Yes. You see the same change in any historical account reaching that far back in time to before written history which means that any information from such times had to have been passed down in an oral tradition long before there was any specialization of human activities into such things as history, law, philosophy, entertainment, science, religion, and bedtime stories. So these oral traditions tend to fulfill all of these functions at the same time speaking on multiple levels to different people with different abilities to understand different things.
God may be the ultimate author, but if so then people and history are his writing instruments and thus all the properties of those writing instruments are going to effect the details of what is written if you look closely enough. Consider what happens when you look too closely at a photograph. You reach a point where what you see has more to do with the instruments used than the source.
People always find what they are looking for. Me? I tend to look for what maximizes the meaning of the text. I don’t see so much meaning in a story of taking snakes, golems of dust and bone, and magical fruit – i.e. what frankly looks like Walt Disney entertainment for children. I see much more meaning when I understand that these are symbolic of something else… like this talking snake being an angel transformed by the fall into our adversary the devil.
Genesis clearly has an historical intent but at the same time this is very very very far from the modern standards of historical documentation.
Not interested.
You got me on that one. I don’t see any reason there at all.
God is the creator of the universe not the devil, thus all the evidence from earth, sky, and in our own genetic code is sent to us from God. The only place I see the devil at work is in the behavior of human beings and that includes religious people most of all. Is it not a fact that this is exactly where Jesus saw the devil at work? In the behavior of the most religious people?
On the contrary… taking Genesis literally would only have you believe in talking snakes.
Some people prefer this. I do not. But neither do I think it is all that terribly important. I believe Satan exists but I do not believe in Satan. I think people give the devil too much credit and I think this is a bad habit central to their fallen nature.