Yahwist, Priestly & Magician's Nephew Term Paper

Both Creation and the Exodus are presented in different ways in the Priestly and Yahwist traditions. The purpose of the narratives are so different. As mentioned, we are to see God as the all-authoritative one in the Priestly tradition; he is creator and he is savior and he is the one who decides to give mankind the authority over the earth. He also wants to stress how important the Sabbath day is. The Yahwist tradition looks at the relationship between God and man and depicts sin as man having the desire to be like God. The Priestly accounts also talk about God creating mankind in his image, but it is never totally clear in what image God means -- spiritual or emotional? The Yahwist tradition tells us that humans can be wise like God (not as wise as God, of course), but humans can learn to be more like Him, but they can never exceed Him.

Jadis, who is awakened by the bell that Digory rings, has the desire to take over the entire word. Andrew, the Uncle, is in complete awe of Jadis and all of her power and beauty. Jadis, like the devil, is able to trick people and get them under her spell. Andrew will do whatever Jadis asks, including hurting people and things. The two begin to loot the city of London and it is Digory who must become the responsible one now and step up and fight against the sins Andrew and Jadis are creating.

Digory is the one who introduces sin into the new world. (Note that he is also called the son of Adam). Aslan, the lion, tells Digory that he can save his mother by taking an apple off a tree for his mother, but he cannot, under any circumstances, take an apple for himself.Though Digory is tempted by the apple, he never eats it, and he is able to take one back for his mother and it saves her. Digory's temptation, would be, as the Yahwist narrative would have supposed, was the desire to want to be like God. He believed at the beginning of the story that he could do whatever he wanted. However, the story tells us, like the Yahwist narratives, that we can never be like God and temptation is sin. The more we are able to control our temptations, the more divine we will become. Digory then buries the apple core into the ground and it becomes a great apple tree.

C.S. Lewis' book is much like both the Priestly and the Yahwist narratives in the sense that it serves as a guide for how human beings should live in the world. Like Digory, Adam and Eve were faced with the same challenges and the same temptations. All are forced to become mature and to think of others before they think of themselves. They are also confronted with evil and it is up to them to make the right decisions in order to ward off evil.

Digory, at the end of the story, is able to make eternity out of the apple that he uses to save his mother. He plants the core and the apple becomes a tree -- a major symbol of life.

References:

Bandstra, B.L. Table A: Yahwist Narrative. In B.L. Bandstra, Reading the Old

Testament:An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Wadsworth Publishing

Company, 1999.

West, C., & Weigel, G. Theology of the body explained. England: Gracewing

Publishing, 2003......