How to Read the Old Testament

A second major(ip) difference betwixt the stories arises in connection with the position of valet in the cosmos. The declaration of man linguistic rule over design in genesis 1 implies that mankind is the chief operation of creation, having a sur accession relationship to the cosmos and to the Creator, hence special entitlements. In multiplication 2, the emphasis is not on human dominion only when on human responsibility for and stewardship of Eden, plus the special caution against the Tree of Knowledge. A third major difference between the stories has to do with creation of male and female. In multiplication 1, humankind is created male and female at the selfsame(prenominal) time, whereas in Genesis 2 charr is " manakin of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23), as Adam trenchantly puts it, which means woman came out of man, which implies a subordination of woman to man and a major rationale for patriarchal social arrangements. At Genesis 2.25, a man's a man, but his woman is a wife, and thereby hangs a good deal of human history.

The patent contradictions between these two successive bank bills makes a problem out of the Genesis narrative. It is a problem more vexed by the incident that, despite centuries of scholarship and the evidence of the text itself, there be the "custom of communicating all this archaic lore to our chi

Since both Genesis stories be in the religious canon, however, it is legitimate to determine under what conditions each account of creation could be considered engageable. According to Campbell, the two accounts represent the heathen values of the two kingdoms of the Hebrews, Israel in the north, which referred to God as Elohim, and Judah in the south, which referred to God as Yahweh. The Yahwist, or Jahwist, idea of Creation in terms of mankind's (moral) responsibility rather than authority, according to Campbell, by and whopping prevailed. In the Yahwist view, says Campbell, man is "created to be God's slave or handmaiden" (103).

Another view of the Yahwist text is that it is theologically significant for putting man "at the beginning of creation, and all other creatures are made for him" (Marcheschi 39). Both of those ideas differ from the Elohim view of man in Genesis 1 as God's highest and best creation, suited to dominion over an orderly cosmos. Indeed, the Creation has constructed order itself: "Chaos, with a roof 'C,' has no place in this cosmic order, for creation is conducted in good order and in order" (Brown 36).

Brown, William P. The Ethos of the Cosmos: The Genesis of Moral imagination in the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999.

Marcheschi, Graziano. "Genesis Reading Guide." The Catholic Bible: Personal Study Edition. New American Bible. Ed. dungaree Marie Hiesberger. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. R32-46.

ldren, as God's eternal truth" (Campbell 112). If the two Genesis stories are to be examined seriously, one must lay digression questions of fact, such as whether Genesis is literally "true," or make that both are possibly in error but that one is definitely in error. Or, one can accept the vagaries implicit in the statement that the bible was written by men of faith, not by men of science.

Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God:
Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.