RMPS - Int2/Higher - World Religions - Judaism - Education Scotland

Creation
THE HUMAN CONDITION
Jews believe that God created the universe out of nothing. One
consideration here is whether He would have wanted to create
something from something which had already been formed. By creating
the world in this way, Jews believe that God made it exactly the way He
wanted – that is, in a way which involved order, harmony and continuity.
Creation separated light from darkness, heaven from earth, and
produced vegetation, the sun and the moon, fish, birds and other
animals. Everything that was created was deliberate and the sequence in
which it was created was also deliberate.
The final goal of God’s creation is on the sixth day when both man and
woman were created. Man is placed at the top of the scale of Creation.
The name that God gave man was Adam which comes from the Hebrew
word ‘adamah’ meaning the earth. Adam was created from the earth.
The phrase ‘Let us make man’ (Genesis 1: 26) is not included in the
previous verses which describe the creation of other forms. This phrase
suggests the deliberation, thought and wisdom that went into the
creation of man.
Creation is described in Genesis 1: 28–31:
Source
And God blessed them; and God said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
creepeth upon the earth.
And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree
yielding seed – to you it shall be for food.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every
thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul (I have
given) every green herb for food.’
And it was so.
And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 1: 28–31
RMPS: WORLD RELIGIONS – JUDAISM (INT 2, H) 13
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