Adam And Eve, The Flood, Abraham And Esau

In Genesis, God interacts with Adam by speaking to him face to face. Whether God was giving out instructions or punishment to Adam and Eve, he was always doing it on a personal level. The usual portrayal of God as an omniscient being is instead replaced as mentor to Adam and Eve who is trying to help them understand their existence. This close relationship is shown even when man does something wrong. The only rule that God gives to Adam is that he must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve go on to break the singular rule and be punished; but not to the extent most would think. Before partaking of the fruit God says that, "the day that you eat of it you shall die"(Genesis). Instead of dying, Adam and Eve are removed from the garden and go begin their lives. God punishes them for their actions, but also gives clothes and allows them to take the knowledge they have gained from the tree. Even after breaking the one rule that he has set for them, God allowed them to keep the knowledge they gained to begin mankind. This grace towards humanity is shown once again with Adam and Eve's children, Cain and Abel. Cain kills Abel after God accepts Abel's offering and not his own. Even with Cain having killed his own brother, God still does not punish Cain severally; "you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth"(Genesis). This punishment is especially seen as inadequate as Cain goes on to settle in Nod and have his own family. This mercy by God shows that he was unable to punish humanity even for the most serious of offenses. This lack of punishment shows God's sympathy for mankind because of his close relationship with them. This close relationship stems from God's close bond with mankind because of their similar image and knowledge. This relationship that began as two very similar beings, has further blossomed as God has given great responsibility to

Dated back to the 10th century B.C., the story of Adam and Eve is told in Genesis chapters 2 and 3 of the Christian Bible. The creation is the main focus of chapter 2 and their fall and punishment is the main focus in chapter 3. God creates Adam in his image from mud, he blows to his face and gives him life. God presents all of the animals of the land to Adam and he is not satisfied, so God created Eve out of Adams rib as a companion and helper for him, and he is satisfied with Gods work. God commands Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But, the serpent persuades Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and she persuades Adam to do so as well. After they eat the forbidden fruit they realize they are naked

In both Gilgamesh and Noah and the Flood, man’s wickedness leads to death, destruction, and rebirth all caused by billions of gallons of water sweeping the earth’s surface. The flood in both stories destroys most of mankind. The floods represent rebirth and a new beginning for mankind, as well as the gods and God’s wrath. In Gilgamesh the gods decide to destroy mankind by flooding the earth for six days and nights. Utnapishtim is chosen to build a boat in order to restart mankind after the flood. In the Bible God also decides to flood the earth due to the increase in wickedness. God chooses Noah to build an ark and store seven pairs of every clean animal and two of every other kind of animal on it

After a close analysis of Genesis in the Hebrew bible’s story of Adam and Eve, some people may ask, did the punishment fit the crime or was the Lord God being harsh and brutal with his punishments? This can be argued by many people because Adam, Eve and the serpent committed a sin. Adam and Eve without knowledge of what a sin is committed the act thinking everything would be okay, but what they didn 't know was that the Lord God was offended by their disobedience and so he punished them the way he saw fit. The serpent also was included in the punishment because of his wrongful doings. It was a harsh punishment because they were two innocent individuals and were mislead by the serpent. They didn 't know what sin really was until they committed the crime and were punished for it. The Lord God is the supreme being in the story where he has absolute power and expects obedience from his creatures or subjects. The Lord God created the universe, the earth, the land, the seas, plants, and all living creatures. The Lord God also created Adam and Eve and placed them in Eden, which was a beautiful land with beautiful creatures, fresh water and many edible fruit trees. The Lord God had only one rule, he instructed them not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Sadly, Adam and Eve couldn 't obey the only rule in Eden and were punished. However, Adams and Eves disobedience came with a harsh punishment for each.

In “Genesis”, God has a fatherly relationship with the humans and as a result he chooses to bring a flood to destroy all of mankind for a specific reason. God chooses to kill all of humankind because they are noxious beings and need to be destroyed to rid the world of poisonous beings. “When the Lord saw that man had done much evil and that his thoughts and inclinations were always evil, he was sorry that he had made man on earth,”(6:5-7). God created humankind and because of the way their perilous acts he decided to destroy his

“In those days the world teemed, the people multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull….” In the Old Testament, humanity has also grown, thus the beginning of the flood myth. Similarly, in both myths a wise man is told of a catastrophic flood that is to take place by the hand of the gods (or God) and he must quickly prepare. “[B]ecause of his oath warned me in a dream … ‘tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions [sic] and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul alive. Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat…. Then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures….’” The purpose of the floods is to destroy humanity. In the case of the Epic of Gilgamesh, it is to deal with rowdy humans. In the case of the Old Testament, it is to destroy the humans who have grown wicked and turned their backs to God and return the earth to its beginning as a watery

