In chapters 3 and 4 of the Genesis, we learn about how Adam and Eve are punished and cast out of the Garden of Eden for disobeying God's laws, but we also discussed the complex facts that the serpent, who encouraged the humans to disobey God, was created by God and intentionally placed in the garden, and that God also intentionally placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden and then forbade Adam and woman to eat from it. Based on these facts, it seems as though God tests people with the opportunity to nearly gain divinity and then punishes them when they reach for it.
Now that you have read chapters 6 through 9, what are your thoughts on the reasons that God chose to wipe out humanity through the flood? What is the significance of saving the animals but almost none of humanity? What characteristics does Noah possess that make him worthy of salvation when no one else is? Do you see any connections between this story and the story of Adam and Eve's fall?
I think god chose to wipe out humanity with the flood as they were becoming too god-like. This is expressed when people are described as "giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown". It seems that the God in this story did not want the people to have that much power. The God in the story decides to save Noah as he is "just", and decides to wipe out the rest of humanity. Animals were allowed to live as they did not threaten his power. This is similar to the story of Adam and Eve, as when humans gained knowledge, which was only possessed by god, they are exiled and forced to work for their survival.
ReplyDeleteIn Genesis 6, God tells of the corrupt Earth and what His solution to this evil is. God called man wicked "and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually". It made God feel that this was His fault because he created man and in his heart, he was grieved. In God's eyes, the world was corrupt and full of violence, and He had to put an end to what he started! He devised a plan to destroy man, every beast, and fowl and creeping thing. He would do this by making it rain (with water) for forty days and nights and flood the Earth, destroying it and everything. But, he would spare one man and his family, along with male and female kinds of each animal, fowl, and creeping thing. He told Noah to make an ark to save all these animals and people, but why just Noah and his family, and so many animals? Noah was a descendant of Adam and Eve and I have a feeling that God didn't want to create man again, so he saved Noah and his family, in hopes that they would repopulate the Earth with well-behaved men and women. Noah seemed to be the only one that still followed God, because he was the person God turned to, right? God also wanted to save every specie on Earth, so he had to save a male and female for each, so there had to be more animals. Also, if interpreted differently, you could see it as, well what did the animals really do wrong? God shouldn't have anything against animals if they didn't do anything bad! I agree with Will about the humans seeming to becoming more divine. Most of the humans the bible focused on, lived for almost a millennia. This does compare to when Adam and Eve gained the knowledge of good and evil. They were already immortal, so that was the final step before they were just like God. God feared this and banished them. This is similar to what happened in tonight's reading because God realizes this and knows He has to finish it off. In both situations, He is mainly to blame. Thankfully, He reassured us by saying He would never do what he did again.
ReplyDeleteThe most realistic reason for God getting rid of humanity, because he thought they were becoming to wicked, and all the nightmares he had of humanity are becoming true. This is not what he wants, so therefore he wipes out humanity with a flood. Also, he describes the humans as giants walking the earth, so he thinks they are being too god-like, and getting to be too powerful. The reason God chose to keep all the animals, and none of humanity, is because the animals were put on this earth for a reason by God, and they are doing what they are suppose to do. They're innocent and have not disobeyed God, so he doesn't feel like he needs to kill them off. Also, he keeps the animals so on the new earth they can multiply, and even make new species. What makes Noah worthy of salvation is that first off he's the chosen one by God. Also, when God tells him to build a huge ark that we're going to house many animals and his family because there's a world ending flood coming, he doesn't blow it off. He believes so much in God, that he built a ark that probably took a lot of energy out of him. That's how God wants all his creations to be like. All the rest of humanity were being wicked and not caring about God, but Noah cared enough to do something crazy like building an ark. That is true faith to do that task as shown. I don't really see a connection with this and the Adam and Eve story, but these were both periods of downfall for humanity.
