blog




  • Essay / The Three Sections of the Hebrew Bible - 715

    In early Judaism, God was seen as having a closer connection to humanity, but over time, God's divinity became emphasized. By creating order from chaos and everything from nothing, God's power was unlimited and it was up to him to decide good and evil: God demonstrated his compassion and strength. At the beginning of the book of Genesis it is alluded to that God has a physical body and created the Garden of Eden for His pleasure, and then He created Adam in His image to tend His garden. This notion that God had a physical body was less emphasized in later Judaism because in the majority of the book of Genesis, God's presence is spoken of as being beyond the physical world. After God created Adam, he told him that his duty was to tend the garden. He gave Adam freedom, the freedom to name the things he saw and the freedom to live from the garden in harmony. When Adam felt alone, God even made him a companion, Eve, from Adam's own rib. These acts of generosity and compassion represented God as loving and powerful. God told Adam and Eve that the garden belonged to them, but declared that they were not allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and were banished from the Garden.