Evolution and an Orthodox Patristic understanding of Genesis

[jckstraw72]

Fr. Seraphim says that the Patristic teaching is that the sons of God were the offspring of Seth, hte chosen ppl meant to prepare themselves in virtue, and the daughters of men are the offspring of Cain -- the forbidden outcasts. He mentions St. Ephraim the Syrian as an example.

regarding hte giants, Fr. Seraphim writes "By 'giants' here we do not need to understand enormous men. According to St. Ephraim, the offspring of Seth, the chosen race, were tall and full in stature, while hte offspring of Cain, the cursed one, were small. When these two races mixed, the tallness of the Sethites prevailed. The 'giant' stature of the men -- the descendants of Seth -- before the Flood is apparently one of the attributes of humanity that was lost with the new climactic conditions of the post-Flood world."

[Cyprian]

If you wish to know the meaning of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" mentioned in Genesis chapter six,

go read St. John Cassian's VIII Conference
go read St. Ephraim's Commentary on Genesis
go read St. John Chrysostom's Homily 22 on Genesis
go read St. John Chrysostom's VIII Homily on 2 Timothy
go read St. John Chrysostom's Commentary on Psalm 4
go read St. Augustine's City of God Book XV
go read St. Gregory Palamas' Homily V
go read St. Jerome's Homily 45 on Psalm 132 (133)

At least half of these are online.

Now quit skirting the issue and answer my questions. Or are you afraid?

Cyprian

[TomS]

regarding hte giants, Fr. Seraphim writes "By 'giants' here we do not need to understand enormous men. According to St. Ephraim, the offspring of Seth, the chosen race, were tall and full in stature, while hte offspring of Cain, the cursed one, were small. When these two races mixed, the tallness of the Sethites prevailed. The 'giant' stature of the men -- the descendants of Seth -- before the Flood is apparently one of the attributes of humanity that was lost with the new climactic conditions of the post-Flood world."

Once again, you pick and choose which parts of Genesis should be taken literally.

Maybe you are picking wrong.

[jckstraw72]

2) Who were the daughters of men whom the two surviving sons of Adam and Eve--Seth and Cain-- married to sire the human race? Please just answer these two of my original six basic questions. No nonsense, please. (I will mention up front that, if all homo sapiens in the world today were descended from only one woman, we would all have identical mitochondrial DNA in our cells--through matrilineal inheritance-- which is decidedly not the case.)

it would have been their sisters. i remember reading in an apocryphal Jewish source that Adam and Eve had like 35 children -- now of course i dont hold that as inspired or anything, but they lived several hundreds of years, plenty of time to have lots of kids, and their kids can have lots of kids, and so on.

as for the mitochondrial DNA -- you can only make that assertion if you assume that the workings of DNA have always been the same.

[jckstraw72]

Once again, you pick and choose which parts of Genesis should be taken literally.

Maybe you are picking wrong.

its not me picking though, i simply quoted Fr. Seraphim who studied the Patristics in depth. id rather trust the God-bearing Fathers on matters of Scriptural interpretation than turn to scientists who know little or nothing of God for the most part. perhaps the scientists are picking wrong.

and it wasnt really not literal. it said they were taller, fuller in stature, just not like jack and the bean stalk giants like ppl tend to think when they think of giants. like goliath was a "giant" but was really only a few feet taller than normal ppl.

[TomS]

id rather trust the God-bearing Fathers on matters of Scriptural interpretation than turn to scientists who know little or nothing of God for the most part.

Isn't it strange how in our secular lives we want "independent verification" of things, we trust no one who "has an agenda", yet when it comes to religion, we only trust those who already believe they know the truth?

[jckstraw72]

Isn't it strange how in our secular lives we want "independent verification" of things, we trust no one who "has an agenda", yet when it comes to religion, we only trust those who already believe they know the truth?

as an Orthodox, shouldnt i trust the Fathers on Scripture?