The Impact of the Hebrew Story of Creation
The story of creation is difficult to analyze from the Hebrew Bible without knowing Hebrew. Every translation tells an entirely new story. However, being challenging does not change that it greatly impacts the world today. It still addresses many present day issues that are deeply rooted in society such as evolution, women’s equality, and capital punishment. The Hebrew story of creation focuses on humanity, unlike other stories which focus on the gods themselves. As the literary work opens, “God began to create heaven and earth”, which draws the question where is heaven, or even the description of heaven. As God’s presence or “breath” began to create the world he made a “vault” which separated the…show more content… When Cain and Abel were grown, they gave an offering to God to show their love and appreciation. Cain offered the Lord “fruit of the soil” and Abel offered the lord “the choice firstling of his flock” The lord took Abel’s offering and Cain’s “face fell” (161). God said to Cain “for you [are] longing, but you will rule over it”. He is addressing Cain’s jealousy, telling him he can overcome it. However, Cain then took Abel to field, where “Cain rose against Abel, his brother, and killed him”. When the Lord discovered this, His punishment to Cain was to throw him from the land. Cain feared for his life as a wanderer, so the Lord “softened the punishment” and declared no one could kill Cain and if anyone did they would “suffer sevenfold vengeance”. This declaration gives a clear view on capital punishment. Even though Cain murdered his brother in cold blood, God did not kill him as punishment, but force him to be a wanderer. In a way God gave Cain “new life”, a way of saying correction and forgiveness (Mandery). For men, and woman, whose crimes are severe enough, the punishment is death in many countries and a few states. As, from this passage, it is clear to see God does not agree with killing a murderer for He “set his mark on Cain so that whoever found him would not slay him”
