Christians, can an all powerful, perfect being get tired and need to rest?

The resting part means he just ceased from his work, it was finished. The refreshing part was God just looking over the creation, saying to himself, it is good. Remember what Genesis 1:2 says.

" And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

Some of us believe that Genesis is not a creation account of the earth, but a restoration account of the earth after some cataclysmic event had occurred. Looking over your work in restoring the earth would indeed be refreshing to your spirit.

I am not a Christian and I do not propose to answer for the Christian viewpoint. I'm Jewish and Genesis is the first book of the Torah. I'm rather amazed to see a good answer about the Jewish religion's view of this coming from a non-Jew in the copy-paste of Aryeh Kaplan's words, but disturbed that it was attached to an unsubstantiated insult to the asker, therefore I cannot give it a thumb up for that reason.

To answer the question about Genesis and about God with regard to the Shabbat, here is another excellent piece from the perspective of Judaism. Rather than copy-paste it, I'll provide the links

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judais...

http://www.aish.com/sh/t/e/Does_God_Get_Tired__The...

I read nothing in the question that is hateful or insulting. The fact that it addressed Christians only also puzzled me if it was speaking about Genesis, but considering that Christians consider their adaptation of Tanakh, their Old Testament, a huge portion of their Bible, if she was wishing to understand the Christian perspective on this, how else would she address a question that's been asked by Jews and others for centuries?

Please see and read the references below for more.

EDITED to note, since there appears to be a bit of confusion: Gensis is indeed the first book of the Torah, and of the Jewish Bible. However, Judaism has no "Old Testament". Judaism's Scriptures remain as they state within them, an eternal testament ( covenant ) Testament means covenant. Old Testament is the name given in the 3rd century by Tertullian to the Christian religion's adaptation/alteration of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism, the Tanakh ( an acronym for Torah = Teaching/law, Nevim= Prophets, Ketuvim=Writings)

The Christian Bible's Old Testament (it’s adaptation of Tanakh) reveals that in many places (not most, but many) there are significant translation differences rendering the meanings of the passages quite different. Not only are the books rearranged so that the books are not in the order of Torah, Prophets and Writings, but Kings, Ezra and Nehemiah are divided. Even though re-arranged, the Protestant Old Testament contains roughly the same books; the Vulgate has additional texts added to the canon that were originally written in Greek. The Greek Septuagint (meaning 70) was originally referring to the Torah portion only, and in fact, that is the only portion that was translated by 72 scribes whose translations matched. The rest of Tanakh was translated from the Hebrew to the Greek over the course of about 300 years and scholars cannot tell who or when exactly any of them were translated. Yet the common name of Septuagint is now generally applied to the whole Greek translation. By the beginning of the first century CE, there were many different versions of each text that appeared, some of them with less accurate Hebrew to Greek, and during this time, many other texts appeared being originally written IN Greek such as the books of the Maccabees. By the time of the beginnings of Christianity, some of these texts of Tanakh had become so changed through the Hellenization (introduction of Greek philosophical concepts through language) that they were no longer adherent to Torah precept. The ancient world was one in which the religion and customs of the ruling people were imposed upon the conquered..Jewish law always forbade such attempts to syncretize.

Resting and Tired and not the same thing but usually go along with each other, the lord might have been resting and admiring creation, also its a bad translation as the original says, "god rested the seventh day" and there is no mention of "refreshment"

You don't know much about refreshment and rest.

God can choose to rest. God can also experience emotion. God exists outside of time and space as well as within time and space. God was here when you wrote this question at the same "time" that He was creating the world.

People can cause God emotional pain. And you question how an emotional being might need refreshment?

Quit now while you are ahead. There is more to God than any can understand.

You don't read very well...or you come to false conclusions.

Re-read my statement. Partial understanding is not understanding. Just because I have a few pieces of the jig-saw puzzle does not mean that I have the whole picture.

I understand that my tone is "aggressive". I am intentionally challenging your statements and claiming them false.

Calm down. Learn and grow.

*Facepalm*

Study Judaism and learn what "rest" and "work" mean in the context of the Sabbath. It means refraining from creating and modifying; that's why Jews can't even pick a flower on the Sabbath. It has nothing to do with being tired.

I agree with Ra that OT questions should be directed toward Jews.

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From Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan:

G-d did not rest because He was tired or overworked. Even creating a universe is not hard work for G-d. Our sages teach us that it involved less effort than to pronounce a single letter.

G-d rested in another sense. He rested when He stopped creating ---when He no longer interfered with His world. This gives us an insight into the Torah's definition of Sabbath rest.

We rest in a Sabbath sense when we no longer interfere with the world. In this way, we emulate G-d's rest on the Sabbath, when He stopped interfering with His world.

During the six days of Creation, G-d asserted His mastery over the universe by actively changing it. On the Sabbath, He "rested" by no longer asserting this mastery.

We emulate G-d by relinquishing our mastery over the world on the Sabbath.

We now have a new understanding of work that makes the entire concept of the Sabbath make sense.

More at http://www.ou.org/publications/kaplan/shabbat/rest...

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>>@Fred, since when is asking a question "hateful"?<<

It is hateful because you aren't trying to gain a true understanding of the verses; you are trying to harass Christians. Why else would you be asking Christians about a Jewish text?

>>Regarding it being "hateful" to direct a question about the old testament to Christians and not to Jews, I must say I find this truly surprising...It never occured to me to direct this question to Jews for I have never encountered a Jewish person who takes the stories of the old testament literally, but I have encountered numerous Christians who do.<<

It sounds like you are admitting you know very well it was never meant to be taken in the sense of God getting "tired" and that you asked this question hoping to laugh at what you assumed would be silly answers by Christians.

"God called the light 'DAY'. Therefore ,a day was 24 hours and not a billion years, as some have suggested. Work and rest have always been opposites. One does not ''rest" unless one is tired,and they would not be considered "refreshed" if they were not tired. Therefore, your question is valid, and this is indeed another of the (oh so many) contradictions in the ancient scribblings of those ignorant goat herders who have sought to enlighten people with their childish tales.

The Bible is the certainty whilst it truly is an precise translation. basically simply by fact something sounds like a contradiction to you does no longer mean that it truly is. It basically ability which you do no longer are responsive to it. you in all hazard went to a internet site that lists Bible expenses out of context and by no ability study the Bible for your self. I disagree with Josh under me. genuine Christianity is according to faith AND reason. it is maximum genuine interior the doctrines of the Catholic Church. study the Catechism of the Catholic Church in case you opt to understand the Bible. yet I also have a feeling which you truly decide to proceed to be ignorant considering seems to be the way of the international right this moment.

You can finish a job in the middle of the day, but you can look back and see the job has finally come to a finish and then be rested or pleased by what you have accomplished.

Maybe his days are billions of years long? So he had reason to stop and look back and see the many variety's of plant and animal life and how they worked together.

Does not mean he was actually tired.

Michelle, you may get better answers if you direct your Old Testament questions to Jews. Well, I see that you used to be a fundamentalist. Did you fall away because of this question? You say that you are filled with compassion but don't you remember that all goodness comes from God? If there was no God, only evil would exist in the world.

For me, God = Good, Devil = Evil. Can you deny that such forces exist and influence people's lives? Or are these inspirations generated from hormones pumping through your body?

It is not uncommon for some anthropomorphism to take place in Scripture.

God "rested" from that work because He was done; finished. A lawyer rests his case when he is done.

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