The Role Of Myth In The Book Of Genesis

All throughout recorded time the human race has created written sources to recall the events that occurred during their life time. The farther that one looks back in time the harder it will be to discover what it was actually like. Upon looking into the time of human creation and early civilized human life it is nearly impossible to find a source that can tell exactly what happened. There is one source though that has a theory which has proven to be fairly reliable: the book of Genesis. It not only provides a story of creation, but also gives one an inside look at what life was like during the early days of human civilization. It follows the family of Abram, later known as Abraham, a descendant of Noah. The story follows him through his travels

He later returns and appears to Noah a poor farmer who has remained a righteous man worthy of being saved from the disaster that would ensue. God kill all of the life on Earth except for the few that Noah took with him on his ark. After surviving the disaster Noah and his family began to rebuild the world from scratch to make it better and less sinful as it once was. God didn’t have to save Noah; he did because he saw the goodness in him. “As you see, drowning is not a quick and painless death. Regardless, this is what God did to every man, woman, child, baby, and animal on earth because he made a mistake! To make matters disgustingly worse, the flood accomplished nothing!” (The Darker Side). This shows that God really didn’t like what was happening and that he wanted everyone to suffer for the crimes that were committed. It wouldn’t have been so hard to wipe out all of the life on Earth and restart anew, but God was forgiving and let him

It started out when God approached Abram and instructed him that he need to leave his native land of Ur and make his way to the “promised land” as it is commonly referred to today. He set out with his wife Sarai, later known as Sarah. The traveled far and wide going to different lands trying to find a place where they could settle. They would eventually end up going to Egypt where the Pharaoh took Sarah and took her for his own. In doing this God punished Pharaoh and all of Egypt by making them all sick. They were at a point where their society was barely functioning.

Why? Why would God do this? Because the Pharaoh coveted another man’s wife. He broke one of the sacred bonds that the Jewish and Christian Religions are based upon. On his travels Abraham was approaching the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God came forth and told Abraham that he was going to destroy them. Abraham went in to find righteous people to save them, and when the time came and God destroyed the city Abraham left with the righteous people. Abraham’s wife looked back to see the city as they were leaving and she was turned to salt. God did that because he wanted them not to wish for life that was there. He was destroying it for the very purpose of the sins that they had committed