ReplyDeletethink God chose to wipe out humans because after creating humans and placing them on Earth without any instruction or rules, he was unhappy with them. It was when the humans began to disobey God that he grew frustrated with his creations and thought about a fresh start. The humans were unaware of rules and boundaries, but even so, God was angry when they began to make horrible mistakes. The humans were progressively destroying each other and Earth and God decided to start over. God spared Noah and his family because Noah hadn’t disobeyed him or broken any of what would later become the Ten Commandments. God still had respect for Noah and probably hoped that once the waters subsided, he and his family would be able to repopulate the Earth with respectable, obedient people as they are descendants of Adam and Eve. Similarly to God’s destruction of man, when God banished Adam and Eve from the forest, it was because they had disobeyed him. I think this version of God is easily frustrated with his creations. He creates things only to let them destroy themselves. I also agree with Will and Sam in that God was afraid of humans coming closer to divinity. A group of humans lived for nearly a millennia, which brought them to the brink of immortality, a feat Adam and Eve had already gotten. And just like God grew fearful and angry when Adam and Eve gained knowledge, He became angry when the humans began to grow smarter and live for so long. It is in good fortune for humans to come that God promised not to do such things again, but I do think that God made many mistakes in the creation of humans and wiping all of them out wasn’t the way to right his wrongs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above blog posts. The moment God sees His creations as being too powerful or not innocent enough, He rules them failures and decides to start over. This is what happened with Adam and Eve. The knowledge that they gained made them sinners in God's eyes; they were humans who had stepped into the hazy area between mortal and divine being, and this was unacceptable. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, which was essentially the hub of God's creative energy. In the following chapters, the life that He created has spread farther, so the humans that have erred cannot be exiled anywhere. They have to be killed; specifically, by the 40 days and nights of rain. God's choice of placing Noah and his family on the ark follows the same logic as His choice to include the animals. They are pure beings who have followed God's basically unspoken laws. As a reward, they are tasked with repopulating the world after God wipes the slate clean. His insistence on doing so seems to be, as Anna said, God’s frustration with his creation. However, the fact that he consistently tests their thirst for power and then brutally punishes them when they reach for a god-like status seems almost analogous to an engineer testing his robot’s artificial intelligence. If the robot does not pass this test, the engineer finds the fault in his own work; the robot isn’t blamed for its incompetence. Similarly, God views the humans as His subjects and not as living, sentient beings. Therefore, when they do something wrong, God likely finds the fault in His work. His need to perfect his creations, not an anger with humans themselves, is what leads him to destroy all of His work and begin anew.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what was mentioned above by some of my classmates that perhaps God punished humanity whenever they became too close to God himself. However, if we are to look at the idea that God might be testing humanity in general, he may be punishing humans if he sees too many negative qualities in them. For example, when God explains to Noah what he is going to do, he says, “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:13). It also says earlier in Genesis 6 as God is surveying the earth, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” (Genesis 6:5), as well as “The earth was also corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11). From what is presented to the reader, it can be inferred that God wishes to save all of the animals while only saving 8 humans because he simply does not see anything wrong with them. For the entirety of Genesis 6, God does not mention a single time that the animals are providing the same problems as humans. In fact, it is quite ironic that God created humans apart from animals so that they may have the capability to be influenced to eat from the tree of knowledge (which ended up causing a lot of trouble for God’s “tests”), while the animals were the ones which did not cause any trouble at all. Noah and his “generations” are set apart from the other humans as deserving to be saved from two lines in Genesis: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:8-9). This straightforward statement does not leave much to interpretation: it was because Noah was “just,” “perfect,” and followed the rules of God that he was saved from the flood. There are definitely connections between the story of the flood and the story of Adam and Eve’s banishment from Eden; in both cases, humanity was punished for acting against the will and rules of God or not performing to his expectations.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anna that the main reason God flooded the earth and killed off all of his creations (the case could be made that they were even his children) was because they weren’t doing/acting the way he wanted them to. God seems to look over the fact that he hasn’t given any of his people any rules (or commandments *nudge nudge*) for how they should go about living their lives that would help guide them on a better path or perhaps make his unknowable ideals achievable. Instead he decides that they don’t instinctually know his great will and that they should all be wiped from the face of the earth for being evil and disobeying rules that were never actually told to them. When God askes Noah to take the animals of the earth instead the people, I think that it is because the animals were never kicked out of Eden and are still inherently good. Noah is chosen to take those animals with him because he is apparently the only person in all of earth leading a righteous life dedicated to God. A big element of the Noah’s Ark story that I see tying back to Adam and Eve in the garden is the way that God chooses to deal with the evil. He just straight up casts it out/forsakes/kills it. Even though they are his creations, and he made them that way.
