Genesis from the Holy Bible gives an idea of how the Earth was created and how people who originated from Adam and Eve lived. The Holy Bible is arranged like an ordinary book where all the characters have their own personalities and can be judged by the readers according to their actions. The narrator, however, is unknown and the fact that this book is holy implies that God himself is a narrator, which excludes him from the range of characters to analyze. Thus, though Genesis abounds with a variety of characters, God, who is the most important in Genesis, is rarely discussed as a separate character having distinctive features. If God is perceived as a character in Genesis, he can be stated to possess such character features as rationality and discretion, authoritativeness, vindictiveness, and mercifulness.
What should be mentioned above all is that God is reasonable and rational judging from the order in which he created the Earth. All the steps of this procedure testify to the fact that God acted according to a carefully designed plan. Thus, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (The Holy Bible 1:1). After this, God created light and the opposition of light, the darkness. The rationality of such actions lies in further division of the Earth into firmament and water, as well as into day and night: “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night” (Holy Bible 1:5). It also seems prudent that he created grass, seed, and fruit tree before creating living creatures, as well as it was no less reasonable to create living beings prior to the creation of a man for the man was blessed by God to “multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (The Holy Bible 1:28). Therefore, some of God’s character features in Genesis are prudence and rationality.
Divine intervention and divine selection prove further these features of God’s character emphasizing that God is an authority who rules over all creatures. Genesis shows that God’s authority is unquestionable and only he is able to intervene in people’s lives and even deprive them of these lives: “The end of all flesh comes before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (The Holy Bible 6:13). In this way, divine intervention may either save or destroy a person. In addition, without divine intervention Isaac would have never been born and, similarly, without God’s intervention Jacob would have never returned from Aram. The idea of divine selection further proves God’s authority for only God could select Noah as the chosen one and command him to take “every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort” and “bring into the ark, to keep them alive” (The Holy Bible 6:19). Thus, God’s authority is exhibited through his abilities to select the chosen ones and to intervene into the people’s lives.
Moreover, Genesis shows that God can be merciful, but since he is also just, he can be vengeful. God’s mercy consists in helping even in judgment: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (The Holy Bible 3:21). His vindictiveness falls on those who oppose him. For instance, God set a mark upon Cain “lest any finding him should kill him” (The Holy Bible 4:15) for Cain to remain vagabond till the rest of his life. Another example of God’s being vengeful is his sending forth Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden after their eating the forbidden fruit. Therefore, God can be merciless for he loves those he has created, but at the same time he can be vengeful for he wants people to obey his rules.
Finally, God is just and his creation the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil proves this. God created the Tree of Life to once give Adam and Eve an eternal life and to make them his family. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, however, was created to give Adam and Eve a possibility of choice, as well as to test their loyalty to God and observance of his commandments. God prevented Adam and Eve that eating fruits from that tree was forbidden: “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (The Holy Bible 3:3). Despite this, Adam and Eve consciously broke the rules and were deservedly punished for this. They made their choice and by eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they discovered what the evil was like. This is why just can be regarded as God’s character feature.
In conclusion, discussing God as a character in Genesis, it can be stated that he is reasonable and rational for he created the world according to a definite plan. Moreover, he is authoritative for he possesses the right of divine intervention and divine selection and through exercising this right he is able to save and destroy people. God is also merciful for he pities and helps those who are in need; he can be vengeful for he avenges those who disobey him. And lastly, God is just because through creating the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil he gave Adam and Eve a possibility to choose and warned them about the consequences of the wrong choice. Adam and Eve made their choice and were deservedly driven forth from the Garden of Eden and turned into ordinary mortals.
Works Cited
The Holy Bible. Sydney: William Collins, Sons, & Co., 1830.