Genesis
GENESIS STUDY QUESTIONS
Historians
call accounts of the
beginning of things creation myths. A myth is not necessarily an untrue
story,
but rather a story that shows what a society considers to be the
deepest truth
about man and universe. Nearly all societies tell such myths (in my
History 121 class, we look especially closely at the Sumerian and
Babylonian creation myths), and one could
argue
that, in a certain sense, we have creation myths today: two of them
widely
believed in our society: the Hebrew account in Genesis and the
Darwinian theory
of Evolution. It’s important to
understand here that what is at stake is *not* science but two very
different
concepts about man and his place in universe.
As
you do the assigned readings in Genesis, please think about the study
questions below:
1.
To what extent does Darwinian evolution resemble creation myths?
What does it say about man and his place in the universe? To what
extent is it anti-myth?
2. To what extent do the opening chapters of Genesis resemble
creation myths? What do they say about man and his place in the
universe? To what extent is the Genesis view anti-myth?
3. Why does the book of Genesis give no account of the beginning
of God himself? What's the essential difference between this and
the Mesopotamian and Egyptian view of things?
4. Why does the writer give the specific details of creation he
does? Why doesn't he just say, "God made everything" and be done
with it?
5. What is the writer's basic view of creation? Of
men? Of women?
6. Why does author talk about six days of creation? How
does this story differ from other creation accounts?
7. Note the covenant made with man. What's man supposed to
do? What restrictions are put on him? What is he
given in return? How does such a view of man affect behaviour of
people toward natural world?
8. How does writer explain how good creation of God becomes
corrupted? Is this a good explanation of why there is evil and
suffering in the world? Who is at fault here? Adam? Eve?
The Serpent?
9. What are basic consequences of disobedience? What are
differences in Hebrew view between men and women initially and as a
result of fall. How does this compare to Greek story of Pandora.
How do you account for similarities here?
10. Why does the writer include the stories of Noah, Abraham, and
Abraham's descendents? Which of these stories do you find most
interesting? What message/messages is the author teaching through
these stories?
11. Who would you guess wrote Genesis? When? What internal
evidence is there for dating the book? Where does the author get his
information?
12. How do you account for the differenct names used for God in
Genesis 1 and 2 and elsewhere?