Chapter 2: In the Beginning

1. Chapter 2: In the Beginning UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES

2. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) ANTICIPATORY SET Discuss the creation of time, space, and life, focusing on what was created on days 1–3.

3. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) BASIC QUESTIONS What did God create on each of the seven days of creation? Is there a conflict between creation and evolution? KEY IDEAS God created everything in six days and rested on the seventh. Properly understood, there is no conflict between divine creation of the universe and the evolution of species.

4. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) FOCUS QUESTIONS How does the first day of Creation express the idea of the creation of time? The separation of light from darkness—differentiating day from night even before the creation of the sun—shows the occurrence of time, the succession from one state to another. How does the second day of Creation express the idea of the creation of space? The universe was previously described as “water,” which God separated by the firmament. Where there was only one place, now there are two. What do the earth, the sea, and all plants have in common? God saw that they were good.

5. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) FOCUS QUESTIONS What does God do on the fourth day of Creation? He makes two great lights: one to rule the day, the other to rule the night. What does God do on the fifth day of Creation? He creates creatures to live in the sea and in the air. What is the blessing God gave the sea and winged birds? He gave them a blessing to be fruitful and multiply, filling the seas and the earth.

6. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) FOCUS QUESTIONS What is the last thing God created? After having created living things for the land, God created man. How is man a unique creature? God created man “in our image, after our likeness.” What is the blessing God gave man? Man is to multiply and have dominion over the earth and every creature.

7. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Work with a partner to complete the following table about the days of creation.

8. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43)

9. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) GUIDED EXERCISE A think / pair / share on the following question: What was God’s conclusion about his creative work?

10. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) FOCUS QUESTIONS What is the view of most Catholic interpretations of the Creation with respect to the literal number of days Creation took? Most Catholic interpretations do not take the position that the universe was created in six 24‑hour days. How is the Hebrew view of history different from modern views of history? Modern historians try to record events that happened, just as they happened, in chronological order. In Genesis, the “religious historians” captured the Truth about man’s relationship with God, specifically why God created, not how he created.

11. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) GUIDED EXERCISE Write a paragraph describing the contradiction between the doctrine of Original Sin and the hypothesis of polygenism.

12. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) CLOSURE Discuss the beings that rule over creation of time, space, and life, focusing on what was created on days 4–6.

13. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Study Questions 2–3, 5–7 (p. 80) Practical Exercise 1 (p. 82) Workbook Questions 1–8 Read “Creation: A Covenant with the Universe” through “God Our Father” (pp. 44–49)

14. 1. In the Beginning (pp. 40–43) ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT Free write for five minutes about what God “did” on the seventh day of creation.

15. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) ANTICIPATORY SET Read Matthew 19:1–9. (Recall the Anticipatory Set about Christ perfecting the Mosaic Law, p. 15.) In this passage, how does Christ fulfill the Law?

16. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) BASIC QUESTIONS Why did God create the universe? What does it mean to be made in the image of God? What is the nature of marriage? In what sense is God our Father? KEY IDEAS Creation is a great Temple for the worship of God. Human beings are created with reason, free will, and the capacity to love. Each marriage is a covenant instituted by God between a man and a woman. God, as a loving Father of his children, created Adam and Eve to co‑create with him.

17. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) FOCUS QUESTIONS Why can the Creation account be understood as two sets of three? During the first three days God created forms, and during the next three days he created inhabitants to fill those forms: sun and moon (day and night), birds and fish (sky and sea), and animals and humans (land). What is the relationship between the two groups of three (previous question)? The second group rules over the first: sun and moon rule over day and night, birds and fish rule over sky and sea, and animals and humans rule over the land. What is the relationship between swearing a covenant and the number seven in Creation? In Hebrew, “to swear a covenant” and “to seven oneself” are identical. By creating the world in seven days, God is making a covenant with creation.

18. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) FOCUS QUESTIONS How is Creation like a great Temple for the worship of God the Creator? God created an “extra” day—the seventh, or covenant, day—which he blessed and hallowed. God rested on this seventh day and invites us into this day of holy rest. Why is God immovable? God is everywhere and cannot go from one place to another; he is already there. How does God experience time? God fills all of time. For God, the past, present, and future are as if one moment.

19. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) GUIDED EXERCISE A focused reading of the section “Creation is Good” (p. 46). How do Catholics respond to those who say the physical world and the human body are evil?

20. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Work with a partner to complete the following table about the meaning of man’s having been created in the image of God.

21. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49)

22. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44– 49) GUIDED EXERCISE Readno. 369 from the Catechism, on the creation of man as male and female with the mission of being fruitful. 369 Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. "Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity "in the image of God". In their "being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the Creator's wisdom and goodness. Discuss the implications of this doctrine in light of the following: Divorce Polygamy Male supremacy Homosexual acts Bisexuality and transgender issues Artificial methods of birth control

23. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) FOCUS QUESTIONS Who instituted marriage, and when? God instituted marriage at the moment he created man male and female. What are the four marks of marriage? Marriage was created to be permanent, lifelong, indissoluble, and fruitful. How is the human family like the Blessed Trinity? The Blessed Trinity is an infinite family of three Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God has designed marriage so that, in love, two become one, then three, then four, then five... biologically, psychologically, and socially.

24. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) FOCUS QUESTIONS What two names for God are used in Genesis, and what is suggested by each? The name Elohim suggests the infinite power of God the Creator, whereas Yahweh, often rendered “Lord,” suggests God’s “covenant” love, his love as Father for us. What is the connection between Adam and the Old Testament priests? The words used to describe the work God gave Adam to do in the garden, “to till it and keep it,” were the same words later used to describe the work priests would perform in the Temple. In what sense were Adam and Eve, as husband and wife, co‑creators with God? Adam and Eve, like all husbands and wives, carry on the Creator’s work of transmitting life to their descendants.

25. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) CLOSURE Use the completed Graphic Organizer on man’s having been created in the image of God to write a well‑organized paragraph on this topic.

26. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Study Questions 1, 4, 8–16, 18, 25 (pp. 80–81) Practical Exercise 3 (p. 82) Workbook Questions 9–26 Read “The Fall” through “The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men” (pp. 50–55)

27. 2. A Covenant with the Universe (pp. 44–49) ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT Discuss the question of origins using these questions: What is the attitude of the Church toward evolution and scientific progress? Some scientists claim science has disproven the Bible and even the existence of God. Why are these not scientific conclusions? Why can science not answer metaphysical questions about the origins of the universe and man?

28. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) ANTICIPATORY SET Analyze the illustration on page 51 and share details you notice about it. The painting is called “Eve, the Serpent, and Death” and was painted during the sixteenth century.

29. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) BASIC QUESTIONS How did Adam and Eve fall from grace? What is the Protoevangelium? What was the character of the descendants of Cain? What was the character of the descendants of Seth? KEY IDEAS Adam and Eve were seduced by the serpent and brought spiritual death to themselves and their descendants through Original Sin. God promised Adam and Eve a Savior; the curse they incurred is a manifestation of God’s love. The descendants of Cain sought personal glory in a world of sin and violence, reaching their peak in the seventh generation (Lamech). In contrast, the descendants of Seth worked for God’s glory.

30. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) FOCUS QUESTIONS Why did Eve decide to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? After the serpent lied (she would not die but be like God, knowing good and evil), Eve saw the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and it was to be desired to make one wise. What is the nahash? Nahash is the Hebrew word for the serpent that tempted Eve. In the Old Testament, nahash is used to refer to powerful, evil creatures. The nahash here is a deadly liar. What was the gravest work of the Devil that Christ came to earth to destroy? “The mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God” (CCC 394).

31. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Complete the following table to organize the consequences of the Fall (Original Sin).

32. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55)

33. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) FOCUS QUESTIONS What things, more important than natural life, did Adam and Eve lose when they sinned? They lost supernatural life, original holiness, and original justice. Why does the Church baptize even tiny infants? She does so because of Adam’s sin, which is transmitted to every person by generation. What “wisdom” did Adam and Eve gain from choosing to disobey God? Their eyes were open to their own nakedness and sin.

34. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) GUIDED EXERCISE A think / pair / share on the following question. Why does the Church see God’s words to the serpent as the “First Gospel,” or Protoevangelium?

35. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) FOCUS QUESTIONS What was the first “fruit” of Adam and Eve’s sin? It is fratricide: Cain murdered Abel. What was the root of Cain’s sin? It was envy. How did Cain present himself when confronted by God? Cain presented himself as a persecuted victim. When God asked him where his brother was, Cain replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gn4:9). Then he claimed God was going to make people try to kill him.

36. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) GUIDED EXERCISE: A mini‑lecture about the effects of Original Sin. Original Sin is transmitted to every human person by way of a wounded human nature. The effect of Original Sin is not moral guilt as if the person has committed personal sin; it is a wounded nature that tends to sin. Because of Original Sin, the intellect is darkened, which makes the truth harder to find; the will is weakened, which makes the good harder to do; and the passions tend to dominate reason and the will. Because of Original Sin, people experience pain, sickness, and eventually death. The chief consequence of Original Sin is the privation (lack and need) of sanctifying grace; people were made to be in relationship with God and share in God’s own life, but Original Sin alienates them.

37. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) The Sacrament of Baptism restores sanctifying grace to the soul, though it does not restore human nature from its wounds. There are two common errors with respect to Original Sin: 1. some exaggerate the effects of Original Sin; for example, John Calvin taught human nature is totally depraved, and the Manichaeans claimed everything physical is evil; 2. some underestimate the effects of or deny Original Sin altogether; for example, Rousseau and the Romantics claimed people are totally good by nature but corrupted by society. Which reading of Original Sin best explains human history: 1. man is naturally perfectible; 2. man is totally corrupt; or 3. man possesses a basically good but wounded nature?

38. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) FOCUS QUESTIONS What infamous distinction does Cain’s descendant Lamech have? He is the first man recorded to have had two wives, the first bigamist and polygamist. What was similar about the way Lamech treated women and men? He viewed both women and men as objects to be used. He broke his marriage covenant and killed men who offended him in any way. How is Christ’s ethic of forgiveness opposed to Lamech’s ethic of revenge? When a Christian is struck he is supposed to turn the other cheek, and he is to forgive a brother who sins against him not seven times but “seventy times seven.” (Seventy‑seven and seventy times seven are different translations of the same phrase.) Conversely, Lamech would slay a man for wounding or even striking him; whereas Cain took seven‑fold vengeance, Lamech took “seventy‑seven‑fold.”

39. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) FOCUS QUESTIONS When Seth had a son, Enoch, what does it mean to say men began to “call upon the name of the Lord”? It means people began to worship God. How are Seth’s descendants different from Cain’s? While Cain named a city after his son to make a name for himself, Seth’s descendants put the glory of God first. What conclusion should be drawn from Seth having been Adam’s son in the same way Adam was God’s son, each in the respective “image and likeness”? God is not just the Creator of human beings, he is their Father as well.

40. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) GUIDED EXERCISE A think / pair / share to determine the different occupations of three of Cain’s descendants: Jabal Jubal Tubal‑cain

41. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) FOCUS QUESTIONS Who were the sons of God? They were the descendants of Seth before having intermarried with Cain’s descendants. Who were the daughters of men? They were the descendants of Cain. Why did God shorten the lives of men? He punished men for their marital infidelity. Who were the Nephilim, or giants? They were wicked tyrants trying to make names for themselves. They were men of renown, meaning literally, “the men of Shem.”

42. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) CLOSURE Write a paragraph comparing the persons of Seth’s and Cain’s lines.

43. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Study Questions 17, 19–24, 26–32 (p. 81) Practical Exercises 4–5 (p. 82) Workbook Questions 27–55 Read “The Flood” through the sidebar “The Real Tower of Babel” (pp. 56–61)

44. 3. The Lines of Cain and Seth (pp. 50–55) ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT Free write for five minutes about the harm done to the descendants of Cain and Seth by the wounds of Original Sin.

45. 4. The Flood and the Tower of Babel (pp. 56–61) A selection from St. Augustine’s City of God (XV, 25): The anger of God is not a disturbing emotion of His mind, but a judgment by which punishment is inflicted upon sin. His thought and reconsideration also are the unchangeable reason which changes things; for He does not, like man, repent of anything He has done, because in all matters His decision is as inflexible as His prescience is certain. But if Scripture were not to use such expressions as the above, it would not familiarly insinuate itself into the minds of all classes of men, whom it seeks access to for their good, that it may alarm the proud, arouse the careless, exercise the inquisitive, and satisfy the intelligent; and this it could not do, did it not first stoop, and in a manner descend, to them where they lie. But its denouncing death on all the animals of earth and air is a declaration of the vastness of the disaster that was approaching: not that it threatens destruction to the irrational animals as if they too had incurred it by sin. Discuss the terms “anger” and “repent” when attributed to God.

46. 4. The Flood and the Tower of Babel (pp. 56–61) GUIDED EXERCISE A think / pair / share using the following question: What was the state of the world by the time of Noah (cf. Gn6:7)? GUIDED EXERCISE Lead a class discussion using the following questions: What would the world have been like without sin? How can you reduce sin in the world?

47. 4. The Flood and the Tower of Babel (pp. 56–61) FOCUS QUESTIONS Why did God decide to start the human race over with Noah? The earth was full of violence except in Noah, who was the only “righteous man.” God decided to “blot out” all living creatures, having become “sorry” he had made them. What is the importance of the number seven in the story of Noah? Noah took seven pairs of each clean animal and seven pairs of each bird. Seven days after God shut the door of the ark, the Flood came. The number seven in Scripture symbolizes perfection. What is the importance of the number forty in Scripture? The number forty symbolizes trial and repentance. For example, the Deluge was fueled by water for forty days. Israel wandered for forty years in the desert. Christ fasted for forty days in the wilderness before his temptation.

48. 4. The Flood and the Tower of Babel (pp. 56–61) FOCUS QUESTIONS Are the Israelites the only people with a flood story? No; similar stories are found in cultures all over the Middle East and Europe. Extension: There are similar stories found all over the world. What story might Abraham have brought with him from Ur? Ur was once destroyed by a great flood; he may have brought this story with him. What thesis is argued in the book Noah’s Flood? Noah’s Flood argues the various flood stories originated from an actual geological event that took place only a few thousand years ago. Because of the rise in sea level of the Mediterranean Sea due to melting glaciers, the Mediterranean broke through the Bosporus a few thousand years ago, turning a large, freshwater lake into the Black Sea, flooding whole towns in just a few days.

49. 4. The Flood and the Tower of Babel (pp. 56–61) FOCUS QUESTIONS What is the parallel between the blessing God originally gave creation and the blessing he gave Noah and his family? In each blessing, God said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” What positive and negative features does a covenant contain? A covenant contains a blessing for abiding by it and a curse for breaking it. What is the significance of the rainbow in the covenant God made with Noah? The rainbow is the sign of the covenant and a promise God will never again destroy the inhabitants of the whole world by flood.

50. 4. The Flood and the Tower of Babel (pp. 56–61) GUIDED EXERCISE A think / pair / share using the following question. After the Flood, why did God decide not to curse the ground any more because of man? GUIDED EXERCISE Complete a paragraph shrink on the paragraph “Christians see the Flood...” (p. 58).