The Holy Book of the two religions of the world - Christianity and Judaism, is the Bible. It was compiled by various people, prophets, priests and even rulers over the centuries, and maybe millennia. If we open and scroll through its pages, we will find there are many texts that have completely different themes and meanings. Among them are prophecies, teachings, historical reports, as well as biblical myths. It is the latter that people read, as practice shows, most willingly. They are easy to understand, easy to compose and have a bright plot. Well, we touch these myths and try to comprehend their sacred meaning.
Bible Summary
It is known that the Bible is the Holy Scripture, which is conditionally divided into two parts: the Old and New Testaments. The first tells of how God created our earth, how the holy people - the ancient Jews, led to prosperity and well-being. The pages of this part of the book contain the most ancient biblical myths in the world, which were mainly composed by Semitic peoples. As for the New Testament, the Jews categorically rejected it. For them, the only God's Word is still the Old Testament, which they call the Tanach. And the New Testament is already telling us how Jesus Christ lived, that is, the Messiah, what works he left behind and what he managed to teach his neighbors. It is on the basis of all these events that, so to speak, more modern biblical myths were compiled. A summary of each of them will be described below, which will make it possible to understand what this book can teach.
Brief description of sacred tales
The conditional separation of the Holy Letter into two parts is accompanied not only by the division of faith into Christianity and Judaism. Reading this book, you can clearly note the differences in style when moving from the first part to the second. With full confidence, we can say that the biblical myths and legends that are located on the pages of the Tanakh are the most instructive and life stories. In addition, in this part of the Scripture there are many such legends. But the most important thing is that not everyone can comprehend their truth, alas. The New Testament contains biblical myths that are much easier to read. They tell about holidays that are already familiar to us, about friendship, mutual assistance, about peace and relations between people. These stories will be extremely useful for children at any age.
When there was nothing yet
You guessed it, the first biblical myth is about the creation of the world. Its meaning is known to everyone, even to a baby, therefore, in order to arrange everything, we simply list the days that became decisive for further life on Earth:
- Day One - God created heaven and earth from darkness and emptiness. There was nothing, only the water over which the Spirit of God flew. That is why the Creator separated darkness from light and called them night and day.
- Day Two - God divided the sea with a certain firmament. One part of the water remained below it, and the second - above it. This firmament was called sky.
- On the third day, the Lord collected all the water in one place, so that land formed. In its open spaces, he grew shrubs, flowers and trees.
- The fourth day the Creator devoted to the creation of the stars. During the day the bright Sun shone on the earth, and at night - the dimmer Moon.
- On the fifth day, God created living beings: reptiles, mammals, butterflies and insects. In a word, all who would inhabit the world.
- And on the sixth day, the Lord in his image and likeness created man. The first turned out to be a man, and after him a woman appeared.
- On the seventh day, the Creator did nothing.
Adam and Eve. Forbidden apple
The biblical myth of the creation of the world continues with a description of the life of the first people on the planet - Adam and Eve. Having created them, the Lord gave them everything you can dream of. They lived in a garden of paradise, did not need anything and knew how to talk with animals. It was possible to eat the fruits of all trees, except for one - the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or the Tree of Life. Once an insidious Serpent persuaded Eve to eat fruit from a forbidden branch. She broke the ban and persuaded Adam to do so. Because of disobedience, God drove people out of paradise and cursed the Serpent. In addition, he condemned a woman to childbirth in torment, and a man to constant difficulties in obtaining food. The serpent was doomed to constantly crawl on his stomach.
Cain's Seal
The first children of Adam and Eve were two sons - Cain and Abel. The first was a farmer, and the second a pastoralist. Once they decided to sacrifice their gifts to God. Cain burned the fruits of his plants on the altar. And Abel sacrificed a lamb. The Lord did not even pay attention to the actions of his first brother, but the tribute in the form of an animal interested him. Out of envy, Cain killed his brother, which God soon found out about. For this, the older brother was sentenced to the fact that he would be killed by the first person he met. In addition, the Creator stamped it. Which one she was - no one knows.
