believe that many of the mountains, valleys, and lakes we see today were formed by the geological transformations caused by the flood. This would have further contributed to a massive reshaping of the Earth's surface.

== Anthropology ==
{{main|Biblical anthropology}}

YECs believe that all intact evidence of civilisation is evidence of post-flood civilisation, as the [[Global flood|Flood]] destroyed the pre-flood world.
God confounded man's single language at the [[Tower of Babel]], forcing different family groups to separate and spread around the world.
Most of the people groups listed in the 'Table of Nations' in {{Bible ref|Genesis|10}}, which contains a family tree of Noah's descendants, are identifiable from non-biblical records.
People enduring a forced migration will find any shelter they can, and this would explain much of the evidence of "cavemen".

== Contrasted with evolution ==

The young earth creationism view contrasts with evolution and other aspects of the old universe view in the following ways:
* According to the chronogenealogies in the Bible, the age of the [[universe]] and [[Earth]] is approximately 6,000 years. The old universe view is that the universe started about 14,000 million(14 billion) years ago and Earth was formed around 4,500 million(4.5 billion) years ago.
* The creation account has everything being created over a period of six ordinary days, whereas the old universe view has things appearing over billions of years.
* The order of creation is different. The creation account has the Earth before the sun, plants before the sun, and birds before land animals, among other differences. The old universe view is the opposite order for each of these.
* The creation account records that death didn't exist prior to the [[Fall of man|Fall]], whereas the evolutionary view is that death and suffering are part of the biological process and existed for billions of years of death prior to the appearance of [[homo sapiens|man]].
* The creation account records various living things being separately created, whereas the evolutionary view has all living things being descended from the first living cell.
*Young Earth creationism is based on the Bible, the infallible Word of God.<ref>http://www.christiananswers.net/q-acb/acb-t002.html</ref><ref>atheism.about.com/od/creationismcreationists/a/bible.htm</ref>

==Criticism==
===Creationist methodology===
Against the Young Earth Creationist attacks on "evolutionism" and "Darwinism", critics argue that every challenge to evolution by YECs is either made in an unscientific fashion, or is readily explainable by science, and that while a gap in scientific knowledge may exist now it is likely to be closed through further research. While scientists acknowledge that there are indeed a number of gaps in the scientific theory, they generally reject the creationist viewpoint that these gaps represent fatal, insurmountable flaws with evolution. Those working in the field who pointed out the gaps in the first place have often explicitly rejected the creationist interpretation. The "God of the gaps" viewpoint has also been criticized by [[theology|theologians]] and [[philosophy|philosophers]],<ref>[http://www.newdualism.org/papers/R.Larmer/Gaps.htm Is there anything wrong with “God of the gaps” reasoning?], by Robert Larmer</ref> although creationists claim that their models are based on what is known, not on gaps in knowledge.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

Christian YECs adhere strongly to the concept of [[biblical inerrancy]], which declares the Bible to be divinely inspired and therefore scientifically infallible and non-correctable. This position is considered by devotees and critics alike to be incompatible with the principles of scientific Objectivity. The Young Earth creationist organizations [[Answers in Genesis]] (AiG) and Institute for Creation Research (ICR) require all members to pledge support for biblical inerrancy.

YECs often suggest that supporters of evolution theory are primarily motivated by [[atheism]]. Critics reject this claim by pointing out that many supporters of evolutionary theory are in fact religious believers, and that major religious groups such as the Roman Catholic Church and [[Church of England]] believe that the concept of biological evolution does not imply a rejection of the scriptures. Nor do they support the specific doctrines of biblical inerrancy proposed by YEC. Critics also point out that workers in fields related to evolutionary biology are not required to sign statements of belief in evolution comparable to the biblical inerrancy pledges required by ICR and AiG. This is contrary to the popular belief of creationists that scientists operate on an a priori disbelief in biblical principles.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i3/admission.asp Amazing admission.]</ref> They also discount Christian faith positions, like those of French Jesuit priest, geologist and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who saw that his work with evolutionary sciences actually confirmed and inspired his faith in the cosmic Christ. Nor do they believe the views of Catholic priest Fr. Thomas Berry, a cultural historian and eco-theologian, that the [[cosmology|cosmological]] 13 billion year "Universe Story" provides all faiths and all traditions a single account by which the divine has made its presence in the world.

Proponents of YEC are regularly accused of [[quote mining]], the practice of isolating passages from academic texts that appear to support their claims while deliberately excluding context and conclusions to the contrary.<ref>[http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/project.html Quote Mine Project: Examining 'Evolution Quotes' of Creationists]</ref>

===Theological===
Some theologians oppose the proposition that God can be a legitimate or viable subject for scientific experimentation, and reject a literal interpretation of Genesis. They propose there are statements in the creation week itself which render the historical interpretation of Genesis incompatible with scientific evidence.

One example is that God created the Earth and heavens, and light, on Day 1, plant life on Day 3, and the sun and moon on Day 4. One must ask where the light in Day 1 came from, and why there were plants in Day 3 if the sun, which provides all light to the Earth, did not even exist until Day 4.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n2/framework-interpretation-critique-part-one A Critique of the Framework Interpretation of the Creation Account (Part 1 of 2) - Answers in Genesis]</ref> YECs such as Basil the Great and [[John Calvin]] answered this by suggesting that the light created by God on Day 1 was the light source. Answers in Genesis has refined this by suggesting that the Earth was already rotating with respect to this light.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/1203.asp How could the days of Genesis 1 be literal before the sun was created?]</ref> One can also make a case that God created the plants toward the evening of Day 3, the Sun was created on the morning of Day 4, therefore the plants only had to endure darkness for a period not much longer than a typical night.

Another problem is the fact that distant galaxies can be seen. If the universe did not exist until 10,000 years ago, then light from anything farther than 10,000 light-years would not have time to reach us. Most cosmologists accept an inflation model as the likely explanation for the horizon problem. Inflationary models also account for other phenomena, and are in agreement with observations of recent microwave anisotropy satellites. Creationists have also proposed models to explain why we see distant starlight.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v25/i4/lighttravel.asp Light-travel time: a problem for the big bang]</ref><ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/405.asp Does Distant Starlight Prove the Universe Is Old? - Answers in Genesis]</ref> See creationist cosmologies and the [[starlight problem]] for more information.

Many critics claim that Genesis itself is internally inconsistent on the question of whether man was created before the animals or after the animals as stated in Genesis. Proponents of the Documentary hypothesis suggest that Genesis 1 was a litany from the ''Priestly'' source (possibly from an early Jewish [[liturgy]]) while Genesis 2 was assembled from older ''Jahwist'' material, holding that for both stories to be a single account, Adam would have named all the animals, and God would have created Eve from his rib as a suitable mate, all within a single 24 hour period. Many creationists attribute this view to misunderstanding having arisen from poor translation of the tenses in Genesis 2 in contemporary translations of the Bible (e.g. compare "planted" and "had planted" in [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gen%202:8;&version=9 KJV] and [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gen%202:8;&version=31 NIV]).<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v16/i1/genesis.asp Biblical Exegesis</ref>
Some Christians assert that the Bible is free from error only in religious and moral matters, and that where scientific questions are concerned, the Bible should not be read literally. This position is held by a number of major denominations. For instance, in a publication entitled ''The Gift of Scripture'',<ref>http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/liturgy/Resources/Scripture/ (October 2005)</ref> the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales comments that "We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision". The Bible is held to be true in passages relating to human salvation, but "We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811332,00.html | work=The Times | location=London | title=Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible | first=Ruth | last=Gledhill | date=2005-10-05}}</ref> By contrast, YECs contend that moral and spiritual matters in the Bible are intimately connected with its historical accuracy; in their view, the Bible stands or falls as a single indivisible block of knowledge.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v26/i4/editorial.asp ‘But Genesis is not a science textbook’]</ref>

Aside from the theological doubts voiced by other Christians, YEC also stands in opposition to the creation mythologies of other religions (both [[wikt:extant|extant]] and [[extinct]]). Many of these make claims regarding the origin of the universe and humanity that are completely incompatible with those of Christian creationists (and with one another).<ref>{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Creation Myths|last=Leeming|first=D.A.|coauthors=Leeming, M.A.|year=1996|publisher=Oxford Paperbacks|isbn=0195102754}}</ref>

== Responses to criticisms ==

Young Earth creationist responses to criticisms from atheistic evolutionists, theistic evolutionists, progressive creationists, and others include the following:
* ''The young Earth view is just one interpretation of the Bible.''
: The young Earth view is the clear intention of the authors of the Bible. See [[Creation week]] for more. Also, the young Earth view was the view of most of the church throughout most of its history. That has only changed in order to accommodate non-biblical views of history.
* ''Creationists read the Bible literally, whereas parts, such as the creation account, are really metaphor.''
: Creationists deny that they read all the Bible literally, and accept that there are metaphors and other non-literal passages in the Bible. Instead, they read the Bible the way it was meant to be understood, which in the case of the creation account, is as literal history. See [[#Biblical exegesis|Biblical exegesis]] above and [[Creation week]] for more.
* ''Evolution has scientific evidence, and creationism does not.''
: Both creationists and evolutionists have the same evidence. The difference is in how that evidence is interpreted.
* ''Creation relies on faith, not evidence.''
: Both creation and evolution are faith positions based on different worldviews. Evolutionists exclude God from consideration ''[[a priori]]'', not because of the evidence.
* ''The evidence in favor of evolution means the Earth must be much older than the 6-10 thousand years explained in [[creation science]].''
: It is difficult to conceive of a mechanism by which any kind of biological "dating" mechanism could remain accurate in face of the supposedly changing levels of chemicals and solar radiation that evolutionary geologists insist upon. Even the most dedicated Darwin followers in the ranks of academia have been forced to admit that Carbon-14 dating can be wildly inaccurate for several reasons, such as naturally occurring radioactive elements in the Earth's crust.<ref>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/c14.html</ref> This is just one area of the theory of evolution which scientists have had to back away from with much embarassment. Perhaps if scientists could adopt a more open-minded tone towards those they disagree with, they could issue retractions without such fear of retribution.
* ''If creation had scientific merit, why don't they publish their evidence in peer-reviewed scientific papers?''
: The scientific establishment won't allow creationists to publish. See [[Suppression of alternatives to evolution]]. Some journals purport to accept material from all scientific perspectives, but engage in a process known as [[sham peer review]]. In normal peer review, papers are checked by two editors, independently, for methodological errors ONLY, not vetted for their content. That is the responsibility of the scientific public. During sham peer review, editors often collaborate to block publication of any literature that challenges established dogma, or their own pet theories. To make the problem worse, due to the incestuous nature of the mainstream journal editor pool, the same editor may serve on as many as a dozen different editorial boards, allowing them to spread their bias across a much larger area than an ethical editor would. Though this is widely acknowledged as a [[liberal deceit|deceitful]] practice, its scope is widely downplayed in the scientific community and is actually almost openly tolerated in some areas of science.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/peerreview/epidemic.php</ref>
* ''Creationists start with a preconception and try and fit the evidence to that. Evolutionists start with the evidence.''
: Both creationists and evolutionists have their worldview as a starting point. Evolutionists try and fit the evidence into their idea just as much as they accuse the creationists of doing.
* ''Because they are based on the Bible, creationists are not willing to change their views. Evolutionists will change their views as new evidence is found.''
: Creationists start with the Bible as the foundation of their views, but beyond that are willing to change their views as new evidence is found. Evolutionists are willing to change the details of how evolution works, but are not prepared to change their basic view that evolution did occur.
* ''Creationists are anti-science.''
: Many creationists are scientists and fully support science. They never reject science itself, and the criticism is bogus.
* ''Creationisms is not falsifiable.''
: Creationism is not less falsifiable than evolution. See [[falsifiability of Creation]] and [[Falsifiability of evolution]].
* ''Creationists want their view taught in schools, but not other creation stories.''
: Creationists have made it clear that they only want ''scientific evidence'' consistent with creation taught. Critics have not proposed any scientific evidence for other creation stories.
* ''Leading creationists know that what they promote is wrong, so they are liars.''
: Accusations like this are rarely backed by any evidence of systematic lying.

== Arguments for a recent creation ==
{{main|Arguments for a recent creation}}

[[Image:Roth-01.gif|right|thumb|350px|The arrows point to [[Paraconformity|paraconformities]] at the [[Grand Canyon]].]]

Many arguments for a recent creation have been put forward by creationary scientists, both scientific and theological arguments.

Scientific arguments include [[radiometric dating]] results that disagree with secular ages, other dating methods that do not fit with secular ages, and phenomenon showing events that occurred quickly.

There should be virtually no 14C present in carbon supposedly older than 100,000 years, yet it has proved impossible to find any such carbon without 14C.

Dating methods don't have to be based on radioactivity.
Measuring the amount of [[sodium]] in sea water, for example, and calculating how long it would take to reach those levels is another method.
Yet calculations show that the amount of sodium could not have taken longer than 62 million years to accumulate, well short of the 3,000 million year supposed age of the oceans.

[[Polystrate fossil]]s demonstrate that many layers of sedimentary rock that are normally supposed to take a long time to form can be formed quite quickly.

== Adherents of Young Earth Creationism ==

Young Earth Creationism is a subset of [[Creationism]] most commonly found among members of the [[Abrahamic religion]]s, especially [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]], and [[Islam]] (for details please see: [[Creationism]]). In regards to early Judaism and early Christianity,
early [[Judaism]] supported young earth creationism and a majority of the early church fathers held the young earth creationist view.<ref>
* James-Griffiths, James,[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v26/i2/tradition.asp Creation days and Orthodox Jewish tradition] ''Creation'' 26(2):53–55, March 2004.
* Bradshaw, Robert I., [https://robibradshaw.com/chapter3.htm Creationism & the Early Church, chapter 3, The Days of Genesis 1]
* http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/tjv16v2_forster.pdf</ref>

According to Gallup, young Earth creationism had a clear plurality of adherents in the United States until 2017, and even then it still comprised a large minority of the U.S. population.<ref>Swift, Art (May 22, 2017). [https://www.gallup.com/poll/210956/belief-creationist-view-humans-new-low.aspx?g_source=Politics&g_medium=newsfeed&g_campaign=tiles In US, Belief in Creationist View of Humans at New Low]. ''Gallup''. Retrieved June 6, 2017.</ref>

== Organizations and publications ==

=== Organizations ===

Some of the more notable young earth creationist organizations include: [[Answers in Genesis]] (America and the United Kingdom), [[Creation Ministries International]] (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, U.S.A., and United Kingdom), [[Institute for Creation Research]] (U.S.A.), [[Creation Research Society]] (U.S.A.), and NorthWest Creation Network (Washington state, U.S.A.) which founded [[CreationWiki]].

=== Magazines and newsletters ===

[[Creation Ministries International]] publishes a 56-page color magazine, ''[[Creation magazine]]'', with no paid advertising, which is distributed to 140 countries.<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3871/97</ref>

The Institute for Creation Research publishes a free monthly magazine, ''Acts & Facts'', which includes news of the organization and articles.

Answers in Genesis, which previously distributed ''Creation'', began their own magazine, ''Answers'', in 2006. It contains advertising and its target audience is primarily American.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am</ref>

=== Peer-reviewed journals ===

The [[Creation Research Society Quarterly]] is published quarterly by the Creation Research Society,<ref>http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq.html</ref> and the [[Journal of Creation]] is published three times a year by Creation Ministries International.<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3873/98</ref>

==Further reading==

* J.D. Mitchell, ''The Creation Dialogues - A Response to the Position of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Evolution, Christianity and the Bible'', Pleasant Word (Winepress Pub), 2010 ISBN 1414118007<ref>http://www.creationengineeringconcepts.org/index.php?p=1_35_THE-CREATION-DIALOGUES</ref><ref>http://www.christianbook.com/dialogues-american-association-advancement-evolution-christianity/j-d-mitchell/9781414118000/pd/118002</ref>
*Dr. [[Grady S. McMurtry]], ''Creation: Our Worldview'', TEC Publications, Columbus, GA 2010 ISBN 0-9674006-1-9
*[[Jonathan Sarfati]], ''Refuting Evolution'', Master Books, 1999 [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4014/ (Free on-line version)]
*Jonathan Sarfati, ''Refuting Evolution 2'', Master Books, 2002, ISBN 0890513872 [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4013/ (Free on-line version)]
*[[Duane Gish]], ''Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No!'', El Cajon: [[Institute for Creation Research]], 1996 <ref>https://www.icr.org/store/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=2176</ref>
*[[R.L. Wysong]], ''The Creation-Evolution Controversy''.<ref>http://www.grisda.org/origins/05105.htm</ref><ref>http://www.wysong.net/page/WOTTPWS/PROD/EDUAIDS/ED022-S</ref>
*[[Phillip E. Johnson|Phillip Johnson]], ''Darwin on Trial''. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois. 1991 <ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/darwin.html</ref>
*[[R. C. Sproul]], ''Not a Chance: The Myth of Chance in Modern Science and Cosmology'', Baker Book House: 1994 <ref>http://www.ldolphin.org/chance.html</ref><ref>http://store.apologeticsgroup.com/product_info.php?products_id=191</ref>
* [[Walt Brown]], ''In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood'', 7th Edition, 2001 [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/IntheBeginningTOC.html (free online version)]
*Jeanson, Nathaniel T. (2017). ''[https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/replacing-darwin/ Replacing Darwin: The New Origin of Species]''. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books. ISBN: 9781683440758.
*Mortenson, Terry, ed. (2016). ''[https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/searching-adam/ Searching for Adam: Genesis & the Truth About Man's Origin]''. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books. ISBN: 9780890519752.
*Boyd, Steven W.; Snelling, Andrew A. ''[https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/grappling-chronology-genesis-flood/?sku=10-3-129 Grappling with the Chronology of the Genesis Flood: Navigating the Flow of Time in Biblical Narrative]''. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books. ISBN: 9780890517093.
*Snelling, Andrew A. (2010). ''[https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/earths-catastrophic-past/?sku=10-3-124& Earth’s Catastrophic Past: Geology, Creation & the Flood]''. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books. ISBN: 9780890518748.

== See also ==

*[[Question evolution! campaign]]
{{Creation vs. evolution}}

== External links ==
*[https://creation.com/age-of-the-earth 101 evidences for a young age of the earth and the universe] by [[Creation Ministries International]]
*[https://creation.com/refuting-evolution-chapter-8-how-old-is-the-earth How old is the earth?] - ''Refuting evolution'' - Chapter 8 by Dr. [[Jonathan Sarfati]]
*[http://www.catholic.net/index.php?option=dedestaca&id=2708&grupo=Life%20%20Family&canal=Life%20and%20Bioethics The Problem of Evolution] Facts and theories of biological evolution.

History and young earth creation:

*[http://www.robibrad.demon.co.uk/Chapter3.htm Early church and the age of the earth]
*[https://creation.com/augustine-young-earth-creationist Augustine and the age of the earth]
*[https://creation.com/church-fathers-flood Church fathers and Genesis flood]

Young earth creation websites:

*[https://creation.com/ Creation Ministries International]
*[http://creationrevolution.com/ Creation Revolution]
*[https://www.icr.org Institute for Creation Research]
*[http://www.answersingenesis.org Answers in Genesis]
*[http://trueorigins.org TrueOrigins.org]
*[http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/index.html Center for Scientific Creation]
*[http://www.creationworldview.org Creation Worldview Ministries]
*[http://www.nwcreation.net/ageyoung.html Biblical Young Earth Creationism]
*[http://edinburghcreationgroup Edinburgh Creation Group]
*[http://creationwiki.org/Main_Page Creation Wiki: The Encyclopedia of Creation Science]

Articles focusing on arguments for a young earth:

*[https://answersingenesis.org/creationism/young-earth/most-compelling-scientific-evidence-of-young-earth/ What Is the Most Compelling Scientific Evidence of a Young Earth?], by Dr. Terry Mortenson at [[Answers in Genesis]]. Originally published on February 27, 2006.
*[https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/millions-of-years/seven-reasons-why-we-should-not-accept-millions-of-years/ Seven Reasons Why We Should Not Accept Millions of Years] by Dr. Terry Mortenson at [[Answers in Genesis]]. Originally published on July 17, 2006.
*[http://www.creationwiki.org/Young_earth_evidence Young earth evidence] on [[CreationWiki]]
*[http://www.nwcreation.net/young.html Evidence Supporting a Recent Creation - Northwest Creation Network]
*[https://www.icr.org/article/1842/ Evidence for a Young World - Institute for Creation Research]

Videos and movies focusing on arguments for a young earth:

*''[[Is Genesis History?]]'' (2017; [https://isgenesishistory.com/ website])
*''Genesis: Paradise Lost'' (2017; [https://genesismovie.com/ website])
*[http://edinburghcreationgroup.org/youngearth.php Evidence for a Young Earth]- Dr Marc Surtees

Profiles of important young earth biblical creation scientists:
*[http://creationsciencehalloffame.org/ Creation Science Hall of Fame]

== See also ==
*[[Creation Science]]
*[[Creation vs. Evolution Videos]]
*[[Christianity and Science]]
*[[Atheists and historical illiteracy]]
*[[List of Young Earth Creationists]]
*[[Earth Age Opinions of Prominent Christians - Pre-1800]]
*[[Literalist Bible chronology]]
=== Alternative views===
*[[Old Earth Creationism]]
*[[Theistic evolution]]
*[[Theory of Evolution]]
*[[Gap theory]]
*[[Day age creationism]]
*[[Progressive Creationism]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=35em}}

[[Category:Young Earth Creationism]]
[[Category:Creationism]]
[[Category:Abrahamic Religions]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Garden of Eden

2022-02-11T02:36:02Z

Dwaynepride: Clarified

[[Image:Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights.jpg|right|thumb|"The Earthly Paradise" (ca. 1490–95), representing the Garden of Eden; left panel of the triptych painting ''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' by Hieronymus Bosch.]]
In mythology, The '''Garden of Eden''' (Hebrew: גַּן עֵדֶן ''`edhen''; "delight") was the dwelling place for the first two humans [[God]] created - [[Adam]] and [[Eve]] - according to the [[Bible|biblical]] book of [[Genesis]]. The Garden was a paradise of [[infinity|infinite]] happiness where [[Adam and Eve]] would never suffer any [[scarcity]], illness or death. However, Adam and Eve defied the will of God by eating the [[forbidden fruit]] (the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) at the center of the Garden, and God cast them out of the Garden so that they would no longer live forever. Genesis says that a [[cherub]] ([[angel]]) with a flaming sword then guarded the Garden of Eden to prevent humans from returning.

