Primary Source Origin

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The study of history, in part, seeks to understand origins. There is perhaps no better example of a primary source origin story than the Book of Genesis. This work, whose title literally means “the beginning” is the start of the bible. Arguably the most influential book in human history and certainly a fundamental text for both Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, the book of Genesis explains the fundamentals of the universe in terms of religion. For the ancient Hebrews who recorded this text, there is no single work more salient to the discussion of where they (and everyone else for that matter) started. Many people believe that the Ancient Hebrews invented the Hebrew alphabet; this alphabet was used to record this well known text, but it was …show more content…

This is where everything started. Upon the sixth day God created mankind, Adam and Eve. The two people were placed in the Garden of Eden, allowing them to freely live in the world he created with only one rule. The rule was forbidding them from eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. One day Eve was tricked by a serpent to eat from the tree. He made it known to Eve that if she would eat from the tree there would be no consequences, so she did and offered the same to Adam. God discovers the disobedience of the two and and curses them both. In the end he banished them both from Eden. After being sent out into the world the two had given birth to two sons Able and Cain, later they had another son named Seth. God was more appreciative of Cain so Able murdered his brother. The human race grew through Cain and Seth and with every generation the humankind become progressively more evil. This is where the memorable story of Noah’s Ark become such an influential story in our history. God began to regret is creation and made a decision to destroy humankind altogether except from Noah and his family along with two of each animal. God instructed Noah to build an ark big enough for them to all live while he floods the earth. It rained for forty days flooding the earth for a over a year. God called upon Noah and his family to show them the new land. He made a set of new rules that must be followed to maintain his favor: humans can