Creation Stories, Family and Gender

1
Creation Stories, Family and Gender

• From Mesopotamia to Hebrew Monotheism

2
Questions for All Religions

• Who creates life?
• Who brings evil into the world?
• To whom do the gods speak?

3
Questions and Answers Symbols and Metaphors

• Who creates life?
• Who brings evil into the world?
• To whom do the gods speak?

• The vulva of the goddess or the seed of male god
• The gods, human failing, human pride
• Priests and priestesses, a covenant with men

4
Metaphors of Creation

• Female fertility birth, lush plant life (the
  tree of life), animals and humans
• Water or the sea
• Once male role is understood, a sacred marriage
  of male and female
• Naming
• Male seed and female vessel

5
Timeline of Ancient Jewish Society

• 1800 BC Abraham's lifetime
• 1290-24 BC Exodus
• 1000 BC Reign of King David (state formation)
• 900 BC Dual Monarchy of Israel and Judah
• 722 BC Israel falls to the Assyrians

6
The Covenants

• Noah and the flood, Genesis 6-9, (particularly
  Genesis 9 8-17)
• Abraham Genesis 15-21 (particularly Genesis 15
  7-18 and 17 1-13)
• Moses, Exodus, 3 62-9 20-23

7
The Creation Story

• Genesis 1 God creates the world in 7 days, and
  man in his own imagemale and female he created
  he them. (Verse 27)
• Genesis 2 God creates man and the Garden of
  Eden, and commands man not to eat from the tree
  of knowledge
• Gen 2 cont. God creates woman from Adams rib,
  and he names her.

8
Creation.

• Gen 224 Therefore shall a man leave his father
  and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife
  and they shall be one flesh.
• Gen 225 And they were both naked, the man and
  his wife, and were not ashamed.
• Gen 3 The Fall

9
The Fall

• Eve is tempted and gives the apple to Adam
• God expels Adam and Eve from the garden
• God puts enmity between man and woman.
• God tells Eve he will multiply thy sorrow and
  they conception.
• God tells Eve that Adam shall rule over thee.

10
The Fall.

• God condemns Adam to work in the sweat of thy
  face shalt thou eat bread
• Humans are condemned to die for dust thou art,
  and unto dust shalt thou return.
• God expels man from the garden of Eden, to till
  the ground from whence he was taken.