2131809-Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is also known as Mikra or TaNaKh, which is an acronym that refers to the traditional Jewish division of the Bible into the Torah the teaching, Nevi’im the prophets and Ketuvim the writings. It is the founding document of the people of Israel that gives descriptions of its origins, history and visons of how a just society should be. This paper will give an explanation of how the Hebrew Bible literature forms religion in humanity. The main objective is to show how human life relates to the stories of the Hebrew Bible and how faith obtains eternity and God is the one who created all these.
Generally the Hebrew Bible gives an account of how God dealt with the Jews being his chosen people who referred to themselves as Israel. After an account of the creation of the world by God and the coming up of human civilization, the first six books are a narration of not just the history but also the genealogy of the people of Israel to how the conquered and settled in the promised land under the terms of the covenant between God and Abraham. This covenant was renewed by Isaac, Abraham’s son and his grandson Jacob and later on by Moses. The seven books that follow continue this story of the Promised Land that gives a description of people’s constant apostasy and also the breaking of the covenant. They also show the establishment and development of monarchy so as to counter this as well as warnings given by prophets of an impending divine punishment and the need for Israelites to repent. The last eleven books are on poetry, theology and more history (Routledge, 2014)
The Hebrew bible is mainly a monotheistic interpretation of human life and the universe as work of God’s creation which gives a basic structure of ideas that gave rise to Judaism, Christianity and also Islam that came about from Jewish and Christian tradition that see Abraham as a patriarch.
The Hebrew bible states that God reveled himself to man in the book of Genesis; he spoke with Adam an Eve in the Garden of Eden, with Cain, Noah and his sons and also with Abraham. In the book of Exodus, the Angel of God appeared to Moses in a burning bush that was not consumed. In the same book God reveals his divine presence and his protection to the people of Israel by leading them from Egypt and through the desert by appearing as a cloud pillar during the day and a fire pillar at night. On Mount Sinai, God’s manifestation was accompanied by thunder and lightning, loud trumpets and smokes and quakes. This stories from the Hebrew bible give an insight on how God reveled himself to the people of Israel. This shows that God wanted the people of Israel to feel his presence. What this teaches us about God is that he wants us to know him and know that he exists. Therefore the Hebrew Bible helps us acknowledge that God exists and he should be worshipped as the true God. The content from the Hebrew bible helps us form a basis for religion in humanity since we get the implication that God is there since he reveled himself to his people (Routledge, 2014).
From the Hebrew bible we also see that the people of Israel were given a set of rules that they were to follow and live by. God wanted the people of Israel to live in an organized society and hence provided them with the laws that they were to follow. In addition to creating the world for us God made sure that he gave us instructions on how to live peacefully with each other. The Hebrew Bible shows just how a just society should be according to the laws given to the people of Israel.
From the Hebrew Bible we are able to gather that God wants his people to know him and hence religion should be based on him and him only. Therefore the literature in the Hebrew Bible forms a basis for religion in humanity.
References
Routledge. (2014).Summary of the books of the Hebrew Bible. Retrieved September 29, 2014 from http://www.routledge.com/cw/kahn-9780415524803/s1/books/