Another punishment of God
One of the most interesting and exciting is the biblical myth of the flood. After humanity spent a certain number of centuries on the planet, it managed to fall into all serious sins. People stole, cheated, killed. For this, God decided to open all the celestial and earthly windows and release water from them in order to erase everything that is living on it from the land. Only Noah and his family, who did not commit sins, the Most High ordered the ark to be built. On board this man, in addition to his sons and wife, he also took "every creature in pairs." These were animals, insects, birds, reptiles. After everyone climbed into the ark, God tightly closed his door and opened all the heavenly windows. Water completely covered the earth, and even the highest mountains remained under its thickness. From time to time, Noah let the dove out to find at least one piece of land, but the bird always returned to the ark. Once the dove flew away and did not return, which gave people the opportunity to understand that the land began to emerge. The whole family of Noah got to her, after which his sons left great offspring: the son of Japheth became the ancestor of the northern peoples, Ham - African, and Shem - Semitic.
"You will no longer hear each other ..."
The biblical myth of the Tower of Babel can also be considered a very important historical source. It all starts with the fact that after the descendants of Noah settled on land, they all spoke the same language. Gradually, people descended from the mountains to the plains, formed settlements. One of the most fertile lands at that time was a sandy valley that stretched between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, known to us as Mesopotamia. As biblical myths and legends say, it was on these lands that the first people on Earth settled (by the way, historians also tend to this). They built houses, formed cities, city-states and villages adjacent to them. But once people wanted to reach heaven (we recall that in the Bible the sky is defined as something solid), and they decided to build a tower of incredible height. All the workers of this region gathered at the construction site, and they managed to erect a very tall building, which had a stepped structure. God saw all this and, suspecting people of yet another stupidity, divided them. Each began to speak his own language, and the builders could no longer work together. The city in which they lived was called Babylon, which means "mixing."
We teach children the Word of God
If you want to open your child to the world of sacred knowledge, it is recommended that you begin to read him the biblical myths that are concluded in the New Testament. They are simpler to perceive, and also do not have such a global and large-scale semantic load as the ancient Semitic ones. The legends that are on the pages of the New Testament teach us humanity, friendship, love, urge us to understand our neighbor and help him. Therefore, biblical myths for children that can be read to them simply as fairy tales will be briefly described below. Gradually, the child will absorb the necessary information, and in the future it will become important for his worldview.
The temptations of Jesus in the wilderness
After the baptismal rite, the Messiah was cast into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit so that he could overcome the evil temptations. After spending forty days there, Jesus felt hunger. Then the Devil appeared and said to him: "If You are the Son of God, turn stones into bread." To which the answer followed: "Not with all kinds of bread will a man be fed, but with the Word of God." After this, Satan lifted Jesus to the roof of the temple and said: “If You are the Son of God, rush down and the angels will catch you.” The Messiah answered: “Do not tempt God.” In the end, Satan lifted him above all cities, gardens and fields and said that if only Jesus would bow to him, then all this would be in his possession. In response, he heard that there is only one God for man , and only he will worship him.
The wealth of a madman
One of Jesus' most important sermons was this: “Do not seek material wealth in this world, because your life does not depend on it.” This statement was followed by a parable. Its essence was that one rich man had a good harvest in the field. But now he had nowhere to collect his fruits. He built large and large houses to keep his wealth there, and did not think about anything else. Once the Lord appeared to him and said: “After you die, where will you get all your profits? To whom will they now belong? ”From this it follows that it is necessary to enrich oneself not at all with money and gifts, but with God's word. And everything else will follow by itself.
Conclusion
We have presented you only the most famous and understandable biblical myths. The summary of each of them is an opportunity to quickly understand God's purpose, to discover something new and truly wise. Unfortunately, they do not reveal the fullness of the meaning that is in the Holy Scriptures. Reading the Bible itself is much more productive, but it takes time.