Deck 3: Creations

Question 1

After reading both of the Genesis creation accounts, what major differences in vocabulary, style, and order do you recognize? What differences in meaning are present in each of the creation myths?

Answer 1

no answer

Question 2

The creation stories in Genesis show remarkable similarities to myths from other cultures, especially Babylon. What themes are most similar? Where did the writers of Genesis take great care to demythologize the Near Eastern accounts? Why did they do this?

Answer 2

no answer

Question 3

Compare Enuma Elish with the first creation account in Genesis. How does knowledge of this Babylonian creation epic enrich our understanding of the story of creation in seven days?

Answer 3

no answer

Question 4

What is the purpose of each of the two creation accounts in Genesis 1-3? What questions about the order of the world and human existence does each author seek to explain? How are they similar and how are they different? How does the purpose of Genesis 1.1-2.4a compare to that of Enuma Elish? How does the purpose of Genesis. 2.4b-3.24 compare to that of Gilgamesh?

Question 5

God's rest on the seventh day after creation is meant to demonstrate divine creation of the sabbath day.

Question 6

The book of Genesis can be dated securely to the second millennium bce.

Question 7

The title "the Lord" is a good translation for the personal name of the Israelite God.

Question 8

The two creation stories in Genesis suggest that there was more than one author.

Question 9

The goal of source criticism is to identify, and sometimes reconstruct, separate literary strata within the Bible.

Question 10

Both Enuma Elish and the Garden of Eden narrative associate a snake with a plant that imparts immortality.

Question 11

Enkidu is another name that appears in the Bible for the primeval watery adversary.

Question 12

The depiction of the deity in Genesis's first creation story is anthropomorphic.

Question 13

In the Gilgamesh epic, Utnapishtim and his wife are the only humans whom the gods had ever made immortal.

Question 14

Adam and Eve eat prohibited fruit from the tree of life in the Garden of Eden.

Question 15

The river that flows out of Eden divides into all of the following rivers except:

A) Tigris
B) Nile
C) Euphrates
D) Pishon

Question 16

In the second biblical creation account (Gen 2-3), Eve is created by God out of:

A) the ground
B) Adam's thigh
C) Adam's rib
D) nothing

Question 17

The name "Adam" is related to the Hebrew word for:

A) a god
B) soil
C) water
D) king

Question 18

The second biblical creation account (Gen 2-3) includes all of the following except:

A) the Garden of Eden
B) creation of humans
C) a snake
D) God resting

Question 19

In the Enuma Elish, the earth is formed out of:

A) Enkidu's blood
B) Tiamat's body
C) Atrahasis' boat
D) Baal's heart

Question 20

All of the following themes from Genesis have parallels in Near Eastern texts
Except:

A) divine council
B) divine rest on the seventh day
C) creation of humans
D) a snake

Question 21

The menorah, a seven-branched candlestick of Jewish tradition, is probably a representation of _____________.

A) the tree of life
B) the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
C) Leviathan
D) a fertility statue

Question 22

The hero god of the Enuma Elish is:

A) Tiamat
B) Enkidu
C) Marduk
D) Apsu

Question 23

The primeval sea monster is also called:

A) Leviathan
B) Qingu
C) Enkidu
D) Utnapishtim

Question 24

Gilgamesh was the legendary ruler of the central Mesopotamian city of:

A) Babylon
B) Uruk
C) Cush
D) Ras Shamra

Question 25

Tiamat, the goddess of the salt waters, mixes with ______________, the god of the fresh water to create the first generation of gods.

A) Apsu
B) Atrahasis
C) Nanna
D) Qingu

Question 26

All are created during the seven days of creation in Genesis 1-2.4a except:

A) animals
B) plants
C) storm clouds
D) heavenly bodies

Question 27

In Genesis 1-2.4a, God creates the world from:

A) nothing
B) a watery chaos
C) primeval mud
D) lightning

Question 28

The Hebrew word adonay most approximately means:

A) soil
B) woman
C) God
D) the Lord

Question 29

Immediately after the man and woman eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, all of the following occur, except:

A) they become like God
B) the soil becomes resistant to their efforts
C) they die
D) they cover their genitals with fig leaves

Question 30

All of the following point to the presence of multiple sources in a text except:

A) differences in worldview or theology
B) doublets
C) differences in vocabulary
D) all of the above

Question 31

Sabbath observance begins at:

A) sunrise
B) noon
C) sundown
D) midnight

Question 32

In Enuma Elish, humans are created from:

A) Qingu's blood
B) the mixing of salt and fresh waters
C) divine speech
D) clay

Question 33

Enuma Elish was recited annually in Babylon during a festival celebrating the:

A) fall harvest
B) spring new year
C) full moon
D) summer solstice

Question 34

All are later developments in the interpretation of Genesis's second creation story except:

A) Satan
B) an afterlife
C) forbidden fruit
D) original sin

Question 35

When a deity is described with human qualities and characteristics, it is called______________.

Question 36

The assembly of gods is called the ____________________.

Question 37

The ________________ gives immortality and eternal youth.

Question 38

The title "the Lord" is not a translation but rather a pious substitution for the sacred and personal named of the Israelite god, _________________.

Question 39

____________________ is the methodological approach that attempts to delineate separate hypothetical sources that lie behind the existing biblical text.

Question 40

Gilgamesh's Sasquatch-like friend was named_______________________.

Question 41

Another name for a creation account is_______________________.

Question 42

Enuma Elish is actually a second millennium BCE hymn in praise of _____________________.

Question 43

A narrative in which the principal characters are gods is a _________________.

Question 44

Genesis 1 calls the deity ______________, one of the most frequent titles used for the god of Israel in the Bible.