Genesis
For the rock band Genesis, please see Genesis (band)
Genesis the book of beginnings, and the first book of the Jewish Torah as well as the Bible, recounts the beginning of all life on earth and the social and cultural formations of mankind. It stands as the introduction of the entire body of the Bible, of the creation of the nation of Israel, and of the earliest promises of the coming redeemer.
Name
The Hebrews had called the First Book of Moses by the name of bereisheet or be'reshith, meaning "in the begining", based on the three words which start Genesis. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek-language version of the Old Testament, rendered this title under the name he biblos geneseos, from which came the Greek word genesis, meaning "origin". (Unger, pg. 396)
Overview
The book is essentially divided into two parts: the early, primeval history of man from the Creation to the fall of the Tower of Babel, and the Patriarchal History of Israel from Abraham and his son Issac, grandson Jacob, and Jacob's sons, primarily Joseph.
the Creation
In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. This is one of the most famous statments in the Bible, and it opens up Genesis to a view of the world as being formless and void, just before God acted out His creation. Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 involved the first seven days in history:
- The first day, the creation of light (Gen. 1:2 through 1:5).
- The second day, the creation of the firmament of the waters (Gen. 1:6 through 1:8).
- The third day, the creation of dry earth and plant life (Gen. 1:9 through 1:13).
- The fourth day, the creation of the Sun, the moon, the stars, and the seasons of earth (Gen. 1:14 through 1:19).
- The fifth day, the creation of the animals of the sea and the fowl of the air (Gen. 1:20 through 1:23).
- The sixth day, the creation of the animals of the land, and the creation of Man (Gen. 1:24 through 1:31).
The fall of mankind into sin began when Satan questioned one of God's commands, namely not to eat of the tree of life, and succeeded in talking Eve into eating the fruit, followed by Adam. The result of disobeying this command resulted in the driving away of Adam and Eve from the garden, to live a life of subsistence farming and painful childbearing. Genesis 3:15 is also cited as being the first reference to the coming Messiah.
Critical view
Some biblical scholars have claimed to have identified five separate authors of the five books of Moses[1][2]. Although unidentified, each of these authors had been given the name of a letter:
- J who uses JHWH (or Jehovahist), and who possibly wrote in the south of Judah.
- E who uses Elohim as God's name, and possibly wrote in Ephraim.
- D who wrote Deuteronomy.
- P who wrote an alternate history in what was called the Priestly Code.
- R who joined the writings of J, E, D and P to form a single work.
Under this hypothesis, looking at the Creation story
- Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 were written by P.
- Genesis 2:4 was written by R
- Genesis 2:5 through 4:26 were written by J.
This theory has gained in popularity since it was first postulated in the late 19th century. However, it is a traditional product of modern rationalistic skepticism and has its basis on false literary critiria, unfounded philosophic assumptions, and an enmity against historical, miraculous, and prophetic elements which are basic to the first five books of the Bible Unger, 397; Young, pp. 183-276)