Book of Genesis
From Wikible
| ← none | Book of Genesis | Exodus → |
"Genesis" comes from the Greek word γένεσις (GHE-ne-sis) meaning "origin" or "generation". The Hebrew title (Bereshith) is the first word of the text, meaning "in the beginning". Genesis is a book about the beginning of many things: the world, man, sin, civilization, the nations, and Israel. Half of the book takes us from the beginning of the world, though the spread of sin and culminates in the devastating flood in the days of Noah and his sons. The second half of the book narrows to God's dealings with one family, Abraham's, and the promise to bring salvation and to the world through them. Coextensively, there is a ten-fold division (with prologue) by the occurrences of the word toledot, meaning "genealogy" or "history". Genesis is the first book of the Bible and the first book of the Law of Moses, the Torah or the Pentateuch.
Outline
Separate yet linked to the rest of the book, the Creation narrative serves as a prologue to all human history (1:1-2:3). The toledot and two halves formula yields the following table:
| Adam's Line | Abrahamic Line |
|---|---|
| Heaven & Earth | Terah |
| 2:4-4:26 | 11:27-25:11 |
| Adam to Noah | Ishmael |
| 5:1-6:8 | 25:12-18 |
| Noah/Flood | Isaac/Jacob |
| 6:9-9:29 | 25:19-35:29 |
| Ham/Japheth | Esau |
| 10:1-11:9 | 36:1-37:1 |
| Shem | Jacob/Joseph |
| 11:10-11:26 | 37:2-50:26 |
