What does Genesis teach us about the world?

Answer 1

Genesis teaches Christian's beliefs about god. It teaches:

• A way in which the world COULD have been created
• The universe could not have been made in a short time
• Once the world could have been just dark, just sea, just light, just sky(etc)

These are important key beliefs that Genesis teaches christian's.

Answer 2

A:Genesis chapters 1 to 11 teach what the early Hebrews believed about the creation of the world and the origins of mankind. Chapter 1 provides a confused sequence of creation that no scientist could accept, for example that the earth existed before the sun and stars, and even that grass and trees grew before there was a sun (Genesis 1:12-18). Neither would any scientist agree that rainbows never occurred before the Flood of The Bible Genesis 8:12-16).

Chapter 11 says that long after the time of Noah, there was only one language in the world, but that God confounded their language because the people built the great tower of Babel. Anthropologists know that languages developed quite differently, over a period of many thousands of years - even in recent centuries, new languages have developed and old languages have evolved. This story was added to Genesis during the Babylonian Exile, and once again tells us more about how Jewish traditions developed than about the natural world.

Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says we can learn most from the story of Adam and Eve by regarding it as a mythical yet realistic portrait of permanent truths about our humanity, rather than as a historical yet idealised portrait of a blissful existence we once enjoyed but lost.

Answer 3

Genesis teaches us that the light of day does not emanate from the sun, but exists independently (1:3-5). It teaches us that there is a dome, known as the firmament, that separates the waters above from the waters below (Gen 1:7). It teaches us that the sun and moon are no more than great lights created to rule the day and the night on earth (Gen 1:16), and that the sun, moon and stars were set into the firmament just above the earth. It teaches us that grass and trees can live for a time in extreme cold that would exist in the absence of the sun.

Genesis teaches us that the Hebrew people were chosen by God to be his own people and that he would always work in their interests to the detriment of all other people on earth. It also teaches us that God would punish the innocent descendants of a sinner, while letting that sinner escape all punishment.

Of course, Genesis teaches us much more than this, both good and bad. And it teaches traditions that have the appearance of history but are contradicted by the archaeological and historical evidence.

For more information, please visit:

http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-book-of-genesis

Answer 4

There are two creation stories in Genesis: (1) verses 1:1 to 2:4a; (2) 2:4b to 2:22. The first of these (1:1-2:4a) is recognised by scholars as the work of the Priestly (P) source, based on a Mesopotamian myth encountered by the Jews in Babylon. The second account (2:4b-2:22) predated the other in Judaism but was never considered important, except for the creation of Adam, then later Eve. A summary follows, in order to show that these are really two quite separate accounts:
In Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a ( up to first sentence of 2:4) there was a pre-existing watery chaos. The ocean was already present and a wind moved across the surface. The seas rested on the dry land, which appeared on day 3 when God gathered the waters together. The order of creation was as follows:
(Day 1) light [day]; (2) the firmament, which was believed to separate the waters of the heavens from the lower waters; (3) By gathering the lower waters in one place the land appeared. Grasses and trees; (4) sun; moon and stars - the lights in the firmament; (5) fish, land creatures and fowl; (6) man, both male and female. Notice that the light of day was not yet understood to have originated from the sun, although the sun was universally understood to rule the day. That is why it was possible to have grass and trees before the sun was created.

Genesis 2:4b to 2:15 says that there was pre-existing dry land, but God had yet to make it rain for plants to grow. A spring arose and God took some moist clay and made Adam. After Adam, he made the creatures of earth, one by one, then finally Eve. This account could scarcely be different from the previous version.

It may seem surprising that, in both creation stories, the basics were already there - the waters, the dry land, the wind and therefore the air. Many experts in Hebrew have carefully examined the texts and confirm that this is what they say. The biblical creations were not ex nihilo.
For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 5

Genesis ch.1 briefly describes God's creation of the universe, with special attention to this Earth. According to tradition, God created the universe out of nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Rashi commentary to Genesis 1:14; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30; Nachmanides on Gen. 1:1).
Note that the Torah, in describing the Creation, deliberately employs brevity and ellipsis, for a reason given in the Talmud (Hagigah 11b), which says that delving into too much detail in this matter can lead to heretical notions.

Also, according to tradition, there is only one Genesis creation-narrative, with ch.2 serving as an expansion of the brevity of ch.1, not a separate set of events (Rashi commentary, Gen.2:8).

It may be noted that the same literary devices which the Torah employs to enrich its text, have been used by "Bible-critics" in their ongoing attempts to undermine it. The Jewish sages, based on ancient tradition, identified many of these devices, which include:

recapping earlier brief passages to elucidate,

employing different names of God to signify His various attributes,

using apparent redundancies to allude to additional unstated details,

speaking in the vernacular that was current during each era,

and many more. While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source (Exodus 24:12), others such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) attempted to artificially turn the Torah's text into its own undoing. This need not concern believers, since his claims have been debunked one by one, as Archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim, whose falsehood has been pointed out:

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1131(a Christian author)

http://www.whoreallywrotethebible.com/excerpts/chapter4-1.php

http://www.pearlmancta.com/BiblicalcriticswrongRShlomoCohen.htm

And see also the wider picture:

http://judaism.answers.com/hebrew/does-archaeology-support-the-hebrew-bible