Genesis Introduction

Genesis is, of course, the first of the 66 books in our Bible.

It’s not the oldest book, the Book of Job takes that title, but God has placed Genesis in its perfect slot, the beginning, just as all the books are in their perfect slots.

Genesis also belongs to a family of five books in the Old Testament known, in Hebrew, as the Torah. Hebrew is the language of the Old Testament of the Bible.  These first 5 books are known as the Pentateuch in the Greek language which is the primary language of the New Testament. Pentateuch simply means 5 books. These 5 books are also known as “The Law” and they’re referred to as “The Law” many times throughout scripture. They were written by Moses.

The name Genesis is taken from the Septuagint which is a Greek translation of the Old Testament made in Alexandria nearly 300 years before Christ was born.

The historian, Josephus, tells us that this translation was made by 72 priests in 72 days. This is why the name Septuagint, which simply means 70 in Greek.

Six priests were from each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul quoted from this translation of the Old Testament.

It’s older than any of the Hebrew texts in existence today.

When studying the book of Genesis there are certain things we should know and keep in mind. This book is a key that unlocks the entire Word of God.

Genesis states many things for the first time. Of course, this isn’t surprising since Genesis means “origins, “source” or “birth”.

Genesis is the book of beginnings and sources, but more particularly it’s the

book of births or the book of generations.

Certain things pop up a lot in Genesis such as the phrase, “These are the generations of…”.

It’s an important phrase because it relates to the families of the earth that begin in this book which, of course, we belong to.

It could be called the family tree of the whole of mankind but it especially traces the family tree of the most important person in all history, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the central figure of the whole Bible.

Within the families, some very interesting people are key figures of history and they’re described in detail in Genesis. These include Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Jacob’s twelve sons, including Joseph. Joseph became the 2^nd most powerful political figure in Egypt and a type or a picture of the saviour of the world who would come to redeem His people.

These twelve sons in turn become the nation of Israel. We see God blessing many of the people that are associated with them, including Lot, Abimelech, the Egyptian Pharoah, Potifar and many others, but we also see the destruction of Israel’s enemies.

Then we find the first mention of the covenant in this book where God makes His eternal covenant or an unbreakable agreement with Abraham. That covenant not only relates to Israel but to each one of us.

We also see many appearances of the Lord to the patriarchs, especially Abraham. The altar makes its first appearance in Genesis where mankind makes sacrifices to cover sin until the ultimate sacrifice comes, God Himself in the form of man, who deals with sin once and for all.

We see jealousy, deception and murder within the family.

Egypt is presented to us in this book as nowhere else and God’s judgment of sin is displayed.

From our telescope or our birdseye view, we see that the book of Genesis

deals with many beginnings;

• Creation
• Man
• Woman
• Sin
• Sabbath
• Marriage
• Family
• Labour
• Civilisation
• Culture
• Murder
• Sacrifices
• Races
• Languages
• Redemption
• Cities
• Agriculture
• Trade
• A Chosen people
• And many more

Interestingly every major cult, pagan religion and false philosophy is foreseen and answered in Genesis:

• Atheism – which is the disbelief in the existence of God (Genesis says the world was created by God)
• Pantheism – which is the belief that the universe itself is a supreme supernatural being (Genesis says God is outside of and distinguishable from His creation)
• Polytheism or the belief that there are many gods (Genesis says there is One God)
• Materialism or the belief that nothing exists except matter and all things can be explained in relation to matter (Genesis says that matter had a beginning)
• Humanism – which says that everything revolves around man and is for man’s glory (Genesis says that God, not man, is the ultimate reality)
• Evolutionism or the theory that all life developed from gradual processes into what we see today (Genesis says “God created”)
• Uniformism or the belief that what’s happening now is just what’s always happened. (Genesis says God intervenes in His creation)

All Major Doctrines Have their Roots in Genesis

• Sovereign election
• Salvation
• Justification by faith
• Believer’s Security
• Separation
• Disciplinary chastisement
• Divine Incarnation
• Rapture of the Church
• Death and Resurrection
• Priesthoods (Aaronic and Melchizedek)
• The Antichrist
• The Palestinian Covenant

Our telescopic view also reveals that Genesis falls into two major parts:

In the first part, we have the creation to Abraham.

In the last part, we have from Abraham to Joseph, the father of Jesus.

In the first part, we’re dealing with major subjects which still to this day occupy the minds of thinking people.

