Around 1400 B.C. Exodus was written in Hebrew. The Exodus, which is one of the books in the Old Testament, are rules, similar to Hammurabi Code placed by God for the descendants of Abram. This literature gives insight into the structure of the Jewish community, which includes the hierarchy of their community as well as the roles important in this community. Scholars can further understand the Hebrew community by reading Genesis. Genesis consists of religious stories that talks about how farming, slavery, and the world came into being. But overall, scholars can see a society very much center on religion.
A prevalent theme in the first two chapters in Genesis is farming. Genesis states, “when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no
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herb of the field had yet sprung up - for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground” (Genesis 2). Tilling the ground mean mixing the ground up in order to allow planting and farming; thus, one can see a society relying on farming. Another excerpt that show farming is when God is punishing Adam and Eve. “You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life”. God punishes all of mankind by making them work many hours for their own food; thus, showing a society that committed many hours to farm food. Furthermore, the writers might of wrote this explanation for farming so many hours to tell the people that they brought this pain upon themselves and they are at fault. But farming is not their only food source. “Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground” (Genesis 4). Other than farming, we can see that people kept animals for food. However, when “Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard” (Genesis 4). Thus, revealing a society that favors meat and animals over crops and farming. Genesis can be used to show why shepherds and meat are superior to farmers and crops. Since Cain, the farmer, killed Abel, the shepherd, citizens can reason that the shepherds are innocent, while farmers are the one that caused the first ever crime. The importance of animals is also apparent in the rules within Exodus because there are many rules protecting the right of ownership for animals but no rules talking about crops. “If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep” (Exodus 22). This rule was created because stealing of cattle and livestock was probably a daily crime that was committed in this society. Since the payment of this crime is higher than the original value of the property, in this case the animal, it reveals the original value of the livestock. “If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him” (Exodus 25). In this rule, we see that livestock serve more than just a food source, but are also forms of transportation. Through Genesis, scholars can discover a society that focuses on agriculture, but they care more about livestock rather than crops because there are rules protecting owners of cattle and it shows that God favors shepherds over farmers. Both Exodus and Genesis give insight into the treatment of women in this society.
In the creation, Eve was creating from “the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man” (Genesis 2). From this context one can see that this society believes that males were created first and women are created from men. The writer of the creation also makes the women seem like the ignorant one since she is the one that is tricked by the snake to consume the forbidden fruit. Thus, we start to see a society that belittle women. This is confirm when God punish Even by stating, “yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3). Furthermore, this line directly tells all readers that the wife is submissive to the husband and the husband has control over his wife. The key component of Genesis is that it gives a religious reasoning to why women are less superior to men. Genesis tells the Hebrew society that women are not equal to men because they are made from men, therefore, they have to be controlled by their husband or else they will get tricked like Eve. This time period uses religion to give reasoning to certain societal …show more content…
ideas. Another value that is present throughout the texts is slavery. Similar to how Genesis explain why women are less superior than men. Genesis also offers reasoning why slavery came into existence. Noah cursed his son for looking at him naked and stated, "Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers” (Genesis 9). This religious story tells this society that slavery came into existence over someone ill choice of helping the elder member. This story serves the purpose of telling the readers why slavery came into existence because the Hebrew society is integrated with slaves. We can see that slaves are common in this society because all of Chapter 21 deals with slavery. Slaves in this time period were given little protection. For example, “if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished” (Exodus 21). Even though the owner gets punished, it is not the same punishment compared to person who killed a freed man. Furthermore, one can see that the title slave is a conditional title given as punishment to those that deserved it, similar to the story of Canaan. “And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake” (Exodus 21). This shows that freedom of the slaves can be granted under rare circumstances and it is not a life-long title like the Cast system. Through Exodus, scholars can find that this society has a slavery system due to the high rules, but through Genesis this society try to explain the creation of slavery through religion. Through the examination of Exodus and Genesis, one finds a society that are involved in agriculture, dominating genders, and social hierarchy.
While Exodus gives rules that govern certain aspect of society, Genesis gives a reason for these beliefs and value. Exodus places many rules protecting live stock but not crops, Genesis show God favored the meat offering rather than the fruit offering; thus revealing a society that value meat over vegetation. The Hebrew society also saw men superior over women. Genesis explain this gender inequality by saying that Eve was created from Adam and she is the reason for the fall of humanity, thus, deserving of her punishment to be under the control of her husband. Also, with a society that have rules protecting slaves, Genesis provides these citizens with reasoning why slavery came into existence. This society values animals, male dominance, slavery, but most importantly religion; therefore, literature like The Book of Genesis was created to state why these values came into existence using religious
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Although, this statement is accurate at times people sometimes do not realize that men and woman are treated as equals in certain situations. In the Genesis story by Phyllis Trible, She discusses how people often view the story of Adam and Eve as male supremacy and female subordination but she explains how that statement is false and that both Adam and Eve are treated as equals (Trible,141). Throughout, the article Trible provides the readers with examples and statement to how Adam and Eve share equal equality. An example of equality between the two sexes is when God creates Eve out of Adams' rib, “This, at last, is bone of bone and flesh of my flesh, She shall be called ‘ishshah because she was taken out of ‘ish” ( Trible,142). God created the woman out of the man's rib rather than his feet or head because she wanted them to be in equal carrell with each other. The rib symbolizes them being side by side in a partnership rather than one being more advantaged than the other. Also, but the man and woman owe both there lives solely to God, although, the female was made from a man the reasoning she was created in the first place was due to God (Trible,142). Therefore, both sexes were created equally out of raw materials there were no differences in how they were brought into the world (Trible,142). Another example used in the
