"Where did man come from? Where did time begin? Who, or what, created all things?" These are questions that mankind has sought to answer from the beginning of existence as it is known today. Many stories and fables have been told and passed down from generation to generation, yet two have survived the test of time and criticism. The Biblical account in Genesis, probably written by Moses around 1500 B.C., and the story of creation and flood in Ovid's Metamorphosis, written somewhere between 8 and 17 A.D., have weathered the criticism and become the most famous. The Genesis account, however, may be the most prominent of the two accounts. Within these accounts, are many similarities, as well as differences, which make these two writings well respected, while holding their own in the literary world. Though both accounts of the creation and flood are well respected on their own, when compared side to side, they are drastically different. Ovid's purpose for writing the creation story is geared more towards explaining creation as it happens, in his opinion, whereas the Bible stresses the fact that the God of the Hebrews is responsible for the world's existence today. Overall, Ovid is very detailed in explaining the formless mass, creation of the earth, waters and land metaphorically. The Biblical account seems to be more plain, simple, and organized; not spending time on intricate detail. There seems to be no specific time frame for creation in Ovid's writing, whereas, the Bible states that it takes God six ... ... middle of paper ... ...mal species. As one can see, when comparing each of the accounts of the flood and creation in Ovid's Metamorphoses and Genesis, there are some very similar actions or events that take place in each of these accounts, while separating themselves a great deal by putting emphasis on very different messages. It is because of these variations in writing and technique that each of these poems have acquired and maintained the respect they truly deserve through many years of evaluation and criticism. Works Cited New American Standard Bible. Nashville, TN: Broadman 1977. Ovid. Metamorphoses. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Maynard Mack. 5th edition. New York: Norton 1987. 549-560.
The Biblical story of the flood and Utnapishtim’s version of the flood are similar and different in several ways. Similarities include a god warns an individual about a flood and orders the individual to build a boat to escape the flood, pairs of each species are loaded into the boat, the flood kills every living thing that did not get on the boat, the use of birds to see if the flood is receding, the god smelling the sacrifice offered by the individual, the individual getting a blessing from a god after the flood, and the promise that another flood will not happen. Differences include the reason why the flood happened, the amount of days the flood occurred, the type of birds to see if there is land, and what kind of blessing that the individual
Genesis and Theogony came from very different cultures. The book of Genesis is the Hebrew description of creation, and make up the first book of the Holy Bible. This creation story is not only the most well-known by foreigners, but also the most accepted, by the Christian and Judaic cultures. Hesiod's Theogony is the Greek story of the creation of earth and humankind. Before Genesis, there was no book to decree what one should believe about the beginning of humans, and Hesiod's story of creation was the most popular at around that time. At this time the Greek culture was a polytheistic one meaning they worshipped and had many more than one god. The Genesis description of creation showed a vital change from the polytheistic culture of the Greeks
In both the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh the God or Gods create a flood to destroy mankind. In Gilgamesh,the Gods decide something needs to be done because the humans are being loud and disturbing the Gods. In the Bible's version of the flood story, God regrets creating mankind because the humans have become evil God chooses Noah and his family to start a new beginning.
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism differ greatly in matter of belief and practice. They all understand from God to the prophets and Jesus and scriptures differently. Christians believe there is one God in three distinct persons, which is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Islam believe in Allah. Judaism believes in Yahweh. It is evident that the three religions are different in many
Sister Sara Butler’s article deals with the question of whether the ordination of women is still an issue within the Catholic Church (pp. 1). She argues that the reformation of gender bias, during the 1950’s, triggered the debate of the candidacy of women for the priesthood (pp. 3-5). Butler states that the Catholic Church used the gender complementarity argument as evidence for the male priesthood, not female subordination (pp. 6-8). Using theological arguments, Butler contends that the Magisterium adheres to Church Tradition since Jesus
Flood stories have been a common thread in many religions across the globe. One of the stories we are most familiar with in our culture, the story of Noah’s Ark, is a well-known segment of the old testament, and an interesting story of how God punished the world for how corrupt it had become. God accomplished this by flooding the world, and annihilating all the creatures upon it, save for Noah and his family and a pair of each type of creature on the earth . This story, however, has roots deep in the past, some of which have only come to light with the development of new archeological techniques and technology. As more and more is found out about the era from when this story originates, discoveries are made as to the origin of the story, what tale it was based upon, and as to the authenticity that such an event may have actually even occurred, if on a somewhat smaller scale. Based on the information available at the present time, one can make fairly confident inferences as to the root of this story. One could argue that the story of Noah’s Ark was based on the Epic of Gilgamesh, and that in turn was based on older stories that were based on a real flood of the Black Sea.
