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Course: World History Project - Origins to the Present > Unit 1
Lesson 5: Other Materials- READ: Origin Story - Modern Scientific
- READ: Origin Story - Chinese
- READ: Origin Story - Judeo-Christian
- READ: Origin Story - Iroquois
- READ: Origin Story - Mayan
- READ: Origin Story - Greek
- READ: Origin Story - Zulu
- READ: Origin Story - Efik
- READ: Cosmology and Faith
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READ: Origin Story - Judeo-Christian
This story comes from the first book of the Old Testament, the sacred source book of both Judaism and Christianity.
Judeo-Christian
By Cynthia Stokes Brown
This story comes from the first book of the Old Testament, the sacred source book of both Judaism and Christianity.
This biblical story comes from Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, which is the sacred source book of both Judaism and Christianity. In Genesis, this story is followed immediately by a second creation story in Chapter 2, in which humans are created first, followed by plants and animals. These stories were written down in the first millennium BCE and evolved into the form in which we know them around 450 BCE, about 2,460 years ago.
Genesis: Chapter 1
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the Earth, the Earth was a formless void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.
And God said, “Let there be a dome between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the dome and separated the water under the dome from the water above it. And it was so. God called the dome “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the second day.
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, of every kind.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed of every kind and trees bearing fruit with seed in it of every kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light on the Earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the fourth day.
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the Earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing of every kind that moves in the teeming water, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the Earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the fifth day.
And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures of every kind: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of every kind, the livestock of every kind, and all the creatures that move along the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. ”So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.
Thus the heaven and the Earth were finished, with all their multitudes. And on the seventh day God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
Want to join the conversation?
- So confused here in Christian it suppose to only be one God. But it states in the text "Let us make humankind in OUR image, in OUR likeness, so that they may rule over the fish... etc etc. I thought in Christian they only believe in one God. But it states "our" the word our is plural, so how can it only one God in Christian if it states in the Bible "our" just a food for thought.(6 votes)
- Our is used for the son the father,and the holy gost.(God,Jesus,holy spirit)(5 votes)
- so that's why church is on sunday?(4 votes)
- Yes, God had rested on the seventh day, so it became the "holy day" or something like that. So people in the Christian and Catholic religion go to church on Sunday, and then they have other days like Ash Wednesday and a few others that they also go to church.(2 votes)
- It is kind of just supposed to present a very bare bones idea of how every culture thinks the universe was created. it allows us to compare them, to some extent anyway, such as how each idea presents some force from which all things come from, be it from some sort of intelligent being, or simply a natural occurence. So even though we all don't necessarily believe the same things, we can all still agree the universe came from somewhere.(1 vote)
- This is a lot of reading, but very interesting.(1 vote)
- this is paraphrased as there is no speaking of the "firmament"(0 votes)
- im the fist comment(0 votes)