- Published: September 10, 2022
- Updated: September 10, 2022
- University / College: University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
- Language: English
- Downloads: 46
Getting a comparison between the Book of J and the Hebrew Bible, we can have an extensive scope of change and transition from the initial writings and the later writings. For some reason, some information from the first book has either been altered or removed from the other version. The two books differ from each other even though they have almost same aspects of meaning.
Comparing the two books, one gets the rough story, but then the book of J has more perspective and explanation as compared to the Hebrew Bible. An example, the Hebrew Bible explains to us how Adam and Eve came into existence. We understand that God created Adam from dust and Eve from his rib.
That is almost everything told about how a man happened to be by the Hebrew Bible (Safire, 1997). However, this is entirely different with the book of J. Here we get to know a more profound extent of how Adam came to be. After the initial flood, the gods decided to send him to earth because of his mortality. Furthermore, the book of J also looks at the aftermath of the misunderstanding between Cain and Abel. Eve manages to give birth to a third son, Seth.
The first man continued to give birth and spread all over the earth. By doing so, they also began getting immoral and reckless. This angered God. He wanted to wipe them off the face of the planet. The story of the Babel tower is also one of the stories that have been on the nook. We can look at it in the book of J explained so well how it came to be and how God used this opportunity to scatter man all over the earth. This was after they tried to build a tower to heaven.
This is what has added to the book of J and is not in the Hebrew Bible. Furthermore, the text of J has a feminist nature in it. The writer has focused more on the feminine side of the story. In both stories, we can have a difference in the relationships between Yahweh and Man. In the book of J, God at first used other gods to execute his earthy wants while in the Hebrew Bible, God communicates directly with man. (Coogan, 2009)
Therefore, both of the two books express the religious nature of humanity and this makes it somewhat connected to the religious nature of humankind. They both tend to expound more on the acts that took place. In fact, at some point, stories are similar but are differentiated in a tiny way.
