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The book of genesis in the holy bible
Genesis in the bible
Historical alusion of bible
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The Bible is a unique book that was written over a span of 1500 years ago and was written in three distinct languages (Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic) however, there was no specific writer. It reads about real factual events that occurred and was a dialog of many people’s lives. It authenticity has been proved by researches and historians that have proved these texts to have been real life occurrences thousands of years ago. The Bible was written over such a long span of time, as it contains the old and New Testament and within them the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus etc. Throughout the New Testament, factual stories are retold from different points of views as there are approximately 40 authors that wrote the bible. Tradition says that Moses was wrote the Bible Genesis 1 and 2 however, this is debatable. (Brown, 2012)These factual stories have different topics and messages within them about the nature of God, the creation of the world, rules to live by, and the coming of the Promised Messiah.
The intentions of the writers that wrote the bible are somewhat clear as they appear in the biblical texts and stories as lessons learnt throughout life. Not only does it contain texts and lessons but also commandments, songs, prayers, warning, parables and prophecies that are still read, sung and believed in today. The bible was written by many different people with different strengths, personalities, fears, courage, backgrounds and cultures to display his messages. (Zevada, 2013)
The bible was written to display messages to all generations such as faith in God and guidance, how to live a life with goals and a purpose, how to relate to each other and treat our ‘neighbours’ as equals to ourselves and encourages us to look to God for direction and str...
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...nated like the spirit called Brahman that is the foundation of all life and can never die as he is the creator and is eternal. This is known in today’s world as Karma. Karma is practiced all throughout this religion and is a key source to living and meditation as is the single syllable within the Vedas known as ‘OM’.
It is doubtful that religion will be as well formed as it is today without these creation stories to guide people along the path of life. It is evident from all information displayed that all religions have creation stories and the Christian and the Hinduism creation stories have visible similarities and teachings within these stories. Whether they are symbols or teachings these creation stories and scriptures are somewhat similar and are both crucial elements in how to live a righteous life and enter their state of either heaven or reincarnation.
In his book, The Good Book, Peter J. Gomes attempts to convince his readers the proper way to read and interpret the Bible, takes an analytical standpoint on past (and current) controversial topics such as racism, women, Jews, and homosexuality. Along with these two things, he explains to his readers how the Bible interacts with several topics people typically have questions on in regards to how they relate to the Bible.. The main point of his novel, as I see it, is to inform the readers of two things. The first being that there is both a right and wrong way to read the Bible, while the second is that people in general want to read the Bible but are biblically illiterate and do not know how to approach it.
The Bible is read and interpreted by many people all over the world. Regardless, no one knows the absolute truth behind scripture. Walter Brueggemann, professor of Old Testament, wrote “Biblical Authority” to help people understand what he describes as six different parts that make up the foundation to ones understanding of scripture. He defines these six features as being: inherency, interpretation, imagination, ideology, inspiration, and importance. As Brueggemann explains each individual part, it is easy to see that they are all interconnected because no one can practice one facet without involuntarily practicing at least one other part.
He believes that Moses did not write Genesis but rather translated it from ancient stone tablets written in Cuneiform script. The tablets each would have been originally written by eye-witnesses of the particular events, or those who received their information from eye-witnesses.
A literature work will always portray an important message to their readers; in the case of the Bible would be its teaching values. Since there are different interpretations of messages that readers can conclude from reading the Bible; the professor William H. Bishop portrays on his article “The Genesis of Values in Genesis” the interpretation according with the Christians, “The Christian worldview is predicated upon biblical teaching and interpretation. It is the foundation for family values. These values are prevalent in the Book of Genesis and are what comprise the family unit, the decline of which is eroding the values given by God”(Bishop,2015). According with the professor, the Christians see the Genesis book as guide to learn the values of a family which is the message of this literature work piece .However, portraying a message is not what Literature is all about. Literature is a written work that would produce some type of effect on the readers. In this case, the effect is that when Christian readers will learn moral value and they will practice them in their everyday life; as professor Williams states: “The Christian worldview is a means of interpreting the world through the teachings, concepts and principles in the Bible and taking action based on that interpretation. Furthermore, it incorporates values commensurate with that worldview, for example,
The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These authors took the text and adapted for their culture. This independent source is used by scholars to help gain insight into what was behind the texts of the bible so we are not left with an incomplete picture of what went into the creation of the bible. Julius Wellhausen used these four sources to publish a book to able us to better understand the sources and to give it credibility with the Protestant scholars at the time (Boadt 94). These sources that is independent of the bible as in the DVD Who Wrote the Bible? and the Nova website aide in shedding light on the history that surrounded the writers who wrote the text and what inspired them to write it in the first place. The DVD shows the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the extensive history of the texts and all its sources in an effort to try to find exactly who wrote the bible (Who Wrote). These scrolls have aided scholars immensely by giving us some of the oldest known manuscripts of the bible in the world today. It shows that the bible w...
