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The Primeval Narratives

The Primeval Narratives. Origin Stories Before the history of the Hebrews. Cycles. What happens repeatedly in almost each of the 4 primeval narratives? Adam & Eve in the Garden Cain & Abel People in Noah’s day Babel. Cycles. Things are good People do evil God punishes

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The Primeval Narratives

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  1. The Primeval Narratives Origin Stories Before the history of the Hebrews

  2. Cycles • What happens repeatedly in almost each of the 4 primeval narratives? • Adam & Eve in the Garden • Cain & Abel • People in Noah’s day • Babel

  3. Cycles • Things are good • People do evil • God punishes • People remember God and change, making things good again.

  4. What are we to know about God? • What does God (what do the writers want us to think that God) dislikes? • How does God punish? • What are the effects of God’s punishment? • Look for other parallels between the stories.

  5. The Fall: beginning of death & mortality • Talking animals (staple of global folklore) • Serpent not called evil, but “subtle” and “crafty.” • Questions the way God runs things. • It knows what God knows. • Effects of human disobedience are immediate and deeply painful. • Sexual knowledge is realized as part of sin. • Line is drawn between the immortal and mortal. • God is still compassionate: makes clothes (first sacrifice. First shedding of blood)

  6. Hugo van der Goes • The Fall of Man 1470’s • Iris symbolizes purity • Serpent is female temptress

  7. Titian Adam & Eve: 1550 • Serpent is child • Fox symbolizes evil, cunning, sensuality • Is Adam lusting or trying to stop Eve • Adam is on the right, is he in the right?

  8. Jan Brueghel the Elder with Peter Paul Rubens, The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man, c. 1615 • Notice grapes above Adam & monkey behind him

  9. Cain & Abel: the first murder • Cain is produced with the help of Yahweh. • Sibling rivalry theme resurfaces later. • Does God prefers the younger child? • Cain: “an offering of the fruit of the ground” (Gen 4:3) • Abel: “the firstlings of his flock, the fat portions” (Gen 4:4) • How does God treat Cain?

  10. Noah: A new start • Composed of J & P sources interwoven • God expresses profound sorrow (6:5-6) • Earth returns to a pre-creation state when “darkness covered the face of the deep” (1:2)(7:11) • Full of ironies. Full of terror, annihilation, compassion, hope. • Noachan covenant. Rainbow is a symbol. (9: 8-17)

  11. The Sons of Noah disperse and fill the land.

  12. H:\Bible images\Flood\20_colette_isabella_les_animaux_entrent_dans.jpg

  13. Babel: the last straw • An etiology (story explaining how something originated) • Themes of human ambition and divine retribution • Furthers man’s isolation from the divine

  14. Reading for next week • Genesis 12-22: Origins of the Hebrews • Where did they come from? • Why did God call Abraham? • What did God promise Abraham? • What kind of person is Abraham?

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