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 perhaps millennia. If we open and scroll through its pages, we will find there many texts that have completely different topics 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, easily composed and have a vivid storyline. Well, let's touch these myths and try to comprehend their sacred meaning.
Bible in brief
It is known that the Bible is Holy Scripture, which is conditionally divided into two parts: the Old and New Testament. The first tells about how God created our land, how he led the sacred people - the ancient Jews - to prosperity and well-being. The pages of this part of the book contain the oldest biblical myths in the world, which were mainly composed by Semiticpeoples. As for the New Testament, it was categorically rejected by the Jews. For them, the only Word of God is still only the Old Testament, which they call the Tanakh. And the New Testament already tells us about how Jesus Christ, that is, the Messiah, lived, what works he left behind and what he managed to teach his neighbors. It was on the basis of all these events that, so to speak, more modern biblical myths were compiled. A summary of each will be described below to give you an idea of what this book can teach.
Brief description of sacred legends
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 see the differences in style as you move 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 vital stories. In addition, in this part of Scripture there are many such legends. But the most important thing is that, alas, not every person is able to comprehend their truth. The New Testament contains biblical myths that are much easier to understand. They tell about the holidays already familiar to us, about friendship, mutual assistance, about peace and relations between people. These stories will be extremely useful for children of any age.
When there was nothing yet
As you guessed, the first biblical myth is about the creation of the world. Everyone knows its meaningeven for a baby, therefore, in order to put everything in order, we simply list the days that became decisive for future life on Earth:
- Day one – out of darkness and emptiness God created heaven and earth. There was nothing, only water, over which the Spirit of God flew. That is why the Creator separated the darkness from the light and called them night and day.
- Day two - God divided the sea with a certain firmament. One part of the water remained under it, and the second - above it. This firmament was called the sky.
- On the third day, the Lord gathered all the water in one place, so that dry land was formed. In its open spaces, he grew shrubs, flowers and trees.
- The Creator devoted the fourth day to the creation of luminaries. During the day, the bright Sun illuminated the earth, and at night, a dimmer Moon.
- On the fifth day, God created living creatures: reptiles, mammals, butterflies and insects. In a word, everyone who would inhabit the world.
- And on the sixth day the Lord created man in his own image and likeness. The first was 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. By creating them, the Lord gave them everything they could ever dream of. They lived in the Garden of Eden, did not need anything and knew how to talk with animals. It was possible to use the fruits of all trees, except for one - the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or the Tree of Life. One day, the insidious Serpent persuaded Eve to eat a fruit with a forbiddenbranches. She violated the ban and persuaded Adam to do so. Because of disobedience, God expelled people from paradise and cursed the Serpent. In addition, he condemned the woman to childbirth in agony, and the man to constant difficulties in obtaining food. The snake was doomed to constant crawling on its 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 was a cattle breeder. One day they decided to sacrifice their gifts to God. Cain burned the fruits of his plants on the altar. Abel sacrificed a lamb. The Lord did not even pay attention to the actions of the 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 elder brother was sentenced to be killed by the first comer. In addition, the Creator placed a seal on him. What exactly she was - no one knows.
Another God's punishment
One of the most interesting and exciting is the biblical flood myth. After mankind spent a certain number of centuries on the planet, it managed to fall into all grave sins. People stole, cheated, killed. For this, God decided to open all the heavenly and earthly windows and release water from them in order to wipe out everything that is alive on the land. Only Noah and his family, who did not commit sins, the Almighty ordered to build an ark. On board this man, in addition to his sons and wife, also took "a pair of each creature." These were animals, insects, birds, reptiles. After everyone climbed into the ark, God closed it tightlydoor 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 sent 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 show through. The whole family of Noah got to her, after which his sons left a great offspring: the son of Japheth became the ancestor of the northern peoples, Ham - African, and Shem - Semitic.
You won't hear each other anymore…
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 and formed settlements. One of the most fertile lands at that time was the 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 are also inclined to this). They built houses, cities, city-states and adjacent villages were formed. But one day people wanted to reach the heavens (we remind you that in the Bible the sky is defined as something solid), and they decided to build an incredible tower. 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 it all andsuspecting people of yet another stupidity, divided them. Each began to speak his own separate language, and the builders could no longer work together. The city they lived in was called Babylon, which means "mixing".
Teaching Children the Word of God
If you want to open the world of sacred knowledge to your baby, it is recommended to start reading to him the biblical myths that are contained in the New Testament. They are easier to understand, and also do not have such a global and large-scale semantic load as the old Semitic ones. The stories that are on the pages of the New Testament teach us humanity, friendship, love, call to understand our neighbor and help him. Therefore, below will be briefly described biblical myths for children, which can be read to them simply as fairy tales. Gradually, the child will absorb the necessary information, and in the future it will become important for his worldview.
Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness
After the rite of baptism, the Messiah was thrown into the desert by the Holy Spirit so that he could overcome the devil's temptations. After staying there for forty days, Jesus felt hungry. Then the Devil appeared and said to him: "If you are the Son of God, turn stones into bread." To which the answer followed: “Man will not be fed with all kinds of bread, but with the Word of God.” After that, Satan took Jesus to the roof of the temple and said: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down and the angels will catch you.” The Messiah replied: "Do not tempt God." In the end, Satan raised him over all the cities,gardens and fields, and said that if Jesus only bowed to him, then he would receive all this in his possession. In response, he heard that there is only one God for a person, and only he will worship him.
Madman's We alth
One of Jesus' most important sermons was this: "Do not seek material we alth in this world, for 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 more and more houses to store his we alth there, and thought of nothing else. Once the Lord appeared to him and said: “After you die, where will you put all your belongings? Who will they belong to now? It follows from this that it is necessary to be enriched not at all with money and gifts, but with the Word of God. Everything else will follow by itself.
Conclusion
We have presented only the most famous and accessible biblical myths. The summary of each of them is an opportunity to quickly understand God's plan, to discover something new and truly wise. Unfortunately, they do not reveal the fullness of the meaning that is in Holy Scripture. Reading the Bible itself is much more productive, but it takes time.