Modern scholars believe that the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, was composed by four or five writers between 1000 to 400 BCE based on much older traditions. The New Testament was composed by a variety of writers between 60 to 110 CE. The contents of the New Testament were formalized by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 CE, and finally canonized in 382 CE (Geisler and
Dr. David Jeremiah states, “One of the main issues we must understand is humanity is in a fallen state. Unfortunately, this is due to choices made in the garden that we have no control over.” The Bible says, “It is in the heart of man to do evil.” Hence, the scriptures are given to us for guidance and instruction on morality and relationships. (Ecclesiastes 8:11)
The Hebrew Bible, better known as the Old Testament, is a collection of tomes that form part of the Biblical canon. Many scholars around the world do not think that a single author wrote the books contained in the Hebrew Bible, but rather that it represents centuries of stories frequently compiled after the events they describe . The stories were created with visions for the future, in order to allow audiences insight into communities and beliefs that were common thought during their era. The stories responded to the issues and problems of their time, but also addressed contemporary climates. While the stories themselves may not be true, they convey truth without needing literal readings. For example, the creation stories in Genesis, portray God as creating the universe, and while this is considered as not ‘literally true’; the stories communicate theological truths about mankind’s relationship with God through the eyes of Hebrew writers .
Mears, Henrietta C.. What the Bible Is All About. Rev. and updated. ed. Ventura, Calif., U.S.A.: Regal Books, 1983. Print.
The authors acknowledge that many books have been written on this topic. Their goal is to be unique by focusing on different types of literature (genres) so their readers will understand how to properly interpret them in the context they were written. This review will examine the principles the authors use to interpret the Bible. The review will summarize the book, followed by a critique, and a conclusion.
Spanning fifteen hundred years with over 30,700 manuscripts, extensive archaeological evidence and 2000 prophecies that have been fulfilled, the Bible is God 's word to us. (Yohn, 2013). In the Bible, the Father is essentially giving us a picture of the history of the world and is also leading us to a place where we must make a decision that involves whether we choose to accept his son or reject him and remain guilty. Additionally, the Word of God tells us what happened that caused this breach between us and God, the result of this and how God has rectified it through the blood of his son. In fact, from the beginning of the Bible (written 1400 B.C.) to the last book (A.D. 96), God is showing us why we need Jesus and how to find him. Just as a plant’s root system propagates and occupies the pot that encloses it, Jesus permeates the entire Bible. Therefore, the motif of the Bible is the story of the redemption of mankind and it all points to Jesus as the messiah and savior who secures this for all.
The biblical narrative is one that is still going on to this day. The biblical narrative tells the story of God and how he reveals himself to us. Rhodes points out that “God comes to each through a historical event or series of events” (2). It is in this way that God reveals himself to us and this maintains the relevance of the biblical narrative in our lives. God reveals himself through formative stories in the bible such as Creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man, The Flood, God’s Covenant with Noah, and the Tower of Babel. From the very beginning of the biblical narrative we see that God relates to us on a personal level. He created us, he formed us, he created the world in which we live, and he has been an active participant in the narrative since before it began.
Thiselton, A.C. (2005). Can the Bible mean whatever we want it to mean? Chester, U.K.: Chester Acadamic Press, 10-11.
If it were truly God’s Word, it could not be confined to a single audience or generation of people. Rather, it would affect all who read it. An author may have written a book for a certain group of people or generation; however, if a piece of scripture is truly God’s Word, then every person who reads it should be able to apply it to his or her own life. God’s message should impact every person and transcend time itself.
In our first class session we accomplished a lot, we learned about the key themes that can be found in the New testament and how one goes about questioning the themes and connecting the new and old testaments. The one major theme that we found to be one of the big ones of the New Testament was Jesus and all his deeds, death and resurrection. When this theme was first revealed to the class, I thought well obviously! But once we began to talk about all the other themes such as restoration, redemption, the church and the building relationship between the Jews and Gentiles. And Dr. Hall began to connect each theme together with a link and with each connection every last theme eventually led back to Jesus and his deeds, death and resurrection