Women were just there to serve their husbands in anyway the men wanted. The first example was in the second creation story God only created man and then realized he needed a helper and then he created a woman with a rib from the man (2). It is saying that women were only really created to help and support men, also its implying that the man helped make the women so he gets control over her. In Genesis 3:16 God says to eve, “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you,” she ate from the tree so he is punishing her (3). Women were just objects for the men to control, but then in the first creation story God created men and women equally (1). He created them together and to worship the land and populate it. So the two creation stories contradict each other because one the women are equal and in the other story they are completely separate. It gives two different outlooks on the way women were portrayed, but throughout the story they are portrayed more like the second creation story than the
Much of the story of Adam and Eve can be explained within biblical context, and its male supremacy bias confirms to be of historical origin rather than divine; however it is perceived as comprising the “fundamental,” and essentially destructive "truths" about the nature of women. Eve has represented the fundamental character and identity of all women. No, there haven’t been other women with redeemable qualities to represent them throughout history. Even those as great as Cleopatra have not earned the title as extraordinary woman in the history books, because her dominance over men was perceived as unbecoming and disgraceful. However, Eve’s image is what has represented women. Through her words and actions, the true nature of women was exposed; her story and “weakness” showcases what women’s innate nature corresponds to. Eve represents everything about a woman a man should guard against; she is the original sinner, and cannot be trusted in both form and symbol. The idea that her actions are not without warrant, and therefore she is a representation of us is, in fact, what has been propagated throughout hundreds of years. Eve is woman, and because of her, all women are by nature disobedient, prone to temptation, weak-willed. The connotations associated with womanhood, in turned have become, untrustworthy, deceitful,
The roles shown in the Book of Genesis and Theogony portray a female as an inferior being, while a male represents a superior being. This can be mostly observed in the cultures of developing countries and some religious societies.
Exodus 21-24 was definitely quite an instructive piece of literature. It was almost raw in its nature as a text or “book” but more of reading an excerpt from a piece of non-fiction most similar to an instruction manual of some sort that you get when you buy a dissembled bike or desk. Something like being enrolled in a police academy there was definite sense of a master-slave relationship in the air. It is like something never before seen in the Torah, these chapters showed a whole new YHWH. The YHWH who is feared like the school principal in an elementary school, not even mom and dad has come on so strong as to the dos and donts of living life. It seems as if YHWH was pushed to such a point where YHWH has no choice but intervene into the lives of his children, and set the rules for the pl...
Where Genesis I describes a more ordered creation - the manifestation of a more primitive cultural influence than was responsible for the multi-layered creation in Genesis II - the second creation story focuses less on an etiological justification for the physical world and examines the ramifications of humankind's existence and relationship with God. Instead of Genesis I's simple and repetitive refrains of "and God saw that it was good" (Gen 1:12, 18, 21, 25), Genesis II features a more stylistically advanced look at "the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens" (Gen 2:4). While both stories represent different versions of the same Biblical event, Genesis II is significantly more complex than its predecessor and serves both to quantify the relationship between God and his creations and lay the foundation for the evolving story of humankind as well.
scripture could mean that Adam is solely the head of the household and expected to protect and care Eve, or it could mean that God granted Adam physical power and control over Eve through fear. The amount of interpretation Genesis gives people has a large impact on how women are perceived in different religions since one is able to twist the meaning of the scripture in so many different ways.
...n. For years they had been subject to the wrath of the Egyptians. Now that the Hebrew people were no longer secondary in society, they produced writing in which they were the focus of attention instead of some other being or beings.
The Original Context Summary: Genesis 1: 1- 32 is the story of Creation. It is defined as either a Historic and/or poetic narrative. The narrative was written to tell the story of how God had created the world we live in today. “Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath” is the chapter title and it goes on to give details of what was created on each of the six days. Each day the world had gotten better and more useful. The first day god created the earth and made day and night. The second day he made the sky. The third day he separated the land and sea. The fourth day God created the Sun, Stars and Moon. The fifth day God created animals for the sea and air. The last day was the sixth day and god created animals for the dry land as well as the first
Schungel-Straumann, H. (1993) ‘On the Creation of Man and Woman in Genesis 1-3: The History and Reception of the Texts Reconsidered’. In: Brenner, A. (ed.). A Feminist Companion to Genesis. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp.53-76.
In Genesis the way women are treated directly displays all the work women have gone through to achieve equality.
Elizabeth A. Johnson draws attention to how, despite being considered equal in Genesis, women had their worth ignored “Consistently subordinated and demeaned in the theories, symbols, rituals,
Interpretations of the Bible are influential to our society because in the United States, approximately eighty-three percent of the population is Christian, according to a poll performed by ABC News. Perhaps the Bible is written with women subservient to men because the very story of creation is written as such. Genesis serves as the foundation of not only our universe, but also the religious text. In the biblical story of creation, Adam came first, then came the animals, and then last of all came Eve, putting the origin of women last. Then, it is Eve who is vulnerable enough for evil to deceive her into taking the apple and she who persuades Adam to follow her example. This sets up a basis that women are inherently weak and sinful for the rest of the faith to be built upon. (Stanton)
trees in the Garden of Eden. One was the “tree of life” and the other
There are more than two different levels of biblical interpretation; however in this paper I am going to be focus in two of them which are historical-literal and theological-spiritual. In Genesis 3: 1-7, "The Fall of Man" shows something happen that forever changes our world. Before the beginning of chapter 3, the end of chapter 2 explains the relationship between the Lord, Adam, and his wife Eve. In contrast, in Genesis 3, there was a sin that changed the world we live in recently. Religious scholars and theologians have debated over whether it is the devil or a choice to guilt that led all humans to be sinful on