Books of the Bible

The Book of Genesis

Old Testament · The Law · Genre: Narrative and law · Author: Traditionally Moses · Chapters: 50

Genesis is the book of beginnings, the opening of the whole Bible. It tells how God made the heavens and the earth, how sin and death entered the world, and how God began his rescue by calling one family, Abraham's, through whom he promised to bless every nation.

Start reading: Genesis chapter 1

A key verse

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Genesis 1:1 (KJV)

The setting and background of Genesis

Genesis is the first book of the Bible and the first of the five books traditionally called the Law, or the Pentateuch, which the ancient tradition of both Judaism and the church ascribes to Moses. Its name comes from a Greek word meaning origin or beginning, a fitting title for the book that opens with the origin of the universe and closes with the origin of the twelve tribes of Israel. It reaches from the creation of the world to a family settled in Egypt.

The book falls naturally into two very different parts. The first eleven chapters, sometimes called the primeval history, deal in sweeping strokes with the whole human race: creation, fall, flood, and the nations. From chapter twelve the pace slows and the focus narrows to four generations of one family, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, told with the intimacy of a family saga. The recurring phrase these are the generations of stitches the whole together as a single unfolding story under God's hand.

Genesis was written to tell Israel, and every later reader, where they came from and to whom they belonged. It grounds the identity of God's people in the God who made all things and who bound himself by promise to their ancestors. As the foundation of the Bible, it introduces the themes the rest of Scripture will develop and the promises the rest of Scripture will trace toward their fulfillment in Christ.

The story and structure of Genesis

Genesis falls into two great movements. The first eleven chapters sweep across the beginning of everything: the creation of the world, the making of humanity in God's image, the garden, the fall into sin, the murder of Abel, the flood in the days of Noah, and the scattering of the nations at Babel. These chapters answer humanity's deepest questions about who God is, what the world is for, and why it is so beautiful and so broken at once.

From chapter twelve the lens narrows to one family through whom God will heal the whole world. God calls Abram out of Ur, renames him Abraham, and binds himself by covenant to give him a land, countless descendants, and a blessing that will reach all peoples. Abraham believes God, and it is counted to him for righteousness, a line the New Testament will treasure as the pattern of faith.

The promise then passes, always by grace and never by merit, through a chain of chosen but flawed people: Isaac the son of laughter, born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age; Jacob the deceiver, wrestled into a new name, Israel; and Jacob's twelve sons, who become the fathers of the twelve tribes. God works his purpose through jealousy, deceit, barrenness, and delay, never hindered by human weakness.

The final quarter of the book belongs to Joseph, sold into slavery in Egypt by his own brothers, yet raised by God to save many lives in a famine. His words to the brothers who wronged him give the book its final wisdom: what they meant for evil, God meant for good. Genesis ends with the family of Israel safe in Egypt, waiting for the deliverance that Exodus will bring.

Structurally the book is organized around the recurring phrase these are the generations of, which threads its way from the heavens and the earth through Adam, Noah, and the patriarchs, presenting the whole as a family history under God's hand. It moves from a garden lost to a coffin in Egypt, but with the promise of God still alive and pressing forward.

The great themes of Genesis

Key passages in Genesis

Genesis in the sweep of Scripture

Genesis is the seedbed of the whole Bible. Nearly every great theme that follows, sin and grace, covenant and promise, sacrifice and substitution, exile and homecoming, is planted here. The promises to Abraham set the trajectory that runs through Israel's history, the prophets, and into the New Testament, where Jesus is named the son of Abraham. To read Genesis is to see the first chapter of a story whose last chapter, in Revelation, restores the tree of life and the presence of God that were lost in Eden.

Where Christ is in Genesis

Genesis holds the Bible's first promise of a Saviour, that the seed of the woman would one day crush the serpent's head, spoken in the ruins of Eden. God's pledge to bless all nations through Abraham points forward to Jesus, born of Abraham's line, in whom that blessing came to the whole world. Even the near-sacrifice of Isaac, where a father offers his beloved son and God provides a substitute, quietly anticipates the cross, where God gave his own Son so that we might be spared.

How to read Genesis well

Read Genesis as the foundation the rest of Scripture builds on, not merely as ancient history but as the opening of your own story. Watch how God keeps his promises across long delays and many failures, and notice that his purposes advance through ordinary, imperfect families like the ones we know. Let the goodness of creation stir worship, let the fall explain the ache in the world, and let the covenant with Abraham assure you that God has been working to bless all nations, including you, from the very beginning.

Explore more: Read Genesis · All 66 books of the Bible · The whole Bible