Instructions: Read, listen, watch, explore, enjoy and write your answers on a piece of paper and bring it to class. You will need your Teen Bible. There are nine parts total in this activity.
The Old Testament
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and everything God made was good," are the opening words of Genesis, the first book in the Bible. Genesis is the first book of the holiest part of the Hebrew Bible, called the Torah. It is sometimes surprising for Christians to learn that Jews consider the first five books to be the holiest, while the later books are less important. In the Hebrew Bible, what Christians call the "Old Testatment," the most important books are placed first.
You can see that Hebrew is written from right to left. The Hebrew word for "God" is elohim, which is the third word from the right.
Early Stories
The story of Adam and Eve is often learned very early by children and this powerful story in Gen. 2-4 tries to explain why there is sin in the world and why women experience pain in childbirth. The image at right is Giovanni's 15th century view of Adam and Eve after their expulsion from the Bible. You can see some of the cracks in the original painting. It is very old! |
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The sorrow in the picture almost reaches across the centuries. Christians have maintained that original sin, the idea that all people are born with sin, began with Adam and Eve's sin. So this is more a Christian portrayal of Adam and Eve than Jewish. Interestingly most Jews have not held this view. Jews would rather talk about "repairing" a broken world. |
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Mind stretcher: most Christians want to baptize newborn babies right away. How might this be related to original sin? Whenever there is a question, you will see the little fellow in green raising his hand. So watch for him! |
According
to the early Biblical accounts, sin came to dominate the world so completely
that God decided it had to be wiped clean. As a result, God commanded Noah
to build a boat that could preserve animals from every species from destruction.
After the flood, God put the rainbow in the sky to assure
people that he would not destroy the earth again.
People sought to make themselves great by building a tower that could reach to heaven. God responded by making people speak different languages, so that they could no longer understand each other, and they scattered over the face of the earth. The story of the Tower of Babel is one of the great Biblical stories.
Christians do not agree whether these early stories are historical or simply wonderful stories that have come down to us to explain things such as sin, different languages, and rainbows. You might want to ask your parents which view they prefer and have a good conversation about it.