Source Criticism and Narrative Criticism of Genesis Essay

Source critical review and Narrative Criticism of Genesis - Essay ExampleCarvalho in her Primer on Biblical Methods (4) cited one source inequality in Genesis where in Genesis 63, God limits human life to 120 years, except Abraham lives to 175 (Gen 2517) and Sarah to 127 (Gen 231). This inconsistency, however, is not just limited to age but even in the Name of the Supreme Being Himself suggesting that there were contrary mindsets with a different parallel universe wrote the Genesis. In Genesis 1124b, the Supreme Being was addressed as Elohim whereas in Genesis 24b-324, the Supreme Being was addressed as YHWH. The same God is called by different names. The contextual agreement of the narrative (for narrative criticism) was also different from each other which further suggest that the text came from different perspectives. In Genesis 11-24b where God was called Elohim, God was characterized as majestic, distant and cosmic and does not interact with man. In Genesis 24b-324 where Go d was called YHWH however, God is more personal and interactive as He was walking around the Garden and even talks to people. Narrative criticism is another regularity to evaluate the contextual integrity of the Bible. Narrative criticism invites the reader to assess the work as a whole and to note its stylistic characteristics which resemble those of other literary works with a beginning, a middle, and an remainder (Browning). There were basically two narratives of the creation in Genesis which sounds almost the same but closing scrutiny of the narrative reveals its inconsistency.