The Garden of Eden has inspired great literature:
*[[Shakespeare]]'s [[Hamlet]], perhaps the greatest play ever, imitates the temptation and fall in the Garden of Eden.<ref>https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Hamlet-And-The-Garden-Of-Eden-FJEYNJFW9X6</ref>
*the famous novel and movie ''[[East of Eden]]'', by [[John Steinbeck]] and starring [[James Dean]], is named after the banishment of [[Cain]] eastward from the Garden of Eden.

==Description==
Genesis describes the Garden as being "in the east, in Eden" (Gen 2:8). In the Assyrian inscriptions ''idinu'' (Accadian: ''edin'') means "plain" and it is from this that the Biblical word is probably derived. The Garden is described as having "all kinds" of trees growing in it, and two are specifically named: the [[Tree of Life]], and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the latter being in the center of the Garden (Gen 2:9). It was from this tree that Adam was told that he was forbidden to eat from (Gen 2:17). The vegetation was luxurious (Gen 2:9) and the fig tree indigenous (Gen 3:7), and where it was watered by four rivers which flowed from Eden:

:''And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.''
:''The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;''
:''And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.''
:''And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.''
:''And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.''
::(''Genesis 2:10-14; King James Version'')

Biblical scholars have determined the last two rivers mentioned to be the existing Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their headwaters in the Zagros Mountains of Iran; the other two - the Pison and Gihon rivers - were more problematic.

All kinds of animals, including cattle, beasts of the field and birds, were found there (Gen 2:19,20). Moreover, the climate was such that clothing was not needed for warmth. It is not surprising, therefore, that the plural of the word has the meaning "delights," and that Eden has been supposed to mean the land of delights, and that the word became a synonym for Paradise.

==Other Locations==
As with many passages in Genesis, there is debate among [[Christians]] whether or not the story of the Garden of Eden should be taken literally or metaphorically. If taken literally, there is debate over its location, whether in the area of eastern Turkey/northern Iran, in southern Iraq, or elsewhere in the world.

In [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the Garden of Eden (or Earthly Paradise) is situated at the top of the Mountain of [[Purgatory]] in the southern hemisphere, where we now know [[Antarctica]] to be. Those who have been through Purgatory pass through the tranquil garden before they enter [[Heaven]].

====Central Asia====
[[File:Edenmap2.png|right|200px|thumb|Claimed locations for the Garden of Eden in the Middle East]]
During his explorations to the [[South America]]n mainland [[Christopher Columbus]] made the assumption that the [[Orinoco River]] was fed by waters which came down from the Garden of Eden, despite his own thoughts that he had found the eastern coast of the Asian continent. The traditions of its location somewhere in central Asia are numerous and persistent, and naturalists have in the past pretty generally fixed upon the portion of Central Asia stretching east from the Himalayas - often referred to as the roof of the world and from which flow four great rivers: the Indus, the Tarim, the Sur Daria (Jaxartes), and the Ainu Daria (Oxus) - as the original cradle of mankind. Usually, explanations for the central Asia hypothesis involve a touch of racial superiority, i.e. mankind's ancestors were of Aryan stock. Professor S.H. Buchanan, a Biblical scholar during the late 19th century, was one of those believers, who put down in his work ''The World and the Book'':
:''“Thus everything invites us to place the Eden of the Semites (Aryans) in the mountains of Belurtag, at the point where this chain unites with the Himalaya, toward the Plateau of Pamir... We are conducted to the same point, according to Brunoff, by the most ancient and authentic texts of the Zend-Avesta. The Hindu traditions also contained in the Mahabbarata and the Puranas, converge to the same region. There is the true Meru (Ararat) (of the Hindus), the true Albordj (of the Persians), the true river Arvanda, from which all rivers take their source, according to Persian tradition. There, according to the opinions of almost all the populations of Asia, is the central point of the world, the umbilici, the gate of the universe. There is the Uttarakura; ‘the country of happiness,’ of which Magesthanes writes. There is, finally the point of common attachment of the primitive geography, both of the Semitic and the Indo-European races.”'' [http://www.israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/The_Garden_of_Eden.htm]
The Jewish historian [[Flavius Josephus]] also hinted that the Garden of Eden had a central Asian location, having written down that the land was "watered by one river, which ran around the whole earth, and was parted into four parts, and Phison, which denotes a Multitude, running from India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes into the Red Sea... and Geon runs through Egypt, and denotes what arises from the East, which the Greeks call Nile." (''Antiquities of the Jews'', Book I:I:3.)

====North Pole====
Also as the 19th century ended Dr. William F. Warren created a theory which attempted to prove that Eden was located near the North Pole. What was in support of his theory was evidence in the fossil and geological records of several lands north of the Arctic Circle of a warm climate. However, as later discoveries were to prove, the North Pole was merely an [[Arctic Ocean|ocean]] overlaid with an icecap, the nearest land hundreds of miles away. [http://www.viewzone.com/edenpole.html]

====Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf====
[[File:Adam h2.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Adam and Eve" seal (British Museum)]]
[[File:Dubai-2005 1117794540 dsc02266.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Tree of Life", Bahrain]]
Two theories locate Eden in the Euphrates valley. Of these the first place it near the head of the Persian Gulf where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet in the junction called the Shatt el-'Arab waterway, which once formed a point of conflict between Iraq and Iran. Recent authorities suggest that Gihon and Pishon are represented by the Karum and the Kerkhah rivers which come into the Shatt el-'Arab from the east. The most plausible objection to this theory is that the Biblical account represents all these branches as down stream from the main river, whereas this theory supposes that two of them at least are up stream. This objection has been ingeniously met by calling attention to the fact that 2,000 years before Christ the Persian Gulf extended up as far as Eridu, 100 miles above the present mouth of the river, and that the Tigris and the Euphrates then entered the head of the Gulf through separate channels, with the enormous amount of silt brought down by the streams during the centuries since havinf created the dry land which exists today. In consequence of the tides which extend up to the head of the Gulf, the current of all these streams would be turned up stream periodically, and so account for the Biblical statement. In this case the river (''nahar'') would be represented by the Persian Gulf itself, which was once called by the Babylonians ''nar marratum'', "the bitter river." This theory is further supported by the fact that according to the cuneiform inscriptions Eridu was reputed to have in its neighborhood a garden, "a holy place," in which there grew a sacred palm tree. This "tree of life" appears frequently upon the inscriptions with two guardian spirits standing on either side.

The other theory, postulated by Friedrich Delitzsch, places Eden just above the site of ancient Babylon, where the Tigris and Euphrates approach to within a short distance of one another and where the country is intersected by numerous irrigating streams which put off from the Euphrates and flow into the Tigris, whose level is here considerably lower than that of the Euphrates. Delitzsch assumed the Shatt el-Nil, which flows eastward into the Tigris, to be the Gihon, and the Pallacopas, flowing on the West side of the Euphrates through a region producing gold, to be the Pishon. The chief difficulties attending this theory pertain to the identification of the Pishon with the Pallacopas, and the location of Havilah on its banks. The difficulty in these theories is the identification of Cush ([[Ethiopia]]), later associated with the country on the horn of Africa, thus giving countenance to the belief of Josephus and many others that that river represented the Gihon.

In the island nation of [[Bahrain]] stands the Shajarat al-Hayah, the Tree of Life. A major tourist attraction in the smallest Arab country, this tree stands alone in the middle of a desert with no known source of water feeding it, and comparrisons to the tree of Eden have been made. [http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/bahrain/sightseeing-in-bahrain/tree-of-life-in-bahrain.html][http://www.mapsofworld.com/bahrain/bahrain-travel-guide/bahrain-sightseeing/tree-of-life-bahrain.html]

==David Rohl==
[[File:RohlsEden.jpg|right|260px|thumb|Location of the Garden of Eden, as proposed by David Rohl]]
British archaeologist and anthropologist David Rohl claimed to have found the precise location of the Garden of Eden after over a decade of studying ancient documents, including the Sumerian tablets held at the Museum of the Orient in Istanbul, Turkey. His conclusion is that the location conforms to an area northwest of Teheran, Iran, in a valley watered by a small river in which the locals call ''Adji Chay'' ("walled garden"); indeed, the entire valley is surrounded by mountains, with the dormant volcano Mt. Sahand sutuated on the southwest corner. On the northside of the valley rises ''Kusheh Daugh'' (mountain of Kush), which Rohl claims to be the source for the "land of Cush" (i.e. Ethiopia) of the Genesis account.

To help establish this belief, Rohl turned to an ancient source, the Sumerian cuneiform epic ''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,'' which was written possibly 5,000 years ago by an emissary of the Sumerian priest-king of Uruk [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1823.htm]. Gold and lapus lazuli were needed to build a temple, and an emissary was dispatched to Aratta "on the plain of ''Edin''" - as the Sumerians referred to the area - to retrieve them. The two rivers scholars had a problem with - the Pison and Gihon - were identified with the Araxes and Uizhun rivers, which puts the headwaters of all four rivers into his Eden. Further, Rohl's equivalent to the Pishon - the Araxes - which the Bible identifies with gold, flows between ancient cold and lapus lazuli mines, and is known locally as the Golden River.

To strengthen his claim, Rohl identified the area to the east of his Eden valley as the "land of Nod", to which Cain fled to after he killed his brother Abel (Gen 4:1-16)[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%204:1-16;]; the locals call it "Noqdi" today.

==References==

<References/>
{{DivineComedy}}

[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Biblical Places]]

Young Earth Creationism

2022-02-11T02:35:13Z

Dwaynepride: Clarified

[[Image:Michelangelo creation-of-sun-and-moon.jpg|right|alt=Young earth creationism|thumb|310px|[[Michelangelo|Michelangelo's]] painting of the creation of the [[Sun]] and [[Moon]].]]
An example of a made up concept, "Young Earth Creationism''', sometimes abbreviated ''YEC'',<ref>"YEC", can refer to Young Earth Creationist or Young Earth Creationism. "YECs" refers to Young Earth Creationists.</ref> is a form of [[creationism]] which holds that the [[earth]] and the [[universe]] are approximately 6,000 years old.<ref>Sarfati, 1999, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3837 Chapter 8, How old is the earth?].</ref><ref>Sarfati, 1999, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3836 Chapter 7, Astronomy] of Refuting Evolution.</ref>

Young earth creationists falsely hold that both creation and the [[Evolution|evolutionary position]] are at root tied to [[worldview]]s, and because they are both claims about historical (or prehistorical) events, they depend on untestable assumptions. At the same time, young earth [[Creation Science|creation scientists]] argue that the young universe view is the explanation that best fits the evidence.

Scientists who advocate an old earth correctly regard young earth creationism as being unscientific.

== Beliefs ==

=== Biblical ===
Young Earth creationism generally takes the following positions regarding the biblical book of [[Genesis]]:
* [[Creation]] took place over a period of six ordinary (solar/24-hour) days, with God then "resting" on the seventh day.
* This creation, described in Genesis as "good" and "very good", was without flaw or defect.
* All people are descended from the first couple, [[Adam]] and [[Eve]].
* Adam and Eve [[sin]]ned, leading to their expulsion from the [[Garden of Eden]].
* A global [[Great Flood|Noachian flood]] occurred, destroying all land-based, air-breathing life, except that on the [[Ark]].
* The dispersal of humanity was caused by God after the [[Tower of Babel]].<ref>[http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/confusionoflanguages.html Is there any reference to the confusion of languages at Babel in early Mesopotamian literature?] (ChristianAnswers.Net).</ref><ref>[http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a021.html Is there archaeological evidence of the Tower of Babel?] (ChristianAnswers.Net).</ref><ref>Jackson, Wayne, [http://www.christiancourier.com/archives/babel.htm The Tower of Babel—Legend or History?] December 17, 1999 (Christian Courier).</ref>

Young Earth creationists do not believe that one's view on the age of the Earth has any effect on their salvation, since one is saved through faith alone in Christ alone, but they do believe that the young Earth view does allow one to view the Bible and its authority consistently.<ref>Ham, Ken (September 28, 2019). [https://answersingenesis.org/age-of-the-earth/does-the-gospel-depend-on-a-young-earth/ Chapter 1: Does the Gospel Depend on a Young Earth?] ''Answers in Genesis''. Retrieved October 2, 2019.</ref>

=== Scientific ===
Young earth creationism holds that the scientific evidence is unreasonably ''interpreted'' by evolutionists and [[atheism|atheists]]/[[naturalism|naturalists]] as supporting their point of view, but that the same evidence can be reasonably interpreted by creationists to support the creationary point of view. This imposes a heavy burden on the testability of both theories, which is one of the reasons why some scientists question whether either the creationary or evolutionary view is scientific.

They further argue that the scientific evidence is more consistent with the creationary point of view than the evolutionary point of view.

Critics argue, however, that none of the YEC beliefs are subject to the scientific method, but the same criticism applies to theories promoted by evolutionists. The scientific method includes the process of making predictions based on your starting hypothesis and then performing experiments to verify those predictions, all in a manner that can be reproduced and validated by a peer review process.

Some specific arguments are as follows:

* The [[First Law of Thermodynamics|first law of thermodynamics]] and [[second law of thermodynamics]] argue against an eternal universe, and these laws point to the universe being created by [[God]].<ref>[http://godevidences.net/space/lawsofscience.php Evidences for God From Space—Laws of Science]</ref><ref>Thompson, Bert, [http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2329 So Long, Eternal Universe; Hello Beginning, Hello End!], 2001 (Apologetics Press)</ref><ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences14.html</ref>
* The [[theory of evolution]] is at odds with scientific evidence. Evolutionists often cite secular scientific sources which agree with them on various points (for further details please see: [[theory of evolution]] and [[creationism]]).<ref>https://creation.com/frequently-asked-questions-faq</ref>
* Both evolutionary scientists and young earth creation scientists believe that [[speciation]] occurs; however, young earth creation scientists state that speciation generally occurs at a much faster rate than evolutionary scientists believe is the case.<ref>[[Creation Ministries International]], [http://www.creation.com/content/view/3036/ Speciation: Questions and Answers]</ref>
*Many young earth creationists (including those at [[Creation Ministries International]] and [[CreationWiki]]) assert that the [http://creationwiki.org/index.php/Bible_scientific_foreknowledge Bible contains knowledge that shows an understanding of scientific knowledge beyond that believed to exist at the time the Bible was composed].<ref>[http://creationwiki.org/index.php/Bible_scientific_foreknowledge Bible Scientific Foreknowledge]</ref><ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i1/medicine.asp</ref>
* The facts 1) that so many cultures and people record a history of a great flood and 2) that geological evidence of a flood exists in almost every area of the earth, show that it is very likely, if not proven that the great flood did take place.<ref>[http://www.noahs-ark-flood.com/]</ref>
* The fact that history only spans a few thousand years evidences a young Earth. If the Earth were millions of years old, then so would civilization be. This is obviously not the case as recorded history only spans a few thousand years and our level of technology would be much more advanced.

== Biblical exegesis ==

Young earth creationism holds that the book of Genesis is historical in nature and that [[Bible exegesis]] warrants a six-day creation with each day being 24 hours.<ref>[http://creationwiki.org/Days_of_creation Days of Creation] (CreationWiki).</ref><ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/genesis.asp Genesis Questions and Answers] (Answers in Genesis).</ref><ref>Niessen, Richard, [https://www.icr.org/article/164/ Theistic Evolution and the Day-Age Theory] ''Impact'' 81, March 1980.</ref>
Andrew Kulikovsky describes it as follows:
{{QuoteBox|The hermeneutic employed by most YECs is best described as the historical-grammatical method in which historical narrative (such as the book of Genesis) is interpreted as literal history, prophecy is interpreted as prophecy, poetry is interpreted as poetry, etc.
<ref>Kulikovsky, Andrew S., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/tjv16v2_forster.pdf Fostering fallacy] ''Journal of Creation'' 16(2) 2002, p.31-36.</ref>}}
{{QuoteBox|Historical-grammatical exegesis involves a systematic approach to analyzing in detail the historical situation, events and circumstances surrounding the text, and the semantics and syntactical relationships of the words which comprise the text.<ref>Kulikovsky, Andrew S., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4880/ The Bible and hermeneutics] ''Journal of Creation'' 19(3):14–20, December 2005, p.14-20.</ref>}}

For more than a century, the majority of conservative Old Testament scholars no longer accepted the chronological implications of the Genesis "chrono-genealogies" following the accommodation of the old Princeton Theology (“Primeval Chronology,” ''Bibliotheca Sacra'' 47 (1890): 285-303). However, Jeremy Sexton reexamined this hypothesis in 2015 <ref>: "Who Was Born When Enosh Was 90?: A Semantic Reevaluation of William Henry Green's Chronological Gaps." The Westminster Theological Journal 77, no. 2 (September 2015): 193-218.[http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2016/04/06/Who-Was-Born-When-Enosh-Was-90-A-Semantic-Reevaluation-of-William-Henry-Greene28099s-Chronological-Gaps.aspx]</ref> starting the process of returning Old Testament Scholarship to the consensus that held sway since before the coming of Christ ([[Earth age opinions of prominent Christians - pre-1800‎]]).

