Religion Law Commons^™

Law Asks For Trust, Nathan Chapman

Scholarly Works

This Article offers a reading of chapters 1 and 2 of the book of Genesis, informed by concerns for the social effects of law. Part I considers the implications of God's method of creating the world by speech in the first chapter of Genesis. Part II turns to God's prohibition against eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The content of the prohibition and the nature of the threatened penalty suggest that the prohibition is a rule against disobedience generally, paradigmatic of a general claim by God to be the ruler. With the creation …