ReplyDeleteI think that God didn't really know what he was getting himself into with humans. he didn't realize how curious that they are, and how much they will do to learn new things even when they aren't supposed to. So god felt that he had to start humanity over again and change some things so that people wouldn't have the temptations to learn and explore their curiosity. I don't feel like it was as much about power but more so that God learned that he can't tempt people as much with bad things because in humans they will test these things out even when told not to. I think that he saved the animals because animals are almost always perceived as innocent and although they are curious they aren't as threatening, and violent as humans. Also I think like Anna said that the humans were making bad decisions that God didn't understand, but that's because humans aren't perfect and they also aren't all innocent and loving. I think that God chose Noah because God saw him as one of the only good people, and he knew he would be loyal and would obey Gods orders, and also I think that God saw Noah kind of as a model of how humans should be and thought that if he is alive and the only one left that the people coming after him and his children will be the same way.
ReplyDeleteBella Deluca
The instant god sees his what he has created become not what he wanted, he proceeds to start again. For example with Adam and Eve once he saw that they were no longer innocent he saw them as not as divine as he is. The humans were not given a fair shot because they didn't acknowledge the possible repercussions that would come with disobey the word of God. In the chapters ahead, God saw yet again that people were disobeying his word and decided to start over. Noah was given another chance because he was the only one that didi not disobey his commands. God hoped that Noah would be able to make children that were obedient and respectful. I believe that this version of God constantly triggered by his creations. Once they have disobeyed his work he shows great anger. I think this happens because as mentioned above, they are showing a potential to be as divine as he is. As humans progressed and gained knowledge his power felt weakened. Because of this, God always relied on his ability to restart everything which i feel like in the long run was detrimental because he didn't allow his creations to learn from their possible mistakes and he wasn't able to learn from his mistakes as well
ReplyDeleteAfter Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge, they have gained wisdom and became more god-like. In Genesis 6, god explained that he the human population is corrupted and he will wipe out the entire population expect for Noah and his family. This is seen on page 9, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great I the earth, and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually… I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth… but Noah found grace in the eyes of the lord.” God regrets creating the human race because they turned out to be evil. He will spare Noah’s family because he sees the good in Noah. Noah obeys god and does what he is told to do. I think that God does not want humans to have so much power and disobey him. I don’t think God wants to recreate the world, but he wants man to recreate the world themselves. He wants the human race to be good like Noah, he wants Noah and his family to re-populate the earth with ‘good’ and well-behaved people. The reason why he ordered Noah to bring two of each animal is because he wants all the animals to repopulate the world. This connects to the story of Adam and Eve because God told them not to eat from the tree of knowledge, but they did. God became angry when humans have more knowledge and disobeys god. God feared that this will happen so he banished them. This is similar to Genesis 6-9 because humans have so much knowledge they would argue with God and disobey what he tells them to do. He then wipes their whole population out.
ReplyDelete-Pinn C.
In chapter 2 God ordered Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge or else they would die. When they do eat from the tree of knowledge, they lose their innocence and learn all the knowledge that God had known. Other than the his divine powers, the knowledge that only God is what made God powerful. In chapter 6, "god saw that the wickedness of man was great on earth...I will destroy man whom I have created off the face of the earth...but God found grace in Noah...and perfect in his generations." God regretted creating man because they turned evil. The first child of Adam and Eve killed his brother, so clearly man had turned evil. God decided to save Noah because Noah had a strong faith in God and God saw that Noah's generations would be just as well. It was within Noah's generations God decided to establish his covenant. As Robert said, the animals were not as corrupt as the humans. In both stories, humanity fails to gods expectations and disobeys Him.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading many of the blogs above I really agreed with a lot of what people were saying. Some special points in particular that I thought about where some that were made in Sam’s blog , and many others that followed. The idea that God didn't wipe out all of humanity for his own personal gain, meaning that he was afraid of loosing his power is possible but I believe more along the lines of what Sam said in his blog entry. That it is more the idea that God spent so much time and effort into creating this whole new world and suddenly it's not turning out as he had planned. And it's enough work that if he is going to do it, he is going to do it right. So he decides to keep one of every species (I assume the best of the species) so that he won't have to start completely from scratch and he can continue with the same idea but just make sure that the second time turns out better than the first.
ReplyDeleteNicola Sommers