Final Exam Page 16 Flashcards
Explain what it means to say that Israel first knew God as Redeemer God before she inferred belief in Him as Creator God?
Israel first knew God as the God that had brought them out of Egyptian bondage or who had saved the from her enemies. While other nations worshiped other gods, Israel worshiped Yahweh.
Israel only came to understand God as creator after Israel developed the theological awareness that God and all others were idols. The only God must have created all things.
The name “Genesis” comes from where? The Hebrew name Bereshith for the book of Genesis means what in English translation?
The Hebrew name for the book is taken from the first words, “In the beginning”. The name “Genesis” comes from a Greek word meaning “beginning”, and comes to us from the Septuagint.
According to Genesis 1, how did God describe the entire creation?
He saw what he had created as “very good”.
List at least 3 things meant by humankind being created in the “image of God”. Describe the interrelationships between God, humankind, and the created order.
The Hebrews were concrete thinkers. Humankind was created “in the image of God”. The Bible presents God as having human-like qualities.
That humankind is “in God’s image” however suggests humanity’s place at the climactic apex of creation, fashioned for stewardship over the remainder of creation, fashioned for responsibility before God, fashioned for relationship with God.
What is the Enuma Elish? What is the Gilgamesh Epic?
The Enuma Elish is the Babylonian equivalent of the creation story in the Bible. The Gilgamesh Epic is the Mesopotamian equivalent of the flood story in Genesis. While there is some similarity of detail, the Genesis accounts offer a vastly different understanding of how things came to be and the meaning of the flood.
In what sense is Genesis 1-11 the “Prologue” to Israel’s faith?
The story of Israel really begins with Abraham, whose story can be traced on a world map. Genesis 1-11, which begins with creation, cannot really be traced on a world map. The stories are “archetypal” in that they set the stage for God’s new beginning in Abraham and offer explanation for everything which must have gone before.
