Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/religion-and-theology/1690442-revision
https://studentshare.org/religion-and-theology/1690442-revision.
Question 6.The creation epics of the Mesopotamians, Egyptians creation story and the Tanakh creation story attempts to explain the origin of the universe and other creatures. The creation stories admit of a deity that established the earth and the heaven and then created man. The three creation stories states of conflicts in the beginning. The Tanakh writing uses the serpent to represent the force that opposes God. While in Memphis theology, the conflict is between Horus and Seth and it is resolved by Geb (Long 1).
The Enuma Elish creation story represents the great conflict between Tiamat and Marduk (“ENUMA ELISH” 1). The creation stories in the Tanakh and Egyptians epic are similar in that all things were created by the deity conceiving something and pronouncing it by his tongue. The creation stories are also different. The creation stories in the Tanakh have only one Supreme Being, who creates everything. But in the Egyptian and Mesopotamia creation epics, there are many gods, and they are struggling against each other.
In the Mesopotamians epic, the opposing force (Tiamat) is destroyed through war but in the Tanakh, the opposing force is not destroyed but cursed. In the Egyptians epic story, the deity is represented through nature like the cloud, sun, earth, sky, etc. But in the Tanakh, God is beyond nature and creation, and He is not part of creation.Question 7.Biblically, a covenant refers to an agreement between God and His people. God makes promises which He faithfully fulfills if the people abide by the conditions set in the covenant.
In the creation, God created Adam and gave him dominion over the earth on the condition that He will not eat the tree of Knowledge of good and evil(Gen 2:17). But Adam disobeyed and ate the fruit and hence broke the covenant and, as a result, was cursed and casted out of Eden. Later on, the world became very corrupt, and God decided to destroy the whole earth by water but saved Noah and his household (Gen 6:7-8). After the Flood had receded, God made a covenant with Noah that God will never again destroy the world by water.
After the flood, the people came together and decided to build the tower of Babel that was to reach the sky (Gen 11:3-4). God come and confused the people with different languages, and they were scattered (Gen 11:8). God desired to save man, and He called Abraham so that through Him, man could come into a relationship with God (Gen 17:1-8). Abraham was to live faithfully and blameless before God.Question 8. Israelites were not only a people of the covenant but also a political community.
The captives of Judah were allowed to return to Jerusalem by Cyrus, King of Persia on his first year of rule. Ezra and Nehemiah record the reconstitution of the nation of Judah through the rebuilding of the temple. The religious and political life in Judah was not separable, and the Torah acted as the law that governed people (Ezra 10, Neh 8-10).Question 9.God called Abraham from the land of Ur and promised to bless him. Due to the Abraham faithfulness God counted him righteous and exceedingly blessed him (Gen 22; 15-18).
God promised Abraham a son, whom God used to multiply his descendants as the star of the sky. The descendants of Abraham were to defeat their enemies and occupy the land of Canaan. Moreover, Abraham was to die in a good old age and through Abrahams’ descendants, all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.Work cited“ENUMA ELISH.” Text. N.p., 21 Apr. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.Long, Charles. “Egyptian Mythology.” Text. N.p., 21 Apr. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Read More