Genesis

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Genesis as seen in the Bible

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.

the Flood

The wickedness of mankind is so great the God repents of His creation and decides to destory it all through a flood. Only Noah is righteous before God, and He instruct Noah to build an ark to carry himself, his family, and pairs of every creature on earth and in the air. God then destroys the earth, the ark riding the waves until the waters abate and it comes to rest at the mountains of Ararat. God makes a promise never to destroy the earth by flood again, and shows Noah the sign of that covenant, a rainbow.

Noah is also the first planter of a vineyard, and during a drunken sleep one of his sons (Ham) sees him naked. Noah awakes with the knowledge as to what he had done, and places a curse upon his son Canaan, declaring that Canaan and his descendents would be slaves to the his brothers Shem and Japheth. All three sons would have their names and their descendants listed on the Table of Nations, which ends Noah's story.

Abraham

Genesis 11 begins the story of Abram, who leaves the city of Ur with his wife, Sarai, on a journey towards Canaan, where God has shown him what He was going to do: I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.

Sarai, being barren tells Abram to take Hagar, his Egyptian handmaiden, as wife. Hagar becomes pregnant with Ishmael, and God makes a promise that the child will be "a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him," with descendants beyond number.

God also makes a covenant with Abram: Abram will have many descendants as well as possession of the land of Canaan. Abram's name is changed to "Abraham”, and Sarai becomes "Sarah." A sign of the new covenant is the circumcision of all males. Abraham is also told of the fact that Sarah will bear a son who will be named Issac, and it is through Issac and his descendants that the covenant will be established; although Ishmael is to be a great nation, he is left out of God’s covenant.

Two angels appeared to Abraham and told him that Sarah, barren for years, will bear a son. They also tell him that the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and God will shortly punish them, Abraham asking if the cities be spared if so much as ten righteous men are found inside.

The two angels are received by Lot, much to the consternation of the townspeople who surround the house and demand sexual acts with the strangers; the townspeople are blinded, and the angels warn Lot and his family to flee immediately for the mountains and never look back. Both Sodom and Gomorrah are consumed by fire and brimstone; Lot’s wife turn back to look and is turned to a pillar of salt.

Sarah gives birth to Isaac, and at her insistence demands that Hagar and Ishmael are driven into the wilderness. While Ishmael is near dying, an angel speaks to Hagar and promises that God will not forget them, and will make the descendants of Ishmael a great nation.

God puts Abraham to the test by demanding the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham obeys God during his ultimate test: the sacrifice of his beloved son Issac; just as he is about to thrust the knife God restrains him, and promises descendants beyond numbering. Abraham dies later, ‘’full of years”, and is laid to rest in the Tomb of Machpelah in Hebron, which he had purchased shortly before as a place of rest for Sarah.

Issac and Jacob

Isaac had prayed to God that He would deliver a child through Rebekah’s barren womb. He does, and Rebekah gives birth to the twins Esau and Jacob; but prior to the birth God had predicted division between the two, with the elder serving the younger. Esau, the elder, had despised his own birthright and sold it for a bowl of red porridge, allowing Jacob to enter his father’s tent and deceitfully take the blessing intended for Esau. He flees to Haran, the home of his uncle Laban. Along the way he has the dream of the ladder to Heaven, where God tells him of prosperity for himself and his descendants; he names the spot Bethel in commemoration.

Joseph

Joseph, having angered his brothers through the dreams indicating his brothers would bow down before him in addition to a colorful coat given to him by his father, is bound and sold into slavery by his brothers’ wickedness, and claim to a bitter Jacob that Joseph was killed by a wild animal. His dreams while a slave in Egypt come to the attention of Pharaoh, who was troubled by a dream of seven withered cows and stalks of corn which ate seven fat cows and healthy stalks of corn. Joseph interprets the dream as that of Egypt going through seven years of plentiful harvests, followed by seven years of severe famine, and follows it up by asking Pharaoh to appoint a wise man over Egypt to ensure enough is collected and stored during the plentiful years to act as a hedge against the years of famine. Pharaoh responds by appointing Joseph himself in this position, and during the famine "all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth."

Jacob, not knowing Joseph is still alive, sends his sons to Egypt to buy grain. The brothers appear before Joseph, but do not recognize him; Joseph however, recognizes them, and after a series of tests which convinces Joseph their characters have changed, reveals himself to them, convinces them that what happened in the past was God’s plan, and tells them to bring Jacob and their families to live in Egypt. Genesis ends with the blessing of Jacob’s children, his death, and the death of Joseph, who exhorts his brothers to carry his bones when they eventually return to the Promised Land.

Importance to Creation Science

This passage is most cited in support to the Creationism and Young Earth movements:

Importance to Creation Science

Creationists use the first part of Genesis as evidence of the creation of the Earth in seven days. This book is fundemental to the entire study of Creation Science.

Chapter 1

"1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

1:27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God created he him;

male and female created he them.

1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air,and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Chapter 2

2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

Critical view

Some biblical scholars have claimed to have identified five separate authors of the five books of Moses. 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).

References

• Holy Bible, King James Version (Thompson Chain Reference), B.B. Kirkbride Bible Co. Indianapolis, IN 1982.
• Unger, Merril F. Unger's Bible Dictionary, Moody Press, Chicago, IL 1966.
• Young, Edward J. Introduction to the Old Testament, W.B. Eardmans Pub. Co. Grand Rapids, MI 1949.