Key facts about the Book of Genesis

• Author:  Moses
• Date Written:  1450 – 1410 BC
• Original Audience:  People of Israel
• Geographical Location:  Middle East
• Purpose: To record God’s creation of the world and the beginning of the Hebrew people (Israelites), whom God chose to set apart to worship Him and to be a witness for him in the world.
• Note:  the names of people in the Bible are descriptive of who they are.  God sometimes renamed people – Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel.  That is where the name Israel comes from.

High-Level Outline of Genesis

1. Story of Creation (1:1-2:3)
2. The Fall and Repercussions (2:4-5:32)
3. The Flood and its Aftermath (6:1-11:32
4. The Story of Abraham (12:1-25:18)
5. The Story of Isaac (25:19-28:9)
6. The Story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah, and Jacob’s 12 sons (28:10-36:43)
7. The Story of Joseph (one of Jacob’s 12 sons) and how Jacob’s whole family ended up in Egypt

Key Verses in Genesis

• Third Mill:  https://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/46698.  Third Mill also explains that there was death before the Fall for plants and animals, but not for humans.
• Apologetics Press:  https://apologeticspress.org/were-all-men-vegetarians-before-the-flood-1257/.
• Chabad.org:  https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3087361/jewish/Are-You-Sure-Meat-Was-Forbidden-Until-After-the-Flood.htm

Genesis 2:24 God instituted the marriage relationship. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”  Note that the word translated “wife” in this verse is אִשָּׁה, phonetically pronounced “ish-shaw.” This word means woman, wife, female.  In other words, the same exact word for wife is the same word for female.  This is true of the Greek word for woman/wife in the New Testament, as well.  Context is the key to understand whether the passage means “woman” or “wife”.  The important point is, however, that because the same word is used for both, it means that a wife is always a biological female according to God’s perfect design.

HEBREW ishshah: woman, wife, female Original Word: אִשָּׁה Part of Speech: Noun Feminine Transliteration: ishshah Phonetic Spelling: (ish-shaw’) Definition: woman, wife, female (from Biblehub.com)

GREEK guné: a woman Original Word: γυνή, αικός, ἡ Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: guné Phonetic Spelling: (goo-nay’) Definition: a woman Usage: a woman, wife, my lady.

Genesis 3:20 – Hebrew words are often much more meaningful than we realize and lose some of that meaning when translated into English – Adam and Eve, for example. (from Strong’s Concordance on Biblehub.com)

The Hebrew word translated Adam means “man, mankind”

Original Word: אָדָם
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: adam
Phonetic Spelling: (aw-dawm’)
Definition: man, mankind

The Hebrew word translated Eve means “’life’, the first woman”

Original Word: חַוָּה
Part of Speech: Proper Name Feminine
Transliteration: Chavvah
Phonetic Spelling: (khav-vaw’)
Definition: “life”, the first woman

Genesis 9:5-6 God demands an accounting for taking anyone’s life.  God makes it abundantly clear in these verses that no one is to take another life.  Since he also has said that he personally has knit us together in our mother’s wombs, that would include human fetuses.  “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13-16)

Genesis 9:7-17 God’s Covenant with Noah – the rainbow.  God covenants with Noah never again to destroy all living things by flood.  This is a unilateral covenant – God requires nothing of Noah.   The sign of the covenant God gives is the rainbow.  So whenever you see a rainbow, remember what it truly stands for.   

Genesis 12:1-3 God makes a promise to Abram.  Here God calls Abram and tells him to leave everything and go to a country that God will show him.  God makes a promise to Abram that he will make him into a great nation and bless him and that all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through him.  God also says that he will bless whoever blesses Abram and curse whoever curses Abram.  This promise has never been rescinded and is in effect today.  

Clearly God is alluding to the future Messiah, Jesus.  But he has blessed all the peoples of the earth through the Jews in other significant ways through their contributions to medicine, science, technology, the arts, and every category of human endeavor.   (For specifics, see https://www.jinfo.org/.)  

Genesis 45:5-8a It was God who sent Joseph to Egypt.  “Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping.  But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

Genesis 49:10-12 Jacob’s blessing of his son, Judah, is a messianic prophecy about the Messiah being from the tribe of Judah.

¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
    and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
¹¹ He will tether his donkey to a vine,
    his colt to the choicest branch;
he will wash his garments in wine,
    his robes in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes will be darker than wine,
    his teeth whiter than milk.