Genesis Day 2

Cain and Abel
2. I definitely can see how this whole situation could look like a set-up to Cain. God showed favor to Abel's offerings for no particular reason, and this probably made Cain pretty jealous. And if Abel was God's favorite, wouldn't god have protected him from his brother? I think this story is a kind of blueprint for a few of the ten commandments that appear a little later in the Bible.


4. I have always thought of the Mark of Cain as a literal forehead-tattoo kind of thing. I don't really know why, but that has always been the image in my head. I also interpret Cain being protected as more of a punishment. God tells Cain that he is "cursed from the ground", which means he can't grow his own food. And since he can't grow his own food, can't be murdered, and is a fugitive, he is cursed to wander the earth as a scavenger/hunter. 


Noah


In class, somebody mentioned that the length of the flood changes in the middle of the text from 40 days to 150 days. But if you read carefully, you will see that it says the rain lasted for 40 days and 40 nights, while the flood lasted 150 days. I also noticed that the narrative is not chronological, especially in chapter 8. Another thing that i found interesting was that men and women are referred to as sons of God and daughters of men, respectively. Is this implying that women are not children of god, or does it mean that descendants of Seth were marrying descendants of Cain? 

Genesis Day 1

1. The opening verses of genesis are ambiguous because they give no descriptions. There is no explanation of what anything looked like, so the reader is left to interpret the words in their own way. Another thing that i found interesting about the first few lines is how choppy they sound when read aloud.
 While i'm not extremely familiar with other creation myths, i find that this is one of the least descriptive i have ever read. For one thing, God has no name. He is not a god, but the only God. I also noticed that many other creation myths anthropomorphize the earth, sea, sun, and moon, while this one does not.

5. To me, the tree of knowledge represents the burden of being human; knowing about what is good and what is evil and really dealing with that and living your life accordingly. In this story, God is the only one with the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve's eating the fruit causes them to start thinking for themselves, and God didn't want free thinkers. I think this part of the creation myth is used to explain free will.

6. I think Adam and Eve's punishment was inevitable because there is no real garden of Eden, There is no place where everything is perfect and i think if the story had kept them there, there would be absolutely no relevance to the human experience. If they never were expelled from the garden, there would be only two people on earth for ever and ever. So, basically, if Eve hadn't listened to the serpent, none of us would exist.