INTRODUCTION TO
THE GENERATIONS
The book of Genesis
The word genesis means origin: the name of this book, the first of the Bible, reveals the origins of human history, especially regarding the relationship between humans and their Creator.
Its author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was Moses, as warranted by many passages of both the Old and New Testaments. No doubt his intellectual preparation in Egypt, information which came down the generations by word of mouth as well as libraries that he had at his disposal, meant that he was a skilled and well informed scribe.
The structure of the book divides easily into eleven units, each one starting with the word generation (or genealogy, genesis, history), in phrases like these are the generations, or the book of the generations:
- Introduction to the generations (1:1-2:3)
- Heaven and Earth (2:4-4:26).
- Adam (5:1-6:8).
- Noah (6:9-9:29)
- Sons of Noah (10:1-11:9).
- Shem (11:10-26).
- Terah (11:27-25:11).
- Ishmael (25:12-18).
- Isaac (25:19-35:29).
- Esau (36:1-37:1).
- Jacob (37:2-50:26).
The book covers a greater space of time than the rest of the Bible, and reports events in three distinct geographic areas:
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Mesopotamia: from creation until the death of Terah, a period of at least 2,000 years (chapter 1 to 11).
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Canaan: from Abram's departure from Haran to Jacob, 193 years later (Chapter 12 to 37:1).
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Egypt: from Joseph's slavery until his death, some 93 years (Chapter 37:2 to 50:26).
Genesis records the beginning of the world, life, man, sin, death, redemption, wedding, family, civilization, nations, Israel, literature, art, languages, and introduces the doctrine of a living and personal God, of man created in God's image and of his voluntary separation from God, of the promise of a Redeemer and of the covenant promises made to the nation of Israel, and is a basic book for all other books of the Bible.
The genealogical line of Christ can be seen outlined from Eve (3:15), through Seth (4:25), Sem (9:26), Abraham (12:3), Isaac (21:12), Jacob ( 25:23) and Judah (49:10). We also find several types that illustrate the person and mission of Christ: Adam (Romans 5:14), Abel, Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:3), Joseph.
R David Jones
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1