== Age of the Universe and Earth - General Overview ==
Young earth [[creation]] scientists advance a number of reasons for the earth and [[universe]] being approximately 6,000 years old.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/young.asp ‘Young’ age of the Earth & Universe Q&A] (Answers in Genesis).</ref><ref name="AiG Astr QA">[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/astronomy.asp Astronomy and Astrophysics Questions and Answers] (Answers in Genesis).</ref><ref name="AiG Astr QA" /><ref>[http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3040/ ‘Young’ age of the Earth & Universe Q&A] (Creation Ministries International).</ref><ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/dating.asp Radiometric Dating Questions and Answers] (Answers in Genesis)</ref><ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/young.asp</ref> They argue that the evolutionary geological timescale is in error,<ref>Woodmorappe, John, [http://www.trueorigin.org/geocolumn.asp The Geologic Column: Does It Exist?] ''Journal of Creation'' 13(2):77–82, 1999</ref><ref>Morris, Henry, [https://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=54 Geology and the Flood] ''Impact'' 6, August 1973</ref><ref>[http://www.allaboutcreation.org/geologic-time-scale.htm Geologic Time Scale - The Misconceptions] (All About Creation)</ref> and that [[geology]] further provides multiple lines of evidence that the earth is young.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/geology.asp Geology Questions and Answers] (Answers in Genesis)</ref><ref>[http://www.creationism.org/topbar/geology.htm Geology] (Creation.org)</ref><ref>[http://www.nwcreation.net/geologylinks.html Geology Links] (Northwest Creation Network)</ref><ref>Baumgardner, John, [http://globalflood.org/ Genesis Flood] 28 July 2003.</ref> Rejecting the [[uniformitarianism (science)|uniformitarian]] assumptions of secular geologists, they use a [[geologic system|geological system]] that depends more on [[catastrophism]]<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee/geologic-record</ref> and point out that catastrophism is being increasingly accepted in the field of geology.<ref>http://www.grisda.org/origins/12061.htm</ref><ref>https://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=print&ID=84</ref>

== Astronomy ==
[[Image:NGC .jpg|right|thumb|350px|The majestic spiral [[galaxy]] ''NGC 4414'', imaged by the [[Hubble Space Telescope]] in 1995.]]
The young earth creationism view is that the various astronomical bodies such as [[planet]]s, [[star]]s, and [[galaxy|galaxies]] were supernaturally created and that [[Materialism|materialistic]] explanations of the origins of various astronomical bodies are insufficient and counter evidence.<ref>Brown, 1991, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences.html Astronomical and Physical Sciences]; Sarfati, 1999, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3836 Chapter 7].</ref> In addition, creationists often cite the secular scientific literature in order to make the case that materialist explanations of various astronomical bodies are inadequate:
{{cquote|...most every prediction by theorists about planetary formation has been wrong.<ref>Scott Tremaine, as quoted by Richard A. Kerr, “Jupiters Like Our Own Await Planet Hunters,” Science, Vol. 295, 25 January 2002, p. 605, quoted by [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes42.html Brown, 2001, notes for chapter 43].</ref>}}
{{cquote|Attempts to find a plausible naturalistic explanation of the origin of the [[Solar System]] began about 350 years ago but have not yet been quantitatively successful, making this one of the oldest unsolved problems in modern science.<ref>Stephen G. Brush, A History of Modern Planetary Physics, Vol. 3 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 91, quoted by [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes42.html Brown, 2001, notes for chapter 43]).</ref>}}
{{cquote|We don’t understand how a single star forms, yet we want to understand how 10 billion stars form.<ref>Carlos Frenk, as quoted by Robert Irion, “Surveys Scour the Cosmic Deep,” Science, Vol. 303, 19 March 2004, p. 1750, quoted by Brown, 1991, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes59.html Notes for chapter 61]</ref>}}
{{cquote|We cannot even show convincingly how galaxies, stars, planets, and life arose in the present universe.<ref>Michael Rowan-Robinson, “Review of the Accidental Universe,” New Scientist, Vol. 97, 20 January 1983, p. 186, quoted by Brown, 1991, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes59.html Notes for chapter 62].</ref>}}

In 2001, Cristina Chiappini wrote regarding the [[Milky Way]] galaxy the following:
:". . . it is an elegant structure that shows both order and complexity. . . . The end product is especially remarkable in the light of what is believed to be the starting point: nebulous blobs of gas. How the universe made the Milky Way from such simple beginnings is not altogether clear. - Cristina Chiappini, "The Formation and Evolution of the Milky Way," American Scientist (vol. 89, Nov./Dec. 2001), p. 506.<ref name="icr.org">https://www.icr.org/article/547/</ref>

Dr. [[Walt Brown]] provides numerous citations to the secular science literature that corroborate the failings of current old universe paradigm explanations in regards to the planets, stars, and galaxies.<ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes43.html</ref><ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes60.html#wp1142334</ref><ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes61.html#wp1212721</ref>

The [[Institute for Creation Research]] has a notable essay by David Coppedge entitled "Mature at Birth: Universe Discredits Evolution" which cites recent findings which challenge an old universe paradigm.<ref>https://www.icr.org/article/2946/</ref> In addition, [[Henry Morris]] has an essay regarding the subject of the failings of the old universe paradigm entitled "What Astronomers Don't Know".<ref name="icr.org"/>

Young earth creationist scientists also contest the [[Big Bang theory]] stating that it is scientifically unsound.
<ref name="BB Critique">Thompson, Bert, Harrub, Brad, and May, Branyon [http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=9&article=1453 The Big Bang Theory—A Scientific Critique] ''Apologetics Press'', May 2003 - 23[5]:32-34,36-47.</ref>
<ref>Brown, Walt, 2001, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences16.html Big Bang?]</ref><ref>http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/309</ref><ref>http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2047</ref><ref>https://www.icr.org/article/343/</ref>
=== Starlight and the Age of the Universe ===
{{main|Starlight problem}}

[[Image:Barry_setterfield.jpg‎|right|thumb|175px|[[Barry Setterfield]]]]
Anti-creationists often claim that [[star]]light from millions of light years away demonstrates that the Biblical timescale of 6,000 years is in error, as insufficient time has passed for the light from distant stars to reach [[Earth]].
Creationists respond in part by pointing out that the popular Big Bang theory has its own star light-travel time problem (the horizon problem), citing the work of Dr. Charles W. Misner.<ref>Lisle, Jason, [http://www.creation.com/content/view/167/ Light-travel time: a problem for the big bang], Creation 25(4):48–49, September 2003.</ref>

Secondly, creationists have proposed a number of explanations for the objection, and although none are yet certain, they claim that it shows that the critics' claims that it cannot be explained are unfounded.

==== Setterfield's decay of the speed of light ====

One early explanation was that of creationist [[Barry Setterfield]], who proposed that the speed of light was faster in the past.<ref>Wieland, Carl, [http://www.creation.com/content/view/2551/ Speed of light slowing down after all?], Journal of Creation 16(3):7–10, December 2002.</ref>
Critics objected to Setterfield's proposal, including on the grounds that the constancy of the speed of light is one of science's most fundamental laws.<ref name="JS">Sarfati, Jonathan, [http://www.creation.com/content/view/2430/ Have fundamental constants changed, and what would it prove?], 22nd August, 2001.</ref>
Yet in 1999, John Webb, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues reported astronomical observations suggesting that the value of the fine-structure constant (which is related to the speed of light) may have changed (although the size of the change was much smaller than proposed by Setterfield).
They subsequently published this in 2001 in ''[[Physical Review Letters]]''.<ref name="JS" /><ref>http://www.nature.com/physics/highlights/6849-3.html#ref1</ref>
However, other problems with the proposal has led most creationists to abandon the idea.<ref>For example, [http://www.creation.com/content/view/2996#c_decay CMI] and [http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/dont_use.asp#c_decay AiG] say that this is an idea that should not be used.</ref>

==== Russell Humphreys's model ====

Creationary physicist Dr. [[Russell Humphreys]] proposed a model based on [[Albert Einstein|Einstein's]] law of relativity (as the Big Bang model is), but with a different starting assumption, a bounded universe.
Humphreys's model proposes that God created the universe much smaller than it is now, then expanded it, quoting the Bible saying that God "stretched out the heavens".
In such a scenario, time would pass at different rates on Earth and in outer parts of the universe, so that while 6,000 years went by on Earth, billions of years passed on the outer edge of the universe.
This model is also based on the [[Genesis]] account recording the days of creation according to time on Earth, rather than elsewhere.

However, this theory is not without problems. The evidence contradicts Humphrey's assumption that the earth is in a large gravity well. If the earth were in such a gravity well, light from distant galaxies should be blue-shifted. Instead, it is red-shifted. Also, gravitational time dilation, if it existed on such a large scale, should be easily observable. On the contrary, we observe (from the periods of Cepheid variable stars, from orbital rates of binary stars, from supernova extinction rates, from light frequencies, etc.) that such time dilation is minor. It is thought that there is some time dilation corresponding with Hubble's law (i.e., further objects have greater red shifts), but this is due to the well-understood expansion of the universe, and it is not nearly extreme enough to fit more than ten billion years into less than 10,000.<ref>Conner, S. R. and D. N. Page, 1998. Starlight and time is the Big Bang. CENTJ 12(2): 174-194. (See also letters in CENTJ 13(1), 1999, 49-52).</ref>

==== John Hartnett's model ====

Young earth creationist scientist Dr. [[John Hartnett]] proposes a model similar to Humphreys, wherein the Earth was trapped in a time-dilation field caused by extremely strong gravitation during the first few days of creation, from Earth's point of view, while billions of years passed for the rest of the universe.
He attributes the field, its removal and the continued balance in our solar system (after the field was removed) to divine intervention.<ref>Hartnett, John G., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/j17_2/j17_2_98-102.pdf A new cosmology: solution to the starlight travel time problem] ''Journal of Creation'' 17(2):98–102, August 2003.</ref>
Whilst Humphreys' model has time dilation caused only by gravity (per [[Albert Einstein|Einstein's]] [[General Theory of Relativity]]), Hartnett's model also takes into account time dilation caused by motion (God's expansion of the universe) (per Einstein's [[Special Theory of Relativity]]).

== Biology ==

According to young-Earth creationists, God separately created each ''kind'' of living thing, or ''[[baraminology|baramin]]'', to reproduce "after its kind".
Living things had built into them a capacity for variation and adaptation, but within the limits of their ''kind''.
Genetically, in the case of sexually-reproducing species, much of this is due to the [[information]] carried on each living thing's [[DNA]] being a subset of the parent's DNA, with the subset of information being selected for by the process known as natural selection (described by a creationist before Darwin wrote about it).
Mutations also play a part in this variation, but only to the extent of ''destroying'' genetic information, not ''creating'' it.

Many of the ensuing variations have been classified by science as different ''species'', but this speciation is not evolution, as it does not involve the generation of new genetic information and therefore could not have produced the evolutionary "family tree".

YECs believe that most of the world's living things were wiped out by the [[Great Flood]], but that pairs of each ''kind'' that could not survive in a flood (i.e. air-breathing, land-dwelling creatures) survived the flood on [[Noah's Ark]], and from the Flood survivors all modern species have descended.

== Geology ==

YECs believe that most rocks were laid down in two main episodes.
The first was during the creation week, particularly when God caused the waters of the Earth to gather together into the sea and dry land to appear.
The second was during Noah's Flood.
The effects of a global watery catastrophe would have been enormous, which would form massive amounts of erosion and sedimentation during a short period of time.
Further, many young-Earth creationists believe that there was a single supercontinent prior to the Flood. This single land mass broke apart during the Flood when the subterranean waters bursted out of the subterranean chambers causing the earth to break apart (see also: [[Hydroplate Theory]]). According to many Young earth creationists, there were probably fewer oceans with much more land on the earth prior to the flood. It is believed that the worldwide water quantity increased after the flood. The sea trenches and ocean floors sunk further down after the flood waters subsided, because of the increased pressure of the water, thus causing the sea levels to rise.<ref>http://creationwiki.org/Hydroplate_theory</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=390_ILj34oM&feature=channel_video_title</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hbj7FXQ-RY&feature=relmfu</ref> Young earth creationists also believe that many of the mountains, valleys, and lakes we see today were formed by the geological transformations caused by the flood. This would have further contributed to a massive reshaping of the Earth's surface.

== Anthropology ==
{{main|Biblical anthropology}}

YECs believe that all intact evidence of civilisation is evidence of post-flood civilisation, as the [[Global flood|Flood]] destroyed the pre-flood world.
God confounded man's single language at the [[Tower of Babel]], forcing different family groups to separate and spread around the world.
Most of the people groups listed in the 'Table of Nations' in {{Bible ref|Genesis|10}}, which contains a family tree of Noah's descendants, are identifiable from non-biblical records.
People enduring a forced migration will find any shelter they can, and this would explain much of the evidence of "cavemen".

== Contrasted with evolution ==

The young earth creationism view contrasts with evolution and other aspects of the old universe view in the following ways:
* According to the chronogenealogies in the Bible, the age of the [[universe]] and [[Earth]] is approximately 6,000 years. The old universe view is that the universe started about 14,000 million(14 billion) years ago and Earth was formed around 4,500 million(4.5 billion) years ago.
* The creation account has everything being created over a period of six ordinary days, whereas the old universe view has things appearing over billions of years.
* The order of creation is different. The creation account has the Earth before the sun, plants before the sun, and birds before land animals, among other differences. The old universe view is the opposite order for each of these.
* The creation account records that death didn't exist prior to the [[Fall of man|Fall]], whereas the evolutionary view is that death and suffering are part of the biological process and existed for billions of years of death prior to the appearance of [[homo sapiens|man]].
* The creation account records various living things being separately created, whereas the evolutionary view has all living things being descended from the first living cell.
*Young Earth creationism is based on the Bible, the infallible Word of God.<ref>http://www.christiananswers.net/q-acb/acb-t002.html</ref><ref>atheism.about.com/od/creationismcreationists/a/bible.htm</ref>

==Criticism==
===Creationist methodology===
Against the Young Earth Creationist attacks on "evolutionism" and "Darwinism", critics argue that every challenge to evolution by YECs is either made in an unscientific fashion, or is readily explainable by science, and that while a gap in scientific knowledge may exist now it is likely to be closed through further research. While scientists acknowledge that there are indeed a number of gaps in the scientific theory, they generally reject the creationist viewpoint that these gaps represent fatal, insurmountable flaws with evolution. Those working in the field who pointed out the gaps in the first place have often explicitly rejected the creationist interpretation. The "God of the gaps" viewpoint has also been criticized by [[theology|theologians]] and [[philosophy|philosophers]],<ref>[http://www.newdualism.org/papers/R.Larmer/Gaps.htm Is there anything wrong with “God of the gaps” reasoning?], by Robert Larmer</ref> although creationists claim that their models are based on what is known, not on gaps in knowledge.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

Christian YECs adhere strongly to the concept of [[biblical inerrancy]], which declares the Bible to be divinely inspired and therefore scientifically infallible and non-correctable. This position is considered by devotees and critics alike to be incompatible with the principles of scientific Objectivity. The Young Earth creationist organizations [[Answers in Genesis]] (AiG) and Institute for Creation Research (ICR) require all members to pledge support for biblical inerrancy.

YECs often suggest that supporters of evolution theory are primarily motivated by [[atheism]]. Critics reject this claim by pointing out that many supporters of evolutionary theory are in fact religious believers, and that major religious groups such as the Roman Catholic Church and [[Church of England]] believe that the concept of biological evolution does not imply a rejection of the scriptures. Nor do they support the specific doctrines of biblical inerrancy proposed by YEC. Critics also point out that workers in fields related to evolutionary biology are not required to sign statements of belief in evolution comparable to the biblical inerrancy pledges required by ICR and AiG. This is contrary to the popular belief of creationists that scientists operate on an a priori disbelief in biblical principles.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i3/admission.asp Amazing admission.]</ref> They also discount Christian faith positions, like those of French Jesuit priest, geologist and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who saw that his work with evolutionary sciences actually confirmed and inspired his faith in the cosmic Christ. Nor do they believe the views of Catholic priest Fr. Thomas Berry, a cultural historian and eco-theologian, that the [[cosmology|cosmological]] 13 billion year "Universe Story" provides all faiths and all traditions a single account by which the divine has made its presence in the world.

Proponents of YEC are regularly accused of [[quote mining]], the practice of isolating passages from academic texts that appear to support their claims while deliberately excluding context and conclusions to the contrary.<ref>[http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/project.html Quote Mine Project: Examining 'Evolution Quotes' of Creationists]</ref>

===Theological===
Some theologians oppose the proposition that God can be a legitimate or viable subject for scientific experimentation, and reject a literal interpretation of Genesis. They propose there are statements in the creation week itself which render the historical interpretation of Genesis incompatible with scientific evidence.

One example is that God created the Earth and heavens, and light, on Day 1, plant life on Day 3, and the sun and moon on Day 4. One must ask where the light in Day 1 came from, and why there were plants in Day 3 if the sun, which provides all light to the Earth, did not even exist until Day 4.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n2/framework-interpretation-critique-part-one A Critique of the Framework Interpretation of the Creation Account (Part 1 of 2) - Answers in Genesis]</ref> YECs such as Basil the Great and [[John Calvin]] answered this by suggesting that the light created by God on Day 1 was the light source. Answers in Genesis has refined this by suggesting that the Earth was already rotating with respect to this light.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/1203.asp How could the days of Genesis 1 be literal before the sun was created?]</ref> One can also make a case that God created the plants toward the evening of Day 3, the Sun was created on the morning of Day 4, therefore the plants only had to endure darkness for a period not much longer than a typical night.

Another problem is the fact that distant galaxies can be seen. If the universe did not exist until 10,000 years ago, then light from anything farther than 10,000 light-years would not have time to reach us. Most cosmologists accept an inflation model as the likely explanation for the horizon problem. Inflationary models also account for other phenomena, and are in agreement with observations of recent microwave anisotropy satellites. Creationists have also proposed models to explain why we see distant starlight.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v25/i4/lighttravel.asp Light-travel time: a problem for the big bang]</ref><ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/405.asp Does Distant Starlight Prove the Universe Is Old? - Answers in Genesis]</ref> See creationist cosmologies and the [[starlight problem]] for more information.

Many critics claim that Genesis itself is internally inconsistent on the question of whether man was created before the animals or after the animals as stated in Genesis. Proponents of the Documentary hypothesis suggest that Genesis 1 was a litany from the ''Priestly'' source (possibly from an early Jewish [[liturgy]]) while Genesis 2 was assembled from older ''Jahwist'' material, holding that for both stories to be a single account, Adam would have named all the animals, and God would have created Eve from his rib as a suitable mate, all within a single 24 hour period. Many creationists attribute this view to misunderstanding having arisen from poor translation of the tenses in Genesis 2 in contemporary translations of the Bible (e.g. compare "planted" and "had planted" in [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gen%202:8;&version=9 KJV] and [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gen%202:8;&version=31 NIV]).<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v16/i1/genesis.asp Biblical Exegesis</ref>
Some Christians assert that the Bible is free from error only in religious and moral matters, and that where scientific questions are concerned, the Bible should not be read literally. This position is held by a number of major denominations. For instance, in a publication entitled ''The Gift of Scripture'',<ref>http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/liturgy/Resources/Scripture/ (October 2005)</ref> the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales comments that "We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision". The Bible is held to be true in passages relating to human salvation, but "We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811332,00.html | work=The Times | location=London | title=Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible | first=Ruth | last=Gledhill | date=2005-10-05}}</ref> By contrast, YECs contend that moral and spiritual matters in the Bible are intimately connected with its historical accuracy; in their view, the Bible stands or falls as a single indivisible block of knowledge.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v26/i4/editorial.asp ‘But Genesis is not a science textbook’]</ref>

Aside from the theological doubts voiced by other Christians, YEC also stands in opposition to the creation mythologies of other religions (both [[wikt:extant|extant]] and [[extinct]]). Many of these make claims regarding the origin of the universe and humanity that are completely incompatible with those of Christian creationists (and with one another).<ref>{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Creation Myths|last=Leeming|first=D.A.|coauthors=Leeming, M.A.|year=1996|publisher=Oxford Paperbacks|isbn=0195102754}}</ref>

== Responses to criticisms ==

Young Earth creationist responses to criticisms from atheistic evolutionists, theistic evolutionists, progressive creationists, and others include the following:
* ''The young Earth view is just one interpretation of the Bible.''
: The young Earth view is the clear intention of the authors of the Bible. See [[Creation week]] for more. Also, the young Earth view was the view of most of the church throughout most of its history. That has only changed in order to accommodate non-biblical views of history.
* ''Creationists read the Bible literally, whereas parts, such as the creation account, are really metaphor.''
: Creationists deny that they read all the Bible literally, and accept that there are metaphors and other non-literal passages in the Bible. Instead, they read the Bible the way it was meant to be understood, which in the case of the creation account, is as literal history. See [[#Biblical exegesis|Biblical exegesis]] above and [[Creation week]] for more.
* ''Evolution has scientific evidence, and creationism does not.''
: Both creationists and evolutionists have the same evidence. The difference is in how that evidence is interpreted.
* ''Creation relies on faith, not evidence.''
: Both creation and evolution are faith positions based on different worldviews. Evolutionists exclude God from consideration ''[[a priori]]'', not because of the evidence.
* ''The evidence in favor of evolution means the Earth must be much older than the 6-10 thousand years explained in [[creation science]].''
: It is difficult to conceive of a mechanism by which any kind of biological "dating" mechanism could remain accurate in face of the supposedly changing levels of chemicals and solar radiation that evolutionary geologists insist upon. Even the most dedicated Darwin followers in the ranks of academia have been forced to admit that Carbon-14 dating can be wildly inaccurate for several reasons, such as naturally occurring radioactive elements in the Earth's crust.<ref>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/c14.html</ref> This is just one area of the theory of evolution which scientists have had to back away from with much embarassment. Perhaps if scientists could adopt a more open-minded tone towards those they disagree with, they could issue retractions without such fear of retribution.
* ''If creation had scientific merit, why don't they publish their evidence in peer-reviewed scientific papers?''
: The scientific establishment won't allow creationists to publish. See [[Suppression of alternatives to evolution]]. Some journals purport to accept material from all scientific perspectives, but engage in a process known as [[sham peer review]]. In normal peer review, papers are checked by two editors, independently, for methodological errors ONLY, not vetted for their content. That is the responsibility of the scientific public. During sham peer review, editors often collaborate to block publication of any literature that challenges established dogma, or their own pet theories. To make the problem worse, due to the incestuous nature of the mainstream journal editor pool, the same editor may serve on as many as a dozen different editorial boards, allowing them to spread their bias across a much larger area than an ethical editor would. Though this is widely acknowledged as a [[liberal deceit|deceitful]] practice, its scope is widely downplayed in the scientific community and is actually almost openly tolerated in some areas of science.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/peerreview/epidemic.php</ref>
* ''Creationists start with a preconception and try and fit the evidence to that. Evolutionists start with the evidence.''
: Both creationists and evolutionists have their worldview as a starting point. Evolutionists try and fit the evidence into their idea just as much as they accuse the creationists of doing.
* ''Because they are based on the Bible, creationists are not willing to change their views. Evolutionists will change their views as new evidence is found.''
: Creationists start with the Bible as the foundation of their views, but beyond that are willing to change their views as new evidence is found. Evolutionists are willing to change the details of how evolution works, but are not prepared to change their basic view that evolution did occur.
* ''Creationists are anti-science.''
: Many creationists are scientists and fully support science. They never reject science itself, and the criticism is bogus.
* ''Creationisms is not falsifiable.''
: Creationism is not less falsifiable than evolution. See [[falsifiability of Creation]] and [[Falsifiability of evolution]].
* ''Creationists want their view taught in schools, but not other creation stories.''
: Creationists have made it clear that they only want ''scientific evidence'' consistent with creation taught. Critics have not proposed any scientific evidence for other creation stories.
* ''Leading creationists know that what they promote is wrong, so they are liars.''
: Accusations like this are rarely backed by any evidence of systematic lying.

== Arguments for a recent creation ==
{{main|Arguments for a recent creation}}

[[Image:Roth-01.gif|right|thumb|350px|The arrows point to [[Paraconformity|paraconformities]] at the [[Grand Canyon]].]]

Many arguments for a recent creation have been put forward by creationary scientists, both scientific and theological arguments.

