Jealousy in the book of Genesis Essay

The firstborn book of the Pentateuch is rife with Jealousy. It seems a peculiar obsession of those writing in the Lords name. aft(prenominal)(prenominal) all, such sins as murder, adultery and slothfulness seem so a great deal more damaging to our communities and our selves. wherefore are the jade eyes of jealously give so much attention in the bibles leadoff book, especially in the story of the second and third men, Cain and his brformer(a) Abel.I suspect that jealousy, being a universal gentle humanness sensation, one which human beings so substantially find themselves sinking into, and one which is so apparently coarse and negative, inspired the writers of the bible to bring attention to its dangers very archaean on in their text. Although the instances of jealousy found in the later on taradiddles of Genesis, perchance those of Noah and Abraham, present more nuanced and complex manifestations of this all too human frailty, the visceral nature of Cains crime and t he ambiguity of his atonement moldiness first be addressed, as well as the fundamental differences betwixt jealousy among men and mans jealousy of graven image.Cain is assigned to be the tiller of the scope (Genesis 42 NKJV) in the garden of Eden. Abel, his junior brother, the second son of Adam and evening, was given the more genteel undertaking of tending to flocks of sheep. Both make offerings to the Lord, Cain in the form of the fruit of the ground (Genesis 43) and Abel the firstborn of their flock and his fat (Genesis 44) which perfection respected. besides the next verse, 45, reveals that deity did not respect Cains offering. Why?The biblical writers, men knowing nothing at all of Gods motivations (not to mention his existence), dont feel the need to procure us with Gods motives or criteria for respecting an offering. We do know that he took unkindly to Cains countenance, which fell following his rejection. One could easily see how being rejected by God, who hints a t some criteria when he says in 47 If you do well, will you not be repeated? And if you do not do well, sin lies at your door.And its disposition is for you, but you should rule over it. Of course, in the very next verse, Cain, after a brief conversation with his brother of which we are told nothing about, kills Abel. immorality came to his door, in the form of jealousy toward his brother and he acted upon it in the close to despicable way possible. The biblical writers are trying to dramatize an emotion and its consequences as effectively as possible. Did Cain feel that his offering was superior to his brothers and that he being unfairly judged by God?That God would not accept his offering, regardless of the quality of his fruit? Without more detail, its hard to arouse any sort of value judgment, within the Christian Lexicon, on the effect of Cain and Abel. God seems a little overbearing and perhaps bears more than a small share of the guilt for Cains jealousy. If Cain had t oiled that barren mid-eastern soil alone to praise God, rose day and night for his Lords glory, than was it perhaps a bit insensitive on the Lords cleave to reject him.Had Abel provoked Cain in any other way? What did they chew out about that faithful day? In what language could they have verbalise? As you can see, the first instance of jealousy in the Biblical text leaves more stones unturned and more questions unanswered than not. The story of Cain and Abel illuminates the first instance of intra-human jealousy. From the very beginning however, man was jealous of God. God creates man in his own image and makes him humble and stupid.Adam and Eve were simply to be in the Garden, lord of the Earths other creatures and stay out of Gods affairs, those that concern the moral and scientific complexities of the world. For as God puts it in Genesis 216-17, Of every guide of the Garden you may freely eat but of the corner of companionship of good and evil you shall not eat, for in th e day that you eat of it you shall for sure die. Later, after man as created Eve, verse 225 exclaims And they were both(prenominal) naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. A surface reading suggests that man was meant for to extend in a pure, infantile state. Before man erected society, technology or democracy, man was designed to remain pure of the complexities of morality. Yet Adam and Eve, given the free will God had granted them and a base sentiency of good and evil, ironically because of Gods edict to stay cold away from the shoetree which allows one experience of such matters, had the ability to bring such knowledge, and with a little persuasion from the villainous serpent, they did.Surely the ways of God are mysterious, but why would he set up man with a series of bizarrely attractive ways to subvert his intentions for their upbeat? Eve makes a series of evaluative judgments upon the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil when she thinks to he rself in verse 36 So when the woman saw the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, She took of the fruit and ate.She also gave to her husband, and he ate. Was God setting up Adam and Eve for the fall when he created the tree in the first place? Hoew else to explain an omnipotent God who wilfully creates beings who were, despite their naivete, are capable of learning and seeing the virtues of something which their creator had made arbitrarily off limits while simultaneously placing being in their middle whose whole obligation is to tempt them?Certainly the rest of the Biblical narrative depends on the jealousy inspired fall without it, the rest of the story, which culminates with Jesus sacrificing himself for mans sins and thus offering him redemption, several thousand year in the first place the Earth is destroyed during Jesus rapturous return, could not have been constructed by the Biblical writers. Perhaps, if it is out their God wanted to fall.It is simply mans innocent jealousy, of Gods wisdom and goodness and perhaps his personnel to arbitrarily, without fear of reprisal or retribution, horde power over his creations, which drove Eve to follow the serpents instructions. The instinct to want what others have is as old as man. Surely the omnipotent clockmaker deity that the early enlightenment era Europeans constructed out of King James text was certified of this opposition he was creating. It is, after all, just another part of Gods grand design.BibliographyThe Holy Bible, New King James Version, doubting Thomas Nelson Bibles, 1982.