The anger of Gods throughout both stories leads you to believe that the Gods will not hesitate to take revenge on mankind for creating a world of evil in a world they created for good. The Gods from Metamorphoses and the God from the Old Testament create a world full of life, to live happy and full of grace. The destruction and recreation of the world by the Gods of each book, however similar they may seem, are full of differences as they both teach mankind lessons that should not be forgotten.
“Whatever God it was, who brought order to the universe, and gave it division, subdivision, he molded earth” Metamorphoses pg 685. In the beginning the earth had nothing, no light to call sun, no water to bath in, and no human to walk on the ground that we call land that was not land. The Gods choose to make a playground of sorts. In both literature pieces the Gods divide the heavens and the earth, split the water from the land, light from the dark. The God’s made animals for this land and water and creatures for the air. “But something else was needed a finer being, more capable of mind, a sage, a ruler, so man was born, It may be in God’s image” Metamorphoses pg 686. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” The Old Testament pg 54. The Old Testament God thought it was not good for man to be alone so from the bone of man’s rib he made a woman.
The first murder in the Old Testament is the beginning of God realizing that man was evil, “god saw the wickedness of man” Old Testament pg 56. Cain murdered his brother Abel, out of jealousy of the Lord’s love. Able a Sheppard who brought the fat of the animals and the Lord had respect fo...
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...s to repopulate the earth, “Go from the temple, cover your heads, loosen your robes, and throw your mothers bones behind you” pg 692. Pyrrha being so innocent could not throw the bones of her mother and refused until she would never insult her mother in such a way. Themis over and over told them to do this until Deucalion thought maybe he meant to throw stones behind them. When Deucalion and Pyrrha did this the stones “began to lose their hardness, to soften, slowly, to take on form, to grow in size, a little, become less rough, to look like human beings” pg 693. All the stones that Deucalion threw turned to man and all the stones that Pyrrha threw behind her became women. Life began to form from other things as well. The moist mud from the waters drying turned to animals that now roam our earth, swim in our seas and oceans, birds that fly in our skies.
One of the main dangers in the way we chose to interpret God in both testaments, is our tendency to see the Bible as containing two different gods: the God of the
In Hesiod’s version, Zeus created Pandora as a punishment to man and illustrated her as an evil, deceitful and supposed curse on mankind, “Evil conspirators. And he added another evil to offset the good...she was a real pain for human beings” (Hesiod, 149-164) On the contrary women in Ovid’s tale were treated as companions who worked together for the greater good, as depicted by the myth of Pyrrha and Deucalion, “Then, side by side, they went without delay to seek the waters of Cephisus’ stream.” (Ovid, 17) Deucalion and Pyrrha are portrayed to be righteous and true devotes of the Olympian gods and hence given the responsibility of repopulating earth. Ovid demonstrates that the humans in this myth portray the role of a god, where they repopulate Earth with righteous humans, thus creating order in the universe again. He portrays their role as a vital component in this occurrence as without their diligence and morals—this act would not have been possible. Thus, establishing the human-centered concept of his
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.
The creation myths that I have studied are similar in many ways. They also have differences that show an inherently different way of thinking about the world. All have creators-gods that make the world into what is now. There are conflicts within their world, and these conflicts change the face world. God to god or human to god maybe be involved in these conflicts. Their bloody struggles prove who is more powerful, causing change in the control of the world. Some gods are beneficial to man and others are self-serving, using man only as a tool.
In regards to the natural world, Genesis 1-3 tells of how God created the world, the creation of man and the fall of man. The Earth was dark and without form then God spoke everything into existence.
lines 100-140.” This is not the only times the story show similarity in both stories it is implied that humans were made in God’s image as well . Both stories depict a devine resting of a God once the universe is constructed where in Genesis it states, “Yahweh takes up divine rest in his cosmic-temple after creation out of chaos” and in Enuma Elish it states, “Marduk and other gods take rest in temple after victory over creation-conflict”. It is interesting to point out that in both stories the Gods feel the need to rest after achieving similar feats in terms of the creation of the universe. In different ways both narratives involve the creation of humans.
The Enuma Elish mirrors the subordinate disordered lives of the Babylonians that created it. Genesis mirrors the newfound freedom and idealism of the Jewish people who created it after years of oppression. These two writings contrast the differences between the ancient Babylonians and the ancient Hebrews. Creation stories give great insight into the lives of the people who created them.
There came a day when Cain and Abel both went to make an offering unto Jehovah; Abel made an offering from his flocks while Cain made an offering from the first fruits of his harvest. Cain’s offering was rejected by Jehovah, Cain became jealous of Abel and his favor with Jehovah. In a jealous rage Cain slew Abel.