Scientific arguments include [[radiometric dating]] results that disagree with secular ages, other dating methods that do not fit with secular ages, and phenomenon showing events that occurred quickly.

There should be virtually no 14C present in carbon supposedly older than 100,000 years, yet it has proved impossible to find any such carbon without 14C.

Dating methods don't have to be based on radioactivity.
Measuring the amount of [[sodium]] in sea water, for example, and calculating how long it would take to reach those levels is another method.
Yet calculations show that the amount of sodium could not have taken longer than 62 million years to accumulate, well short of the 3,000 million year supposed age of the oceans.

[[Polystrate fossil]]s demonstrate that many layers of sedimentary rock that are normally supposed to take a long time to form can be formed quite quickly.

== Adherents of Young Earth Creationism ==

Young Earth Creationism is a subset of [[Creationism]] most commonly found among members of the [[Abrahamic religion]]s, especially [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]], and [[Islam]] (for details please see: [[Creationism]]). In regards to early Judaism and early Christianity,
early [[Judaism]] supported young earth creationism and a majority of the early church fathers held the young earth creationist view.<ref>
* James-Griffiths, James,[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v26/i2/tradition.asp Creation days and Orthodox Jewish tradition] ''Creation'' 26(2):53–55, March 2004.
* Bradshaw, Robert I., [https://robibradshaw.com/chapter3.htm Creationism & the Early Church, chapter 3, The Days of Genesis 1]
* http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/tjv16v2_forster.pdf</ref>

According to Gallup, young Earth creationism had a clear plurality of adherents in the United States until 2017, and even then it still comprised a large minority of the U.S. population.<ref>Swift, Art (May 22, 2017). [https://www.gallup.com/poll/210956/belief-creationist-view-humans-new-low.aspx?g_source=Politics&g_medium=newsfeed&g_campaign=tiles In US, Belief in Creationist View of Humans at New Low]. ''Gallup''. Retrieved June 6, 2017.</ref>

== Organizations and publications ==

=== Organizations ===

Some of the more notable young earth creationist organizations include: [[Answers in Genesis]] (America and the United Kingdom), [[Creation Ministries International]] (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, U.S.A., and United Kingdom), [[Institute for Creation Research]] (U.S.A.), [[Creation Research Society]] (U.S.A.), and NorthWest Creation Network (Washington state, U.S.A.) which founded [[CreationWiki]].

=== Magazines and newsletters ===

[[Creation Ministries International]] publishes a 56-page color magazine, ''[[Creation magazine]]'', with no paid advertising, which is distributed to 140 countries.<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3871/97</ref>

The Institute for Creation Research publishes a free monthly magazine, ''Acts & Facts'', which includes news of the organization and articles.

Answers in Genesis, which previously distributed ''Creation'', began their own magazine, ''Answers'', in 2006. It contains advertising and its target audience is primarily American.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am</ref>

=== Peer-reviewed journals ===

The [[Creation Research Society Quarterly]] is published quarterly by the Creation Research Society,<ref>http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq.html</ref> and the [[Journal of Creation]] is published three times a year by Creation Ministries International.<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3873/98</ref>

==Further reading==

* J.D. Mitchell, ''The Creation Dialogues - A Response to the Position of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Evolution, Christianity and the Bible'', Pleasant Word (Winepress Pub), 2010 ISBN 1414118007<ref>http://www.creationengineeringconcepts.org/index.php?p=1_35_THE-CREATION-DIALOGUES</ref><ref>http://www.christianbook.com/dialogues-american-association-advancement-evolution-christianity/j-d-mitchell/9781414118000/pd/118002</ref>
*Dr. [[Grady S. McMurtry]], ''Creation: Our Worldview'', TEC Publications, Columbus, GA 2010 ISBN 0-9674006-1-9
*[[Jonathan Sarfati]], ''Refuting Evolution'', Master Books, 1999 [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4014/ (Free on-line version)]
*Jonathan Sarfati, ''Refuting Evolution 2'', Master Books, 2002, ISBN 0890513872 [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4013/ (Free on-line version)]
*[[Duane Gish]], ''Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No!'', El Cajon: [[Institute for Creation Research]], 1996 <ref>https://www.icr.org/store/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=2176</ref>
*[[R.L. Wysong]], ''The Creation-Evolution Controversy''.<ref>http://www.grisda.org/origins/05105.htm</ref><ref>http://www.wysong.net/page/WOTTPWS/PROD/EDUAIDS/ED022-S</ref>
*[[Phillip E. Johnson|Phillip Johnson]], ''Darwin on Trial''. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois. 1991 <ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/darwin.html</ref>
*[[R. C. Sproul]], ''Not a Chance: The Myth of Chance in Modern Science and Cosmology'', Baker Book House: 1994 <ref>http://www.ldolphin.org/chance.html</ref><ref>http://store.apologeticsgroup.com/product_info.php?products_id=191</ref>
* [[Walt Brown]], ''In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood'', 7th Edition, 2001 [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/IntheBeginningTOC.html (free online version)]
*Jeanson, Nathaniel T. (2017). ''[https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/replacing-darwin/ Replacing Darwin: The New Origin of Species]''. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books. ISBN: 9781683440758.
*Mortenson, Terry, ed. (2016). ''[https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/searching-adam/ Searching for Adam: Genesis & the Truth About Man's Origin]''. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books. ISBN: 9780890519752.
*Boyd, Steven W.; Snelling, Andrew A. ''[https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/grappling-chronology-genesis-flood/?sku=10-3-129 Grappling with the Chronology of the Genesis Flood: Navigating the Flow of Time in Biblical Narrative]''. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books. ISBN: 9780890517093.
*Snelling, Andrew A. (2010). ''[https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/earths-catastrophic-past/?sku=10-3-124& Earth’s Catastrophic Past: Geology, Creation & the Flood]''. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books. ISBN: 9780890518748.

== See also ==

*[[Question evolution! campaign]]
{{Creation vs. evolution}}

== External links ==
*[https://creation.com/age-of-the-earth 101 evidences for a young age of the earth and the universe] by [[Creation Ministries International]]
*[https://creation.com/refuting-evolution-chapter-8-how-old-is-the-earth How old is the earth?] - ''Refuting evolution'' - Chapter 8 by Dr. [[Jonathan Sarfati]]
*[http://www.catholic.net/index.php?option=dedestaca&id=2708&grupo=Life%20%20Family&canal=Life%20and%20Bioethics The Problem of Evolution] Facts and theories of biological evolution.

History and young earth creation:

*[http://www.robibrad.demon.co.uk/Chapter3.htm Early church and the age of the earth]
*[https://creation.com/augustine-young-earth-creationist Augustine and the age of the earth]
*[https://creation.com/church-fathers-flood Church fathers and Genesis flood]

Young earth creation websites:

*[https://creation.com/ Creation Ministries International]
*[http://creationrevolution.com/ Creation Revolution]
*[https://www.icr.org Institute for Creation Research]
*[http://www.answersingenesis.org Answers in Genesis]
*[http://trueorigins.org TrueOrigins.org]
*[http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/index.html Center for Scientific Creation]
*[http://www.creationworldview.org Creation Worldview Ministries]
*[http://www.nwcreation.net/ageyoung.html Biblical Young Earth Creationism]
*[http://edinburghcreationgroup Edinburgh Creation Group]
*[http://creationwiki.org/Main_Page Creation Wiki: The Encyclopedia of Creation Science]

Articles focusing on arguments for a young earth:

*[https://answersingenesis.org/creationism/young-earth/most-compelling-scientific-evidence-of-young-earth/ What Is the Most Compelling Scientific Evidence of a Young Earth?], by Dr. Terry Mortenson at [[Answers in Genesis]]. Originally published on February 27, 2006.
*[https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/millions-of-years/seven-reasons-why-we-should-not-accept-millions-of-years/ Seven Reasons Why We Should Not Accept Millions of Years] by Dr. Terry Mortenson at [[Answers in Genesis]]. Originally published on July 17, 2006.
*[http://www.creationwiki.org/Young_earth_evidence Young earth evidence] on [[CreationWiki]]
*[http://www.nwcreation.net/young.html Evidence Supporting a Recent Creation - Northwest Creation Network]
*[https://www.icr.org/article/1842/ Evidence for a Young World - Institute for Creation Research]

Videos and movies focusing on arguments for a young earth:

*''[[Is Genesis History?]]'' (2017; [https://isgenesishistory.com/ website])
*''Genesis: Paradise Lost'' (2017; [https://genesismovie.com/ website])
*[http://edinburghcreationgroup.org/youngearth.php Evidence for a Young Earth]- Dr Marc Surtees

Profiles of important young earth biblical creation scientists:
*[http://creationsciencehalloffame.org/ Creation Science Hall of Fame]

== See also ==
*[[Creation Science]]
*[[Creation vs. Evolution Videos]]
*[[Christianity and Science]]
*[[Atheists and historical illiteracy]]
*[[List of Young Earth Creationists]]
*[[Earth Age Opinions of Prominent Christians - Pre-1800]]
*[[Literalist Bible chronology]]
=== Alternative views===
*[[Old Earth Creationism]]
*[[Theistic evolution]]
*[[Theory of Evolution]]
*[[Gap theory]]
*[[Day age creationism]]
*[[Progressive Creationism]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=35em}}

[[Category:Young Earth Creationism]]
[[Category:Creationism]]
[[Category:Abrahamic Religions]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Garden of Eden

2022-02-11T02:29:15Z

Dwaynepride: Content fix

[[Image:Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights.jpg|right|thumb|"The Earthly Paradise" (ca. 1490–95), representing the Garden of Eden; left panel of the triptych painting ''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' by Hieronymus Bosch.]]
In mythology, the '''Garden of Eden''' (Hebrew: גַּן עֵדֶן ''`edhen''; "delight") was the dwelling place for the first two humans [[God]] created - [[Adam]] and [[Eve]] - according to the [[Bible|biblical]] book of [[Genesis]]. In mythology, the Garden was a paradise of [[infinity|infinite]] happiness where [[Adam and Eve]] would never suffer any [[scarcity]], illness or death. However, Adam and Eve defied the will of God by eating the [[forbidden fruit]] (the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) at the center of the Garden, and God cast them out of the Garden so that they would no longer live forever. Genesis says that a [[cherub]] ([[angel]]) with a flaming sword then guarded the Garden of Eden to prevent humans from returning.

The Garden of Eden has inspired great literature:
*[[Shakespeare]]'s [[Hamlet]], perhaps the greatest play ever, imitates the temptation and fall in the Garden of Eden.<ref>https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Hamlet-And-The-Garden-Of-Eden-FJEYNJFW9X6</ref>
*the famous novel and movie ''[[East of Eden]]'', by [[John Steinbeck]] and starring [[James Dean]], is named after the banishment of [[Cain]] eastward from the Garden of Eden.

==Description==
Genesis describes the Garden as being "in the east, in Eden" (Gen 2:8). In the Assyrian inscriptions ''idinu'' (Accadian: ''edin'') means "plain" and it is from this that the Biblical word is probably derived. The Garden is described as having "all kinds" of trees growing in it, and two are specifically named: the [[Tree of Life]], and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the latter being in the center of the Garden (Gen 2:9). It was from this tree that Adam was told that he was forbidden to eat from (Gen 2:17). The vegetation was luxurious (Gen 2:9) and the fig tree indigenous (Gen 3:7), and where it was watered by four rivers which flowed from Eden:

:''And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.''
:''The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;''
:''And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.''
:''And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.''
:''And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.''
::(''Genesis 2:10-14; King James Version'')

Biblical scholars have determined the last two rivers mentioned to be the existing Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their headwaters in the Zagros Mountains of Iran; the other two - the Pison and Gihon rivers - were more problematic.

All kinds of animals, including cattle, beasts of the field and birds, were found there (Gen 2:19,20). Moreover, the climate was such that clothing was not needed for warmth. It is not surprising, therefore, that the plural of the word has the meaning "delights," and that Eden has been supposed to mean the land of delights, and that the word became a synonym for Paradise.

==Other Locations==
As with many passages in Genesis, there is debate among [[Christians]] whether or not the story of the Garden of Eden should be taken literally or metaphorically. If taken literally, there is debate over its location, whether in the area of eastern Turkey/northern Iran, in southern Iraq, or elsewhere in the world.

In [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the Garden of Eden (or Earthly Paradise) is situated at the top of the Mountain of [[Purgatory]] in the southern hemisphere, where we now know [[Antarctica]] to be. Those who have been through Purgatory pass through the tranquil garden before they enter [[Heaven]].

====Central Asia====
[[File:Edenmap2.png|right|200px|thumb|Claimed locations for the Garden of Eden in the Middle East]]
During his explorations to the [[South America]]n mainland [[Christopher Columbus]] made the assumption that the [[Orinoco River]] was fed by waters which came down from the Garden of Eden, despite his own thoughts that he had found the eastern coast of the Asian continent. The traditions of its location somewhere in central Asia are numerous and persistent, and naturalists have in the past pretty generally fixed upon the portion of Central Asia stretching east from the Himalayas - often referred to as the roof of the world and from which flow four great rivers: the Indus, the Tarim, the Sur Daria (Jaxartes), and the Ainu Daria (Oxus) - as the original cradle of mankind. Usually, explanations for the central Asia hypothesis involve a touch of racial superiority, i.e. mankind's ancestors were of Aryan stock. Professor S.H. Buchanan, a Biblical scholar during the late 19th century, was one of those believers, who put down in his work ''The World and the Book'':
:''“Thus everything invites us to place the Eden of the Semites (Aryans) in the mountains of Belurtag, at the point where this chain unites with the Himalaya, toward the Plateau of Pamir... We are conducted to the same point, according to Brunoff, by the most ancient and authentic texts of the Zend-Avesta. The Hindu traditions also contained in the Mahabbarata and the Puranas, converge to the same region. There is the true Meru (Ararat) (of the Hindus), the true Albordj (of the Persians), the true river Arvanda, from which all rivers take their source, according to Persian tradition. There, according to the opinions of almost all the populations of Asia, is the central point of the world, the umbilici, the gate of the universe. There is the Uttarakura; ‘the country of happiness,’ of which Magesthanes writes. There is, finally the point of common attachment of the primitive geography, both of the Semitic and the Indo-European races.”'' [http://www.israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/The_Garden_of_Eden.htm]
The Jewish historian [[Flavius Josephus]] also hinted that the Garden of Eden had a central Asian location, having written down that the land was "watered by one river, which ran around the whole earth, and was parted into four parts, and Phison, which denotes a Multitude, running from India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes into the Red Sea... and Geon runs through Egypt, and denotes what arises from the East, which the Greeks call Nile." (''Antiquities of the Jews'', Book I:I:3.)

====North Pole====
Also as the 19th century ended Dr. William F. Warren created a theory which attempted to prove that Eden was located near the North Pole. What was in support of his theory was evidence in the fossil and geological records of several lands north of the Arctic Circle of a warm climate. However, as later discoveries were to prove, the North Pole was merely an [[Arctic Ocean|ocean]] overlaid with an icecap, the nearest land hundreds of miles away. [http://www.viewzone.com/edenpole.html]

====Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf====
[[File:Adam h2.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Adam and Eve" seal (British Museum)]]
[[File:Dubai-2005 1117794540 dsc02266.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Tree of Life", Bahrain]]
Two theories locate Eden in the Euphrates valley. Of these the first place it near the head of the Persian Gulf where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet in the junction called the Shatt el-'Arab waterway, which once formed a point of conflict between Iraq and Iran. Recent authorities suggest that Gihon and Pishon are represented by the Karum and the Kerkhah rivers which come into the Shatt el-'Arab from the east. The most plausible objection to this theory is that the Biblical account represents all these branches as down stream from the main river, whereas this theory supposes that two of them at least are up stream. This objection has been ingeniously met by calling attention to the fact that 2,000 years before Christ the Persian Gulf extended up as far as Eridu, 100 miles above the present mouth of the river, and that the Tigris and the Euphrates then entered the head of the Gulf through separate channels, with the enormous amount of silt brought down by the streams during the centuries since havinf created the dry land which exists today. In consequence of the tides which extend up to the head of the Gulf, the current of all these streams would be turned up stream periodically, and so account for the Biblical statement. In this case the river (''nahar'') would be represented by the Persian Gulf itself, which was once called by the Babylonians ''nar marratum'', "the bitter river." This theory is further supported by the fact that according to the cuneiform inscriptions Eridu was reputed to have in its neighborhood a garden, "a holy place," in which there grew a sacred palm tree. This "tree of life" appears frequently upon the inscriptions with two guardian spirits standing on either side.

The other theory, postulated by Friedrich Delitzsch, places Eden just above the site of ancient Babylon, where the Tigris and Euphrates approach to within a short distance of one another and where the country is intersected by numerous irrigating streams which put off from the Euphrates and flow into the Tigris, whose level is here considerably lower than that of the Euphrates. Delitzsch assumed the Shatt el-Nil, which flows eastward into the Tigris, to be the Gihon, and the Pallacopas, flowing on the West side of the Euphrates through a region producing gold, to be the Pishon. The chief difficulties attending this theory pertain to the identification of the Pishon with the Pallacopas, and the location of Havilah on its banks. The difficulty in these theories is the identification of Cush ([[Ethiopia]]), later associated with the country on the horn of Africa, thus giving countenance to the belief of Josephus and many others that that river represented the Gihon.

In the island nation of [[Bahrain]] stands the Shajarat al-Hayah, the Tree of Life. A major tourist attraction in the smallest Arab country, this tree stands alone in the middle of a desert with no known source of water feeding it, and comparrisons to the tree of Eden have been made. [http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/bahrain/sightseeing-in-bahrain/tree-of-life-in-bahrain.html][http://www.mapsofworld.com/bahrain/bahrain-travel-guide/bahrain-sightseeing/tree-of-life-bahrain.html]

==David Rohl==
[[File:RohlsEden.jpg|right|260px|thumb|Location of the Garden of Eden, as proposed by David Rohl]]
British archaeologist and anthropologist David Rohl claimed to have found the precise location of the Garden of Eden after over a decade of studying ancient documents, including the Sumerian tablets held at the Museum of the Orient in Istanbul, Turkey. His conclusion is that the location conforms to an area northwest of Teheran, Iran, in a valley watered by a small river in which the locals call ''Adji Chay'' ("walled garden"); indeed, the entire valley is surrounded by mountains, with the dormant volcano Mt. Sahand sutuated on the southwest corner. On the northside of the valley rises ''Kusheh Daugh'' (mountain of Kush), which Rohl claims to be the source for the "land of Cush" (i.e. Ethiopia) of the Genesis account.

To help establish this belief, Rohl turned to an ancient source, the Sumerian cuneiform epic ''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,'' which was written possibly 5,000 years ago by an emissary of the Sumerian priest-king of Uruk [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1823.htm]. Gold and lapus lazuli were needed to build a temple, and an emissary was dispatched to Aratta "on the plain of ''Edin''" - as the Sumerians referred to the area - to retrieve them. The two rivers scholars had a problem with - the Pison and Gihon - were identified with the Araxes and Uizhun rivers, which puts the headwaters of all four rivers into his Eden. Further, Rohl's equivalent to the Pishon - the Araxes - which the Bible identifies with gold, flows between ancient cold and lapus lazuli mines, and is known locally as the Golden River.

To strengthen his claim, Rohl identified the area to the east of his Eden valley as the "land of Nod", to which Cain fled to after he killed his brother Abel (Gen 4:1-16)[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%204:1-16;]; the locals call it "Noqdi" today.

==References==

<References/>
{{DivineComedy}}

[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Biblical Places]]

Garden of Eden

2022-02-11T02:19:51Z

Dwaynepride: Clarified

[[Image:Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights.jpg|right|thumb|"The Earthly Paradise" (ca. 1490–95), representing the Garden of Eden; left panel of the triptych painting ''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' by Hieronymus Bosch.]]
In mythology, the so called '''Garden of Eden''' (Hebrew: גַּן עֵדֶן ''`edhen''; "delight") was the dwelling place for the first two humans [[God]] created - [[Adam]] and [[Eve]] - according to the [[Bible|biblical]] book of [[Genesis]]. In mythology, The "Garden" was a paradise of [[infinity|infinite]] happiness where [[Adam and Eve]] would never suffer any [[scarcity]], illness or death. However, Adam and Eve defied the will of God by eating the [[forbidden fruit]] (the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) at the center of the Garden, and God cast them out of the Garden so that they would no longer live forever. Genesis says that a [[cherub]] ([[angel]]) with a flaming sword then guarded the Garden of Eden to prevent humans from returning.

The Garden of Eden has inspired great literature:
*[[Shakespeare]]'s [[Hamlet]], perhaps the greatest play ever, imitates the temptation and fall in the Garden of Eden.<ref>https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Hamlet-And-The-Garden-Of-Eden-FJEYNJFW9X6</ref>
*the famous novel and movie ''[[East of Eden]]'', by [[John Steinbeck]] and starring [[James Dean]], is named after the banishment of [[Cain]] eastward from the Garden of Eden.

