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1.What does covenant mean?describe the old covenant and the new.
The Old Covenant is the first section of the Christian Bible, based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible, a collection of religious writings by ancient Israelites. It is the counterpart to the New Covenant, the Christian Bible's second section. It includes such diverse materials as prophetic oracles, teachings of wise men, instructions of priests and ancient records of the royal courts. Some material is historical, some is legendary; some is legalistic, some is didactic.
The books of the Old Covenantcan be broadly divided into several sections: 1) the first five books or Pentateuch (Torah); 2) the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; 3) the poetic and \books dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; 4) and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God.
The New Covenantis the second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Covenant, which is based on the Hebrew Bible. The Greek New Covenant discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity. Although Christians hold different views from Jews about the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Covenant, Christians regard both the Old and New Covenants together as sacred scripture. The New Covenant (in whole or in part) has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world. It reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Covenant are also incorporated (along with readings from the Old Covenant) into the various Christian liturgies. The New Covenant has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom, and left an indelible mark on its literature, art, and music.
The New Covenant is an anthology, a collection of Christian works written in the common Greek language of the first century, at different times by various writers, who were early Jewish disciples of Jesus. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Covenant consists of 27 books.
2.What is the meaning of the original sin?
Original sin, also called ancestral sin,is the Christian doctrine of humanity's state of sin resulting from the fall of man, stemming from Adam's rebellion in Eden. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a \nature\to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt.
Jewish theologians are divided in regard to the cause of what is called \Some teach that it was due to Adam's yielding to temptation in eating of the forbidden fruit and has been inherited by his descendants; the majority, however, do not hold Adam responsible for the sins of humanity, teaching that Adam's sins are his alone. However, Adam is recognized as having brought death into the world by his
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disobedienceby some theologians. Because of his sin, his descendants will live a mortal life, which will end in death of their bodies. The doctrine of \not found in most of mainstream Judaism. Although some in Orthodox Judaism place blame on Adam for overall corruption of the world, and though there were some Jewish teachers in Talmudic times who believed that death was a punishment brought upon humanity on account of Adam's sin, that is not the dominant view in most of Judaism today. Modern Judaism generally teaches that humans are born sin-free and untainted, and choose to sin later and bring suffering to themselves.The concept of inherited sin is also not found in any real form in Islam. Some interpretations of original sin are rejected by other Christian theologies. 3.
Justification, in Christian theology, is God's act of removing the guilt and penalty of sin while at the same time declaring a sinner righteous through Christ's atoning sacrifice. In Protestantism, righteousness from God is viewed as being credited to the sinner's account through faith alone, without works.
Some people argue that natural evils are a mechanism of divine punishment for moral evils that humans have committed, and so the natural evil is justified. God's condemnation of evil is subsequently believed to be executed and expressed in his created world; a judgment that is unstoppable due to God's all powerful will; a constant and eternal judgment that becomes announced and communicated to other people on Judgment Day. In this explanation, God's condemnation of evil is declared to be a good judgment.
4. Evaluating the Image of Eve from the feminist perspective
Feminist movement was considered as one of the most influential cultural developments in western civilization. Interestingly, if we traced back to Christian Bible, the primary religious texts of Christianity, which plays the dominant role in western theology, we could hardly find any evidence of feminism or gender equality. Instead, a patriarchal system formed in the Garden of Eden since Adam and Eve were created. The following perspectives can illustrate this point of view explicitly.
The creation of Eve: Patriarchy can be found from the reason why Eve was created as well as the process how Eve was created. The beginning of Genesis portrayed how God created the heaven and the earth in seven days, followed by the arrangement of the Garden of Eden and a man named Adam. After completing all these work, God made a woman named Eve from Adam’s rib by saying “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” (Zhu, 5) Considerable debates were aroused on the word—the “help meet”. The literal meaning of the “help meet” undoubtedly refers to someone who is a helper to the other person and belongs to the second-class status. In other words, woman was born to help man, to accompany man, and to please man in order to prevent him from loneliness. Based on this explanation, some people would insist that women can still share an equal position with men, for they could work together. However, Thomas Aquinas argued that the woman was created “not indeed to help him in any other work, as some
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have maintained, because where most work is concerned man can get help more conveniently from another man than from a woman; but to help him in the work of procreation.” (Aquinas, 35) Thus, it was clearly that woman was created not to share the same status with man.
Another fact can also demonstrate that woman was created to subordinate to man. For the first woman, Eve, was blamed as the symbol of original sin. She could not resist the temptation of the serpent, and also induced Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. She was the reason why human beings were cast of the Eden garden. However, from the feminist perspective, such criticism on Eve is unfair. Because, Eve herself wad induced by the serpent. She didn’t mean to betray the Lord’s will. Besides, without Eve, human beings would still be naked and don’t know shame. And if so, human beings can never be different from animals. Therefore, Eve should be the origin of the history of civilization of human beings.
The Old Testament written in the patriarchal society was meant to consolidate the dominate status of man. And at that time, women were treated as appendant to men.
