Beowulf Book Report
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Jacob Pedersen
11/4/2016
Beowulf
The book of Beowulf has many facts that strongly support that the author had a knowledge of God. This knowledge is seen in the passages discussing the creation of the world, the historical similarities with the Bible, and references to God’s majesty. Why not start were it all begin, in the beginning.
For the author to believe in God he had to believe that he created the world. In the bible it says “then he separated the light from the darkness, and he called the light day and the darkness night” (Genesis 1;4-5 (NLT). In Beowulf the authors wrote that “the Almighty had made the earth,” and “he set the sun and the moon to be Earths lamplight.” In those two passages there is huge similarity between the light and the darkness in the Bible, and the sun and moon in Beowulf. Second it says in Beowulf “…the Almighty…filled the broad lap of the world with branches and leaves”.(9) where in the bible says in Genesis 1:11(Then God said let the land sprout with vegetation-every sort of seed-bearing plant). Here we see the author describing the creation of plants and vegetation.
If all the facts for creating the world were not enough then we still have the historical similarity between the Bible and Beowulf. In Beowulf “Cain’s clan… which the creator had outlawed, for the killing of Able”. To go along with that it says in the Bible “and while they were in the field Cain attacked his brother able, and killed him” (Genesis 4:8b). It also says in Genesis 4:11 “now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother”. These two show two of the same historical events proving that the authors had some knowledge of God.
The last proof we see shows the authors knew the power, and majesty of God. In countless places in the book of Beowulf the author talks about Almighty God’s character, and how he has been around since the beginning of time. In Beowulf God is called “Almighty father”, and “God of ages” saying God has been here for a very very long time. It also says again on page 63 “Almighty God”. Then on page 107 it says “the Lord, the ruler of Heaven”. Then again on page 119 we see “Almighty God”. So the author clearly had to know that God had to exist, and that he had control over life itself.
In conclusion