Judaism Sacred Stories
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Submitted by sebscribe on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
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Judaism Sacred Stories
Often religions express their beliefs in abstract statements or creeds, but sometime these beliefs are also expressed in stories, which are a common feature of all religions. By reading some of these major stories, we gain real insight into the religion we are studying
The jews have retained a number of stories or myths concerning the beginnings of the world and of humanity. Some of these stories have been borrowed and adapted from other peoples and then given a distinctive Jewish colouring. Most of these stories can be found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the bible, also known as the Torah' or The Law'
Creation was described by the Jewish people in two separate stories. The first told of a huge void of frenzied waters into which Yahweh had brought calm; he had created a light filled earth on which human beings could live. Then he filled the earth with vegetation, animals, and finally- the pinnacle of all creation- human beings. The first human was both male and female.
The second story was of a different type. It began not with watery chaos but with a desert. Creation took place when Yahweh introduced water into the desert, so making clay. Then Yahweh shaped a human being, Adam, from the clay. This single human being eventually became lonely. So God caused a deep sleep to come over Adam, and a rib was taken from him and made into a woman.
These stories explain humanity in their purist form, however the Jews realised that people were not like that today, so they handed on a series of other myths which explained why life was not so perfect as the creation stories would maintain.
The first of these sin stories' was of Adam and Eve in the Garden. They had been forbidden to eat the fruit of one of the trees, but a serpent- typically an image of evil for the Jews- tempted Eve to eat the fruit. She did so, and enticed Adam to eat it also. They had disobeyed and sin entered the world....
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