Month: September 2020

I found this lecture especially interesting. I have explored the discrepancies in the creation stories in the past very topically but I enjoyed learning about it deeper. The part that interested me the most was looking at the order that God made everything. I think the sequence of his creation is one that can be expanded upon a hundred fold. The most interesting ordering is that he made the sky, seas, and solid ground before the heavenly bodies. When we look at the Big Bang Theory we think of Earth as being not particularly special and late in the game, as to where this prioritizes Earth over everything else. This also gets back into the talking point of what scientifically happens vs the maybe stories, maybe not stories that are told in the Bible to show humans a lesson. Whenever we talk about this in class I tend to think about my Uncle that is a Professor of microbiology and his adamant position against religion and how if you know science, you wouldn’t practice religion.
Another thing that interested me during the lecture was the concept that God had to create space in order to fill it with things like Earth. This concept is beyond confusing to think about there being such thing as no space and the extent of Gods power. It puts it into perspective of his unlimited power really.

The reading assigned for Thursday taught me something new because I had not known beforehand that there are 2 different accounts for the flood story. I picked up mostly on the differences between the birds. This is interesting because before I would have thought of the bird part to not be that important, but now seeing the different accounts makes me question. I also had not known that Noah was given eternal life beforehand and that everyone is a descendant of him so he lives on. I’m really shocked that I had never heard of this before, but it makes sense.

The discussions in class surrounding Adam and Eve also taught me a lot. First, Dr. McGrath blew my mind that Adam is not a real name, but rather the word for human-being in Hebrew. Knowing this makes me read the creation story in a new light. I also had never made the connection that Adam and Eve are making the transition from childhood to adulthood. The shame of nakedness makes a lot more sense now. Dr. McGrath asked when we think we began realizing our nakedness, and I answered around 1. My thinking behind my answer is my nephew. He recently turned 1, but definitely knows when he is naked and when he has clothes on. Most of the time he prefers to be naked!

Lastly, the discussion surrounding the disobedient act was interesting. A classmate brought up the important fact that action is required, this action being the taking of the fruit of course. This comment made me realize that temptation is also required. If the fruit was something that Adam or Eve didn’t want than the story might have turned out differently.

In our class discussion today, it was interesting to interpret Genesis 1 through 3 by replacing the forbidden fruit with a big red button that says, “Don’t Push.” I think that was an excellent way to place the creation stories in Genesis in a modern context. Adam and Eve were explicitly told not to touch the fruit, but they chose to do so anyway. Those who raised their admitting they would press the big red button (me included) show the same decision to question authority as Adam and Eve.

The video of Dexter Callender’s explanation on Genesis 6 through 11 and Gilgamesh was somewhat enlightening that there were two different accounts of a great flood. Both perspectives read very similarly in respect to each story sending out birds to scout the earth for dry land. Doves and ravens were sent out in both accounts which is an odd coincidence itself, but was interesting to me was that Dexter Callender proposed that Noah was granted eternal life by God to complete the Ark and harbor all living creatures during the flood. It never had occurred to me to question why Noah lived to be 950, but it’s a nice explanation to how Noah lived to such an old age in this fable.

Today in class we talked about Genesis 2 and 3 and the story of Adam and Eve. This class discussion was very interesting as we had once again talked about the “forbidden fruit” and mans desire to question authority.  We talked about the fruit as a big red button and that is exactly what it was. It was something Adam and Ever were specifically told not to touch but did so anyways. Being honest I would do specifically what my parents told me not to do because I knew what was best for myself and it was whatever they were keeping me away from.  However I did not sin in doing so. God realized that they made a mistake. God is all knowing, wise, and powerful he realized that humans weren’t perfect and realized this flaw should not be corrected as it teaches us a lesson the vast majority of the times we question our authority.

In Genesis 6-11 there are 2 different flood sties and the video with Dexter Callender describes the differences well and the reading definitely shows it. Dexter brings up the idea of myth within the bible. He mentions that it is in the flood story that we hear of this. It is because the two of every animal and all man coming from Noah, He mentions Noahs eternal life and the birds. The thing that also throws people off is it raining for forty days and nights causing the flood. I find it very interesting how there are obvious differences told within the same story. This might lead one to believe it to be hear say. I am not sure how these stories have been so altered or where the two stories got woven together but it makes it clear that somethings might have been lost over time or even added for flare of the story.

The chapter’s first four pericopes indicate to us that mankind establishes itself as a unified race which has migrated and constructed huge buildings in the land along the Tigris and Euphrates. The Tower of Babel is mankind’s attempt to strive beyond our reach and ability granted to us by God, “as if striving to fortify themselves against God,” according to St. Augustine. Man has a natural tendency to beat the curve, to constantly excel at harnessing creation for our benefit, God then acknowledges our great ability by causing us to develop different languages. This comes at our expense however, we are unable to unify ourselves, and thus unable to sin/rise against God as a people. This individualizes our sin, causing us to be completely alone according to our sins, repentance happens on a collective level.

Nimrod is the founder of Babylon, he fashions it to be one of the most prosperous nations in the history of man until that point. As a culture, they develop a deep sense of pride for their creations and this pride manifests into sin. Man starts to dominate nature to such an extent that they have no other force to rebel against other than God. This transpires into the formation of the Tower, man takes the kingdom of heaven by force. “Let Us go down” an allusion to the Trinity according to St. Augustine implies to us that God now descends upon man to keep us confined within the Universe. God causes us to speak in different tongues, he adds complexity and structure to our lives, this leaves humanity to be permanently separated.

