Chapter One
GENESIS
EVER TURN ON a TV show a few minutes after it
began? Chances are you turned it off before the show
ended or flipped to a different channel because you
couldn't figure out what was going on. To fully understand
the plot, you needed to see the beginning of the show.
The same truth applies to the Bible. If you're having a
hard time figuring out the "plot," Genesis is the right
place to begin your search for answers. Why? Genesis is
the book of beginnings. In it you see the creation of the
universe, the introduction of sin into the world, the beginning
of God's plan to rescue his people from the sin
habit, and the birth of the nation of Israel.
In Genesis we also get our first glimpse into God's
character. Unlike everything else, God didn't have a beginning.
He always existed. Chapters 1 and 2 showcase
his creativeness and power, while chapter 3 reveals his
holiness and judgment of sin. Through the sad saga of
Adam and Eve and their descendants, we view God's incredible
love for his people even when they constantly
disobey him.
As you read Genesis, what other beginnings do you
see? How do they enlarge your view of God?
timeline
Creation
(undated) Noah
2166 B.C.Abram born
2091Abram enters Canaan
2066Isaac born
2006Jacob & Esau born
1929Jacob flees to Haran
1915Joseph born
1898Joseph rules Egypt
1805Joseph dies
stats
PURPOSE: To record God's creation of the world and his desire to have a
people set apart to worship him
AUTHOR: Moses
AUDIENCE: The people of Israel
DATE WRITTEN: 1450-1410 B.C.
SETTING: The region presently known as the Middle East
KEY PEOPLE: Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob,
Joseph
KEY
points
BEGINNINGS
Genesis introduces God as Creator of all that exists: the planets,
plants, and people. All people were created in God's own image.
DISOBEDIENCE
Sin results when people choose their own way instead of obeying
God. Adam and Eve learned this the hard way. Only God can reverse
the consequences of sinful choices.
PROMISES
God promised to protect and provide for his people. He specifically
made promises known as covenants, which are binding agreements.
God made a covenant with his people as a guarantee of what they
could expect from him.
OBEDIENCE AND PROSPERITY
Obedience to God keeps our relationship with him intact and causes us
to prosper like Abraham. Prosperity doesn't necessarily mean wealth or
other material possessions. Rather, true prosperity means living life as
God created it to be lived-in the fullness of his blessings.
KEY PLACES IN GENESIS
God created the universe and the earth. Then he made man and woman, giving
them a home in a beautiful
garden. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were expelled from the
garden (3:24).
MOUNTAINS OF ARARAT Adam and Eve's sin brought sin into the human
race. Years later, sin had run rampant and
God decided to destroy the earth with a great flood. All except for Noah, his
family, and two of each animal who were
all safe in a huge boat. When the floods receded, the boat rested on the
mountains of Ararat (8:4).
BABEL People never learn. Again sin abounded and the pride of the
people led them to build a huge tower as a
monument to their own greatness-obviously they had no thought of God. As
punishment, God scattered the
people by giving them different languages (11:8-9).
UR OF THE CHALDEANS Abram, a descendant of Shem, was born in this
great city (11:27-28).
HARAN Terah, Lot, Abram, and Sarai left Ur and, following the fertile
crescent of the Euphrates River, headed
toward the land of Canaan. Along the way, they settled in the city of Haran for
a while (11:31).
SHECHEM God urged Abram to leave Haran and go to a place where he
would become the father of a great nation
(12:1-2). So Abram, Lot, and Sarai traveled to the land of Canaan and settled
near a city called Shechem (12:5-6).
HEBRON Abraham moved on to Hebron, to "the oak grove belonging to
Mamre," where he put down his deepest
roots (13:18). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all lived and were buried there.
BEERSHEBA After a dispute over ownership of the well here, Abraham
made a covenant with Abimelech (21:31).
Years later, as Isaac was moving from place to place, God appeared to him here
and passed on to him the covenant
he had made with his father, Abraham (26:23-25).
BETHEL After deceiving his brother out of both his birthright and his
blessing, Jacob left Beersheba and fled
to Haran. Along the way God revealed himself to Jacob in a dream and again
passed on the covenant he had made
with Abraham and Isaac (28:10-22). Jacob lived in Haran, worked for Laban, and
married Leah and Rachel (29:15-28).
After a tense meeting with his brother, Esau, Jacob returned to Bethel (35:1).
EGYPT Jacob had 12 sons, including Joseph, Jacob's favorite. The other
brothers grew jealous, until one day,
out in the fields, the brothers sold him to Ishmaelite traders who were going to
Egypt. Eventually, Joseph rose from
Egyptian slave to Pharaoh's "right hand man," saving Egypt and the surrounding
country from famine. His entire
family moved from Canaan to Egypt and settled there during the severe famine
(46:3-4).