==Description==
Genesis describes the Garden as being "in the east, in Eden" (Gen 2:8). In the Assyrian inscriptions ''idinu'' (Accadian: ''edin'') means "plain" and it is from this that the Biblical word is probably derived. The Garden is described as having "all kinds" of trees growing in it, and two are specifically named: the [[Tree of Life]], and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the latter being in the center of the Garden (Gen 2:9). It was from this tree that Adam was told that he was forbidden to eat from (Gen 2:17). The vegetation was luxurious (Gen 2:9) and the fig tree indigenous (Gen 3:7), and where it was watered by four rivers which flowed from Eden:

:''And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.''
:''The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;''
:''And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.''
:''And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.''
:''And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.''
::(''Genesis 2:10-14; King James Version'')

Biblical scholars have determined the last two rivers mentioned to be the existing Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their headwaters in the Zagros Mountains of Iran; the other two - the Pison and Gihon rivers - were more problematic.

All kinds of animals, including cattle, beasts of the field and birds, were found there (Gen 2:19,20). Moreover, the climate was such that clothing was not needed for warmth. It is not surprising, therefore, that the plural of the word has the meaning "delights," and that Eden has been supposed to mean the land of delights, and that the word became a synonym for Paradise.

==Other Locations==
As with many passages in Genesis, there is debate among [[Christians]] whether or not the story of the Garden of Eden should be taken literally or metaphorically. If taken literally, there is debate over its location, whether in the area of eastern Turkey/northern Iran, in southern Iraq, or elsewhere in the world.

In [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the Garden of Eden (or Earthly Paradise) is situated at the top of the Mountain of [[Purgatory]] in the southern hemisphere, where we now know [[Antarctica]] to be. Those who have been through Purgatory pass through the tranquil garden before they enter [[Heaven]].

====Central Asia====
[[File:Edenmap2.png|right|200px|thumb|Claimed locations for the Garden of Eden in the Middle East]]
During his explorations to the [[South America]]n mainland [[Christopher Columbus]] made the assumption that the [[Orinoco River]] was fed by waters which came down from the Garden of Eden, despite his own thoughts that he had found the eastern coast of the Asian continent. The traditions of its location somewhere in central Asia are numerous and persistent, and naturalists have in the past pretty generally fixed upon the portion of Central Asia stretching east from the Himalayas - often referred to as the roof of the world and from which flow four great rivers: the Indus, the Tarim, the Sur Daria (Jaxartes), and the Ainu Daria (Oxus) - as the original cradle of mankind. Usually, explanations for the central Asia hypothesis involve a touch of racial superiority, i.e. mankind's ancestors were of Aryan stock. Professor S.H. Buchanan, a Biblical scholar during the late 19th century, was one of those believers, who put down in his work ''The World and the Book'':
:''“Thus everything invites us to place the Eden of the Semites (Aryans) in the mountains of Belurtag, at the point where this chain unites with the Himalaya, toward the Plateau of Pamir... We are conducted to the same point, according to Brunoff, by the most ancient and authentic texts of the Zend-Avesta. The Hindu traditions also contained in the Mahabbarata and the Puranas, converge to the same region. There is the true Meru (Ararat) (of the Hindus), the true Albordj (of the Persians), the true river Arvanda, from which all rivers take their source, according to Persian tradition. There, according to the opinions of almost all the populations of Asia, is the central point of the world, the umbilici, the gate of the universe. There is the Uttarakura; ‘the country of happiness,’ of which Magesthanes writes. There is, finally the point of common attachment of the primitive geography, both of the Semitic and the Indo-European races.”'' [http://www.israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/The_Garden_of_Eden.htm]
The Jewish historian [[Flavius Josephus]] also hinted that the Garden of Eden had a central Asian location, having written down that the land was "watered by one river, which ran around the whole earth, and was parted into four parts, and Phison, which denotes a Multitude, running from India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes into the Red Sea... and Geon runs through Egypt, and denotes what arises from the East, which the Greeks call Nile." (''Antiquities of the Jews'', Book I:I:3.)

====North Pole====
Also as the 19th century ended Dr. William F. Warren created a theory which attempted to prove that Eden was located near the North Pole. What was in support of his theory was evidence in the fossil and geological records of several lands north of the Arctic Circle of a warm climate. However, as later discoveries were to prove, the North Pole was merely an [[Arctic Ocean|ocean]] overlaid with an icecap, the nearest land hundreds of miles away. [http://www.viewzone.com/edenpole.html]

====Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf====
[[File:Adam h2.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Adam and Eve" seal (British Museum)]]
[[File:Dubai-2005 1117794540 dsc02266.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Tree of Life", Bahrain]]
Two theories locate Eden in the Euphrates valley. Of these the first place it near the head of the Persian Gulf where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet in the junction called the Shatt el-'Arab waterway, which once formed a point of conflict between Iraq and Iran. Recent authorities suggest that Gihon and Pishon are represented by the Karum and the Kerkhah rivers which come into the Shatt el-'Arab from the east. The most plausible objection to this theory is that the Biblical account represents all these branches as down stream from the main river, whereas this theory supposes that two of them at least are up stream. This objection has been ingeniously met by calling attention to the fact that 2,000 years before Christ the Persian Gulf extended up as far as Eridu, 100 miles above the present mouth of the river, and that the Tigris and the Euphrates then entered the head of the Gulf through separate channels, with the enormous amount of silt brought down by the streams during the centuries since havinf created the dry land which exists today. In consequence of the tides which extend up to the head of the Gulf, the current of all these streams would be turned up stream periodically, and so account for the Biblical statement. In this case the river (''nahar'') would be represented by the Persian Gulf itself, which was once called by the Babylonians ''nar marratum'', "the bitter river." This theory is further supported by the fact that according to the cuneiform inscriptions Eridu was reputed to have in its neighborhood a garden, "a holy place," in which there grew a sacred palm tree. This "tree of life" appears frequently upon the inscriptions with two guardian spirits standing on either side.

The other theory, postulated by Friedrich Delitzsch, places Eden just above the site of ancient Babylon, where the Tigris and Euphrates approach to within a short distance of one another and where the country is intersected by numerous irrigating streams which put off from the Euphrates and flow into the Tigris, whose level is here considerably lower than that of the Euphrates. Delitzsch assumed the Shatt el-Nil, which flows eastward into the Tigris, to be the Gihon, and the Pallacopas, flowing on the West side of the Euphrates through a region producing gold, to be the Pishon. The chief difficulties attending this theory pertain to the identification of the Pishon with the Pallacopas, and the location of Havilah on its banks. The difficulty in these theories is the identification of Cush ([[Ethiopia]]), later associated with the country on the horn of Africa, thus giving countenance to the belief of Josephus and many others that that river represented the Gihon.

In the island nation of [[Bahrain]] stands the Shajarat al-Hayah, the Tree of Life. A major tourist attraction in the smallest Arab country, this tree stands alone in the middle of a desert with no known source of water feeding it, and comparrisons to the tree of Eden have been made. [http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/bahrain/sightseeing-in-bahrain/tree-of-life-in-bahrain.html][http://www.mapsofworld.com/bahrain/bahrain-travel-guide/bahrain-sightseeing/tree-of-life-bahrain.html]

==David Rohl==
[[File:RohlsEden.jpg|right|260px|thumb|Location of the Garden of Eden, as proposed by David Rohl]]
British archaeologist and anthropologist David Rohl claimed to have found the precise location of the Garden of Eden after over a decade of studying ancient documents, including the Sumerian tablets held at the Museum of the Orient in Istanbul, Turkey. His conclusion is that the location conforms to an area northwest of Teheran, Iran, in a valley watered by a small river in which the locals call ''Adji Chay'' ("walled garden"); indeed, the entire valley is surrounded by mountains, with the dormant volcano Mt. Sahand sutuated on the southwest corner. On the northside of the valley rises ''Kusheh Daugh'' (mountain of Kush), which Rohl claims to be the source for the "land of Cush" (i.e. Ethiopia) of the Genesis account.

To help establish this belief, Rohl turned to an ancient source, the Sumerian cuneiform epic ''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,'' which was written possibly 5,000 years ago by an emissary of the Sumerian priest-king of Uruk [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1823.htm]. Gold and lapus lazuli were needed to build a temple, and an emissary was dispatched to Aratta "on the plain of ''Edin''" - as the Sumerians referred to the area - to retrieve them. The two rivers scholars had a problem with - the Pison and Gihon - were identified with the Araxes and Uizhun rivers, which puts the headwaters of all four rivers into his Eden. Further, Rohl's equivalent to the Pishon - the Araxes - which the Bible identifies with gold, flows between ancient cold and lapus lazuli mines, and is known locally as the Golden River.

To strengthen his claim, Rohl identified the area to the east of his Eden valley as the "land of Nod", to which Cain fled to after he killed his brother Abel (Gen 4:1-16)[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%204:1-16;]; the locals call it "Noqdi" today.

==References==

<References/>
{{DivineComedy}}

[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Biblical Places]]

Garden of Eden

2022-02-11T02:17:48Z

Dwaynepride: Typo

[[Image:Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights.jpg|right|thumb|"The Earthly Paradise" (ca. 1490–95), representing the Garden of Eden; left panel of the triptych painting ''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' by Hieronymus Bosch.]]
In mythology, the so called '''Garden of Eden''' (Hebrew: גַּן עֵדֶן ''`edhen''; "delight") was the dwelling place for the first two humans [[God]] created - [[Adam]] and [[Eve]] - according to the [[Bible|biblical]] book of [[Genesis]]. The Garden was a paradise of [[infinity|infinite]] happiness where [[Adam and Eve]] would never suffer any [[scarcity]], illness or death. However, Adam and Eve defied the will of God by eating the [[forbidden fruit]] (the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) at the center of the Garden, and God cast them out of the Garden so that they would no longer live forever. Genesis says that a [[cherub]] ([[angel]]) with a flaming sword then guarded the Garden of Eden to prevent humans from returning.

The Garden of Eden has inspired great literature:
*[[Shakespeare]]'s [[Hamlet]], perhaps the greatest play ever, imitates the temptation and fall in the Garden of Eden.<ref>https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Hamlet-And-The-Garden-Of-Eden-FJEYNJFW9X6</ref>
*the famous novel and movie ''[[East of Eden]]'', by [[John Steinbeck]] and starring [[James Dean]], is named after the banishment of [[Cain]] eastward from the Garden of Eden.

==Description==
Genesis describes the Garden as being "in the east, in Eden" (Gen 2:8). In the Assyrian inscriptions ''idinu'' (Accadian: ''edin'') means "plain" and it is from this that the Biblical word is probably derived. The Garden is described as having "all kinds" of trees growing in it, and two are specifically named: the [[Tree of Life]], and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the latter being in the center of the Garden (Gen 2:9). It was from this tree that Adam was told that he was forbidden to eat from (Gen 2:17). The vegetation was luxurious (Gen 2:9) and the fig tree indigenous (Gen 3:7), and where it was watered by four rivers which flowed from Eden:

:''And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.''
:''The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;''
:''And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.''
:''And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.''
:''And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.''
::(''Genesis 2:10-14; King James Version'')

Biblical scholars have determined the last two rivers mentioned to be the existing Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their headwaters in the Zagros Mountains of Iran; the other two - the Pison and Gihon rivers - were more problematic.

All kinds of animals, including cattle, beasts of the field and birds, were found there (Gen 2:19,20). Moreover, the climate was such that clothing was not needed for warmth. It is not surprising, therefore, that the plural of the word has the meaning "delights," and that Eden has been supposed to mean the land of delights, and that the word became a synonym for Paradise.

==Other Locations==
As with many passages in Genesis, there is debate among [[Christians]] whether or not the story of the Garden of Eden should be taken literally or metaphorically. If taken literally, there is debate over its location, whether in the area of eastern Turkey/northern Iran, in southern Iraq, or elsewhere in the world.

In [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the Garden of Eden (or Earthly Paradise) is situated at the top of the Mountain of [[Purgatory]] in the southern hemisphere, where we now know [[Antarctica]] to be. Those who have been through Purgatory pass through the tranquil garden before they enter [[Heaven]].

====Central Asia====
[[File:Edenmap2.png|right|200px|thumb|Claimed locations for the Garden of Eden in the Middle East]]
During his explorations to the [[South America]]n mainland [[Christopher Columbus]] made the assumption that the [[Orinoco River]] was fed by waters which came down from the Garden of Eden, despite his own thoughts that he had found the eastern coast of the Asian continent. The traditions of its location somewhere in central Asia are numerous and persistent, and naturalists have in the past pretty generally fixed upon the portion of Central Asia stretching east from the Himalayas - often referred to as the roof of the world and from which flow four great rivers: the Indus, the Tarim, the Sur Daria (Jaxartes), and the Ainu Daria (Oxus) - as the original cradle of mankind. Usually, explanations for the central Asia hypothesis involve a touch of racial superiority, i.e. mankind's ancestors were of Aryan stock. Professor S.H. Buchanan, a Biblical scholar during the late 19th century, was one of those believers, who put down in his work ''The World and the Book'':
:''“Thus everything invites us to place the Eden of the Semites (Aryans) in the mountains of Belurtag, at the point where this chain unites with the Himalaya, toward the Plateau of Pamir... We are conducted to the same point, according to Brunoff, by the most ancient and authentic texts of the Zend-Avesta. The Hindu traditions also contained in the Mahabbarata and the Puranas, converge to the same region. There is the true Meru (Ararat) (of the Hindus), the true Albordj (of the Persians), the true river Arvanda, from which all rivers take their source, according to Persian tradition. There, according to the opinions of almost all the populations of Asia, is the central point of the world, the umbilici, the gate of the universe. There is the Uttarakura; ‘the country of happiness,’ of which Magesthanes writes. There is, finally the point of common attachment of the primitive geography, both of the Semitic and the Indo-European races.”'' [http://www.israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/The_Garden_of_Eden.htm]
The Jewish historian [[Flavius Josephus]] also hinted that the Garden of Eden had a central Asian location, having written down that the land was "watered by one river, which ran around the whole earth, and was parted into four parts, and Phison, which denotes a Multitude, running from India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes into the Red Sea... and Geon runs through Egypt, and denotes what arises from the East, which the Greeks call Nile." (''Antiquities of the Jews'', Book I:I:3.)

====North Pole====
Also as the 19th century ended Dr. William F. Warren created a theory which attempted to prove that Eden was located near the North Pole. What was in support of his theory was evidence in the fossil and geological records of several lands north of the Arctic Circle of a warm climate. However, as later discoveries were to prove, the North Pole was merely an [[Arctic Ocean|ocean]] overlaid with an icecap, the nearest land hundreds of miles away. [http://www.viewzone.com/edenpole.html]

====Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf====
[[File:Adam h2.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Adam and Eve" seal (British Museum)]]
[[File:Dubai-2005 1117794540 dsc02266.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Tree of Life", Bahrain]]
Two theories locate Eden in the Euphrates valley. Of these the first place it near the head of the Persian Gulf where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet in the junction called the Shatt el-'Arab waterway, which once formed a point of conflict between Iraq and Iran. Recent authorities suggest that Gihon and Pishon are represented by the Karum and the Kerkhah rivers which come into the Shatt el-'Arab from the east. The most plausible objection to this theory is that the Biblical account represents all these branches as down stream from the main river, whereas this theory supposes that two of them at least are up stream. This objection has been ingeniously met by calling attention to the fact that 2,000 years before Christ the Persian Gulf extended up as far as Eridu, 100 miles above the present mouth of the river, and that the Tigris and the Euphrates then entered the head of the Gulf through separate channels, with the enormous amount of silt brought down by the streams during the centuries since havinf created the dry land which exists today. In consequence of the tides which extend up to the head of the Gulf, the current of all these streams would be turned up stream periodically, and so account for the Biblical statement. In this case the river (''nahar'') would be represented by the Persian Gulf itself, which was once called by the Babylonians ''nar marratum'', "the bitter river." This theory is further supported by the fact that according to the cuneiform inscriptions Eridu was reputed to have in its neighborhood a garden, "a holy place," in which there grew a sacred palm tree. This "tree of life" appears frequently upon the inscriptions with two guardian spirits standing on either side.

The other theory, postulated by Friedrich Delitzsch, places Eden just above the site of ancient Babylon, where the Tigris and Euphrates approach to within a short distance of one another and where the country is intersected by numerous irrigating streams which put off from the Euphrates and flow into the Tigris, whose level is here considerably lower than that of the Euphrates. Delitzsch assumed the Shatt el-Nil, which flows eastward into the Tigris, to be the Gihon, and the Pallacopas, flowing on the West side of the Euphrates through a region producing gold, to be the Pishon. The chief difficulties attending this theory pertain to the identification of the Pishon with the Pallacopas, and the location of Havilah on its banks. The difficulty in these theories is the identification of Cush ([[Ethiopia]]), later associated with the country on the horn of Africa, thus giving countenance to the belief of Josephus and many others that that river represented the Gihon.

In the island nation of [[Bahrain]] stands the Shajarat al-Hayah, the Tree of Life. A major tourist attraction in the smallest Arab country, this tree stands alone in the middle of a desert with no known source of water feeding it, and comparrisons to the tree of Eden have been made. [http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/bahrain/sightseeing-in-bahrain/tree-of-life-in-bahrain.html][http://www.mapsofworld.com/bahrain/bahrain-travel-guide/bahrain-sightseeing/tree-of-life-bahrain.html]

==David Rohl==
[[File:RohlsEden.jpg|right|260px|thumb|Location of the Garden of Eden, as proposed by David Rohl]]
British archaeologist and anthropologist David Rohl claimed to have found the precise location of the Garden of Eden after over a decade of studying ancient documents, including the Sumerian tablets held at the Museum of the Orient in Istanbul, Turkey. His conclusion is that the location conforms to an area northwest of Teheran, Iran, in a valley watered by a small river in which the locals call ''Adji Chay'' ("walled garden"); indeed, the entire valley is surrounded by mountains, with the dormant volcano Mt. Sahand sutuated on the southwest corner. On the northside of the valley rises ''Kusheh Daugh'' (mountain of Kush), which Rohl claims to be the source for the "land of Cush" (i.e. Ethiopia) of the Genesis account.

To help establish this belief, Rohl turned to an ancient source, the Sumerian cuneiform epic ''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,'' which was written possibly 5,000 years ago by an emissary of the Sumerian priest-king of Uruk [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1823.htm]. Gold and lapus lazuli were needed to build a temple, and an emissary was dispatched to Aratta "on the plain of ''Edin''" - as the Sumerians referred to the area - to retrieve them. The two rivers scholars had a problem with - the Pison and Gihon - were identified with the Araxes and Uizhun rivers, which puts the headwaters of all four rivers into his Eden. Further, Rohl's equivalent to the Pishon - the Araxes - which the Bible identifies with gold, flows between ancient cold and lapus lazuli mines, and is known locally as the Golden River.

To strengthen his claim, Rohl identified the area to the east of his Eden valley as the "land of Nod", to which Cain fled to after he killed his brother Abel (Gen 4:1-16)[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%204:1-16;]; the locals call it "Noqdi" today.

==References==

<References/>
{{DivineComedy}}

[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Biblical Places]]

Garden of Eden

2022-02-11T01:24:43Z

Dwaynepride: Typo

[[Image:Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights.jpg|right|thumb|"The Earthly Paradise" (ca. 1490–95), representing the Garden of Eden; left panel of the triptych painting ''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' by Hieronymus Bosch.]]
According to mythology, The '''Garden of Eden''' (Hebrew: גַּן עֵדֶן ''`edhen''; "delight") was the dwelling place for the first two humans [[God]] created - [[Adam]] and [[Eve]] - according to the [[Bible|biblical]] book of [[Genesis]]. The Garden was a paradise of [[infinity|infinite]] happiness where [[Adam and Eve]] would never suffer any [[scarcity]], illness or death. However, Adam and Eve defied the will of God by eating the [[forbidden fruit]] (the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) at the center of the Garden, and God cast them out of the Garden so that they would no longer live forever. Genesis says that a [[cherub]] ([[angel]]) with a flaming sword then guarded the Garden of Eden to prevent humans from returning.

The Garden of Eden has inspired great literature:
*[[Shakespeare]]'s [[Hamlet]], perhaps the greatest play ever, imitates the temptation and fall in the Garden of Eden.<ref>https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Hamlet-And-The-Garden-Of-Eden-FJEYNJFW9X6</ref>
*the famous novel and movie ''[[East of Eden]]'', by [[John Steinbeck]] and starring [[James Dean]], is named after the banishment of [[Cain]] eastward from the Garden of Eden.

==Description==
Genesis describes the Garden as being "in the east, in Eden" (Gen 2:8). In the Assyrian inscriptions ''idinu'' (Accadian: ''edin'') means "plain" and it is from this that the Biblical word is probably derived. The Garden is described as having "all kinds" of trees growing in it, and two are specifically named: the [[Tree of Life]], and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the latter being in the center of the Garden (Gen 2:9). It was from this tree that Adam was told that he was forbidden to eat from (Gen 2:17). The vegetation was luxurious (Gen 2:9) and the fig tree indigenous (Gen 3:7), and where it was watered by four rivers which flowed from Eden:

:''And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.''
:''The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;''
:''And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.''
:''And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.''
:''And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.''
::(''Genesis 2:10-14; King James Version'')

Biblical scholars have determined the last two rivers mentioned to be the existing Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their headwaters in the Zagros Mountains of Iran; the other two - the Pison and Gihon rivers - were more problematic.

All kinds of animals, including cattle, beasts of the field and birds, were found there (Gen 2:19,20). Moreover, the climate was such that clothing was not needed for warmth. It is not surprising, therefore, that the plural of the word has the meaning "delights," and that Eden has been supposed to mean the land of delights, and that the word became a synonym for Paradise.

