Genesis Essay, Research Paper
Genesis
I have never read the Bible before, in reading the chapters I find myself even more confused about God then I was before. I wrote what I thought was going on in each chapter and even asked a few questions. If this is not what you are looking for please let me know so I can do it right for the next time.
Chapter 1
In this chapter God created heaven and the earth. We are to see God in this chapter as a spirit. On the first day God divided the light (good) from the dark (bad). On the second day God divided the waters and called the firmament heaven. (I do not know what the word firmament means. Can you please explain?) On the third day God made the earth with grass and trees that grew fruit on them. On the fourth day he made the stars in the heaven to point out day from night. He also created the sun and moon. On the fifth day God created the sea animals and the birds. On the sixth day God created male and female to rule over all the other animals. I don?t understand the wording in the next section; ?He
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refers to everything as ?his kind? and lets make man in OUR image.? To whom does our refer to? Later he mentions that it is in his own image. On the seventh day he rested, so he could sit back and enjoy all that he created.
God is not a living person in chapter one; he is a spirit that moves across the earth. God says something and it happens. We believe that it took only six
days to create earth but who is to say it didn?t take longer. There were no clocks at that time and there was no one around to see what actually went on.
Chapter 2
This chapter also is about the creation. Only in this chapter God is a man. God formed man out of dirt of the ground with his two hands and then he gave him life. God also brought forth all the animals for the man to name. Now in class we said this was the way man was to find a mate, I never thought of it that way. I just thought this was the way God was showing man why he was going to rule the earth by giving the animals names. This was a way to show authority over them. Then God saw how lonely man was and then decided to create woman to keep him company. God puts man to sleep and takes out one of his ribs then forms woman with it. I was always taught to believe that God was a spirit so this version of creation I do not believe in.
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Chapter 3
In this chapter a serpent in present in the garden (which God created), that I always thought it was the Devil. The serpent tricks the woman into eating the forbidden fruit (which I always thought it was an apple). In class we discussed that the fruit meant sex. I still don?t understand how this is so. Man and woman now know all that is good and evil, they figure out that they are naked. God knows that they ate the fruit that he told them not to so he punishes all three of
them. I think the punishment were not fair, the serpent now has to crawl on his belly for the rest of his life, the woman has the pain of child birth and the man walks away with a slap on the hands. I know God tells him that he shall go back to the dirt in which he was made but we all do, not just man.
Chapter 6
This chapter explains that we began to multiply and man take woman for his wife. When God mentions 120 years I though that was how long man was going to be aloud to live upon earth. God was mad in everything that he created so he was going to destroy it. So he could wash away all of his mistakes and start over. God chooses Noah and his family to build an ark so they would be saved. God chooses Noah because he was obedient to the Lord. God told Noah that he was going to destroy the earth with water. God told Noah how to build the ark and what to take with him on the ark. Noah did everything as God asked.
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Chapter 7
In this chapter God tells Noah to take clean beasts by sevens and dirty beasts by twos. What does he mean by clean and dirty? Were dirty beasts something like pigs? God gave Noah seven days to get ready for the rain. God causes the rain to fall upon earth for forty days. After the flood the only things that would still be alive were the things on Noah?s Ark. It took a hundred and fifty
days for the water to dry up. God destroyed the earth because there was so much evil upon it. God must have been human because he made mistakes.
Chapter 18
In this chapter God is trying to decide if Abraham shall be the one who is saved when God is to destroy the town. God says to Abraham and Sarah that they were going to have a son. Sarah laughs at this idea because they were very old and she does not think this could happen. Abraham starts to compromise with God and try to save the city. Abraham says to God if he finds fifty righteous people in the city will he save it from being destroyed? God chalenges him by saying find them and I will not destroy it. In hearing this Abraham thinks to him self maybe he will go lower. So Abraham asks what about forty-five people, forty, thirty, twenty, ten? God does not seem to answer but Abraham is pleading for the lives of the people in the city. I didn?t understand this chapter very well. Verses one through eight were confusing.
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Chapter 22
God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac to the burnt offering to offer his son up to God. Isaac asks Abraham where is the lamb for the offering, he is very smart and worried. Abraham says that the Lord will provide it. Abraham builds an altar and places his son upon it; he is about to kill his own son when an angel calls out to him. The Angel asks him if he is about to kill his only son who was
given to him by the Lord as an offering. Then Abraham panics and offers a ram instead. The Angel of the Lord came to him a second time and offered him a blessing for what he did. The verses nineteen through twenty-four who were they talking about was it Abraham?s wife?
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