Within the first 11 chapters, we have; in chapters 1 and 2 the Creation, in chapters 3 and 4 the fall of man, in chapters 5 to 9 the flood and chapters 10 and 11 the tower of Babel.

When we get to the second part we’re dealing with personalities or people. Four personalities overshadow this part. In Genesis 12 to 23 we have Abraham the man of faith and Issac the beloved son in Genesis 24 to 26. We have Jacob the chosen son chastened by discipline and punishment in Genesis 27 to 36 and Joseph the suffering son who is eventually glorified in Genesis chapters 37 to 50.

Within these parts, we also see another division or section that has to do with time.

The first 11 chapters cover a minimum of 2000 years. Now, depending on our understanding of Genesis chapter 1, which we’ll come to soon, it could cover hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. This first part could, in fact, cover any period of time in the past.

So, what are we saying? Well from Genesis chapters 1 to 11 the time covered is anything from 2000 years to millions (even billions) of years. However, from Genesis chapter 12 to chapter 50, only 350 years.

Now we can take that a step further because from Genesis 50 throughout the entire Old Testament, and even including the New Testament, we only cover 2000 years!

So, if we’re looking at time, we’re halfway through the Bible’s timeline when we’ve covered the first 11 chapters, and then from chapter 12 through the rest of the Bible we only cover 2000 years.

From a time perspective, we can see where God is placing the most importance.

In the first 11 chapters of Genesis, we cover creation, the birth of the universe, (or the heavens and the earth)  and all that’s in them.

The second part, from chapter 12, deals with man, the nations of man and the person of Jesus Christ.

It would seem like God attaches much more importance to Abraham and you and me than in the entire created, physical universe.

To bring this out a bit further, in the four Gospels (Mattew, Mark, Luke and John) there are 89 chapters. Only 4 of those chapters cover the early life of the Lord Jesus.

85 chapters cover the last 3 years of His life, and within those 85 chapters, 27 chapters cover the last 8 days of His life.

Do you think that God is emphasising the last 8 days of Jesus’ life here on earth more than any other section of the Bible?

And, what do those all-important 27 chapters concentrate on? The death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and that, friends, is the most important part of the Gospel record.

God gave us the Gospels so that you and I would believe that Christ died for our sin and that He was raised for our justification. That’s the all-important, subject of the entire Word of God.

From this, we can believe that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are but an introduction to the Bible and it’s important for us to view it as such.

If Moses were alive today and was listening to all the discussions from theologians, scientists, teachers and the general public about the record he gave of creation he would probably be amused.

He would probably say that all of us have totally missed the point. He would say that he wasn’t attempting in any way to give us a scientific account of creation but that he was telling the account of God dealing with man in sin.

He would say that the story he was telling was of redemption and when we look at his writings as a scientific account of creation we have completely and utterly missed the point.

Moses gave us a matter-of-fact statement of how the universe and all that’s in it came into being.  His purpose was to provide a foundation for what really matters to God, you, me and the rest of the human race and how He has made the way for our redemption from sin.

So, we see in our telescopic view of the book of Genesis that it’s the record of the “family tree” of the Jews. It’s the genealogy of heaven, earth, and man.

Even the new birth is suggested in Genesis 3:15, where a Redeemer is first mentioned.

The outline of these genealogies is:

Gen. 1:1—2:6 The generations of heavens and earth— the divine account of creation and God’s creative work

Gen. 2:7—6:8 The generations of Adam or Man—Adam was created, but children born to him

Gen. 6:9—9:29 The generations of Noah

Gen. 10:1—11:9 The generations of the sons of Noah

Gen. 11:10-26 The generations of the sons of Shem, one of Noah’s sons. These are the gentile or non-Jewish nations

Gen. 11:27—25:11 The generations of Terah a son of Noah and the father of Abraham

Gen. 25:12-18 The generations of Ishmael The son of Abraham by his concubine Hagar the Egyptian

Gen. 25:19—35:29 The generations of Isaac son of Abraham

Gen. 36:1—37:1 The generations of Esau the eldest son of Issac

Gen. 37:2—50:26 The generations of Jacob son of Issac, later named Israel

We could further summarise our birdseye view of Genesis by saying that the first part, chapters 1 to 11 are about sin and the second part, chapters 12 to 50 are about redemption from sin.

In the next episode, we’ll zoom our telescope in a little and take a closer look at the simple but majestic statement that is the first sentence of Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”