What I got from Genesis 4-11 is a continuation of a commentary on human nature and how God reacted to it. In the first couple chapters, we see that God created humans in his image. Given that God created humans to be similar to God in appearance, he most likely expected humans to act in a morally similar way to himself, and consequently was upset with Adam and Eve after demonstrating they were not capable of living to an easy moral standard of obedience. The eating of the fruit proves that humans, while social animals, are actually ambitious and desire to get ahead and live a better life even if it is at the expense of others. This is because the two eat the fruit even though they know it will endanger their relationship with God. Consequently, God banishes them from the Garden of Eden.
The next part of Genesis details the conditions that cause God to create the flood to give the world a new beginning. Cain’s killing of Abel demonstrates that humans contain a lot of jealousy in their hearts, which prompts God to make humans mortal in hope of ridding humans of their bad attributes. Instead of achieving this hope, it actually ends up exposing another one humans’ negative attributes. Rather than acting morally and “walking with God,” they go to war and seek glory through battle and creating cities and things of that nature. This self-reliance goes against God’s message that humans are reliant on him. Therefore, seeing all these bad qualities in humans, God decides to essentially start over with one of the few righteous humans, Noah. This provides great hope for the human race, as it is an opportunity to start over with Noah serving as a step ahead of the first attempt at civilization. This also goes to show the benevolence of God. Despite the numerous failures of humans, he still tries his best to make the human race the best it can be.
Theology 
I agree that the first narratives of Genesis focus on the theme of obedience and disobedience. One of my favorite quotes from your reflection is, “Given that God created humans to be similar to God in appearance, he most likely expected humans to act in a morally similar way to himself.” I had not looked at Genesis with this perspective before. However, now recalling that God made humans in ‘His likeness and image’, I am wondering if God was more disappointed and disheartened than angry at the fact that Adam and Eve disobeyed him. Additionally, I also like how you discussed the self-reliance of humans. The human race is a weak one, and I think that reliance on God is one of the main pillars of obedience. Thus, the topic of self-reliance brings us back full circle.
LikeLike
I agree with your thought that humanity’s actions were not what G-d expected or hoped a creation “in his image” would commit. Humanity’s continual sins certainly caused “G-d to create the flood to give the world a new beginning” as you said. However, I am not sure if the sin was due to your suggestion that humanity was attempting to become self-reliant. Kass seems to argue that humanity’s sin is in its desire to reach “immortal fame”, akin to G-d’s likeness (Kass 155). This ultimately leads to humans straying from G-d. While these efforts could certainly lead to self-sufficiency, I do not think self-reliance is the main motivating factor. Then again, self-reliance itself could be an attempt to be like G-d, as one would believe that G-d is self-sufficient. Was this the point you were making, or were you suggesting self-sufficiency was the main motivator, not a desire to be immortal?
LikeLike
I like the clarification of the difference between Adam and Eve and Noah. The two humans in the Garden know the consequences of their actions, but the people of Noah’s time do not. The acknowledgment of the failure of God’s first attempt is also a good point, as it took a few tries for God to decide to completely wipe out the humans. The depiction of God as benevolent even after destroying humans is an interesting one, yet backed up by the take that God saves Noah’s family.
LikeLike
I like the part of your response where you said, “Cain’s killing of Abel demonstrates that humans contain a lot of jealousy in their hearts”. You then went on to say that God created human mortality because of this, which I thought was an interesting point of view that I hadn’t thought of before. You then further go on to describe that humans’ negative attributes are exposed, and rather than “walking with god”, they go to war and seek glory through battle.
LikeLike
Brendan, I think your analysis of Genesis in the regard that is a commentary on human nature was really well put and I agree that God was expecting humans to act in a way similar to Him, especially because we read that Adam and Eve were made in God’s image and likeness. I think that is an important claim that is often overlooked and helps us to better understand why God felt the need to “start over” with the human race. However, it makes me think, if God is omniscient and all-powerful, why did the human race have bad qualities in the first place? And if He meant for man to have flaws and the ability to sin, why start over? Despite these questions, I really enjoyed reading was your perspective on how the Flood was actually a symbol of hope for the human race. While I previously saw it as a way for God to wipe out the bad qualities in man, your view of it as an opportunity to better the human race and a way to “show the benevolence of God,” was really interesting.
LikeLike