Five thousand years ago a story which told of the creation of this world in seven days was common among all the people of western Asia. And this was the Jewish version of it. They vaguely (51)______ the of the land and of the sea and of the trees and the flowers and the birds and of man and woman to their (52)______ gods. But it happened that the Jews were the first among all people to (53)______ the existence of One Single God. Afterwards, when we come to talk of the days of Moses, we shall tell you (54)______ this came about. In the beginning, however, the particular Semitic tribe which later was to (55)______ the Jewish nation, worshipped several divinities, just as all their neighbors had done before them for countless ages. The stories of the creation, however, which we find in the Old Testament, were (56)______ more than a thousand years after the death of Moses, when the idea of One God had been accepted by the Jews (57)______ an absolutely established fact, and when doubt of His Existence meant exile or death. You will now (58)______ how the poet who gave unto the Hebrew people their final version of the beginning of all things, came to describe the gigantic labor of creation as the sudden (59)______ of one single and all-mighty will, and as the work of their own tribal God, (60)______ they called Jehovah, or the Ruler of the High Heavens. And this is how the story was told to worshippers in the temple. (From The Story of the Bible)

56（）

Five thousand years ago a story which told of the creation of this world in seven days was common among all the people of western Asia. And this was the Jewish version of it. They vaguely (51)______ the of the land and of the sea and of the trees and the flowers and the birds and of man and woman to their (52)______ gods. But it happened that the Jews were the first among all people to (53)______ the existence of One Single God. Afterwards, when we come to talk of the days of Moses, we shall tell you (54)______ this came about. In the beginning, however, the particular Semitic tribe which later was to (55)______ the Jewish nation, worshipped several divinities, just as all their neighbors had done before them for countless ages. The stories of the creation, however, which we find in the Old Testament, were (56)______ more than a thousand years after the death of Moses, when the idea of One God had been accepted by the Jews (57)______ an absolutely established fact, and when doubt of His Existence meant exile or death. You will now (58)______ how the poet who gave unto the Hebrew people their final version of the beginning of all things, came to describe the gigantic labor of creation as the sudden (59)______ of one single and all-mighty will, and as the work of their own tribal God, (60)______ they called Jehovah, or the Ruler of the High Heavens. And this is how the story was told to worshippers in the temple. (From The Story of the Bible)