1. The opening verses of Genesis are extremely important. In what way can they be viewed as simultaneously concrete and ambiguous? Why does the text present itself as such? (For instance, how are we to define terms such as "God," "beginning," etc?). Or - a separate yet related question, how might this creation myth differ from other creation myths or myths about a deity / the deities you may know? Why?
2. What type of god do we have in the first creation myth of Genesis (Chapter 1)? Why do you think the text presents this deity as such? Pay close attention to the way in which creation is ordered and how this creation comes into being. (For instance, the creation of the humans in the deity's "image and likeness." What might this mean?)
3. Chapter 2 gives us a completely different yet related creation myth. Why do you think Genesis contains two myths of creation? How are they similar and different (for instance, in the first story, man and woman are created simultaneously, in the second, woman comes after man)? How do you account for these differences? How do they complicate (in a positive way) our reading of the text?
4. How does the text present this first man and this first woman? Do a "character study" of them.
5. What do you make of the Tree of Knowledge? Why is knowledge (especially that of "good and evil") forbidden to the point of death? What do you make of the fact that the tree is "lovely to look at"? Might there be a link between vision, desire and knowledge?
6. Might there be an unavoidable "positive spin" to Adam and Eve's "punishment"? (I think there is - or to ask it another way, why is this punishment inevitable. What if they had stayed within Eden eternally? Would this life have reflected the human experience?)
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