==Other Locations==
As with many passages in Genesis, there is debate among [[Christians]] whether or not the story of the Garden of Eden should be taken literally or metaphorically. If taken literally, there is debate over its location, whether in the area of eastern Turkey/northern Iran, in southern Iraq, or elsewhere in the world.

In [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the Garden of Eden (or Earthly Paradise) is situated at the top of the Mountain of [[Purgatory]] in the southern hemisphere, where we now know [[Antarctica]] to be. Those who have been through Purgatory pass through the tranquil garden before they enter [[Heaven]].

====Central Asia====
[[File:Edenmap2.png|right|200px|thumb|Claimed locations for the Garden of Eden in the Middle East]]
During his explorations to the [[South America]]n mainland [[Christopher Columbus]] made the assumption that the [[Orinoco River]] was fed by waters which came down from the Garden of Eden, despite his own thoughts that he had found the eastern coast of the Asian continent. The traditions of its location somewhere in central Asia are numerous and persistent, and naturalists have in the past pretty generally fixed upon the portion of Central Asia stretching east from the Himalayas - often referred to as the roof of the world and from which flow four great rivers: the Indus, the Tarim, the Sur Daria (Jaxartes), and the Ainu Daria (Oxus) - as the original cradle of mankind. Usually, explanations for the central Asia hypothesis involve a touch of racial superiority, i.e. mankind's ancestors were of Aryan stock. Professor S.H. Buchanan, a Biblical scholar during the late 19th century, was one of those believers, who put down in his work ''The World and the Book'':
:''“Thus everything invites us to place the Eden of the Semites (Aryans) in the mountains of Belurtag, at the point where this chain unites with the Himalaya, toward the Plateau of Pamir... We are conducted to the same point, according to Brunoff, by the most ancient and authentic texts of the Zend-Avesta. The Hindu traditions also contained in the Mahabbarata and the Puranas, converge to the same region. There is the true Meru (Ararat) (of the Hindus), the true Albordj (of the Persians), the true river Arvanda, from which all rivers take their source, according to Persian tradition. There, according to the opinions of almost all the populations of Asia, is the central point of the world, the umbilici, the gate of the universe. There is the Uttarakura; ‘the country of happiness,’ of which Magesthanes writes. There is, finally the point of common attachment of the primitive geography, both of the Semitic and the Indo-European races.”'' [http://www.israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/The_Garden_of_Eden.htm]
The Jewish historian [[Flavius Josephus]] also hinted that the Garden of Eden had a central Asian location, having written down that the land was "watered by one river, which ran around the whole earth, and was parted into four parts, and Phison, which denotes a Multitude, running from India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes into the Red Sea... and Geon runs through Egypt, and denotes what arises from the East, which the Greeks call Nile." (''Antiquities of the Jews'', Book I:I:3.)

====North Pole====
Also as the 19th century ended Dr. William F. Warren created a theory which attempted to prove that Eden was located near the North Pole. What was in support of his theory was evidence in the fossil and geological records of several lands north of the Arctic Circle of a warm climate. However, as later discoveries were to prove, the North Pole was merely an [[Arctic Ocean|ocean]] overlaid with an icecap, the nearest land hundreds of miles away. [http://www.viewzone.com/edenpole.html]

====Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf====
[[File:Adam h2.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Adam and Eve" seal (British Museum)]]
[[File:Dubai-2005 1117794540 dsc02266.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The "Tree of Life", Bahrain]]
Two theories locate Eden in the Euphrates valley. Of these the first place it near the head of the Persian Gulf where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet in the junction called the Shatt el-'Arab waterway, which once formed a point of conflict between Iraq and Iran. Recent authorities suggest that Gihon and Pishon are represented by the Karum and the Kerkhah rivers which come into the Shatt el-'Arab from the east. The most plausible objection to this theory is that the Biblical account represents all these branches as down stream from the main river, whereas this theory supposes that two of them at least are up stream. This objection has been ingeniously met by calling attention to the fact that 2,000 years before Christ the Persian Gulf extended up as far as Eridu, 100 miles above the present mouth of the river, and that the Tigris and the Euphrates then entered the head of the Gulf through separate channels, with the enormous amount of silt brought down by the streams during the centuries since havinf created the dry land which exists today. In consequence of the tides which extend up to the head of the Gulf, the current of all these streams would be turned up stream periodically, and so account for the Biblical statement. In this case the river (''nahar'') would be represented by the Persian Gulf itself, which was once called by the Babylonians ''nar marratum'', "the bitter river." This theory is further supported by the fact that according to the cuneiform inscriptions Eridu was reputed to have in its neighborhood a garden, "a holy place," in which there grew a sacred palm tree. This "tree of life" appears frequently upon the inscriptions with two guardian spirits standing on either side.

The other theory, postulated by Friedrich Delitzsch, places Eden just above the site of ancient Babylon, where the Tigris and Euphrates approach to within a short distance of one another and where the country is intersected by numerous irrigating streams which put off from the Euphrates and flow into the Tigris, whose level is here considerably lower than that of the Euphrates. Delitzsch assumed the Shatt el-Nil, which flows eastward into the Tigris, to be the Gihon, and the Pallacopas, flowing on the West side of the Euphrates through a region producing gold, to be the Pishon. The chief difficulties attending this theory pertain to the identification of the Pishon with the Pallacopas, and the location of Havilah on its banks. The difficulty in these theories is the identification of Cush ([[Ethiopia]]), later associated with the country on the horn of Africa, thus giving countenance to the belief of Josephus and many others that that river represented the Gihon.

In the island nation of [[Bahrain]] stands the Shajarat al-Hayah, the Tree of Life. A major tourist attraction in the smallest Arab country, this tree stands alone in the middle of a desert with no known source of water feeding it, and comparrisons to the tree of Eden have been made. [http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/bahrain/sightseeing-in-bahrain/tree-of-life-in-bahrain.html][http://www.mapsofworld.com/bahrain/bahrain-travel-guide/bahrain-sightseeing/tree-of-life-bahrain.html]

==David Rohl==
[[File:RohlsEden.jpg|right|260px|thumb|Location of the Garden of Eden, as proposed by David Rohl]]
British archaeologist and anthropologist David Rohl claimed to have found the precise location of the Garden of Eden after over a decade of studying ancient documents, including the Sumerian tablets held at the Museum of the Orient in Istanbul, Turkey. His conclusion is that the location conforms to an area northwest of Teheran, Iran, in a valley watered by a small river in which the locals call ''Adji Chay'' ("walled garden"); indeed, the entire valley is surrounded by mountains, with the dormant volcano Mt. Sahand sutuated on the southwest corner. On the northside of the valley rises ''Kusheh Daugh'' (mountain of Kush), which Rohl claims to be the source for the "land of Cush" (i.e. Ethiopia) of the Genesis account.

To help establish this belief, Rohl turned to an ancient source, the Sumerian cuneiform epic ''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,'' which was written possibly 5,000 years ago by an emissary of the Sumerian priest-king of Uruk [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1823.htm]. Gold and lapus lazuli were needed to build a temple, and an emissary was dispatched to Aratta "on the plain of ''Edin''" - as the Sumerians referred to the area - to retrieve them. The two rivers scholars had a problem with - the Pison and Gihon - were identified with the Araxes and Uizhun rivers, which puts the headwaters of all four rivers into his Eden. Further, Rohl's equivalent to the Pishon - the Araxes - which the Bible identifies with gold, flows between ancient cold and lapus lazuli mines, and is known locally as the Golden River.

To strengthen his claim, Rohl identified the area to the east of his Eden valley as the "land of Nod", to which Cain fled to after he killed his brother Abel (Gen 4:1-16)[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%204:1-16;]; the locals call it "Noqdi" today.

==References==

<References/>
{{DivineComedy}}

[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Biblical Places]]

Judicial activism

2022-02-11T01:23:32Z

Dwaynepride: Content

{| class="infobox bordered" style="font-size:95%; width:25em;"
! style="font-size:120%; background:red; text-align:center; padding:5px 0;" | Judicial activism and revolution
|-
| style="padding:15px;" |If you want to perform a [[revolution]], i.e. to fundamentally change the society and turn its values upside down, there are in essence three ways how to achieve for it:
#You can armor yourself and your friends and make and [[Coup d'etat|coup d'état]] attempt, a violent putsch as [[Bolshevik]]s did in [[Revolution of 1917|1917]]. This is however associated with putting your life at stake.
#The second option is to campaign before [[democratic]] [[elections]] in order to win the majority of voters, and then change the [[law]] in [[parliament]]. However, who has been in [[politics]] knows well how difficult it is to convince the [[public opinion]].
#Last decades show that the easiest way to implement a revolution goes through the courts. You can only be a [[interest group|small group]]. You can even be completely alone. But if you have "your people" at the [[supreme court]] of the country, people who think like you, you have won. The court decides and the majority of citizens who firmly disagree with the ruling cannot help it. This is called judicial activism. Those who do not use napkins in front of their mouths speak also of judicial [[imperialism]].<div style="padding-left:40px;">— Vladimír Palko<ref name="Palko2009">{{cite journal |title=Revolucionári v talároch (Revolutionaries in gowns) |author=Vladimír Palko |journal=Impulz |issue=4 |volume=2009 |url=http://www.impulzrevue.sk/article.php?515 |quote=Ak chcete uskutočniť revolúciu, od základu zmeniť spoločnosť a prevrátiť jej hodnoty hore nohami, máte tri možnosti. Môžete vyzbrojiť seba a svojich spoločníkov a urobiť násilný prevrat. Boľševici tak urobili v roku 1917 v Rusku. Samozrejme, môžete pri tom prísť o život. Druhá možnosť je agitovať, získavať hlasy, vo voľbách získať väčšinu, a potom zmeniť zákony v parlamente. Pravda, kto bol v politike, vie, ako ťažko sa získava väčšina. Posledných päťdesiat rokov ukazuje, že najschodnejšia cesta uskutočnenia revolúcie ide cez súdy. Môžete byť iba malou skupinkou. Môžete byť dokonca úplne sám. Ak máte na najvyššom súde krajiny „svojich ľudí“, ľudí, ktorí rozmýšľajú ako vy, máte vyhraté. Súd rozhodne a väčšina občanov, ktorá s rozhodnutím bytostne nesúhlasí, si nepomôže. Toto sa nazýva súdnym aktivizmom. Tí, čo si nedávajú servítok pred ústa, tiež hovoria o súdnom imperializme. ...Kolískou súdneho aktivizmu sú Spojené štáty americké. |accessdate=9 Jul 2016 |language=Slovak}}</ref></div>
|}
{| class="infobox bordered" style="font-size:95%; width:25em;"
! style="font-size:120%; background:brown; text-align:center; padding:5px 0;" | Undemocratic system of government
|-
| style="padding:15px;" |"A system of government that makes the people subordinate to a [[SCOTUS|committee of nine unelected lawyers]] does not deserve to be called [[democracy]]."<div style="padding-left:40px;">— [[Justice Antonin Scalia]]<ref name="Mohler2015">{{cite book |title=We Cannot Be Silent: Speaking Truth to a Culture Redefining Sex, Marriage, and the Very Meaning of Right and Wrong |author=R. Albert Mohler, Jr. |publisher=Harper Collins |year=2015 |pages=181 |isbn=978-07180-32487 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNhhCAAAQBAJ |quote=}}</ref></div>
|}
'''Judicial activism''' is a non- existent concept that claim [[court]]s do not confine themselves to reasonable interpretations of laws, but instead create law through judicial ''will''. Alternatively, judicial activism is when courts do not limit their ruling to the dispute before them, but instead establish a new rule to apply broadly to issues not presented in the specific action. "Judicial activism" is when judges substitute their own political opinions for the applicable law, or when judges act like a legislature (legislating from the bench) rather than like a traditional court. In so doing, the court illegally takes for itself the powers of [[Congress]], rather than limiting itself to the powers traditionally given to the judiciary.

Though reluctant to criticize themselves, courts have referenced the term "judicial activism" in 975 reported cases as of Oct. 6, 2020, including 399 federal court decisions and 554 state court decisions.

In this regard, judicial activism is a way for [[liberal]]s to avoid the regular legislative means of enacting laws in order to ignore public opinion and dodge public debate. While [[originalism|originalist]] judges sometimes differ among themselves in specific court cases, left-wing judicial activists always vote in a way that advances left-wing policies, no matter how inconsistent they are.<ref>Natelson, Robert (October 20, 2018). [https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/412372-this-supreme-court-term-will-show-bench-lacks-conservative-majority This Supreme Court term will show bench lacks conservative majority]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved October 20, 2018.</ref><ref>Horowitz, Daniel (March 14, 2019). [https://www.conservativereview.com/news/wheres-congressional-outrage-judicial-power-grabs/ Where’s the congressional outrage over judicial power grabs?] ''Conservative Review''. Retrieved March 16, 2019.</ref>

The cradle of judicial activism is the USA.<ref name="Palko2009"/> However, it is seen in many other countries, such as the UK<ref>Dougherty, Michael Brendan (September 24, 2019). [https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/the-curious-remainer-coup/ The Curious Remainer Coup]. ''National Review''. Retrieved September 25, 2019.</ref> and Israel, along with a large number of countries that legalized social taboos simply because of court actions.

Courts in California — both state and federal ones — frequently engage in judicial activism, invariably based on political ideology and personal feelings. One major example of this is the relatively recent California Supreme Court decision ''In re Marriage Cases'', wherein four California [[Supreme Court]] justices (who are appointed, not elected) unilaterally overruled the will of the people of the state of California, and legalized [[same-sex "marriage"]]. Proposition 22, which recognized the traditional definition of marriage had previously been put in place by a majority of California voters, but this did not deter the [[liberal]] judges of the court from acting. In response, a majority of California voters passed [[Proposition 8]], which amended California's Constitution to uphold the sanctity of marriage, stemming the tide of the [[liberal]] [[homosexual]] assault on marriage before it was too late.

Judicial activism should not be confused with the courts' [[United States Constitution|Constitutionally]] mandated rule in enforcing [[limited government|limitations on government power]] and preserving the Constitutional structure of government, as they did in ''[[Bush v. Gore]],'' ''[[Boy Scouts v. Dale]],'' and ''[[D.C. v. Heller]],'' and as the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] should have done with [[ObamaCare]].

Judicial activism rarely has a positive impact. Some cite ''Bolling v. Sharpe'', the companion case to ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', which desegregated schools in [[Washington, D.C.]] as an example of beneficial judicial activism. The [[Equal Protection Clause]], which was cited in ''Brown'', does not apply to the [[District of Columbia]], only to the States. However, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregated schools in the city were still unconstitutional because it was also a violation of the [[due process]] clause of the Fifth Amendment. Although the impact was clearly desirable, the due process clause typically only applies to legal processes such as criminal trials, not to segregation. Also, the same result could have been achieved simply by an act of Congress, since they have control over the District's school system. Legal scholars Cass Sunstein and Randy Barnett agreed in a debate that it was hard to reconcile the ruling with the Constitution, in spite of its positive impact.<ref>[http://legalaffairs.org/webexclusive/debateclub_cie0505.msp]</ref> These rare cases are considered to be among the hardest for the Supreme Court to decide.

==History==
The phrase "Judicial activism" was coined by [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]] in an article he wrote for ''Fortune'' Magazine titled ''The Supreme Court: 1947''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XoO1BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA165 Legal Innovations in Asia: Judicial Lawmaking and the Influence of Comparative Law]</ref>

The rise of judicial activism has coincided with the growing number of contentious and controversial judicial nominations in the U.S.<ref>Gramlich, John (March 7, 2018). [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/07/federal-judicial-picks-have-become-more-contentious-and-trumps-are-no-exception/ Federal judicial picks have become more contentious, and Trump’s are no exception]. ''Pew Research Center''. Retrieved March 11, 2018.</ref><ref>[https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/adviceanddissent_chapter.pdf The Struggle to Shape the Federal Judiciary]. ''Brookings Institution''. Retrieved March 11, 2018.</ref><ref>Wolfe, Christopher (March 3, 2006). [https://www.heritage.org/the-constitution/report/constitutional-interpretation-judicial-activism-the-transformation-judicial From Constitutional Interpretation to Judicial Activism: The Transformation of Judicial Review in America]. ''Heritage Foundation''. Retrieved March 11, 2018.</ref>

An example of judicial activism is the Left's support for court packing when conservatives are able to choose [[textualist]] and [[originalism|originalist]] judges.<ref>Klein, Aaron (October 7, 2018). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/10/07/dems-latest-scheme-balance-supreme-court-by-adding-two-liberal-judges/ Dems Latest Scheme: ‘Balance’ Supreme Court by Adding Two Liberal Judges]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved October 7, 2018.</ref>

==Examples==
*''[[Griswold v. Connecticut]]'' — 1965 Supreme Court ruling establishing a constitutional right to possess, distribute and use [[contraception]].
*''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' — 1973 Supreme Court ruling claiming a constitutional "right" to [[abortion]].<ref>Duke, Selwyn (July 8, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/32665-save-babies-and-abort-judicial-supremacy Save Babies and Abort Judicial Supremacy]. ''The New American''. Retrieved July 8, 2019.</ref>
*''[[Lawrence v. Texas]]'' — 2003 Supreme Court ruling claiming a constitutional "right" to [[sodomy]].
*''[[Obergefell v. Hodges]]'' — 2015 Supreme Court ruling claiming a constitutional "right" to [[same-sex "marriage"]].
*''[[Bostock v. Clayton County]]'' — 2020 Supreme Court ruling reading homosexuality and [[gender confusion]] into the definition of "sex", as originally added into the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] as a [[poison pill amendment|poison pill]] by Democrat senator Howard W. Smith in what was, at the time, an unsuccessful attempt to sabotage and defeat the proposed law, but was recently seized upon by the liberal SCOTUS judges and their LGBTQ allies to further force illegal imposition of homosexuality and gender confusion on the public.
*The [[Nicaragua]]n Supreme Court ruling allowing incumbent president [[Daniel Ortega]] to contest the 2011 election. The Nicaraguan Constitution forbids an individual from serving as president for more than two non-consecutive terms, disbarring Ortega from filing for reelection on both of these counts. Daniel Ortega, not willing to give up power, had the [[Sandinistas|Sandinista]]-controlled Supreme Court overrule the current law as being in "violation" of human rights.<ref>[https://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/10/nicaraguas-presidential-elections-how-daniel-ortega-could-shame-democracy Nicaragua’s Presidential Elections: How Daniel Ortega Could Shame Democracy - The American Heritage Foundation]</ref>
*The [[Israel]]i Supreme Court is known for making ideologically based decisions and issuing rulings in favor of the country's Left camp and against its opponents.<ref>[https://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/the_threat_to_israeli_liberties_from_the_israeli_supreme_court.html The Threat to Israeli Liberties from the Israeli Supreme Court - The American Thinker]</ref> Examples of this include forcing the Israelis government to recognize [[same-sex marriage|same-sex "marriages"]] performed abroad.<ref>[http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/107947/0/Israels-Supreme-Court-Approves-Same-Sex-Marriages-Performed-Abroad- Israel's Supreme Court Approves Same-Sex Marriages Performed Abroad - Associated Press]</ref>
*In 2017, the Constitutional Tribunal of [[Chile]] partially lifted the country's ban on abortion.<ref>Berry, Susan (August 21, 2017). [https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/08/21/chile-court-lifts-ban-abortion/ Chile Court Lifts Ban on Abortion]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved August 22, 2017.</ref>
*Democrats have used the courts to [[gerrymandering|redraw district lines to favor their party]] and disfavor Republicans.<ref>Walker, Scott (May 6, 2019). [https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/scott-walker-republicans-democrats-judicial-power-grab Scott Walker: Republicans need to wake up to Democrats’ nationwide judicial power grab]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved May 6, 2019.</ref>
*[[Military Political Prisioners of Chile]], sentenced in contravention of express norms of the Chilean Constitution and laws. These people have been persecuted for having fought, between 1973 and 1990, terrorists who tried to seize power and committed serious attacks against the military and the civilian population. The trials and sentences of the Military Political Prisioners are carried out under a Criminal Procedure System repealed for being an archaic system, typical of the Middle Ages, in which the same judge investigates, accuses, prosecutes and sentences. The new system came into force for all regions of the country in 2005. For all that years, all Chilean citizens have been subjected to a new Legal Procedure System that is denied to the Military Political Prisioners. These, since 2005, are subjected to arbitrary discrimination, which is absolutely forbidden in the Chilean Constitution, thus, constituing judicial activism against them.

== Contract law ==

The [[Seventh Circuit]] has criticized as "judicial activism" an interpretation of a contract beyond its clear meaning. "Thus, when a contract is unambiguous, 'we refuse to indulge in judicial activism' by 'construing the [contract] beyond its clear and obvious language ....' ''See Heller v. Equitable Life Assurance Soc'y'', 833 F.2d 1253, 1257 (7th Cir. 1987)." ''Grun v. Pneumo Abex Corp.'', 163 F.3d 411, 420 (7th Cir. 1998).

==External links==
*[https://video.foxnews.com/v/5738221821001/?playlist_id=5198073478001#sp=show-clips Tucker: Federal courts the most decayed institution of all], February 21, 2018.
*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/chapter-ten-using-the-law-for-evil_2606520.html Chapter Ten: Using the Law for Evil], ''The Epoch Times'' (from ''How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World'').
*[https://humanevents.com/2019/07/02/living-constitutionalism-v-originalism/ Living Constitutionalism v. Originalism.], by Timothy S. Goeglin and Craig Osten, ''Human Events'', July 2, 2019.

