Respond to one of the following prompts in a paragraph. If you have a thought on the topic that you'd like to share that doesn't go with the prompts, that's okay, go ahead and share that, and it will serve as your response. Please do read what the other students have written before you, and check back later to see what other students write. Try not to repeat what others have said. If you want to respond (respectfully) to something someone else has written, go ahead.
1. Can you detect of theme of concern with right v. wrong? Discuss.
2. How would you describe God's treatment of Cain after Cain kills his brother?
3. Why might the "editors" of the Bible have included 4:17 through the end of chapter 5, the list of the descendants of Adam down to the time of Noah?
4. Can you detect the theme of non-human animals? Discuss.
2. After Cain kills his brother, God told him he would not be able to farm any more and would have to "roam the earth." But, God did not want to punish cain by letting someone kill him. He put a mark on Cain so no one would kill him. I think God is trying to teach Cain a lesson about an eye for an eye sort of concept, where if Cain goes around killing people, then just because he did does not mean he will get the same punishment. I think God's goal is to make Cain think about what he did and not feel guilty, but feel a little ashamed of his inappropriate actions.
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely a reoccurring theme of right vs. wrong in the Bible. Almost everyone who sins gets punished by God. First, once Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they are banished. Since they are no longer innocent with no understanding between good and evil, they have to die and leave Eden. Additionally, when Cain murders Abel, God penalizes him by making it impossible to farm and making him leave to Nod, a town east of Eden. Furthermore, when mankind become wicked, God decides to wipe out all of mankind with the exception of Noah and his family. In almost every example of Good vs. Evil, good eventually triumphs and those who did wrong get disciplined.
ReplyDeleteThe editors of the bible may have listed the descendants from Adam down to the time of Noah to explain the age of these people. I also noticed that there is a recurring pattern and that the descendants get a child in between 50 and 200 years of age and then die a couple of hundred years later. Noah though gets a child at 500. They are possibly trying to explain that Noah is different. They are also trying to explain that Noah is different because the list is simply just a list of people, who live extremely long(another reason why to list it) and then the list ends at Noah. They are possibly trying to emphasize Noah throughout this whole Genesis.
ReplyDelete3. I guess the editor included 4:17~5:32 because he wanted to prove that this story was really happened, also I saw that Cain's sons did not do anythng special for a long time(I guess because of Cain's sin) but later Noah did special things for God. So it took long time to make God happy again.
ReplyDeleteps.hard to explain
1.
ReplyDeleteIt it clear that there is a reacurring theme with right vs. wrong in chapters 3-7 of the Book of Genesis. I noticed that whenever someone did something wrong, such as when Cain killed his brother, Abel. This of course was wrong, and God certainly recognized that, so he punished him. "When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." - Book of Genesis, chapter 4. Another example of this is when God told Noah to build the ark. Since God saw clearly that Noah was a good and kindhearted man, he let him build the ark and save his family and his self. If Noah had been a mean and evil person, then God would not have allowed for him to live. "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God." - Book of Genesis, chapter 6.
2. How would you describe God's treatment of Cain after Cain kills his brother?
ReplyDeleteSo basically, god took away his privilege of being able to farm and he would have to wander around the Earth. Cain yelled out to god that this was a punishment he couldn't bear because he thought that anyone who meets him while he wanders may kill him. But, god says that he shall not be killed by anyone and he gave Cain a mark so he could not be killed.
One thing that's important in this part is that CAIN COULD NOT BE KILLED BY ANYONE. I think god gave him this type of punishment so that Cain can realize that killing is an abnormal thing to do and it is absolutely not a right thing as well. He could wander around and see that people don't kill each other that easily and no one will kill him either even if he gets into some kind of trouble or conflict between others. This will eventually make him feel guilty and figure out his fault..
i think.. ahahaha...
4. Although I cannot exactly detect a theme of the non human animals, I did notice a few things that may or may not be relevant. One thing I noticed was that the serpent in the beginning seemed very human like as it talked, but no other animals are mentioned to have talked. Also, the animals are referred to as mating the same way as humans. God says, "Take with you [into the ark] seven pairs of all clean animals, the MALE AND HIS MATE" The number 7 is used several times when talking about the animals, "Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals...and seven pairs of the birds of the air also... For in seven days I will send rain on the earth..." The last thing I noticed was that some animals were referred to more specifically, such as birds, and other animals were referred to more abstractly such as "...all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth..." "And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died."
ReplyDeleteAll quotes from bible.oremus.org genesis 3-7.
2. How would you describe God's treatment of Cain after Cain kills his brother?
ReplyDeleteGod decided to harshly punish cain by marking him and his descendants for all eternity. i completely understand the way that god reacted because cain and able were gods first grandchildren. The only reason he reacted that way was because he was already disappointed with adam and eve and his final hopes were with within Cain and Able. since this tragic event occurred god simply looses it.
To add to my comment i would like to say the list of descendants show disappointment. God was disappointed in Cain and all of his descendants which led to god wanting to wipe out human race. But he knew that Noah was different so he told him to make an ark for him and a male and female of every species.
ReplyDelete