I don’t want to over-state this use of the term “blood”. My point was merely to draw attention to the fact that in ancient days one could intelligently speak of being of “royal blood” for generations and generations … which, as you know, is not something we can do with genetic elements, since we have a rather limited number of genes.
Further, if we were to compare “Federal Headship” to anything, it would be to the notion of “bloodlines”, rather than to genetic inheritance.
But they would NOT have been intelligently speaking about genetics!
No… they would have been more correctly speaking in GENEALOGICAL TERMS (aka, blood lines!) … which recognizes the difference between relatedness “by descent” versus relatedness “by marriage”!!!
This is an excellent point. It makes it VERY clear that Adam and Eve were not - - by their nature - - immortal, but only immortal because of their access to the Tree of Life !!!
Genesis, in its first ten chapters and ten verses, i.e. up to and including the Tower of Babel, disagrees flagrantly with the Creation we inhabit":
Days Two and Four make it impossible for Earth to orbit the nearest star, or for the moon to orbit Earth.
Day Three makes it impossible for Earth to exist as a ball with a thin crust of continents surrounded by films of water (seas.)
Verses 1 and 3 declare that God created time, space, matter, and light all at one go. Over the past quarter millennium (250 or so years) astonished admiration and study into the finest details of what God created have given a name to the act of Creation that gave us a universe: the big bang.
The universe explains itself coyly - we must apply great diligence and smarts to tease out layers of secrets. We understand the mechanism of evolution, and are half-way to understanding abiogenesis.
The above are hard fact; rationalizations based on poorly understood “sciencey facts” fall flat. Creation does not lie and, if you pay close attention, does not mislead. Conspiracy theories about Satan fooling scientists, or science being a collection of atheist cabals, also fall flat. Many scientists have realized that the universe had to have been Created.
Hide-bound connections between Genesis and Fact fall apart in light of the above. Genesis is theology. It describes a holy, pure, caring, intentional, and all-Creating God. It introduces Creation via two chapters, which alas conflict with each other if both are required to be fact. What is understood about Creation today would require a thousand scrolls loaded with arcane PhD level terminology, and if that were really there - “Just the facts, Ma’am,” as yourself about the important description of God, the theology mentioned above, - how would illiterate people even know it was there?
The length required to provide all the facts would take sufficient scrolls to encapsulate the gist of what Creation has managed to teach us in the past 250 years or so. Rather, the thumbnails in the first two chapters [[ which disagree with each other ]] manage to assert theological truth: God, holy and righteous and caring and intentional, created this Universe. The two chapter version manages to do that whereas the Library of Congress version would hide any hope of theology behind a blizzard of PhD level abstractions.
The Spirit inspired the text. Should we doubt that? And if we do not doubt, then prophecy regarding future events is clearly appropriate.
To be historical Genesis requires that Earth not orbit the nearest star and earth not have the form of a globe with a thin crust of continents surrounded by films of water (oceans.)
Making a shibboleth of a historical Genesis betrays its purpose as theology. It describes the Creator, while short-handing Creation itself. Full facts? How about major sections of the Library of Congress to deal with the universe as it has revealed it self to us. It is Created hence does not lie and will not mislead if you pay close attention. Science is built on doing exactly that.
Just over one-hundred passages in the New Testament quote Genesis.
Every one of them adduces a theological point.
Start there,