Reading the Bible was a great challenge for me at the beginning. I mean, being Jewish changes my perception of things and even though this book is related to the Hebrew Bible, it has several variations that overall reflect the beliefs of Christianity. I thought I was going to get all confused and wasn't going to be able to understand at all, but then I realized that what we were actually reading was the beginning and the first part of the two-part Christian Bible. It was the Old Testament, the King James Bible.
Chapter one of the Book of Genesis begins by talking about the first six days in which God created Earth and Heaven and everything found in it. It states the facts and the order in which everything occurred, accompanied by the actions of the clearly and repeatedly stated almighty and powerful man, God. Then came chapter two, where it talks about the seventh day, when God created man and then created a world for him, as he rested. Throughout these first chapters, it is shown how God admired his work and the final outcome as it constantly says "...and God saw that it was good".
What captured my attention the most, was the whole explanation and procedure of the acts that God took on the seventh day. To begin with, in my religion, on the seventh day of the week (every friday) we celebrate Shabbat. It is considered a festive day, when a person is freed from the regular labors of everyday life and can spend some quality time with the family. In other words, Shabbat is a day of rest for us Jews. Believe it or not, Shabbat recalls the Biblical creation in the Genesis, described in chapter two, when God creates the Heavens and the Earth all in six days and rests on the holly, seventh day. With this, I familiarize completely and I can understand why it was that after all the work that God accomplished, he decided to take a day to rest and in this case, spend time with his surroundings, and admire all that he had done.
However, I still don't understand why He created man and a world for him before resting. I would believe that man caused problems and that God would like to rest before facing them. After all, the first man on Earth was Adam together with Eve who ruined all the peace by eating an apple from the tree of Eden after he was told not to do so. Didn't God regret taking these steps in this order? Sorry, it might sound cruel to say that.. since, without them we wouldn't be here according to the Bible.
In conclusion, after reading chapters one and two, I realized that the explanations of the creation of Earth are just like the ones that I've been told and believe. There is no changes with the ones that I was thought when I was younger, which makes me realize that this book will continue being such as a balanced out gathering of the beliefs of those times, not focusing on Christianity, but on its origins and how it came to be accepted and followed as a religion.
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