The book of Genesis is one of my favorite books in the entire bible, it shows us the place God has dominion over, our roll in it, and the natural laws which we rely on to traverse the universe. It isn’t a history or a science textbook, it is a religious text and should be read with spiritual intent. It outlines how God has formulated the soul of man, how men and women ought to interact with each other, and to work together amongst creation. Genesis also articulates to us what laws and concepts God transcends, also trinitarian theology is expressed.

One thing I find to be exceedingly interesting is the fact that biblical Creation is not a procreative act as with the Babylonian stories. This I believe to be a prophetic nuance which runs parallel to the virgin birth of Christ. In Genesis, God is solo in the act of creation (Unlike having both Apsu and Tiamat), He is what some would call “Ontologically independent” that is, to be responsible for giving meaning and importance to the Universe. Without Him the Universe holds no inherent value and we are entirely reliant on His existence. It may seem that we are naked/alone but out of true love for us, God provides us the gift of freedom of will and the ability to understand that when on our own, values are superficial and will slowly decay without God’s intervention. This decay is the constant erosion of mankind’s purity through temptation from Satan, an umbrella term used to anthropomorphize the manifestation of evil.

There were many things that stuck out to me during our discussion of creation stories, including Genesis, Enuma Elish, and the Epic of Gilgamesh as discussed by Christine Hays in Lecture 4: Doublets and Contradictions, Seams and Sources. Specifically, the stories of Genesis and Enuma Elish have very contrasting ways that the world came about. In Enuma Elish, many different gods clashed with each other in battle and combat. In Genesis, there is only one character, one god, in the beginning, which points to the monotheistic way of Christianity and Judaism.

Talking about the “genre” of the Genesis creation stories also made me think quite a bit. There are a few different repetitions used which give the stories almost a poetic structure—for example, “And God said”, “And God saw that it was good”, and “—the (blank) day.” Personally, this poetic and lyrical expression of the story causes me to think that it’s not meant to be taken literally, which is something that has been up for debate among many people. What is a “day” in this story? Is it a literal 24 hour day, or rather a representation of something else? This is a topic that I’ve thought about personally for a long time, ever since my visit to the Creation Museum in Kentucky a few years ago, which I remember was mentioned in class.

From the lecture by Dr. Hays, I was able to learn a lot about the story of the Fall by comparing it to the Epic of Gilgamesh. There are many parallels between the two stories. In both stories, as referenced by Dr. Hays, knowledge and wisdom seem to come at a high price. For Adam and Eve, this high price is being removed from the Garden of Eden, losing their immortality, and enduring pain in their lives. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu’s loss of innocence turns him into a god, but it causes him to lose things like the ability to run with animals and to live an innocent, peaceful life (much like the one Adam and Eve were living in the Garden). A difference between these two stories is the nature of the act that leads to the loss of innocence.  In the creation story in the Bible, Eve was tricked by the serpent and she and Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They did this despite God’s direct orders to not eat of this tree and endured vast punishments for this behavior. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu’s loss of innocence comes from a seven-day sexual experience with a woman. These two stories are very different and yet they offer many interesting parallels.

From the class lecture today I thought that comparing Adam and Eve’s Fall to maturing from childhood was very interesting. When in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were naked and they were unashamed. Toddlers are most commonly naked and they are very unfazed by their nakedness. So, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit and disobeyed God’s orders they became aware of their nakedness, very similar to the process of aging when people become aware of their nakedness and begin to mature. I have learned about the Fall in Genesis 3 for a very long time and have not heard of it being compared to maturing from childhood and I thought this comparison was very interesting.

This is the first time I heard that there were two different flood stories. I have always had this idea that in the story, when I thought of it to be a singular story, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights and Noah 2 of every animal on the earth came aboard the ark with Noah and his family. I just learned, not only that there are two different stories of the flood within each other in a few chapters of Genesis, but also that these two ideas I previously had of the flood were actually from different stories and not the same one. There are also many other differences between the two stories, but it was so fascinating to me how the two stories have been tied together in my own mind for most of my life into one, where that is surely not the case.

It is also very interesting how the two stories coincide with each other within Genesis 6-9. It’s amazing how there are obvious differences that seem to be in one story, even though it is really two. I am not sure how this happened, where two stories got woven together, but I would assume that there were two authors within these chapters that disagreed on some details, so they decided to put both interpretations in.

Not only are these two stories with similarities and differences, but there is another flood story that is in the Epic of Gilgamesh that shows many similarities compared to the two stories in Genesis 6-9. Although the characters and other details may be different, the idea of a flood that kills every aspect of life besides the living things on the boat is the same as the flood stories in the Bible stories of the flood. This is astounding, as this is a completely different viewpoint, from a Mesopotamian view, compared to the viewpoint in the Bible. Again, I don’t how they are so similar in structure, but I would assume that there was this general idea in this period of time where there was a flood that wiped out all life, and the viewpoints of the stories are just from different people and areas.

the reading “BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION” differs from the christian creation story in many ways. First of which is there being multiple Gods. Within the Babylonian faith in the creation there are multiple gods, Mummu, and Tiamat, Anshar and Kishar. We also talked about in class one of the biggest critiques of the Christian faith with creation is Where did god come from? this is different within the Babylonian faith as the creators came from the water. which also leads us into possibly one of the biggest differences that being the creation of the world. In Genesis 1 you are able to see how God crafted not only our world but our entire universe. You see how God spent time forming the world the first 3 days, and the last 3 days God filled what he had formed. However in the Babylonian text we are just to realize that the world existed. From the readings we are bale to see drastic differences as the ones I have pointed out however they all come back to a divine being or beings meaning that the religious aspect and belief remains the same. This world is too perfect to be pure luck. This was all done by a divine being.