Religion and Gender – A Reflection on the Biblical Creation Accounts

It is the view of most people who claim the authoritative nature of the Bible that, women’s assigned secondary status in relation to men is ordained and supported in the Bible. Many have quoted different texts of the holy writ to support their culturally-biased position on issue of gender equality. Most often views in respect to gender issues are culturally-based and interpreted rather than divinely-based and interpreted. There is therefore the need to look back at Jesus’ words, “But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.” (Matt 19:4; Mark 10:6). The two accounts in the Book of Genesis by the Priestly and Yahwistic strands give a complimentary account of the creation of humankind (both male and female) in the image and likeness of God and their creation from a single stock (\u3cd*aº*) who was not a male gender. At a cursory reading of the creation accounts, one will tend to see \u3cd„`ah*³ as the male gender, but looking at the Hebrew text more closely it will be noticed that the Hebrew words hV*aÍ !and vya !were only introduced after the two genders have been separated. Note carefully that it was not vya! that was asked to tend the garden, who named the animals, was given instruction of what to eat or what not to eat, who fell into a deep sleep or whose ribs was used in the creation of hV*aÍ!, but it was \u3cd„`ah*³ . It was after the creation or ‘separation’ of hVÍ*a ! (woman – the female \u3cd„`ah*³) that the other part was called vya ! (man – the male \u3cd„`ah*³) (see vv 23 & 24). It will therefore not be right to speak of the creation of hV*aÍ ! out of vya!, because as at the time of the creation of the former, the later was not in existence as vya ! To view these creation accounts with the sense of gender superiority (either male over female or vice versa) is to read the texts using lenses which have been obscured and tainted by patriarchal, matriarchal or cultural biases

The Concept of Atonement in the Old Testament, Greco-Roman World and the New Testament

The Concept of Atonement has been an old concept in the biblical world. The Old Testament speaks of it using mainly the Hebrew word כפר (kphr), with its attendant various implications. This concept wasn’t alien in the Greco-Roman world which formed part of the New Testament background. The New Testament writers pushed the concept of atonement beyond the level of animal sacrifice in the Old Testament, and the gods allowing themselves to be reconciled to sinful humanity in the Greco-Roman religious context, to the point of Jesus Christ being viewed as the Lamb of God, i.e. both the sacrificial lamb and the priest that offers the sacrifice. In this way, Christ is presented both as the offering and the offeror. The New Testament uses two main Greek words καταλλαγή/ (katallage) and ἱλασμός (hilasmos) in driving home this important concept which stems from God’s love towards the creation and results in forgiveness, restoration of estranged relationship, maintenance of divine justice and expression of divine mercy. The work used content analysis method of research and comparative theory in the study of religion in dealing with the subject of atonement in the Old Testament, Greco-Roman Context and the New Testament. Significantly, the work draws a thread of thought from Old Testament through Greco-Roman thought on atonement to that of the New Testament. It therefore also serves a point of comparative religious study of this thought among these three world views

The Necessity of Hope: A Philosophical and Theological Appraisal

The world today is full of innumerable uncertainties plaguing humanity. There seem to be a growing concern for the future of the world as various natural phenomena such as earthquake, tsunami, flood, draught, famine and war takes its toll on humankind. Suffering is now on the increase even among the redeemed of the Lord. Many scientists and environmentalists are advocating for the reduction of carbon emission as solution to the perceived climate change. In the midst of these uncertainties hope in the Sovereign, Omnipotent, Omniscient and Immutable God become the only sine-qua-non and the panacea for survival and continued existence. Being a literary research, the paper adopted the qualitative analytical research methodology in its approach and examined the necessity of hope as it pertained to mankind in the midst of suffering. In recommendation, it among others, advocated that a life without hope will eventually fall into despair or retires into status quo of the society. The paper explained that the Christian hope goes beyond the contemplation of philosophy and hinges on the truth as revealed by Christ and the Scripture

A Comparative Study of the concept of sin in Christianity and Efik Traditional Religion of South-South, Nigeria

Sin is a universal phenomenon which is common to every society whether primitive or civilized. Every society has a concept of sin and it is this concept that regulates their morality and human conduct. For the Efik people, sin is not seen as a separation, rebellion or transgression of God's law as in the case of the Bible. Neither is it just the breaking of the law or disobedience to God but disturbances to the cosmic order, a disruption or distortion of the divine order. Sin is seen as behaviour against the society, against the cosmic order and a breach of societal equilibrium. In contrast, Christianity teaches that human beings were created in the image of God to love, serve and worship Him but that it is sin of disobedience which separated human beings from God, bringing judgment and death to humanity; hence the need for a new kind of birth or salvation in Christ. However, the religious and social attitudes and practices which amount to sins, the categorization, dimensions and sanctions seem to have some bearing with Efik tradition religion. This work is aimed at surveying the concept of sin, the etymological meaning and the general usage of the word "sin" both in Christianity and the Efik traditional religion and compared same, pointed out the differences and the effects it has on the contemporary Efik Christians. The paper adopted the descriptive approach and used content analysis and empirical studies methods of collecting data for the research. The study revealed that even though Efik Traditional religion has a strong correlation with the Christian concept of sin, their meaning and perception are different. Keywords: Sin, Christianity, Efik Traditional Religion, Behaviour, Morality, Transgressio