Questions on Genesis 1-3


  1. Since we have all heard this story so many times, we usually remember more than the story actually contains. For instance, when does the apple first appear? When is the snake called "Satan?" What is the original sin? Why is this story called "the fall?" Where do these ideas come from?

  2. Most scholars now believe that there are two creation stories at the beginning of the Hebrew Bible; Genesis 1 through Genesis 2:3, Genesis 2:4 through. 3. What is the evidence for these beliefs? What differences do you see in the two narratives? Consider the following questions:
    1. How does each narrative picture the world before creation?
    2. How does each story end
    3. What is the basic structure of each story? How does the narrative move?
    4. What place does man (or woman) play in each story?

  3. Are you convinced that there are two separate stories here? (Consider the following questions as well before you answer.)

  4. In the second story, the Eden story, a pastoral or idyllic or even fantasy landscape is set quite carefully in chapter two. Which elements contribute to this fabulous mood?

  5. How does the narrator attempt to picture evil before evil was known? (The style changes quite abruptly between chapters two and three. Does it make any sense to know that the word for "naked" ('arum) sounds the same as the word for "crafty" or it sly?")

  6. In Hebrew the personalities of the characters appear to be related to their nam es and the material from which they were formed. can you show how?

  7. In drama, an irony arises when personages who see the world quite differently appear to be saying the same things to each other. Can you see any differences in what God, Eve, and the snake say and what they mean when they say it? Based on their dialogue, who is the more intelligent, Adam or Eve?

  8. Does it se em right that the Lord God has to ask all the questions in Genesis 3:9-13? Why does He ask these questions? Having asked all those seemingly obvious questions, why doesn't He ask the snake the crucial question, "Why did you. do it?" What does this tell us about the narrator's interest in the question of the origin of evil?

  9. Still, the motivation of the serpent is a very important and perplexing question. One clue for deciphering the narrator's intention is to look at another place where spirits are seen to entice humans. Read 1 Kings 22 and reflect on whether Micaiah's vision of the heavenly court has any bearing on our understanding of the Eden story. Is the Eden story meant to punish bad people as is I Kings 22? What is the difference? What does this tell you about the way God achieves His ends, according to the biblical narrator? Who is the author of evil? (See, e.g., Isaiah 45, especially Isa. 45:7)

  10. Genesis 3:14-19 is an enumeration of punishments. Are they strange or cruel or
    unusual punishments? What do the punishments reveal about the sin of the
    characters? In what ways are the punishments bad? In what ways are they not so
    bad? What do they tell us about our lives?

  11. What do Adam and Eve learn from their disobedience? Is their knowledge good or bad? Is this a "fall" at all?

  12. In response to the question, "But, what will history say?" one of George Bernard Shaw's characters said: "History will tell lies, as usual. But since this is fiction, you may safely believe it." There are many ways of construing the relationship between the terms "fiction," "history," and "truth." Sometimes we want to say that only things which can be verified scientifically are true. Other times we do not require that a story be factual or historical or even true-to-life to be true somehow, if we acknowledge that it is literature. Is the Eden story fiction or literature or truth? How should we distinguish between the terms? (Don't get bogged down in generalities. Stick to the biblical text and use what you've learned about the text above to illustrate your point. Also don't use dictionary definitions; rather tell me how YOU would like to use the terms. GIVE ME AN ANALYSIS OF THE GENESIS ACCOUNT FIRST, THEN TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT "FICTION," "HISTORY," AND "TRUTH" IN REGARD TO THAT SPECIFIC CASE. DO NOT START WITH A DEFINITION, START WITH ANALYZING THE TEXT.)