Introduction

Genesis begins by describing God's creation of the world, Adam and Eve and their banishment from the Garden of Eden, the story of Cain and Abel, and the story of Noah and the great flood.

Authorship

Genesis as a completed book makes no claims about its authorship; it is an article of Orthodox Jewish faith that the book was dictated, in its entirety, by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. For a number of reasons, this view is no longer accepted by many biblical scholars and liberal Protestants. Instead, they accept a theory whose roots are based on cultural evolution and philosophical naturalism which teaches that the text of Genesis as we see it today was redacted together around 440 BC from earlier sources, namely the Sumerians.

Use of the literal reading to date creation

Based on the genealogies in Genesis and later parts of the Bible, both religious Jews and Christians have independently worked backwards to estimate the time of the Creation of the world. This approach suggests Creation was around the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. This dating is based on an entirely literal reading of the creation account: that the six days in which God created the heavens and the earth were 24-hour days, that Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden existed, and that a complete trace of events from Creation to a historically verifiable date is listed in the Biblical account.

Literal versus allegorical interpretations

Genesis begins with a creation narrative, or narratives. Because a literal reading of Genesis can be seen to conflict with widely accepted scientific theories such as the Big Bang and common descent, many believers view the creation narratives presented in Genesis as an allegory; however the non-literal view of creation did not begin with Charles Darwin, but rather predated him by hundreds of years^[1].

Christian views

There are numerous references to Genesis in the New Testament. These references assume an authoritative nature for Genesis. While none of these references explicitly state an author for Genesis there are several places which attribute the books of the law (Torah) to Moses (Mark 12:19, 26; Luke 24:27).

Islamic views

The Islamic view rejects^[3] the Biblical account of Lot offering his daughters to be gang-raped (Genesis 19:8)^[4] and later impregnating both of them due to excessive alcohol consumption (Genesis 19:30-36)^[3]. In general, according to the Qur'an the Prophets are infallible and cannot do anything wrong. Islam accepts the Torah in theory, but the view is that the existing text is not the original text.

Main themes

• God created the world. God has called all objects and living beings into existence by his word.
• The universe when created was, in the judgment of God, good. Genesis expresses an optimistic satisfaction and pleasure in the world.
• God as a personal being, referred to in anthropomorphic and anthropopathic terms. God may appear and speak to mankind.
• Genesis gives no philosophically rigorous definition of God; its description is a practical and historical one. God is treated exclusively with reference to his dealings with the world and with man.
• Humankind is the crown of Creation, and has been made in God's image.
• All people are descended from Adam and Eve; this expresses the unity of the whole human race.
• The Earth possesses for man a certain moral grandeur; man must include God's creatures in the respect that it demands in general, by not exploiting them for his own selfish uses.
• God is presented as being the sole creator of nature, and as existing outside of it and beyond it.
• Some historians believe Genesis to be a more recent example of monotheistic belief than Zoroastrianism, interpreting the commandment "have no other gods before me" as an artifact of early henotheism among the Jews -- i.e., as evidence that the Hebrews were not to worship the gods of other peoples, but only their own tribal god. On the other hand, Genesis, in its present form, purports to give a record of beliefs prior to any surviving religious texts, describing the worship of other gods and local deities as a gradual development among the nations, who departed from original monotheism.
• God created an eternal, unbreakable covenant with all mankind at the time of Noah; this is known as the Noachide covenant. This universal concern with all mankind is paralleled by a second covenant made to the descendants of Abraham in particular, through his son Isaac, in which their descendants will be chosen to have a special destiny.
• The Jewish people are chosen to be in a special covenant with God; God says to Abraham "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you; and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed". God often repeats the promise that Abraham's descendants shall be as numerous as the stars in heaven and as the sand on the seashore.

The article on Biblical cosmology discusses the Bible's view of the cosmos, much of which derives from descriptions in Genesis.

Summary

Creation

Adam and Eve

From Adam to Noah

Noah and the great flood

In Genesis chapter 6, verse 2, the "sons of God" took "daughters of men" to be their wives. The human lifespan, numbered in centuries in the generations between Adam and Noah, is limited by God to 120 years (the Biblical "four score years and ten"). Giants - the Nephilim and Gibborim - live on Earth among men. Angered by the violence of mankind, God determines to destroy His creation. He selects one man, Noah, to survive, as Noah is a righteous man. God commands Noah to build an Ark, and to take on it his family and representatives of the animals. The world is then destroyed by a cataclysmic Flood, after which God enters into a covenant with Noah and his descendants, the entire human race, promising never again to destroy mankind in this way. Noah plants a vineyard (ix. 20), drinks wine, and falls into a drunken sleep. Ham, son of Noah, sees his father naked and tells his brothers Shem and Japheth; Shem and Japheth then cover their father. When Noah awakes he places a curse on Ham's son Canaan, saying that he and all his descendents shall henceforce be slaves to Shem and Japheth and their descendents.

The Tower of Babel

Chapter 10 reviews the peoples descended from Japheth, Ham, and Shem. The dispersion of humanity into separate races and nations is described in the story of the Tower of Babel. Humanity is dispersed by a "confusion of tongues," which God brought about when men attempted to build a tower that should reach up to heaven (xi. 1-9). A genealogy is given of Shem's descendants.

