Ch. 2 Pt. 1

Question 1

What stories make up the first 11 chapters of Genesis? What do they mean

Answer 1

Creation: how the original goodness of Creation came from on God
Adam and Eve and the Fall: how sin entered the world
Can and Abel, Noah and the Flood: how evil of sin spread
Tower of Babel: how humanity was unable to save itself from its own sinfulness

Question 2

How did Babylonians view Creation?

Answer 2

Babylonians: polytheistic; the world had come from many gods. humans were caught in the middle of the gods’ wars, and they tried to please each one.

Question 3

How did Jews view Creation?

Answer 3

Jews: monotheistic; out of chaos, one God brings forth goodness. God calmly set the sun, moon, and stars in their proper place in “the dome.” The great sea monsters are good, innocent creates that God loves. God creates man and woman in God’s image - full of dignity, not slaves of the gods.

Question 4

Why does the Creation story tell of God resting on the 7th day?

Answer 4

to emphasize the importance of keeping the Sabbath, a day of rest each week, holy as a day to rest.

Question 5

When is the Christian Sabbath? Why?

Answer 5

Sunday: the day they recall the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Question 6

How do creationists and evolutionists see the creation story?

Answer 6

Creationists: Genesis is factually true; no contradiction exists between the biblical story and the theory of evolution
Evolutionists: universe had evolved over millions of years; Genesis is a myth meant to convey religious truth, not scientific fact

Question 7

Explain the story of Adam and Eve.

Answer 7

• created to enjoy delightful garden and be intimate companions
• walking and talking terms with Creator
• caught up in disobedience and guilt
• ate forbidden fruit
• naked, tried to cover up
• God called Adam: excuse - nakedness, even though he’s been naked this whole time
• God asks if he ate from the tree of knowledge
• Adam blames Eve, who blames the serpent

Question 8

What is Adam and Eve’s punishment?

Answer 8

Adam: work will be difficult and weary
Eve: subject to husband, pain in childbirth

Question 9

What are the Three Parts of Original Sin?

Answer 9

• Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit
• They wanted to be equal to God
• Everyone is born with it “Sin of Inheritance”

Question 10

Who screwed up in the Creation Story?

Answer 10

Free human beings

Question 11

Explain the story of Cain and Abel.

Answer 11

• two brothers; sons of Adam and Eve
• Cain = farmer
• Abel = sheperd
• Both sacrifice gifts to God
• God only blesses Abel’s sacrifice, encourages Cain to rise above his jealousy
• Cain murders Abel

Question 12

What does the Flood tell us?

Answer 12

How bad things can get once sin spreads

Question 13

Explain the story of Noah and the Flood.

Answer 13

• instructed to build an ark to protect himself, his family, and some animals from destruction
• Flood comes, ark rides the waters

Question 14

How does the story of Noah end?

Answer 14

God’s first covenant with Noah because he obeyed

Question 15

What is the sign of the end of the Flood?

Answer 15

A rainbow

Question 16

What is the lesson from Noah and the Flood?

Answer 16

our warm, fleshy hearts eventually turns to cold stone without even being aware of it; God wants to save us from this awful fate.

Question 17

What is the Tower of Babel? What is the lesson?

Answer 17

• try to build a tower, summit in the heavens; make a name for themselves
• God comes down and sees the tower
• stops them by confusing their language and dispersing the people
• shows how sin spread to affect behavior of nations who seeks glory in power, might, wealth, superiority, and dominance.

Question 18

Who is the Father of Biblical Faith?

Answer 18

Abraham

Question 19

What does God bid Abram to do? The lesson?

Answer 19

take his family away from all that is familiar and go to a land “that I will show you.” Abram’s struggle to understand the mystery of the gods; one God is above all others

Question 20

Why can’t Abram and Sarah have any children?

Answer 20

Abram is an old man. Sarai is barren and beyond her childbearing years

Question 21

What does God tell Abram? Who is God referring to?

Answer 21

To look up at the stars and count them if he can. God promises Abram descendents that will outnumber the stars. Abram’s descendents are all who believe or will believe because Abram believes.

Question 22

What solution does Sarai find to finally bear a child? What happens?

Answer 22

She proposes that Abram take her maid, Hagar, to beget a child the would legally belong to Sarai. Hagar ends up fleeing the harshness of her mistress. God tells Hagar to go back and promises that her son, Ishmael, will grow to manhood and free.

Question 23

What is polygamy? Why does is happen? What is ideal?

Answer 23

more than one wife. Happens because 1) wife is barren, so female servant will be a childbearer or 2) husband will take a second wife to five the family children. Monogamy, one wife, is ideal.

Question 24

What is the sign of the Covenant between Abram and God?

Answer 24

Circumcision: identifies Abram’s people as God’s people

Question 25

Why did Abram and Sarai change their names? What did they change them to?

Answer 25

to reflect the new identity and status; Abraham and Sarah

Question 26

Explain the story when Abraham is visited.

Answer 26

• Abraham visited by three strangers
• offers them refreshment, water for bathing, place to rest
• one of the visitors says that Sarah will bear a child in a year
• Sarah laughs
• visitor responds “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

Question 27

Why does God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?

Answer 27

the cities were wicked and the complaints against their inhabitants are found true

Question 28

Why is Hagar expelled? How does Hagar save Ishmael?

Answer 28

• Issac is born; Sarah expels Hagar and Ishmael
• alone in wilderness and out of water
• angel helps Hagar find spring

Question 29

Who is Ishmael in relation to Islam?

Answer 29

a bedouin, a nomadic Arab,

father of the Arab peoples

Question 30

What is Abraham considered? Which religions?

Answer 30

ancestor of all three great monotheistic religions
Judaism
Christianity
Islam

Question 31

What is Abraham’s test? What is the point of the story?

Answer 31

God bids Abraham to sacrifice Issac on the top of a mountain. At the last moment, an angel stops Abraham and provides a ram for the sacrifice. The point of the story is to focus of the faithfulness between Abraham and God