Immediately after the fall of mankind and the expulsion from the garden, the human race begins populating God's creation. Cain is the first-born son of Adam and Eve. His actions in life from beginning to end exhibit one thing: a lack of reverence for God. In contrast to Cain's irreverence, Abel comes along and displays a greater sense of concern in pleasing God. Abel, who was righteous and zealous in pleasing God, became a "keeper of sheep" (cf. Gen 4:2). Cain, however, was a "tiller of the ground" (cf. Gen. 4:2). Both Cain and Abel were expected to offer up sacrifices to God. These sacrifices would differ in nature since their occupations differed one from another. Firstlings of the flock and the fat thereof would be what Abel offered to
When wisdom is mixed with disobedience it opens the door for evil to abound. Although Eve was the first to take of the fruit and Adam the second, both shared responsibility in the transgression as Arnold describes it. (62;67,
Temptation causes an urge to do things even if it’s not the right thing to do. The story of Adam and Eve and the movie Pleasantville are very similar. The film follows David and Jennifer, two siblings who get trapped in the 1950’s television show, Pleasantville. The show is about a utopia where everything is black and white. The former David and Jennifer change into the characters Mary-sue and Bud. As impurity and loss of innocence starts to take over Pleasantville, color pops up in random places. In the story of Adam and Eve a snake persuades them into eating an apple from The Tree of Knowledge even though they were instructed not to by God. All that Adam and Eve would need was handed to them by God but the one rule that he had for them was
Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God describes the life of a black woman named Janie. Janie is raised by her grandmother and begins a close to life-long quest that can be viewed as a search for many things. Most scholars believe that this quest is for independence; on the contrary I believe that this quest is to find someone that she can be dependent on, the kind of dependency that "singing bees" have for pear blossoms.
In John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Steinbeck uses Cal and Aron Trask to represent the biblical story of Cain and Abel, demonstrating a struggle of good and evil through an underlying religious point of view as well as the overlying fictional telling of the same story. Cal’s innate evil nature contrasting Aron’s inherent goodness are evident throughout the novel and portray Steinbeck’s overall theme of a constant conflict between morality and immorality.
Adam was the first man that God created and was created to be the image of God himself. God planted the beautiful Garden of Eden in which there was no sin and the trees were filled with delicious fruits, everything a person would need to eat. In the middle of the garden was the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” One day, a serpent came into the garden and convinced Eve to eat an apple from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The fruit did not make Adam and Eve any better than they already were. Instead, the jealousy, the desire to eat what was forbidden—and then the physical eating of the fruit that was forbidden—allowed sin to enter humanity. God punished Adam and Eve, and all their descendants, by making their lives hard. Likewise, in the novel, peace and innocence left the Devon school and Gene and Finny's friendship, and after the winter session, discipline and hard work began. Eve eating the apple can be paralleled to Gene jostling the limb of the tree while Phineas was standing on the edge of it for in that second, both of their lives ch...
They are both Adam and Eve’s children. Cain was born first and Adam and Eve believed that, with the help of the Lord, they were blessed with a man. Cain killed Abel in a field, for the Lord didn't look at his offering with favor like his brothers. The Lord found out about Cain’s sin and cursed his land, and made him a restless wanderer on earth. Cain told the Lord that someone would come along and kill him, but the Lord put a mark on him. None will kill him now that he has the mark. Cain left the Lord's presence and lived in the land of nod, east of eden. Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 4 - New International Version (Bible
The God of Genesis is portrayed very differently. God is a forgiving God. One sees this when God states, "of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Genesis 2:17). However, when Adam and Eve do eat the apple-though he does make them mortal-God allows them to live. God also does not strike down Cain. The God of Genesis is also a personable God. God talks directly to the h...
Can religions and cultures be anything more than their history? Why do we have a concept of history in the first place? Obviously history exists, but like the human ability to conceive of the future, history seems to be a rare phenomenon tied with our ability for language and the telling of stories. What’s even more fascinating is the human ability to make up a history or to tell a story, such as a creation myth, that seeks to explain something that has not been witnessed by anyone and does not have any role in finding food or creating shelter. We do not have a physical need to know how the earth came to be or to know how it is that we came to be here. Still, creation stories exist in almost all human cultures and, amazingly, many share many of the same elements. The question is, why? Is it a coincidence that so many of them share the same elements? By looking at a comparison of two creation stories, we should be able to understand the meaning of these similarities better.
Such was the beginning of creation. Creation continued with the sky and the waters, the Earth and the vegetation, the lights and the animals, and on the sixth day God created man. "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…. So God created humankind in his image." God created Adam. It was Adam who had the first human relation with God. God "put him in the garden of Eden to till and keep it. And the lord God commanded the man, 'you may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.'" This simple command was not to be obeyed, and Adam, Eve and subsequent humanity was banished from Eden.
Let’s go back to biblical times for just a moment. Fromm explains that during the time Adam and Eve reside in the Garden of Eden, they live in innocence and harmony. This harmony is disrupted by the “Act of Disobedience,” which is labeled in biblical terms as the “original sin.” This act of disobedience describes the first moral flaw, and the consequential corruption of mankind. By disobeying God, Adam and Eve take the first steps towards independence and freedom. This helps them reach their spiritual and intellectual capacity. After Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, they create a new harmony referred to as “the end of days” (622). To the prophets, man is right to disobey; this allows him to think for himself. In many ways, parents encourage kids to think for themselves. By simply picking out their clothes or packing their own lunch, children move away from following their parents, and towards the formation of their own identities...
...creation stories occurred before the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel, and this would follow the same standard as the stories of the New Testament below.
Genesis, Job, and Antigone all discuss matters regarding the laws of god and law of man, punishments for disobedience, and the role of knowledge.
The fall of mankind with Adam and Eve caused an imbalance in the relations between God and mankind. To achieve salvation, this inequity had ...
The relationship between God and his creations humans can be said to be a very complex relationship. Genesis shows us many examples of God's interaction with humans and human's interaction with each other. From the creation of Adam and Eve and all the events that follow afterwards, I shall show what the relationship tells us about the nature of God and mankind.
For the eternal Lord avenged the killing of Abel. He took no delight in that feud, but banished Cain from humanity because of his crime. From Cain were hatched all evil progenies: ogres, hobgoblins, and monsters, not to mention the giants who fought so long against God - for which they suffered due retribution. (Beowulf, 29)