可以参考“《圣经·旧约》中夏娃、大力拉及路德形象的女性主义解读” 5.
旧约中的主更严苛，新约中的耶稣更仁爱。
旧约《圣经》中关于耶稣基督的预言，在新约中得到完全应验。新约首先在四福音书向我们揭示这位奇妙的人物是神的儿子，神的话、神的解释、说明和彰显。祂将无限的神带到有限的人里，将三一神与三部分人联调在一起，借着祂芬芳的美德，在祂的人性里彰显全备之神丰富的属性，并且完成了包罗万有之法理的救赎。新约《圣经》继续解释这位奇妙人物在复活里成了赐生命的灵，生为神的长子，并为着祂的身体祂的教会重生信徒。祂这赐生命的灵要进入信祂的人里面，作他们的生命与他们成为一，使他们在生命性情上与祂一样，成为神的众子。这些众子建造在一起，成为基督的身体，终极完成于新耶路撒冷。这是神对人永远的定旨。
Christian canon is contained in the Bible, comprised of the Old and New Testaments. The word bible comes from a Greek word meaning books. Appropriately, the Bible is a collection of scripture (as separate books) considered sacred and inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, contains books of the Old Testament. The reverence and respect for the Jewish Old Testament in the Christian faith is evidenced in Christ's own words. He says \it.\Old Testament focuses on the Hebrews' covenant with God, their history, wisdom and laws. The New Testament centers on Christ's life and ministry, crucifixion and resurrection Old Testament:
Moses leads the Isrealites out of Egypt
Old Testament books include the study of creation in Genesis, the flight of the Israelites out of Egypt in Exodus and the beautiful Psalms. Many phrases used in everyday life come from the Old Testament. \Ecclesiastes 3.1-8. The Old Testament is valued in the Bible as a source of prefiguring 3
the coming of the Messiah. New Testament:
The New Testiment begins with the birth of Christ
New Testament books include the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the testimony of Jesus' apostles. Other books include the works ascribed to Paul, including Corinthians, Romans, Ephesians and Timothy. The New Testament records the life and ministry of Jesus. Through the eyes of Jesus' apostles, the story of Jesus' humble birth in the manger and the angels telling the shepherds, \life. 6.
十诫，有时可能写做十戒，是《圣经》记载的上帝借由以色列的先知和众部族首领摩西向以色列民族颁布的十条规定，即《摩西十诫》。耶稣复活以后，十诫成为给全世界的人的诫命。
十诫对以色列人的生活有广泛的影响，但是耶稣也曾经指出，犹太人故意寻找律法的空子，即绕过律法的约束。在新约圣经中，由于耶稣的降临，使得现在的基督徒已经不是活在“律法中”，乃是活在“恩典里”，但是十诫仍然对所有的基督徒产生深远的影响，并且一直是基督徒信仰的根基。
自圣奥思定开始，教会在给候洗者和信徒的教理讲授中，「十诫」占着优越的地位。在十五世纪，人们习惯把十诫的规条写成有节奏的词句，以便背诵并采用积极的形式。这种方式直到今日仍被沿用。教会的教理书在讲解基督徒的伦理时，经常随从「十诫」的次序。
The central event in the national founding of the Israelite people is the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. The “Ten Commandments” (Exodus 20: 1-14), pronounced there by the Lord God to the assembled and recently liberated children of Israel, constitute the most famous teaching of the book of Exodus, perhaps of the entire Hebrew Bible. Prescribing proper conduct toward God and man, the Decalogue embodies the core principles of the Israelite way of life and, later, of what would become known as the Judeo-Christian ethic. Even in our increasingly secular age, its influence on the prevailing morality of the West is enormous, albeit not always acknowledged or welcomed.
Yet, despite its notoriety, the Decalogue is still only superficially known, in part because its very familiarity interferes with a deeper understanding of its teachings. 7.
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当我们读圣经的时候，我们不应过分追究其中是否存在这些那些信条的错误，而更应该关注它所记载的历史。事实上，不难发现圣经上有许多信条、信仰值得商榷，甚至可以直接被否定；然而，大多数的还是通古至今的。对圣经的解读是一次对历史的追溯和反省。这也许是圣经阅读的乐趣所在。 8.
这一题个人觉得看过了就可以了，没啥讨论的意义。 9.
a. Bone of his bones b. Eve’s apple c. Forbidden fruit
d. Dust thou art; to dust returnest/ P6最后（returnest不是一个单词来的，它是一种古英语的语法现象。thou是古英语来的，相当于现在的you，art是用在thou后面的系动词。returnest里的est是与thou连用的动词后缀。）
e. Adam and Eve/王侯将相宁有种乎？（人生而平等）
Unit2
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dialogue/ respond by asking back
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His way of asking back guides quizzer to find the truth with a clear logic. In his argument, he always emphasizes that he knows nothing as he regards the argument as a process in which quizzer and responder explore the truth together. Socrates suspects his own knowledge and other wise man’s knowledge. He believes there must be some knowledge that he doesn’t know. 3.
For Plato, knowledge should be certain and infallible and genuinely real as contrasted
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