Critical Response Prompt on Genesis - Religion Essay Example

The flood of Gilgamesh has been of numerous interests to Christianity since its discovery. The event of Gilgamesh was discovered in the early 19th Century in the ruins of the great library of Nineveh. The great discovery linked the universal flood to that of Noah's day and is dated back to the 3rd millennium before the coming of Christ. Since the floods of Noah's day, many floods have been associated with it, for instance; the Babylonian and the Assyrian floods have had various similarities that are close to the Genesis account. The Genesis account explains that God used the flood to wash away evil from the world as people had become extremely disobedient to Him (Puchner, p.122). In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve and advised them on how to lead righteous and meaningful lives, however; they both fell into Satan's trick and decided to choose what was right and wrong for them by eating the forbidden fruit. The trait of doing more and more evil deeds escalated to high levels until Noah's era. Hence, the floods were a sign of a fresh beginning since God used it to wipe all the evil in the society and let the faithful people have a new start.

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The general plot of the Genesis story is to show that God has mercy and wants to save humans from sufferings the pains that Satan has caused us. Initially, God wanted to wipe all human races from the universe, however; Noah had favor in God's eyes due to his noble deeds.

Noah urged his people to refrain from evil deeds but his words fell on deaf ears, and people mocked him for wasting his life (Puchner, p.126). They thought that Noah was living a boring life as the rest of the people engaged on what was considered as good life. In the real sense, the good life included all evil acts such as adultery, idol worship, and other behaviors that mock God. In the preparation for the catastrophic flood, God warned Noah to build an ark that he and his generation would hide from the floods. Noah warned the people about the impending flood that would destroy every living organism on earth, but the people laughed back at him in disguise. In the fulfillment of God's words, after the ark was complete and Noah's generation had entered; heavy rains fell for forty days and wiped out everything. The ark settled on the mountains of Ararat when the water levels had reduced.

The story of Noah and the flood aligns with the knowledge in the Genesis because both of them point at a fresh beginning. Genesis explains how God created the universe and all its occupants while the story of the ark explains how God brought about a new beginning. The story of Noah has numerous themes including disobedient, punishment, and a fresh start. These tones translate from how humans disobeyed and angered God to how God reacted towards them and lastly, how God separated the good people from the bad. The styles used in the story include a divine pacifying of the watery chaos and re-creation of the universe and the human race. The biblical imagery in the story of Noah includes floods and the rainbow. Water symbolizes the washing away of sinful people and cleansing the universe, and this was significant in capturing the whole essence of the story. The presence of the rainbow after the floods signified that God would not destroy the world again by the use of water (Puchner, p.137). The rainbow is a common feature after the rain stops; it reminds us of God's promise that He will not destroy us again and the consequences of disobeying Him.

Work Cited

Martin Puchner et al. The Norton anthology of world literature: Volume I. Eds. New York: W.W. Norton, 2014