The Dichotomy Between Good And Evil In The Book Of Genesis

The book of Genesis records the creation of the world and everything in it, as well the early relationship between God and humanity. God creates man, Adam, “from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7) and places him in a paradise on Earth called the garden of Eden, where he also places the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From the man, God creates a woman and tells them that they “may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil [they] shall not eat, for in the day that [they] eat of it [they] shall die (Genesis 2:16). Despite this warning, the woman, Eve, is eventually tempted to eat the fruit of the treat and convinces Adam to do the same, causing them to be cast out of the garden. Although Adam and Eve do have free will to do what they

Just like how a child becomes fascinated after hearing stories of their babyhood, or how a family is eager to discover their genealogy, the book of Genesis is a very intriguing story to many Christians because it depicts how mankind and the world around them were formed. Genesis 1-3 allow a base knowledge for understanding the rest of the bible because it portrays the way that God created the world – how it was supposed to be and why the world is the way it is today. After God spends six days working on creating his idea of a perfect world, it says “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good,” (Genesis 1:31). However, as Eve disobeyed God’s word and listened to the deceitful serpent, God knew he needed to punish Adam and Eve in order

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

For the past two-thousand years, the Book of Genesis has served as work of literature to the western civilization. Whether people believed in the Bible or not, the Book of Genesis tell stories they talk about having good morals, teaching live-learned lessons and overall it gives a glimpse of how the first human being acted when the world was developing and how they handle problems and situations. However, even though the book of Genesis shows a tone of life long morals, Genesis also shows the different sides of humans. Genesis shows how human can be deceitful, evil, and disobedient to authority figures. But these traits with humans were rarely displayed by man, but mostly by woman. In

Also, just apply what we do from day to day as humans. One day we will go out to eat have a lovely dinner, and though we are full, precede to a dessert that is not needed. Comes number less ominous. When that woman with a model figure dressed in BeBe walks by you grudgingly wish you were she. Hearing these inconsequential things, you would think nothing of performing them from day to day. These sins do not necessarily strike you as a good reason why we are innately born evil. Yet, according to the Bible gluttony lying, and coveting are all sins. In which every sin is weighed the same. Looking at sin this way, we begin to see how much we really do sin in a day.

In Genesis the word of God leads humanity in the direction of self preservation, urging them to procreate, to ”Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 9:1), and to minimize hostility and violence among people. As Freud asserted, “Besides the instinct to preserve living substance and join it into ever larger units, there must exist another, contrary instinct seeking to dissolve those units and bring them back to their primeval, inorganic state” (Freud 77). Genesis exemplifies the struggle between the two opposing human instincts, with God acting as a moderator between them. Forms of justice are put into place in an attempt to control these drives, one example being the proclamation that “Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). The ethics and laws that develop throughout Genesis seek to “prevent the crudest excesses of brutal violence” but are unable to control “the more cautious and refined manifestations of human aggressiveness” (Freud 70). Since they cannot be completely eradicated, the scriptures instead play into the more negative aspects of human nature, especially narcissism, and manipulate them into a force for conservation rather than annihilation.

accept his offering for it was all that he had and did not know how to

Along with providing information on the origins of the natural world, Genesis also provides insight into how the world was originally intended to function. After God was finished with his creative work, He declared that everything was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). At this point in time, all of creation was living in perfect harmony—until Adam and Eve sinned. After Adam and Eve gave into Satan’s temptation, sin entered the world and changed how the natural world functioned. Genesis chapters 3-11 show continuous examples of how sin infected the natural world. Animals had to be killed (Genesis 3:21 and 4:4), death entered the human race (as can be implied from Genesis

The Question of Morality - Mankind was created good, but sin entered the world through Adam according to

However, they rebel and sin enters the world after a serpent tricks Eve into questioning God’s love and motives. In her gullible innocence, she ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3). Eve shared the fruit with Adam and they spiritually and physically die. This was catastrophic to Gods Order and led to the condemnation of all human beings (Roman 5:18). Immediately, they

These verses state “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Gen. 3:8-9). From this passage, we glean that God habitually walked with His stewards through the garden at the end of each day and fellowshipped with them. However, because of their disobedience, Adam and Eve became ashamed of themselves and afraid of God. God was forced to evict His people from the garden as a result of their refusal to repent, and their relationship with Him was never again the same. The account of Cain and Abel reveals that from that point on, God required sacrifices from His people in order to restore fellowship. Moreover, He still spoke to them, but He no longer walked among them. Adam and Eve thus longed for the promised Seed who would undo the effects of the curse and bring back God’s favor upon their

Sin, like Creation, had a Genesis This treatise will consider many facets concerning the dawn and effects of sin the human narrative and God’s perfect creation. It will view sin in historical, literally and theological terms as noted in Old and New Testament scripture. Particular emphasis will be given to sin’s classical theological notions as well as considering their impact ascribed on the biblical interpretations. Additionally, this paper will draw into focus the relationship of God as Creator and Redeemer, relative to mankind’s propensity towards sin.

Upon this happening, Sarah forced Abraham to cast his first born son, Ishmael, and Hagar out of his land, in order for Isaac to be heir of Abrahams land. Once Isaac grew God decided to test Abrahams trust in him. God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to him has a burnt offering, and Abraham would have done so if Gods angel wouldn’t have stopped him (Gen. 22:1-18). Although Abraham didn’t end up actually sacrificing his only son, he would have because he knew that God knew what was best for him. He had put his faith and trust in God for so long that he knew God had a plan and wouldn’t allow him to

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.

This notion of depravity is also seen within the bible resembling when Adam and Eve eat poison fruit from the tree. The curse begins to lift and the path of forgiveness emerges only after the Mariner’s thoughts transform from