The Epic of Gilgamesh records a story of a world-wide flood and pre-dates Genesis. So some claim that this invalidates the Genesis record. But P.J. Wiseman presents an interesting theory in this regard in his book Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1985).
As the introduction of the Bible, Genesis explains the creation of the world and the following stories of the generation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman. Using priestly narrative voice is common in the text; however, there is non-priestly narrative version text that comes after and obtains different descriptions from the priestly narrative version. Both chapter 1 and 2 are the whole processes of the creation of the world, but chapter 1 uses priestly narrative voice and chapter 2 uses non-priestly narrative voice. In chapter 1, the creation is so abstract because many things including sky are created after the God says something that follows his will. For example, there is an abstract description of plants: “God said, ‘Let the earth grow grass, plants yielding
The Epic of Gilgamesh has many similarities to the Bible, especially in Genesis and it’s not just that the both begin with the letter “g”’! One major similarity being the flood story that is told in both works. The two stories are very similar but also very different. Another being the use of serpents in both works and how they represent the same thing. A third similarity being the power of God or gods and the influence they have on the people of the stories. Within these similarities there are also differences that need to be pointed out as well.
The flood of Gilgamesh was written before 2000 B.C, while the Genesis story was written in 400 BC Which was much later then the Gilgamesh flood. Biblical writers probably knew of the much older flood but revised it so that it fit with their own history and worldview. They most likely intended the original story with their own mythology. Despite the many similarities between the two stories, the differences are revealed in a number of different topics that distinguish the biblical version of the story from the ancient version.
“Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time- Richard Dawkins”. We all know the breath taking story of the Genesis flood, but have we ever noticed how similar it is to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Genesis is the story of how one God created mankind, along with everything else on Earth, and what punishments he put upon them when they acted wrong .Genesis is a chapter in the Holy Bible, which was written in the 18th century B.C. by Moses. Genesis is a Hebrew story about the creation of life and how God once destroyed it and Earth. The main characters were Adam, Eve, and the serpent. Each of them was provided a task from God, but disobeyed him and was punished forever. Some events from Genesis that God promised are happening in everyday life. The Epic of Gilgamesh discusses the story of how Gilgamesh and Enkidu became friends, going against what the Gods wanted, and then how Gilgamesh dealt with the death of his new friend. The stories are very much the same, but when comparing the details within the story it unfolds to be very different.
The Christians think that no person is correct in saying that Jesus is not God’s but do not go to extraordinarily extreme lengths to prove them wrong or persecute them, but they also believe that every one is entitled to their own opinion.
Both Christians and Islam believe in one Supreme Being but according to Christian they call Him God while Muslims call him Allah. The two religions conceptualize God in different ways. Muslims view Allah as one God, this is emphasized through the word ‘tawhid’ which in Islam means “absolute unity”. Christians on the other hand view God as three holy beings, God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. According to theology this is known as the holy trinity. Early Christians did not understand the meaning of the word trinity which led to the thought that they worship three gods. However, through Christian teachings the meaning of trinity is brought out through the concept of love. Love cannot exist in seclusion ’God is Love’; hence God cannot exist in one form. This is considered blas...
Over the years people have been telling stories of how the earth was created. It has been passed on from generation to generation wondering where all life forms really came from. As years and years passed by, it starts to seem like every creation stories has their similarities and differences with each other. Every creation story has there similarities and differences, but the two creation stories that have so many similarities with each other has to be both the Greek and Genesis creation
Women in the Catholic Church take on many roles, from parishioner to laywoman to nuns. Women parishioners help prepare for the mass. They can be lectors, choir members, CCD instructors, etc. Laywomen “…are the Catholic women traditionally permitted certain ministerial responsibilities (Wessinger, 244).” They work in churches, schools, prisons, etc. Nuns dedicate their lives to religious devotion. They take three vows; poverty, chasity, and obedience. They are to live simple lifestyles. They live their lives teaching others and helping others.