But all share common themes, such as a form of chaos or nothingness before life is created. Joseph Campbell notes that “. the idea of an absolute ontological distinction between God and man – or between gods and men, divinity and nature - first became an important social and psychological force in the Near East, specifically Akkad, in the period of the first Semetic Kings, c. 2500 B.C.,” showing another similar trait – a god or set of gods exists to create in each story (626). Joseph Campbell makes a comparison of how both Genesis and the Book of the Dead of Egypt share the same idea of their bodies belonging to their god in some way, or being reabsorbed into them at death (630-631). Others, like the Japanese and Iroquois creation myths, claim the Earth was once covered entirely of water before land was formed.
The symbolic world views of how the world was created can be described through the cosmogonies of Genesis and the Laws of Manu. It is through these theories that one can learn how the universe came into existence. Many individuals consider a certain religion to be their ultimate realm of reality, and it is within religion that these symbolic world views come into play. The cosmogony of Genesis began along a sacred history of time where god created merely by speaking. In contrast, the Laws of Manu involve creation through thought. In Genesis, there is only one god and in Laws of Manu there is more than one god. Both cosmogonies have many similarities as they have many differences, yet both of them are significant in understanding and interpreting the philosophy of religion and its traditions. Although god believes that everything he created is good, I believe that the existence of god is questionable when there is so much evil in the universe.
In both myths the relationship between humans and nature is shown as a positive one but with negative effects from humans’ greed and necessity for more. In the beginning of the Creation Story it is stated in the first few lines “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” God then began to create the Earth in seven days. On the first day he created day and night out of the darkness and light. The second day led to the creation of the sky. The third day was the creation of the land. The fourth day led to the creation of the season. And finally on the fifth and sixth day, animals and humans were created, and the first two were a male and female named Adam and Eve. At the end of everyday during creation the words “and God saw it was good” are written. God is happy with his creation of nature. The phrase shows the positive connotation of...
In Genesis I, God creates an orderly natural universe. He separates and categorizes everything he creates. For instance, he separates the seventh day from all the others. This suggests that everything in the universe has its proper place and will follow its regular path. In addition, the cosmos is purposeful and unified. What is created each day depends upon what was previously created. Those things created on the fourth through sixth days are dependant on those things created on the first through third days. For instance, air, water, birds, and fish are dependant on light, sun, moon, and stars, and land, vegetation, animals, and mankind are dependant among air, water, birds, and fish as well as light, sun, moon and stars. This suggests God created things in the world to fit together in an orderly and hierarchical fashion. Things are creat...
'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light…'(Gen 1:1.5) '…then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. '(Gen 2:7) This part from the bible is a typical example of what people used to believe before scientists came and gave logical explanations to the questions of mankind.It is possible, of course, to define a non-supernatural "religious" worldview that is not in conflict with science. But in all of its traditional forms, the supernatural religious worldview makes the assumption that the universe and its inhabitants have been designed and created by "forces" or beings which transcend the material world. The material world is postulated to reflect a mysterious plan originating in these forces or beings, a plan which is knowable by humans only to the extent that it has been revealed to an exclusive few. Criticising or questioning any part of this plan is strongly discouraged, especially where it touches on questions of morals or ethics. Science, on the other hand, assumes that there are no transcendent, immaterial forces and that all forces which do exist within the universe behave in an ultimately objective or random fashion. The nature of these forces, and all other scientific knowledge, is revealed only through human effort in a dynamic process of inquiry. The universe as a whole is assumed to be neutral to human concerns and to be open to any and all questions, even those concerning human ethical relationships. Such a universe does not come to us with easy answers. We must come to it and be prepared to work hard. According to Thomas W. Clark science and religion are in a battle from the day that scientists got in the fields of the theologises
‘Out of the hillock the first god emerged. He was referred to as a ‘he’ for the mere sake of expediency, but he embodied both the male and female principles with himself. As a result this enabled him to create new forms all by himself without the help of another deity. By spitting and masturbating he created a pair of new gods. This new pair copulated and created another pair, who in turn created another pair. This continued until the entirety of the cosmos had come into
Every day God created something new and blesses it. God created nothing irrelevant or unworthy. Entirely everything he created served a purpose. Also all he had created came from nothing. The fish were undeniably produced out of the waters, and the beasts and man out of the earth; but that earth and those waters were made out of nothing. God created what is known as the world today and everything that exists on the earth. Reading Genesis 1 gives all mankind an idea of how life started and how the earth was formed to be this magnificent place. The earth is very complicated yet God could solve all of the problems and create blessings. He gave us light and darkness, day and night, water and land. He created all living creature including mankind.