Another biblical example of a moral or intrinsic evil is the result of Adam and Eves disobedience of God’s free will in the Garden of Eden and becomes even more clear to them with the birth of their two sons, Cain and Abel. The birth of these two sons brings the evil of lethal violence to society. It begins with rivalry amongst siblings of jealousy and family fighting. Cain’s jealousy finally ends with him making the decision to commit murder and kill his brother Abel. This decision of moral or intrinsic evil made by Cain is the first taking of human life and the deterioration of humanity’s condition. The act of murder is not an act of God, it is an act of man and because of man’s action, evil succeeds in society. Again, the problem of

God said to Noah, “And I behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you; and with every living creature with you. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there anymore be a flood to destroy the earth.” That’s when God made an everlasting covenant between himself and every living creature of all flesh on earth. Even though, in the story of Gilgamesh, the Gods decided that it was wrong to punish mankind, they still did not make a covenant with man. Instead of making a pact with humans they granted immorality to Utnapishtim and his wife. In both stories they settled the flood in different ways separating the stories.

In the bible, God saw how corrupt the earth had become. God said that he was going to destroy what he created. He wanted to do it, he just didn’t want to kill all of man kind. So God told Noah to build a large ark. Noah was a righteous man that was not corrupt like the other people on earth. God told him that “I have decided to put an end to all flesh…”pg.45 row13. Noah did everything that God told him to before the flood started.

In Genesis, “the Lord said to Himself: ‘Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the devisings of man’s mind are evil from his youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done’”(Gen. 8:21.) This statements makes the Lord sound as if he has remorse of flooding the Earth, almost as if he wish he never did. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, “‘Do not drive him too hard or he perishes… rather than the flood, would that famine had wasted the world.’” This statement is from dialogue between Enlil and the all the other gods. All the gods are trying to convince Enlil to never flood the earth again. The gods in both stories felt that flooding Earth may not have been the best decision and promise to never do it

“In the beginning Almighty God created heaven and earth and everything that goes with them and, last of all, two human beings, Adam and Eve, from who have come families. Their progeny multiplied and spread over all the world” (p. 83). As time passed, some people were good and obedient to God’s commandments, however, some people were not. They turned to a life of sin. God did not create heaven and earth for people to misbehave, so he sent a destructive flood to “drown the world and all creatures living in it” (p. 84). Before He drowned the world, God has Noah build an ark so that he could save

Though the Flood brought complete destruction to all life on earth, it was a new beginning for both humanity and animal life. Noah and his family had the perfect opportunity to re-establish righteousness on earth by living according to God's word and standards. Noah was the only one that was righteous and ideal. Because Noah is such a respectable man, God decides to establish his covenant of righteousness and goodly deeds with him and his family so that he can perform and preach the will of God. Noah made a sacrifice, he built an altar unto the lord and took every clean beast and every clean fowl, and offered burnt offering on the altar and this offering made God extremely happy. This offering is an excellent example of how good of a man Noah is and is one of the reasons why God choose him. In addition, Noah was very obedient man, God tells him to “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without pitch.”(60) He did what God told him to, without questions because he believes and trusts in God. Noah is a strong example of what God wants his followers to be when they establish this new nation and covenant.

In Chapter 7, we see that God’s word is true. He upholds his judgment and the great flood begins.(7:6) Here the all-powerful destroyer is portrayed, for all earthly life is eliminated except that inside the Ark. God’s word is also true in His remembrance of the covenant formed with Noah, by stopping the flood.(8:1)

In the beginning of Genesis, God expects humans to be subordinate to him, and refuses to tolerate defiance.  He sees no excuse for disobedience, and punishes Adam and Eve.  God expects everyone to be perfect and castigates for every mistake.

         At this juncture, God has to modify his plans a little. Mankind will not, as he had hoped, go on living forever in ignorance and worship. So he concedes the loss and kicks Adam and Eve out of the garden. He still needs someone to confirm his greatness however, and so mankind will now operate essentially on its own in the world, and with free will. They will still be required to worship him, or receive punishment for disobedience. If all the events up until this point have been acting in accordance with some perfect plan, why then did God not just start out with Adam and Eve in the outside world, with free will? Wouldn’t it be easier to just jump from point A to point E, and just skip B, C and D?