Help with a riddle

Factual Questions
1

A friend has emailed me a riddle, and I was wondering if anyone out there could help me.

It’s pretty strange. I thought I had a reasonable grasp of biblical matters, but nothing I can think of seems to fit. My best guess so far is that it’s a star, but that doesn’t fit all the clues neatly enough, and anyway it isn’t five letters long.

(I apologise if this is in the wrong forum by the way; hopefully someone can give me the answer straight away, if not then it may turn into a IMHO)

Here is the riddle:

God made Adam out of the dust
But thought it best to make me first;
So I was made before the man,
According to God’s Holy plan.
My whole body God made complete
Without arms or hands or feet.
My ways and acts did God control,
But in my body He placed no soul.
A living being I became,
And Adam gave to me a name.
Then from his presence I withdrew
For this man Adam I never knew

All my Maker’s laws I do obey
And from these laws I never stray
Thousands of me go in fear
But seldom on the earth appear
Later, for a purpose God did see,
He placed a living soul in me.
But that soul of mine God had to claim,
And from me took it back again.
And when this soul from me had fled,
I was the same as when first made
Without arms, legs, feet or soul,
I travel on from pole to pole

My labors are from day to night,
And to men I once furnished light
Thousands of people young and old
Did by my death bright lights behold
No right or wrong can I conceive;
The Bible and its teachings I can’t believe
The fear of death doesn’t trouble me
Pure happiness I will never see
And up in Heaven I can never go
Nor in the grave or Hell below.
So get your Bible and read with care;
You’ll find my name recorded there.

The answer is one word, five letters long.

2

Well, “snake” seems ot fit parts of the riddle. But I’m not sure… Any mythologies that claim fire was given to man by a snake?

Dani

3

Don’t bet the farm, but I’d say Satan (the snake)

4

to clarify, Hell wasn’t in existence till Lucifer was kicked out of Heaven, thereby he couldn’t be sent to Hell by God. It didn’t exist at the time
I can’t wait to see the tangent this thread will produce.

5

I initially thought Satan as well, but it doesn’t fit with:

“And up in Heaven I can never go
Nor in the grave or Hell below”

6

Satan was an initial thought for me as well. “Ghost” may work perhaps?

7

Trillionaire (can I get a loan?), Satan was an angel before being booted from Heaven, thereby causing him to open Hell. (Try the chicken). He was an angel, so the grave is out, but since he opened Hell on a whim, he couldn’t have been sent there. I’m more a WWII buff, though Catholic, but my Priest is sleeping so can’t cite anything. Just seems logical.

Somebody agree or debunk me! I won’t be able to sleep till I know

8

It’s could be “Earth”, “Ocean” or “Water”. As support for these notions, I give you:

The earth (and the heavens), are created in Genesis 1:1. The “waters” are mentioned in Genesis 1:2. Both are well before Adam.

Well, the earth has a body, but no arms, hands, feet or (presumably) a soul. It’s easy to believe the “ways and acts” are under God’s control, if you believe God controls the weather and makes earthquakes and whatnot. This can also apply to water, if you squint.

Well the name “earth” is man-made, I guess. Arguably, the Earth is “alive”, covered with teeming vegetation and animal life and volcanoes and such. The ocean is arguably also “alive” with sea creatures. The “withdrew” part escapes me, though.

Laws on physics can’t be broken, I presume, by the earth or by the ocean.

Dunno, unless it’s water, and it’s an obscure reference to rain and floods.

I seem to vaguely recall some water-based aspects of the Lilith myth.

The ‘pole-to-pole’ reference cliches it for me as a geographical riddle, though “earth” and “ocean” (or even “water”) could apply, since all stretch (roughly) from north to south pole.

Well, many people have drowned in the ocean, and light from the sun, moon and stars is reflected off the surface. It’s a stretch, I’ll admit.

The fact that Hell is specifically mentioned as a place the subject can never go rules out Satan, as far as I’m concerned.

9

Whoops, looks like I misread the “by my death bright lights behold” part. Oh, well…

10

Comet.

11

Comet seems to fit best out of everything so far, but it’s still not without its problems:

“Later, for a purpose God did see,
He placed a living soul in me.
But that soul of mine God had to claim,
And from me took it back again.”

And are comets mentioned in the bible at all?

12

How about the whale? Whale oil lights, no ‘hands’ or ‘feet’, etc. Travels from pole to pole, only the oceans do that…

13

The ‘living soul’ was Jonah.

I’ll go with Whale as the answer.

14

Well I read somewhere that whales never cross the equator, but I REALLY don’t want to get into that here.

15

Whale does seem to fit pretty well though

16

Yeah, “comet” is right out.

“Whale” it is.

17

Whale seems to fit most of the clues.
Although how do whales ‘furnish light’ to thousands of men when they die?

18

by stipulating in their will that they want their blubber to be
used in oil lamps.

19

I vote for whale.

Satan doesn’t work because he has hands and feet (I think).

20

Regarding “So get your Bible and read with care; You’ll find my name recorded there.” The word “whales” appears as early as Genesis 1:21, beating the creation of man by five verses.

Sounds okay to me.