==See also==
*[[Judicial Restraint]]
*[[Judicial supremacy]]
*[[United States Supreme Court]]
*[[Sonia Sotomayor]]
*[[Elena Kagan]]
*[[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]
*[[Stephen Breyer]]
*[[Anthony Kennedy]]
*[[Living Constitution]]
*[[Government by Judiciary]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Liberalism}}
[[Category:United States Government]]
[[Category:United States Supreme Court]]
[[Category:Law]]
[[Category:Judicial Activism]]
[[Category:Sexual Revolution]]
[[Category:Liberal Traits]]

God

2022-02-11T01:16:53Z

Dwaynepride: Clarify

''This article is about the biblical God. For the term as used to refer to any divine being, see [[Other gods]]''
[[Image:Alphaomega.jpg|thumb|200px|God is the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the ending <ref>Revelation 22:13</ref>]]
{{Christianity}}
{{trinity}}
{{cquote|'''Genesis 1:1''' In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.}}
'''God''' is a creation of man and is not real.

== God is Revealed: How we know about God ==

Other than creation itself, God is revealed in several ways, including [[theological correlates]], conscience, and special revelation (the [[Bible]], and prophets). Most importantly though, God is revealed in [[Jesus Christ]], who is the Son of God.

[[File:Mezquita Catedral Cordoba.jpg|frame|center|[[Cathedral]] Cordoba, Spain.]]

== Attributes or Character of God ==
[[File:Rembrandt Ascension.jpg|thumb|[[Rembrandt]], Ascension.]]
The attributes of God are things that describe who He is. Similar to the way one might describe a close friend to another individual, so too do these attributes describe God's character and nature. Attributes of God include but are not limited to [[Wisdom]], [[Infinitude]], [[Sovereignty]], [[Holiness]], [[Trinity]], [[Omniscience]], [[Faithfulness]], [[Love]], [[Omnipotence]], Self-existence, Self-sufficiency, [[Justice]], [[Immutability]], [[Mercy]], [[Eternal]], [[Goodness]], Graciousness, and [[Omnipresence]]. These attributes all work in complete and perfect harmony with one another.

God exercises eternal and righteous judgment of the wicked in [[hell]], because of an inherent problem in the human heart, namely [[Sin]]. According to the [[Bible]], the sacrifice of [[Jesus Christ]] on the cross of [[Calvary]] and then [[resurrection]], is God's merciful and gracious response to the problem of the human heart.

=== God is Triune ===
{{main|Trinity}}

Although the Bible does not use the term, it is clear that God is a triune God, or three in one.
These are sometimes referred to as ''God the Father'', ''God the Son'' ([[Jesus Christ|Jesus]]), and the ''[[Holy Spirit]]''.

The first hint of the Trinity is in {{Bible ref|Genesis|1|26}} which relates God saying, "Let us make man in our image", indicating that God is a plurality.

The three persons of God are treated as equivalents in these words of Jesus shortly after His resurrection:
{{Bible quote|Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.|book=Matthew|chap=28|verses=19|version=NIV}}

==== Jesus is God ====
[[Image:Pieta.jpg|thumb|270px|[[Pieta]], [[Michelangelo]].]]

The first verse of the [[Gospel of John]], in which Jesus is referred to as the "Word", makes clear that Jesus is synonymous with God:
{{Bible quote|In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.|book=John|chap=1|verses=1|version=NIV}}
This verse not only says that "the Word" (Jesus) is synonymous with God, but also says that the Word was "in the beginning", which means that He existed before all else existed, something that is only true of God.

This is reinforced two verses later, in which Jesus is described as the creator.
[[Genesis]] refers to God as being the Creator.
{{Bible quote|Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.|book=John|chap=1|verses=3|version=NIV}}

==== The Holy Spirit is God ====

In the following passage, the [[Holy Spirit]] is referred to as God:
{{Bible quote|Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."|book=Acts|chap=5|verses=3-4|version=NIV}}

=== God is omniscient ===
{{main|omniscience}}

God knows everything:
{{Bible quote|This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.|book=1_John|chap=3|verses=19-20|version=NIV}}

Because God is outside of [[time]], He can see and knows the [[past]] and the [[future]] as well as the present.

== "God" sometimes used to refer to God the Father ==
[[Image:Velasco Padre Eterno.jpg|thumb|left|180px|God the Father by [[Jose Maria Velasco]] (1840-1912).]]
In the Bible, the word "God" (θεός) does not always refer to God's being as a whole, but more specifically refers to the Person of the Father (God the Father). Here are some verses which demonstrate this:
{{cquote|'''John 3:16''' (NASB) For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.}}
{{cquote|'''1 John 4:10''' (NASB) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.}}
Notice how in each case, "Father" can be substituted for "God." For example, "For the ''Father'' so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son," and "not that we loved the ''Father'', but that He loved us and sent His Son."
{{Clear}}

== Terminology ==

The Bible uses several different words to refer to God.
"God" itself is not a name, but an [[Old English]] word meaning ''supreme being, deity'',<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=god God] Online Etymology Dictionary.</ref> which the translators who translated the Bible in to English chose as the appropriate English word for the [[Hebrew]] ''elohim'' and the [[Greek]] ''theos'' used in the [[Old Testament]] and [[New Testament]] respectively.<ref name="DPK">Kruse, Dale P.,[http://www.layevangelism.com/advtxbk/sections/sect-10/sec10-9.htm More on the ''Names'' of God In the Bible], Advanced Training Program of Evangelism.</ref>

The other main term for God is the Hebrew ''adonai'', usually translated ''Lord''.
There are various compound words also used in the Bible, such as ''el shaddai'', which means ''God Almighty'' ("''el''" is a short version of ''elohim'').<ref name="DPK" />

''YHWH'' is given in the Bible as God's actual name. In most English Bibles it is translated as ''Lord'', in small capitals. The name has various other English versions, including Yehovah, Jehovah, and Yahweh.<ref>McHyde, Tim, [http://www.escapeallthesethings.com/yahweh.htm God’s Name: LORD, Yahweh, Yahveh, YHWH, YHVH, Jehovah or Yehovah?]</ref>

== Resources on becoming a Christian ==
[[File:Hoffman Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.jpg|thumbnail|170px||Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane by Heinrich Hofmann.]]

''see also:'' [[Resources on becoming a Christian]]

'''Below are some resources on becoming a [[Christian]]:'''

*[http://www.jesusfilm.org/film-and-media/watch-the-film Jesus film - free access]

*[http://www.thewordfortoday.org/?page=C2000 Free audio Bible and Bible audio streaming]

*[https://www.gotquestions.org/repentance.html Repentance]

*[http://www.allaboutgod.com/ AllAboutGod.com]

*[[Video testimonies of Christians]]

'''Tips on choosing a Christian church:'''

*[http://www.allaboutreligion.org/choosing-a-christian-church-faq.htm Choosing a Christian Church]

'''Spiritual growth as a Christian:'''

*[http://www.navpress.com/product/9781576839324/The-Pursuit-of-Holiness-Jerry-Bridges The Pursuit of Holiness] by Jerry Bridges
*[http://www.navpress.com/product/9780891099413/The-Practice-of-Godliness-Jerry-Bridges The Practice of Godliness] by Jerry Bridges
*[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/529785.The_Complete_Book_of_Discipleship The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== See also ==
*[[Other gods]]
*[[Atheism]]
*[[Christianity in Conservapedia]]
*[[Bible Art Gallery]]

== External links ==
*[https://www.gotquestions.org/who-is-God.html Who is God?], at [[GotQuestions]]
*[https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-God.html What is God?], at [[GotQuestions]]
*[https://www.gotquestions.org/is-there-a-God.html Is there a God?], at [[GotQuestions]]
*[https://answersingenesis.org/jesus-christ/jesus-is-god/10-biblical-reasons-jesus-is-god/ 10 Biblical Reasons Jesus Is God], by Simon Turpin at [[Answers in Genesis]], August 8, 2017
*[http://www.theopedia.com/God Theopedia - God]
*[http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/god.html ChristianAnswers.net - God]
*[http://wikible.org/en/God Wikible.org - God]

{{Conservatism}}

[[Category:Christianity]]
[[Category:Divine Beings]]

Earth

2022-02-11T01:14:24Z

Dwaynepride: Clarify

{{Planet|image=Blue Marble.jpg
|symbol=Earth symbol.svg
|order=3
|primary=Sun
|periapsis=147,090,000 km (0.983 AU)<ref name=earthfact>"[http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html Earth Fact Sheet]," [[NASA]], April 19, 2007. Accessed May 2, 2008.</ref>
|apoapsis=152,100,000 km (1.017 AU)<ref name=earthfact/>
|semimajor=149,597,886.5 km (1.00000011 AU)<ref name=earthfact/>
|bode=1.0 AU
|eccentricity=0.01671022<ref name=earthfact/>
|sidereal=365.256366 da<ref name=earthfact/>
|synodic=365.256366 da
|orbitspeed=29.783 km/s<ref name=earthfact/>
|inclination=0°
|reference=the ecliptic
|siderealday=23.9345 h<ref name=earthfact/>
|solarday=24 h<ref name=earthfact/>
|rotatespeed=465.11 m/s
|axialtilt=23.439281°
|mass=5.9736 * 1024 kg<ref name=earthfact/>
|density=5,515.3 kg/m³<ref name=earthfact/>
|surfacegrav=9.780327 m/s²
|escapespeed=11.186 km/s
|meanradius=6371 km<ref name=earthfact/><ref>http://www.solarviews.com/eng/earth.htm</ref>
|equatorradius =6378.135 km<ref name=earthfact/>
|polarradius =6356.750 km<ref name=earthfact/>
|surfacearea=510,065,600 km²
|landarea=148,939,100 km²
|waterarea=361,126,400 km²
|mintemp=185 K
|meantemp=287 K
|maxtemp=331 K
|moons=1
|composition=Rock
|albedo=0.37<ref name=earthfact/>
|mfd=0.3076 G<ref name=earthfact/>
|pmdm=7.98 * 1022 N-m/T<ref name=calc>Calculated</ref>
|cmdm=1.41 * 1024 N-m/T<ref name=Humphreys>Humphreys, D. R. "[http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/21/21_3/21_3.html The Creation of Planetary Magnetic Fields]." ''Creation Research Society Quarterly'' 21(3), December 1984. Accessed April 29, 2008.</ref>
|mdt=2049 a<ref name=Humphreys/>
|mhl=1420 a<ref name=calc/>
}}
The '''Earth''' is the third planet in the [[Solar System]]. It is the largest of the terrestrial planets<ref>"Terrestrial planets are planets made up of rocks or metals with a hard surface — making them different from other planets that lack a solid surface. Terrestrial planets also have a molten heavy metal core, few moons, and landforms such as cliffs, valleys, volcanoes and craters." [https://gml.noaa.gov/education/info_activities/pdfs/TBI_terrestrial_planets.pdf] Four such planets exist in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.</ref> and is the only known [[planet]] which has [[life]] as we know it. The surface of the planet is approximately two-thirds covered in [[water]]. The atmosphere is roughly 78% [[nitrogen]] and 21% [[oxygen]], with trace amounts of water vapor, [[carbon dioxide]], and other elements. The Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old. ref>[https://www.letu.edu/academics/arts-and-sciences/files/age-of-earth.pdf Steven Ball, Ph., "A Christian Physicist Examines the Age of the Earth”.]</ref> (See also: [[Age of the Earth]]).
*[https://creation.com/how-old-is-the-earth How old is the earth?]
*[https://creation.com/age-of-the-earth Age of the earth: 101 evidences for a young earth]
*[https://creation.com/young-age-of-the-earth-universe-qa ‘Young’ age of the Earth & Universe Q&A]
*[https://creation.com/creation-compromises-questions-and-answers Creation Compromises]
</ref>

==Physical Description==

Within the [[Solar System]], Earth is the third planet from the [[Sun]]. It is approximately 8,000 miles (13,000 km) in diameter; its equatorial circumference (measured around the equator) is 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometers), and the polar circumference is slightly less at 24,809 miles (40,008 km).<ref>http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzcircumference.htm</ref> The reason its metric circumference is so close to the "round number" of 40,000 is that the [[kilometer]] was defined (by the French) as 1/10,000th the distance from the [[Equator]] to the [[North Pole]].

Its surface area is approximately 4·π (4000 mi)2 = 200 million square miles (510 million km2). It has been said that Earth should really be called "water", as the larger part of it—about 70%—is covered by water. In fact, the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] and [[Indian Ocean|Indian]] oceans alone cover about half of the Earth's surface.

The Earth orbits at an [[Astronomical unit|average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km) from the Sun]] in an almost circular orbit. The plane of this orbit, or '''ecliptic''', is the common reference plane for the inclinations of the orbits of all [[planet]]s and [[dwarf planet]]s in the [[Solar System]], though in fact Earth's orbit is inclined 7.25° to the plane of the [[Sun]]'s equator. It takes light (and other forms of electromagnetic radiation) approximately 500 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth, i.e. the distance can also be stated as "500 light-seconds." The distance to nearby stars is made by measuring the stellar [[parallax]] between observations when the earth is at opposite ends of its orbit, so the Earth's orbit itself is a measuring stick for astronomical distances, and is known as the ''astronomical unit'' (A. U.) It is worth noting that if the Earth were slightly closer to the Sun, it would be too hot for life while if Earth were slightly further away from the Sun, water would freeze and life as we know it would be impossible.

==Origin==
Tthe Earth came into existence billions of years ago (approximately 4.5 billion years in modern estimates), entirely through natural processes and without any intervention by God.

Clashes between adherents of these ideas have gone on since time immemorial (see [[origins debate]]), though the last theory has only matured in the last 200 years.

== Young Earth Creationist view ==

===Formation and Age===

Young Earth creationists believe, on the basis of the biblical account in Genesis and biblical geochronologies, that the entire Earth, including animal, plant, and human life, was formed in six days, around 4000 B.C.
Mainstream scientific journals, committed to a [[naturalism|naturalistic]] worldview, contend this view.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0822sternberg.asp 1</ref><ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/538.asp 2</ref><ref>http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53400 3</ref><ref>http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=3833&program=DI%20Main%20Page%20-%20News&callingPage=discoMainPage 4</ref>

Most scientists believe that the Earth formed by natural processes instead of having been created by a supernatural entity. However, as one scientist noted, “... most every prediction by theorists about planetary formation has been wrong.” <ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes43.html</ref>

=== Magnetosphere ===
Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field powerful enough to prevent most of the Sun's radiation from reaching the Earth and harming the life on it. This field has been decaying at a known exponential rate, as decades of recordkeeping reveal. In 1984, Dr. Russell Humphreys developed a model for the creation of magnetic fields<ref name=Humphreys/> that suggests that the Earth was at first made entirely of water,<ref>See {{Bible ref|book=II_Peter|chap=3|verses=5}}</ref> much of which God transmuted into other elements after He made the Earth, probably on the third day of Creation. Humphreys's predicted magnetic decay time for the Earth agrees well with published data and thus constitutes further evidence for a young Earth.

===Shape of the Earth===

Some people dispute the shape of the Earth, arguing that the Bible describes the Earth as flat (presumably square, given that it is described as having "four corners" (Revelations 7:1) ) rather than spherical. However, no credible organization has ever expressed support for this theory.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/crea-fe.htm</ref> Some have disputed the idea that the Earth rotates around the Sun.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm</ref>

In [[Book of Revelations|Revelations]] 7:1 it is stated: "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth".
A sphere has no corners. The four corners are also mentioned in Isaiah 11:12. This is often accepted to be a figure of speech.

It is also stated:

"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." ([[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] 2:35)

AND

"Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:" (Daniel 4:10-11)

AND

"Behold, [Jesus] cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him" (Revelations 1:7)

AND

"Once again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world [cosmos] in their glory." ([[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] 4:8). Apologist [[JP Holding]]'s suggests this may have been a vision.<ref>http://www.tektonics.org/af/earthshape.html#globe</ref>

==Christianity and the Earth==

===Christian Historical-Grammatical Bible Exegesis or Bible Literalism===

According to [[Creation Ministries International]], most young earth creationists use a [[Hermeneutics|hermeneutic]] "best described as the [[Historical-grammatical method (Literal hermeneutic)|historical-grammatical method]] in which historical narrative (such as the book of Genesis) is interpreted as literal history, prophecy is interpreted as prophecy, poetry is interpreted as poetry, etc."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/tjv16v2_forster.pdf</ref> Creation Ministries International further states that "Historical-grammatical exegesis involves a systematic approach to analyzing in detail the historical situation, events and circumstances surrounding the text, and the semantics and syntactical relationships of the words which comprise the text."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4880/</ref>

Bible scholars have estimated the age of the earth based on the Creation account in Genesis and the genealogical accounts in Numbers and other books of the Pentateuch. One famous estimate was published in 1650 by [[James Ussher|James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh]] in a book called ''Annals of the World,'' in which he estimated the Creation to have occurred on 23 October 4004 B.C. Other Biblical scholars maintain that there are possible gaps in the genealogies, often using the ideas of the 19th century Calvinist theologian [[Benjamin Warfield]] on the issue.<ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/primeval_chronology.shtml</ref> However, [[James Barr]], regius professor of Hebrew at [[Oxford University]], wrote in 1984 the following: "… probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that: … the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story.’" <ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1606/</ref> Furthermore, it should be noted that Barr himself rejects supernatural Christianity, and so is not ''[[a priori]]'' biased in favor of creationism.<ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/pca_creation_study_committee_report.shtml</ref>

Many [[Christian]]s believe that the Earth is the perfect distance away from the Sun and take this to be evidence of [[God]]'s existence.<ref>http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html</ref> Secular scientists, however, reject this reasoning using the anthropic principle.<ref>http://www.anthropic-principle.com</ref>

===Christian Non-Literalism===

Many mainstream Christian denominations believe the story of Genesis is not meant to be read literally, and believe that the age of the Earth is on the order of millions or billions of years, not thousands of years.<ref>http://webusers.xula.edu/cporter/2000n/evolution_and_religion.htm</ref>

===Scientific Uniformitarianism===

Uniformitarian scientists believe that the earth is beyond 4 billion years old.<ref>http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html</ref> They also refute that the Earth is only 6,000 years old by quoting older human societies dated by their dating method as older than that.<ref>http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/</ref>

== Naturalistic view ==

Estimates by uniformitarian geologists of the age of the Earth and the beginning of life give about 4.55 billion years and 3.5 billion years ago respectively. These estimates are primarily based on radioactive dating of meteorites and fossil specimens. Most scientists today conclude that the Earth formed by natural processes, specifically by the accumulation of debris orbiting the sun billions of years in the past.<ref name=nebula>"[http://science.jrank.org/pages/6265/Solar-System-solar-nebula-hypothesis.html The Solar Nebula Hypothesis]." ''The Science Encyclopedia''. Accessed May 6, 2008.</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]]
*[[Environmental trends]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/earth.htm The Earth]
*[http://www.noaa.gov/ NOAA] An agency that enriches life through science.
*[http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/glossary/ Glossary]
*[https://creation.com/earth-is-too-special Earth is ‘too special’?] by [[Jonathan Sarfati]]
*[http://whatsinside.earth/ What’s Inside Earth?] Paradigm Shift: Geologists prove Earth rings like a bell when earthquakes strike it! — How in the world did Earth come to be like this? What's it like deep inside? Huge implications for comprehending Earth's origins, if not entire universe.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Solarsystem}}

[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Soil]]

Earth

2022-02-11T01:13:55Z

Dwaynepride: /* Origin */Typo

{{Planet|image=Blue Marble.jpg
|symbol=Earth symbol.svg
|order=3
|primary=Sun
|periapsis=147,090,000 km (0.983 AU)<ref name=earthfact>"[http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html Earth Fact Sheet]," [[NASA]], April 19, 2007. Accessed May 2, 2008.</ref>
|apoapsis=152,100,000 km (1.017 AU)<ref name=earthfact/>
|semimajor=149,597,886.5 km (1.00000011 AU)<ref name=earthfact/>
|bode=1.0 AU
|eccentricity=0.01671022<ref name=earthfact/>
|sidereal=365.256366 da<ref name=earthfact/>
|synodic=365.256366 da
|orbitspeed=29.783 km/s<ref name=earthfact/>
|inclination=0°
|reference=the ecliptic
|siderealday=23.9345 h<ref name=earthfact/>
|solarday=24 h<ref name=earthfact/>
|rotatespeed=465.11 m/s
|axialtilt=23.439281°
|mass=5.9736 * 1024 kg<ref name=earthfact/>
|density=5,515.3 kg/m³<ref name=earthfact/>
|surfacegrav=9.780327 m/s²
|escapespeed=11.186 km/s
|meanradius=6371 km<ref name=earthfact/><ref>http://www.solarviews.com/eng/earth.htm</ref>
|equatorradius =6378.135 km<ref name=earthfact/>
|polarradius =6356.750 km<ref name=earthfact/>
|surfacearea=510,065,600 km²
|landarea=148,939,100 km²
|waterarea=361,126,400 km²
|mintemp=185 K
|meantemp=287 K
|maxtemp=331 K
|moons=1
|composition=Rock
|albedo=0.37<ref name=earthfact/>
|mfd=0.3076 G<ref name=earthfact/>
|pmdm=7.98 * 1022 N-m/T<ref name=calc>Calculated</ref>
|cmdm=1.41 * 1024 N-m/T<ref name=Humphreys>Humphreys, D. R. "[http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/21/21_3/21_3.html The Creation of Planetary Magnetic Fields]." ''Creation Research Society Quarterly'' 21(3), December 1984. Accessed April 29, 2008.</ref>
|mdt=2049 a<ref name=Humphreys/>
|mhl=1420 a<ref name=calc/>
}}
The '''Earth''' is the third planet in the [[Solar System]]. It is the largest of the terrestrial planets<ref>"Terrestrial planets are planets made up of rocks or metals with a hard surface — making them different from other planets that lack a solid surface. Terrestrial planets also have a molten heavy metal core, few moons, and landforms such as cliffs, valleys, volcanoes and craters." [https://gml.noaa.gov/education/info_activities/pdfs/TBI_terrestrial_planets.pdf] Four such planets exist in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.</ref> and is the only known [[planet]] which has [[life]] as we know it. The surface of the planet is approximately two-thirds covered in [[water]]. The atmosphere is roughly 78% [[nitrogen]] and 21% [[oxygen]], with trace amounts of water vapor, [[carbon dioxide]], and other elements. The Earth is roughly 14.5 billion years old. ref>[https://www.letu.edu/academics/arts-and-sciences/files/age-of-earth.pdf Steven Ball, Ph., "A Christian Physicist Examines the Age of the Earth”.]</ref> (See also: [[Age of the Earth]]).
*[https://creation.com/how-old-is-the-earth How old is the earth?]
*[https://creation.com/age-of-the-earth Age of the earth: 101 evidences for a young earth]
*[https://creation.com/young-age-of-the-earth-universe-qa ‘Young’ age of the Earth & Universe Q&A]
*[https://creation.com/creation-compromises-questions-and-answers Creation Compromises]
</ref>

==Physical Description==

Within the [[Solar System]], Earth is the third planet from the [[Sun]]. It is approximately 8,000 miles (13,000 km) in diameter; its equatorial circumference (measured around the equator) is 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometers), and the polar circumference is slightly less at 24,809 miles (40,008 km).<ref>http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzcircumference.htm</ref> The reason its metric circumference is so close to the "round number" of 40,000 is that the [[kilometer]] was defined (by the French) as 1/10,000th the distance from the [[Equator]] to the [[North Pole]].

