Personalities of God

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The Religious Text that is The Hebrew Bible explores the changing personalities of God. The personalities of God range from an optimistic and creative God in the first creation story in Genesis to a destructive and regretful God during the story of Noah and the ark. God’s personalities are not black and white; he gives tests, such as when he asks Abraham to kill his own son because God was jealous of the possibility of Abraham loving his son more than him. Though Gods personalities can differ in the Hebrew Bible, he always acts on his personality to shape the world and his creations. The changing personalities of God reveal the ever-changing nature of God and signify how human need drives how the Hebrews conceived God. The varying personalities of God fulfill the roles of a creator, a judge and a jealous God.
One role of God is that of a creator of the Earth and its people. This is evident especially in the first creation story where God uses his speech to create the world and then admires his own creation. An example of this is in Genesis 1, “God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.” He then does the same thing with other things he creates such as the sky, vegetation, animals, and etcetera. He continues to view all of his creations as “good.” This clearly shows his role as a creator, and an optimistic one at that. To the Hebrews, this text answers the question of “How was the Earth created?” Which is a vital question to many religions. An optimistic view of the Earth is evident in this passage as God views his creations as good. In Genesis 2 after man has been created God says, ”It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” God then proc...

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...y of parents.” Here God is removing the guesswork and blatantly stating that he is a jealous God. He does not want people to worship any idols. This is a key part of monotheism, not to just abstain from worshiping other Gods but idols. This makes one think because it does not draw the line from where admiration turns into idolizing. It can be assumed that the main purpose was that nothing should become close to as admired as God himself.
The different personalities of a creator, judge and jealous God all factor into the Hebrew understanding of God. All of Gods personalities show how Hebrews conceived God in different lights. Though the different personalities of God are different they all show the many ways human naturally explain how things came to be. In order for humans to comprehend something so incomprehensible there cannot simply be one way of understanding.

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