Abram and Sarai

Terah, who lives at Ur of the Chaldees, has three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran's son is Lot. Nahor is married to Milcah, and Abram to Sarai, who has no children. God directs Abram to leave his home. Abram obeys, emigrating with his entire household and Lot, his brother's son, to the land of Canaan. Here God appears to him and promises that the land shall become the property of his descendants.

Abram and Melchizedek

Lot is taken prisoner by invading kings from the East during a war between Amraphel, King of Shinar, and Bera, King of Sodom, with their respective allies. Abram pursues the victors with his armed retainers. Returning with his warband after rescuing Lot and his clan, Abram is met by Melchizedek, the king and high priest of Salem (Jerusalem), who blesses him, and in return Abram gives him a tithe of his booty, refusing his share of the same. After this exploit God again appears to Abram and promises him protection, a rich reward, and numerous progeny. These descendants will pass four hundred years in servitude in a strange land; but after God has judged their oppressors they shall leave the land of their affliction, and the fourth generation shall return to Canaan.

Hagar and Ishmael

Sarai is childless, so Sarai and Abram decide that they will produce an heir for Abram through his Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar. Abram takes her as a concubine and has a child with her, Ishmael. God again appears to Abram, and enters into a personal covenant with him securing Abram's future: God promises him a numerous progeny, changes his name to "Abraham" and that of Sarai to "Sarah," and institutes the circumcision of all males as an eternal sign of the covenant.

Sodom and Gomorrah

God sends Abraham three angels, whom Abraham receives hospitably. They announce to him that he will have a son within a year, although he and his wife are already very old. Abraham also hears that God's messengers intend to execute judgment upon the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, whereupon he intercedes for the sinners, and endeavors to have their fate set aside. Two of the messengers go to Sodom, where they are hospitably received by Lot. The men of the city wish to have sexual relations with them. Lot offers up his two virginal daughters in place of the messengers. The men of Sodom refuse Lot's daughters. Having thus shown that they have deserved their fate, Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire-and-brimstone.

The birth of Isaac

At last the long-expected son is born, and receives the name of "Isaac" (Itzhak: "will laugh" in Hebrew). At Sarah's insistence Ishmael together with his mother Hagar is driven out of the house. They also have a great future promised to them by God. Abraham, during the banquet that he gives in honor of Isaac's birth, enters into a covenant with Abimelech, who confirms his right to the well Beer-sheba.

The near sacrifice of Isaac

Esau and Jacob

After being married for twenty years Rebekah has twins by Isaac: Esau, who becomes a hunter, and Jacob (Ya'akov: "will follow"), who becomes a herdsman. Jacob persuades Esau to sell him his birthright, for which the latter does not care; notwithstanding this bargain, God appears to Isaac and repeats the promises given to Abraham. His wife, whom he represents as his sister, is endangered in the country of the Philistines, but King Abimelech himself averts disaster. In spite of the hostility of Abimelech's people, Isaac is fortunate in all his undertakings in that country, especially in digging wells. God appears to him at Beer-sheba, encourages him, and promises him blessings and numerous descendants; and Abimelech enters into a covenant with him at the same place. Esau marries Canaanite women, to the regret of his parents.

Jacob wrestles with God

In fear of Laban, Jacob flees with his family, and soon becomes reconciled with Laban. On approaching his home he is in fear of Esau, to whom he sends presents. While sleeping, a being (variously regarded as God, an angel, or a man), appears to Jacob and wrestles with him. The mysterious one pleads to be released before daybreak, but Jacob refuses to release the being until he agrees and announces to Jacob that he shall bear the name "Israel," which means "one who wrestled with God" and is freed.

Joseph the dreamer

Joseph, Jacob's favorite son, is hated by his brothers on account of his dreams prognosticating his future dominion, and on the advice of Judah is secretly sold to a caravan of Ishmaelitic merchants going to Egypt. His brothers tell their father that a wild animal has devoured Joseph. Joseph, carried to Egypt, is there sold as a slave to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials. He gains his master's confidence; but when the latter's wife, unable to seduce him, accuses him falsely, he is cast into prison (xxxix.). Here he correctly interprets the dreams of two of his fellow prisoners, the king's butler and baker. When Pharaoh is troubled by dreams that no one is able to interpret, the butler draws attention to Joseph. The latter is thereupon brought before Pharaoh, whose dreams he interprets to mean that seven years of abundance will be followed by seven years of famine. He advises the king to make provision accordingly, and is empowered to take the necessary steps, being appointed second in the kingdom. Joseph marries Asenath, the daughter of the priest Poti-pherah, by whom he has two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who were blessed by Israel, Ephraim with Israel's right hand, Manassah with Israel's left. (xli.).

1. ^ Davis A. Young (March 1988). "The Contemporary Relevance of Augustine's View of Creation". Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 40.1: 42-45.
2. ^ Gerhard F. Hasel (1994). "The "days" of Creation in Genesis 1 : Literal "days" or figurative "periods/epochs" of time?". Origins 21(1): 5-38.
3. ^ ^a b http://www.quranicstudies.com/article22.html
4. ^ http://www.answering-christianity.com/bassam_zawadi/prophet_lots_offering.htm

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