Marian F.

Rios TREDTRI Reflection: Genesis It is such a shallow thing for me to say but I often thought of the Bible as just that- that there is only one meaning to every story and that for every story there is only one author etc. I never thought of the Bible as that of such complexity until I enrolled in the course TREDTRI, and much more, until I read the article about the book of Genesis. After reading about how the book of Genesis came about, how it was written, and the different theories and interpretations about it, I came to learn that there is more to Genesis as just the book of origins. Now, I have a wider view and perspective of the book of Genesis. Several criticisms were used in interpreting the book of Genesis. The world of the author, the text, and the reader were all somehow tackled in the article by means of their respective criticisms. It is important to get a 360-degree perspective of the book of Genesis to get a deeper understanding of why it was written, how it was written, and for whom it was written. Criticisms from the world of the author and the world of the reader surfaced in tackling The becoming of woman in Genesis 2-3. For one, in the world of the author, the differences between the two creation stories were mentioned. And for the world of the reader, the readerresponse criticism and the feminist criticism were used. With the use of these criticisms we get a fuller view of the history of the stories. The reader-response criticism was used in Genesis since the biblical text has different effects on the different readers. Like for me, when I first read the creation story, I thought that it was Eves mistake that led to the original sin. But then studying it further and reading upon it, one can look at it in a different perspective- that she was the knowledgeable one because she became curious of what would happen if she ate the apple. If she hadnt eaten the apple, then we would have never known the difference between right or wrong, the good versus the bad. Another reader can view it in a patriarchal manner- that Eve was the evil one, and is unworthy of being equal with Adam. Thus giving her a lower status. In relation to the patriarchal age, the Book of Genesis can also be approached in a different manner; the Feminist criticism. Even at the start of the article, the author, Susan Niditch had mentioned that in the book, was portrayed to have no power. However, in reconstructing the timeline of when the book was written, Niditch pointed out that some scholars believed that the writings 1250 B.C.E were not very accurate and reliable. Debates continued on with some scholars saying that these writings still reflect their way of living thus still having the patriarchal age. While some scholars have depicted women in the book of Genesis to be evil, and the root of deception, some have pointed out the positive role women has brought out. Not a lot of people know (or at least in my generation) the purpose of the two creation stories. As discussed in the source criticism, a priestly author wrote the first creation story, and a Yahwist author wrote the latter. Many are saying that the bible is a big contradiction from the start since it has two different creation stories. But from what I have learned, the two stories are meant for emphasis (not to create confusion) on the intended readers- these are foundational stories of who they are. And after learning about the two creation stories, it truly gave me a new perspective on how to read and understand the bible. Especially in view of the how the women were portrayed in the bible, and the different interpretations of it. I think the bible gives us the freedom on how to interpret it, and its up to us, for our faith, to choose what we believe in, how we believe it, why we believe it. WORD COUNT: 682 WORDS