Genesis and Exodus

Enuma Elish

10th cent. BCE babylonian creation epic

-recited during new years festival

-written to claim marduk’s power over the gods

precreation state

darkness, water, wind, void, chaos

what trees were in the garden of eden?

tree of knowledge of good and evil, and tree of life

how many stories of creation are in genesis?

at least 4

what were god’s punishments for adam and eve?

the serpent will be confined to eat dust and will struggle with humans forever

adam: cursed is the ground, will return to dust

eve: pains in childbearing

what it the imagery of temples?

god’s house and presence among humanity, rivers flowing, tree of life, chreubim

name of abraham’s wife

sarah

what is the sign of God’s covenant with abraham in genesis 17?

circumcision

what does abel’s name mean?

vanity, futility, breath

what is abraham’s dad’s name?

terah

what may have been the function of the ziggurats in ancient mesopotamia?

to provide a rest stop as the gods descended from heaven to earth

what direction is exile associated with in the bible?

east

what is the name of the mesopotamian flood epic that parallels noah’s story?

epic of gilgamesh

what are some differences between creation accounts in genesis 1 and 2

different ways humanity is created, different order of creation, different names for the deity, different tone of the story,

in what chapter does the word SIN first appear

genesis 4

what is the sign of god’s covenant with noah?

a bow in the sky

tower of babel

an etiology explaining the origins of multiple languages

threats to gods covenant with abraham

infertility, endangered matriarchs, sibling rivalry, leaving the land

how is abraham a trickster on his journey?

he pawns off sarah multiple times to make money from men, claims random land to build altars there

what is a suzarin-vassal treaty?

suzarin is the higher power and offers protection

vassal is the weaker power and offers loyalty and obedience

why doesn’t abraham and sarah’s son isaac get sacrificed?

God accepts a ram instead

how is jacob a trickster to his brother esau?

he tricks abraham into giving him the birthright for family leadership and family inheritance as well as abraham’s blessing

pentateuch creation theory

created by several sources

-yahurist, elohist, deuteronomist, priestly

source criticism

analysis of text to determine sources used in making of it

redaction criticism

how sources have been adapted and edited by people overtime

Moses

-raised in a foreign land because he was saved from being killed as a baby and sent down the river

-becomes a leader of his people

-shepherds at mt. Sinai/Horeb and sees a burning bush, which is God speaking to him

-part of a covenant with God to liberate the Hebrews from Egypt

route of exodus

avoiding the “land of the philistines” AKA international coastal highway

Deliverers

God, moses, aaron, midwives, moses’ mom, miriam, pharoh’s daughter

apodictic laws

starts with do/do not, ex: ten commandments

casuistic laws

case by case laws

-conditional “if, then” statements

Tabernacle

God’s dwelling in the midst of the common people - a tent for God

-cherabim statue

-ark of the covenant is the dwelling place