Creation and Adam and Eve
Introduction To The Bible
and
The Story Of Creation And The Story Of Adam And Eve
(Lessons 1 and 2)
The Bible
The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word Biblia meaning “books”. The Bible is made up of many different books. There are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament of the Protestant Bible. The Bible is divided into two main parts, The Old Testament and The New Testament. The word “Testament” means “ agreement” or “covenant”.
The Old Testament is about the agreement, or covenant between God and His people as revealed to their leader, Moses.
The New Testament is about the agreement or new covenant between God and His people based on the teachings and life of Jesus.
Who wrote the Bible? Many people did over a period of about 1,100 years from around 1000 BC to 100AD.
It is important to remember when reading the Bible that most of the stories were passed on for many years by the oral telling of the stories, not by the written word. Therefore some of the details of the stories were lost or changed in the process of the telling, but what remained was the meaning behind the stories, what made them important enough to be saved from generation to generation. Also the Bible was written long ago in a different time. It is a challenge to us all to sort out what is of lasting importance and meaning and what is just a reflection of the customs or habits of a particular slice of history.
Genesis
Genesis is the first book of the Bible. The word Genesis means “beginning” or “origin”. It is one of the first five books of the Bible which together are know as the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses, and the Torah.
Genesis tells us of beliefs about how the world began, beliefs about the origins of the human species, something of the nature of God and of the nature of man and the relationship between God and man. It also tells of the origin of the Hebrew people and their place as the “chosen people”, but that part of the book will be Lesson 3.
The story of creation tells the story of how God created a world of balance and harmony out of chaos. From this story we learn about God. We learn that God is powerful. We learn that God loved and cared for His creation and his people. We also learn about the original nature of man. We learn that man was made in the image of God, not in bodily image but in spiritual image. From the beginning man had worth simply by being made in the image of the Creator and being loved by Him. Man’s worth is not dependent on appearance, accomplishments, or possessions, but on the spirit which he/she shares with God, on the simple fact that he/she is created in God’s image. God is spirit, therefore man is spiritually sensitive. God is a moral being, therefore man is a moral being. God is a rational being, therefore man is a rational creature able to think, reason, imagine and communicate. God is a purposeful being, therefore man is an active creature capable of doing planned, purposeful work. He was given dominion over the earth, but with the responsibility of stewardship. God is a creative being and therefore man is a creative being able to appreciate beauty, order and purpose.
The story of Adam and Eve is the story of the first man and the first woman and their fall into sin. From this story we learn more about man. Man has been given free will by God. It is the gift of free will that makes a fulfilling relationship possible. Without free will the connection between people is more ownership than relationship. In other words if God is the puppeteer and we are the puppets, we automatically do what God wishes. There is no commitment, or giving of ourselves. God controls, we respond and are really more objects than human beings. Since we have free will it is our choice to love God or not.. God is always there, but it is up to us to be aware of that, to respond to that, to appreciate that, to make that something that is important in our lives or not. Being a child of God is a gift, but also comes with responsibility. If the gift is to be meaningful we have to do certain things to make that happen.
God has given Adam and Eve a garden full of the wonders of creation. They are free to choose what to do, except that they must not eat of one tree, the tree of knowledge. Of course we know what happened. Encouraged by the serpent, Adam and Eve go against God’s will. From the very beginning, man has struggled between what he wants and what is God’s will. Adam and Eve felt shame and guilt. God has given man a conscience to guide him in knowing right from wrong. Adam and Eve want to hide from God. Is it possible to hide from bad choices we make? How do we try to hide from our own bad choices?
What is God’s response when Adam and Eve go against His will? He inflicts punishments on them and bans them from the garden. From the beginning man often makes the wrong choices and his actions have consequences. However, God does not give up on his people. He does not destroy them. In fact He acts lovingly toward them and reassures them that He wants to stay in relationship with them. In the case of Adam and Eve, He made garment of skin for them and clothed them.
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Exercise for class discussion:
Have you ever met any “snakes” in your life? Let me give you a hypothetical situation and see if you can see any similarities between my story and the story of Adam and Eve.
Thomas and Ben were spending the night at Matthew’s house. Thomas’s parents were leaving the boys alone in the house for a few hours while they went out to dinner with friends. The boys had pizza and then explored what to do next. They decided to watch a movie. Matthew’s family had a good selection of Videos and DVD’s. While they were looking for a good one, Thomas spotted a number of movies in a second cabinet.
“ Hey, Look at these,” Ben exclaimed excitedly as he looked through the titles.”Let’s watch one of these.”
“No, we can’t ,”answered Matthew somewhat tentatively. “ Those are the R rated movies that I am not allowed to watch.”
“ Not allowed to watch?” exclaimed Thomas as he joined Ben in looking at the titles of the movies.” These are all the good ones.”
“Yeah, “ agreed Ben. “ Your parents obviously don’t want you to have any fun. They just want to keep the good ones for themselves.”
“ What are we supposed to watch, this one?” Thomas broke out in giggles as he waved a Thomas the Tank Engine tape that had belonged to Matthew’s younger brother in the air.
Ben joined in the ridicule and they continued to urge Matthew to go against his parents’ wishes. He finally caved in and agreed when Ben said, “ They won’t even have to know, they aren’t coming home for hours.”
To flex their ability to choose to the greatest degree, the boys chose a very violent movie with a disturbing plot. One that they might not even have really wanted to watch, but they were on a roll. Later Matthew’s parent came home and nothing was ever revealed about the movie. When asked what they had done, the boys lied.
Sometime after midnight the next night, Matthew woke up with a start in the middle of an awful nightmare. The visions he had had were so real, his heart was pounding. He would have loved to have gotten his parents attention just for a hug or a little reassurance. But he didn’t feel as though he could go to them.
Discussion:
Do you see similarities between the serpent and anyone in this story? The serpent in the Adam and Eve story personifies temptation. Temptation comes in many forms. What forms does temptation take in your life? It is not always easy to recognize when someone is trying to lead you in the wrong direction. Remember the tricks that the serpent and Ben and Thomas used to try to persuade Matthew to make a bad choice. It can be difficult to know your own mind and stand up for what you know is right, difficult, but not impossible.
Matthew reacted similarly to Adam and Eve when he knew that he had done something wrong. What in Matthew and Adam and Eve and in ourselves tells us when we have made a bad choice? Our conscience tells us. Guilt and regret do not feel good, but our conscience is our God given gift that guides us towards what is righteous.
Do you ever hide when you have done something wrong? In what way do you do that? Does it work?
How did not being honest about the bad choice that he had made affect his relationships with his parents, God and himself?