1 THE ACCOUNT OF CREATION
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered
the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering
over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, "Let there be light," and there
was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good.
Then he separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light "day" and the darkness
"night."
And evening passed and morning came, marking
the first day.
6 Then God said, "Let there be a space between the
waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from
the waters of the earth." 7 And that is what happened.
God made this space to separate the waters of the
earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the
space "sky."
And evening passed and morning came, marking
the second day.
9 Then God said, "Let the waters beneath the sky flow
together into one place, so dry ground may appear."
And that is what happened. 10 God called the dry
ground "land" and the waters "seas." And God saw
that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the land
sprout with vegetation-every sort of seed-bearing
plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These
seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees
from which they came." And that is what happened.
12 The land produced vegetation-all sorts of seed-bearing
plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit.
Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same
kind. And God saw that it was good.
13 And evening passed and morning came, marking
the third day.
14 Then God said, "Let great lights appear in the sky to
separate the day from the night. Let them mark off the
seasons, days, and years. 15 Let these lights in the sky
shine down on the earth." And that is what happened.
16 God made two great lights, the sun and the moon-the
larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one
to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set
these lights in the sky to light the earth, 18 to govern the
day and night, and to separate the light from the
darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 And evening passed and morning came, marking
the fourth day.
20 Then God said, "Let the waters swarm with fish and other
life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind." 21 So
God created great sea creatures and every living thing
that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of
bird-each producing offspring of the same kind. And
God saw that it was good. 22 Then God blessed them,
saying, "Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas,
and let the birds multiply on the earth."
23 And evening passed and morning came, marking
the fifth day.
24 Then God said, "Let the earth produce every sort of
animal, each producing offspring of the same kind-livestock,
small animals that scurry along the ground,
and wild animals." And that is what happened. 25 God
made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small
animals, each able to produce offspring of the same
kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in
our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over
the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock,
all the wild animals on the earth, and the small
animals that scurry along the ground."
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 Then God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and
multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the
fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals
that scurry along the ground."
29 Then God said, "Look! I have given you every seed-bearing
plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees
for your food. 30 And I have given every green plant as
food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the
small animals that scurry along the ground-everything
that has life." And that is what happened.
31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he
saw that it was very good!
And evening passed and morning came, marking
the sixth day.
2 So the creation of the heavens and the earth and
everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh
day God had finished his work of creation, so he
rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the
seventh day and declared it holy, because it was
the day when he rested from all his work of
creation.
4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and
the earth.
THE MAN AND WOMAN IN EDEN
When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth.
The Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and
there were no people to cultivate the soil. 6 Instead,
springs came up from the ground and watered all the
land. 7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust
of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the
man's nostrils, and the man became a living person.
8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the
east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord
God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground-trees
that were beautiful and that produced delicious
fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watered the garden and then flowed out of
Eden and divided into four branches. 11 The first branch,
called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah,
where gold is found. 12 The gold of that land is exceptionally
pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also
found there. 13 The second branch, called the Gihon,
flowed around the entire land of Cush. 14 The third
branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur.
The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden
to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned
him, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden-17
except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die."
18 Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to
be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him."
19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild
animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to
the man to see what he would call them, and the man
chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the
livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals.
But still there was no helper just right for him.
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep
sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of
the man's ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the
Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought
her to the man.
23 "At last!" the man exclaimed.
"This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called 'woman,'
because she was taken from 'man.'"
24 This explains why a man leaves his father and
mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united
into one.
25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they
felt no shame.
3 THE MAN AND WOMAN SIN
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the
Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, "Did
God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the
trees in the garden?"
2 "Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,"
the woman replied. 3 "It's only the fruit from the
tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed
to eat. God said, 'You must not eat it or even touch it; if
you do, you will die.'"
4 "You won't die!" the serpent replied to the woman.
5 "God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you
eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and
evil."
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was
beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted
the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the
fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who
was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their
eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their
nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover
themselves.
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the
man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in
the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the
trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, "Where are
you?"
10 He replied, "I heard you walking in the garden, so I
hid. I was afraid because I was naked."
11 "Who told you that you were naked?" the Lord God
asked. "Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded
you not to eat?"
12 The man replied, "It was the woman you gave me who
gave me the fruit, and I ate it."
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, "What have
you done?"
"The serpent deceived me," she replied. "That's why I
ate it."
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel."
Continues.