Its surface area is approximately 4·π (4000 mi)2 = 200 million square miles (510 million km2). It has been said that Earth should really be called "water", as the larger part of it—about 70%—is covered by water. In fact, the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] and [[Indian Ocean|Indian]] oceans alone cover about half of the Earth's surface.

The Earth orbits at an [[Astronomical unit|average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km) from the Sun]] in an almost circular orbit. The plane of this orbit, or '''ecliptic''', is the common reference plane for the inclinations of the orbits of all [[planet]]s and [[dwarf planet]]s in the [[Solar System]], though in fact Earth's orbit is inclined 7.25° to the plane of the [[Sun]]'s equator. It takes light (and other forms of electromagnetic radiation) approximately 500 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth, i.e. the distance can also be stated as "500 light-seconds." The distance to nearby stars is made by measuring the stellar [[parallax]] between observations when the earth is at opposite ends of its orbit, so the Earth's orbit itself is a measuring stick for astronomical distances, and is known as the ''astronomical unit'' (A. U.) It is worth noting that if the Earth were slightly closer to the Sun, it would be too hot for life while if Earth were slightly further away from the Sun, water would freeze and life as we know it would be impossible.

==Origin==
Tthe Earth came into existence billions of years ago (approximately 4.5 billion years in modern estimates), entirely through natural processes and without any intervention by God.

Clashes between adherents of these ideas have gone on since time immemorial (see [[origins debate]]), though the last theory has only matured in the last 200 years.

== Young Earth Creationist view ==

===Formation and Age===

Young Earth creationists believe, on the basis of the biblical account in Genesis and biblical geochronologies, that the entire Earth, including animal, plant, and human life, was formed in six days, around 4000 B.C.
Mainstream scientific journals, committed to a [[naturalism|naturalistic]] worldview, contend this view.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0822sternberg.asp 1</ref><ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/538.asp 2</ref><ref>http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53400 3</ref><ref>http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=3833&program=DI%20Main%20Page%20-%20News&callingPage=discoMainPage 4</ref>

Most scientists believe that the Earth formed by natural processes instead of having been created by a supernatural entity. However, as one scientist noted, “... most every prediction by theorists about planetary formation has been wrong.” <ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes43.html</ref>

=== Magnetosphere ===
Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field powerful enough to prevent most of the Sun's radiation from reaching the Earth and harming the life on it. This field has been decaying at a known exponential rate, as decades of recordkeeping reveal. In 1984, Dr. Russell Humphreys developed a model for the creation of magnetic fields<ref name=Humphreys/> that suggests that the Earth was at first made entirely of water,<ref>See {{Bible ref|book=II_Peter|chap=3|verses=5}}</ref> much of which God transmuted into other elements after He made the Earth, probably on the third day of Creation. Humphreys's predicted magnetic decay time for the Earth agrees well with published data and thus constitutes further evidence for a young Earth.

===Shape of the Earth===

Some people dispute the shape of the Earth, arguing that the Bible describes the Earth as flat (presumably square, given that it is described as having "four corners" (Revelations 7:1) ) rather than spherical. However, no credible organization has ever expressed support for this theory.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/crea-fe.htm</ref> Some have disputed the idea that the Earth rotates around the Sun.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm</ref>

In [[Book of Revelations|Revelations]] 7:1 it is stated: "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth".
A sphere has no corners. The four corners are also mentioned in Isaiah 11:12. This is often accepted to be a figure of speech.

It is also stated:

"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." ([[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] 2:35)

AND

"Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:" (Daniel 4:10-11)

AND

"Behold, [Jesus] cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him" (Revelations 1:7)

AND

"Once again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world [cosmos] in their glory." ([[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] 4:8). Apologist [[JP Holding]]'s suggests this may have been a vision.<ref>http://www.tektonics.org/af/earthshape.html#globe</ref>

==Christianity and the Earth==

===Christian Historical-Grammatical Bible Exegesis or Bible Literalism===

According to [[Creation Ministries International]], most young earth creationists use a [[Hermeneutics|hermeneutic]] "best described as the [[Historical-grammatical method (Literal hermeneutic)|historical-grammatical method]] in which historical narrative (such as the book of Genesis) is interpreted as literal history, prophecy is interpreted as prophecy, poetry is interpreted as poetry, etc."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/tjv16v2_forster.pdf</ref> Creation Ministries International further states that "Historical-grammatical exegesis involves a systematic approach to analyzing in detail the historical situation, events and circumstances surrounding the text, and the semantics and syntactical relationships of the words which comprise the text."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4880/</ref>

Bible scholars have estimated the age of the earth based on the Creation account in Genesis and the genealogical accounts in Numbers and other books of the Pentateuch. One famous estimate was published in 1650 by [[James Ussher|James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh]] in a book called ''Annals of the World,'' in which he estimated the Creation to have occurred on 23 October 4004 B.C. Other Biblical scholars maintain that there are possible gaps in the genealogies, often using the ideas of the 19th century Calvinist theologian [[Benjamin Warfield]] on the issue.<ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/primeval_chronology.shtml</ref> However, [[James Barr]], regius professor of Hebrew at [[Oxford University]], wrote in 1984 the following: "… probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that: … the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story.’" <ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1606/</ref> Furthermore, it should be noted that Barr himself rejects supernatural Christianity, and so is not ''[[a priori]]'' biased in favor of creationism.<ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/pca_creation_study_committee_report.shtml</ref>

Many [[Christian]]s believe that the Earth is the perfect distance away from the Sun and take this to be evidence of [[God]]'s existence.<ref>http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html</ref> Secular scientists, however, reject this reasoning using the anthropic principle.<ref>http://www.anthropic-principle.com</ref>

===Christian Non-Literalism===

Many mainstream Christian denominations believe the story of Genesis is not meant to be read literally, and believe that the age of the Earth is on the order of millions or billions of years, not thousands of years.<ref>http://webusers.xula.edu/cporter/2000n/evolution_and_religion.htm</ref>

===Scientific Uniformitarianism===

Uniformitarian scientists believe that the earth is beyond 4 billion years old.<ref>http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html</ref> They also refute that the Earth is only 6,000 years old by quoting older human societies dated by their dating method as older than that.<ref>http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/</ref>

== Naturalistic view ==

Estimates by uniformitarian geologists of the age of the Earth and the beginning of life give about 4.55 billion years and 3.5 billion years ago respectively. These estimates are primarily based on radioactive dating of meteorites and fossil specimens. Most scientists today conclude that the Earth formed by natural processes, specifically by the accumulation of debris orbiting the sun billions of years in the past.<ref name=nebula>"[http://science.jrank.org/pages/6265/Solar-System-solar-nebula-hypothesis.html The Solar Nebula Hypothesis]." ''The Science Encyclopedia''. Accessed May 6, 2008.</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]]
*[[Environmental trends]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/earth.htm The Earth]
*[http://www.noaa.gov/ NOAA] An agency that enriches life through science.
*[http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/glossary/ Glossary]
*[https://creation.com/earth-is-too-special Earth is ‘too special’?] by [[Jonathan Sarfati]]
*[http://whatsinside.earth/ What’s Inside Earth?] Paradigm Shift: Geologists prove Earth rings like a bell when earthquakes strike it! — How in the world did Earth come to be like this? What's it like deep inside? Huge implications for comprehending Earth's origins, if not entire universe.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Solarsystem}}

[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Soil]]

Earth

2022-02-11T01:12:48Z

Dwaynepride: Content

{{Planet|image=Blue Marble.jpg
|symbol=Earth symbol.svg
|order=3
|primary=Sun
|periapsis=147,090,000 km (0.983 AU)<ref name=earthfact>"[http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html Earth Fact Sheet]," [[NASA]], April 19, 2007. Accessed May 2, 2008.</ref>
|apoapsis=152,100,000 km (1.017 AU)<ref name=earthfact/>
|semimajor=149,597,886.5 km (1.00000011 AU)<ref name=earthfact/>
|bode=1.0 AU
|eccentricity=0.01671022<ref name=earthfact/>
|sidereal=365.256366 da<ref name=earthfact/>
|synodic=365.256366 da
|orbitspeed=29.783 km/s<ref name=earthfact/>
|inclination=0°
|reference=the ecliptic
|siderealday=23.9345 h<ref name=earthfact/>
|solarday=24 h<ref name=earthfact/>
|rotatespeed=465.11 m/s
|axialtilt=23.439281°
|mass=5.9736 * 1024 kg<ref name=earthfact/>
|density=5,515.3 kg/m³<ref name=earthfact/>
|surfacegrav=9.780327 m/s²
|escapespeed=11.186 km/s
|meanradius=6371 km<ref name=earthfact/><ref>http://www.solarviews.com/eng/earth.htm</ref>
|equatorradius =6378.135 km<ref name=earthfact/>
|polarradius =6356.750 km<ref name=earthfact/>
|surfacearea=510,065,600 km²
|landarea=148,939,100 km²
|waterarea=361,126,400 km²
|mintemp=185 K
|meantemp=287 K
|maxtemp=331 K
|moons=1
|composition=Rock
|albedo=0.37<ref name=earthfact/>
|mfd=0.3076 G<ref name=earthfact/>
|pmdm=7.98 * 1022 N-m/T<ref name=calc>Calculated</ref>
|cmdm=1.41 * 1024 N-m/T<ref name=Humphreys>Humphreys, D. R. "[http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/21/21_3/21_3.html The Creation of Planetary Magnetic Fields]." ''Creation Research Society Quarterly'' 21(3), December 1984. Accessed April 29, 2008.</ref>
|mdt=2049 a<ref name=Humphreys/>
|mhl=1420 a<ref name=calc/>
}}
The '''Earth''' is the third planet in the [[Solar System]]. It is the largest of the terrestrial planets<ref>"Terrestrial planets are planets made up of rocks or metals with a hard surface — making them different from other planets that lack a solid surface. Terrestrial planets also have a molten heavy metal core, few moons, and landforms such as cliffs, valleys, volcanoes and craters." [https://gml.noaa.gov/education/info_activities/pdfs/TBI_terrestrial_planets.pdf] Four such planets exist in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.</ref> and is the only known [[planet]] which has [[life]] as we know it. The surface of the planet is approximately two-thirds covered in [[water]]. The atmosphere is roughly 78% [[nitrogen]] and 21% [[oxygen]], with trace amounts of water vapor, [[carbon dioxide]], and other elements. The Earth is roughly 14.5 billion years old. ref>[https://www.letu.edu/academics/arts-and-sciences/files/age-of-earth.pdf Steven Ball, Ph., "A Christian Physicist Examines the Age of the Earth”.]</ref> (See also: [[Age of the Earth]]).
*[https://creation.com/how-old-is-the-earth How old is the earth?]
*[https://creation.com/age-of-the-earth Age of the earth: 101 evidences for a young earth]
*[https://creation.com/young-age-of-the-earth-universe-qa ‘Young’ age of the Earth & Universe Q&A]
*[https://creation.com/creation-compromises-questions-and-answers Creation Compromises]
</ref>

==Physical Description==

Within the [[Solar System]], Earth is the third planet from the [[Sun]]. It is approximately 8,000 miles (13,000 km) in diameter; its equatorial circumference (measured around the equator) is 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometers), and the polar circumference is slightly less at 24,809 miles (40,008 km).<ref>http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzcircumference.htm</ref> The reason its metric circumference is so close to the "round number" of 40,000 is that the [[kilometer]] was defined (by the French) as 1/10,000th the distance from the [[Equator]] to the [[North Pole]].

Its surface area is approximately 4·π (4000 mi)2 = 200 million square miles (510 million km2). It has been said that Earth should really be called "water", as the larger part of it—about 70%—is covered by water. In fact, the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] and [[Indian Ocean|Indian]] oceans alone cover about half of the Earth's surface.

The Earth orbits at an [[Astronomical unit|average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km) from the Sun]] in an almost circular orbit. The plane of this orbit, or '''ecliptic''', is the common reference plane for the inclinations of the orbits of all [[planet]]s and [[dwarf planet]]s in the [[Solar System]], though in fact Earth's orbit is inclined 7.25° to the plane of the [[Sun]]'s equator. It takes light (and other forms of electromagnetic radiation) approximately 500 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth, i.e. the distance can also be stated as "500 light-seconds." The distance to nearby stars is made by measuring the stellar [[parallax]] between observations when the earth is at opposite ends of its orbit, so the Earth's orbit itself is a measuring stick for astronomical distances, and is known as the ''astronomical unit'' (A. U.) It is worth noting that if the Earth were slightly closer to the Sun, it would be too hot for life while if Earth were slightly further away from the Sun, water would freeze and life as we know it would be impossible.

==Origin==
People disagree about when and how the Earth was created. The three most popular ideas are:
#That [[God]] created the Earth several hundred generations ago, as recounted in [[Genesis]]. By adding years and other time indications in the [[Old Testament]] chronologies, one can calculate the [[age of the Earth]] as approximately 6,000 years (see [[Date of creation]] and [[Young Earth Creationism]]).
#That God created the Earth billions of years ago (see [[Old Earth Creationism]] and [[Theistic Evolution]]).
#That the Earth came into existence billions of years ago (approximately 4.5 billion years in modern estimates), entirely through natural processes and without any intervention by God.

Clashes between adherents of these ideas have gone on since time immemorial (see [[origins debate]]), though the last theory has only matured in the last 200 years.

== Young Earth Creationist view ==

===Formation and Age===

Young Earth creationists believe, on the basis of the biblical account in Genesis and biblical geochronologies, that the entire Earth, including animal, plant, and human life, was formed in six days, around 4000 B.C.
Mainstream scientific journals, committed to a [[naturalism|naturalistic]] worldview, contend this view.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0822sternberg.asp 1</ref><ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/538.asp 2</ref><ref>http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53400 3</ref><ref>http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=3833&program=DI%20Main%20Page%20-%20News&callingPage=discoMainPage 4</ref>

Most scientists believe that the Earth formed by natural processes instead of having been created by a supernatural entity. However, as one scientist noted, “... most every prediction by theorists about planetary formation has been wrong.” <ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes43.html</ref>

=== Magnetosphere ===
Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field powerful enough to prevent most of the Sun's radiation from reaching the Earth and harming the life on it. This field has been decaying at a known exponential rate, as decades of recordkeeping reveal. In 1984, Dr. Russell Humphreys developed a model for the creation of magnetic fields<ref name=Humphreys/> that suggests that the Earth was at first made entirely of water,<ref>See {{Bible ref|book=II_Peter|chap=3|verses=5}}</ref> much of which God transmuted into other elements after He made the Earth, probably on the third day of Creation. Humphreys's predicted magnetic decay time for the Earth agrees well with published data and thus constitutes further evidence for a young Earth.

===Shape of the Earth===

Some people dispute the shape of the Earth, arguing that the Bible describes the Earth as flat (presumably square, given that it is described as having "four corners" (Revelations 7:1) ) rather than spherical. However, no credible organization has ever expressed support for this theory.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/crea-fe.htm</ref> Some have disputed the idea that the Earth rotates around the Sun.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm</ref>

In [[Book of Revelations|Revelations]] 7:1 it is stated: "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth".
A sphere has no corners. The four corners are also mentioned in Isaiah 11:12. This is often accepted to be a figure of speech.

It is also stated:

"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." ([[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] 2:35)

AND

"Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:" (Daniel 4:10-11)

AND

"Behold, [Jesus] cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him" (Revelations 1:7)

AND

"Once again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world [cosmos] in their glory." ([[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] 4:8). Apologist [[JP Holding]]'s suggests this may have been a vision.<ref>http://www.tektonics.org/af/earthshape.html#globe</ref>

==Christianity and the Earth==

===Christian Historical-Grammatical Bible Exegesis or Bible Literalism===

According to [[Creation Ministries International]], most young earth creationists use a [[Hermeneutics|hermeneutic]] "best described as the [[Historical-grammatical method (Literal hermeneutic)|historical-grammatical method]] in which historical narrative (such as the book of Genesis) is interpreted as literal history, prophecy is interpreted as prophecy, poetry is interpreted as poetry, etc."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/tjv16v2_forster.pdf</ref> Creation Ministries International further states that "Historical-grammatical exegesis involves a systematic approach to analyzing in detail the historical situation, events and circumstances surrounding the text, and the semantics and syntactical relationships of the words which comprise the text."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4880/</ref>

Bible scholars have estimated the age of the earth based on the Creation account in Genesis and the genealogical accounts in Numbers and other books of the Pentateuch. One famous estimate was published in 1650 by [[James Ussher|James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh]] in a book called ''Annals of the World,'' in which he estimated the Creation to have occurred on 23 October 4004 B.C. Other Biblical scholars maintain that there are possible gaps in the genealogies, often using the ideas of the 19th century Calvinist theologian [[Benjamin Warfield]] on the issue.<ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/primeval_chronology.shtml</ref> However, [[James Barr]], regius professor of Hebrew at [[Oxford University]], wrote in 1984 the following: "… probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that: … the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story.’" <ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1606/</ref> Furthermore, it should be noted that Barr himself rejects supernatural Christianity, and so is not ''[[a priori]]'' biased in favor of creationism.<ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/pca_creation_study_committee_report.shtml</ref>

Many [[Christian]]s believe that the Earth is the perfect distance away from the Sun and take this to be evidence of [[God]]'s existence.<ref>http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html</ref> Secular scientists, however, reject this reasoning using the anthropic principle.<ref>http://www.anthropic-principle.com</ref>

===Christian Non-Literalism===

Many mainstream Christian denominations believe the story of Genesis is not meant to be read literally, and believe that the age of the Earth is on the order of millions or billions of years, not thousands of years.<ref>http://webusers.xula.edu/cporter/2000n/evolution_and_religion.htm</ref>

===Scientific Uniformitarianism===

Uniformitarian scientists believe that the earth is beyond 4 billion years old.<ref>http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html</ref> They also refute that the Earth is only 6,000 years old by quoting older human societies dated by their dating method as older than that.<ref>http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/</ref>

== Naturalistic view ==

Estimates by uniformitarian geologists of the age of the Earth and the beginning of life give about 4.55 billion years and 3.5 billion years ago respectively. These estimates are primarily based on radioactive dating of meteorites and fossil specimens. Most scientists today conclude that the Earth formed by natural processes, specifically by the accumulation of debris orbiting the sun billions of years in the past.<ref name=nebula>"[http://science.jrank.org/pages/6265/Solar-System-solar-nebula-hypothesis.html The Solar Nebula Hypothesis]." ''The Science Encyclopedia''. Accessed May 6, 2008.</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]]
*[[Environmental trends]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/earth.htm The Earth]
*[http://www.noaa.gov/ NOAA] An agency that enriches life through science.
*[http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/glossary/ Glossary]
*[https://creation.com/earth-is-too-special Earth is ‘too special’?] by [[Jonathan Sarfati]]
*[http://whatsinside.earth/ What’s Inside Earth?] Paradigm Shift: Geologists prove Earth rings like a bell when earthquakes strike it! — How in the world did Earth come to be like this? What's it like deep inside? Huge implications for comprehending Earth's origins, if not entire universe.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Solarsystem}}

[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Soil]]