Laranetto

Daniel Laranetto

Karen Rhoads Van Dyck

Literature Humanities 42

4 October 2016

Genesis Chapters 1-4

The first few chapters of Genesis tell the story of God’s creation of the universe, earth,

and life. One thing that I noticed in chapter 1 was the repetition of each day. God first

announces what will be created, then creates it, and then reflects on his creation. There also

seem to be many dualities in the first few days of creation. For example, God starts by

separating light from darkness. He also then creates the Heavens and the oceans by putting a

wedge between them. Chapter 1 and chapter 2 both tell stories of creation but they are two

different stories. Chapter 2 tells a more detailed account of the creation of man and woman. The

differences between the two stories of creation indicate that these accounts are most likely not

from the same individual. The seriousness of the consequences of actions is very evident in

chapter 3. After realizing the man ate the apple from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

God dished out punishments to all those involved. The snake has to crawl on the ground and

will be stepped on by people, the woman has to go through the pain of childbirth and the man

will rule over her, and the man will have to farm the earth and will eventually die to return to the

dust from which he was made. Again in chapter 4, Cain is punished by God for killing his

brother. In chapter 4, the listing of Cain’s descendants and their relationships reminded me of

some of the lists of people and places from The Iliad.

Genesis Chapters 1-4 - Summary New Oxford Annotated Bible

Eurpn Lit-philos Masterpiecs I (CC1001)