This page was migrated in July 2022 from my older website, biblicalambiguities.net.
31 July 2022
The book of Genesis, as it presently stands, is the prologue to the rest of the Hebrew Bible. It begins with the creation of the universe and the first people, following humankind as a family tree down to the beginnings of the family which would one day become Israel. It is followed by Exodus, which picks up the narrative as the family becomes a nation.
It borrows liberally from older traditions about creation, a Flood, and early humans, repurposing and rewriting those traditions as a backdrop to the story of Israel. It shows signs of editing, in a manner similar to Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers -- bringing together variant versions of early Hebrew traditions and editing them into part of what is know known as the Pentateuch. Rather than going too far into that fascinating story, which perhaps I will one day tell on the Pentateuch page, let us be content for now with a summary.
Chronologically, Genesis covers approximately 2200 years from the creation of the world to the time when Jacob and his family moved to Egypt. In terms of the biblical understanding, the Hebrew Bible covers roughly 4000 years of human history. The majority of that time is covered in Genesis, while all the remaining books cover the last 1800 years. See the Wikipedia article here. See also this article.
*Chapters in this list have been moved over to index-genesis.
The general consensus of modern scholars is that Genesis is not a reliable source for the events it describes. The reasons for this are pretty clear in the case of things like the six-day creation around 4163 BC, or the men who live hundreds of years before and after a global flood. In the cases of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, the issue is a little more involved -- many perfectly sober scholars once thought these were historical figures, but in summary we can note just two things. First, there isn't evidence that any of the characters referred to in Genesis existed. Second, there are a number of historical problems throughout: Abraham living 180 years, nations descending from individual persons, the Elamite Empire that Abraham defeats with a few hundred soldiers, the takeover of Egypt by a dream-reading slave, and so on. The book of Genesis reads as prologue to Exodus, which is, for reasons we won't go into right here, generally viewed as fictional. The lack of historical content in the Primary History appears to go right up to about the time of David. Not that fiction abruptly disappears from the Primary History with David, but's that's another story for another day.
We might first divide Genesis into two parts: 1-11, the "Primeval History", a sort of prologue to Genesis which details how the world and its peoples came to be prior to the eventual formation of Israel, and the stories of four ancestors of what would become the nation of Israel (12-50). The first is Abraham (12-23), who leaves Mesopotamia in faith to wander toward the land of Canaan. His son, Isaac (24-26), has the shortest story. Isaac's son Jacob (27-36) has a dramatic tale of reversals, trickery, polygamy, and the births of his twelve sons, the forefathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. The rest of the book focuses mostly on the story of Joseph, whose descendants will form the basis of the Northern Kingdom.
Genesis begins with two creation stories, which tell of God creating a universe for humans to live in. The first human, and his wife, begin their life in an orchard, from which they are expelled and condemned to agricultural labor and childbearing, respectively. Their oldest son, Cain, kills their second-born, Abel. Cain goes on to be the head of a lineage of obscure figures whose stories (for a few of them) and names (for the rest) are briefly sketched.
After the digression with Cain, the main line of the narrative picks up with Adam's third son, Seth, the first of a line of improbably long-lived persons leading eventually to Noah. Noah and his family are the sole survivors of a global deluge which wipes out all terrestrial beings with the exception of those saved on a boat. After the Flood, Noah's three sons themselves have sons, who are depicted as the ancestors of the world's various nations. The main line of the narrative follows the descendants of Noah's eldest (?) son, Shem, who fathers a lineage which eventually leads to Abraham, the ancestor of the Israelites and various neighboring peoples.
Abraham leaves Mesopotamia, trusting a god who leads him to a land he does not know. Abraham goes down to Canaan with his nephew Lot, although after some conflict the two of them separate. Lot lives in Sodom, where he is captured in a war with the Elamite empire. Abraham rescues Lot, and is blessed by the priest Melchizedek. God makes a covenant with Abraham to give him the land of Canaan. Abraham impregnates his Egyptian slave Hagar, producing his first-born son Ishmael. Thirteen years later, Abraham circumcises the males of his household in anticipation of the birth of his son Isaac. Angelic visitors promise the birth of Isaac, and God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham lies about his wife Sarah to protect himself from the Philistine ruler Abimelech. Isaac is born, and Abraham expels Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. Abraham is tested by God's command to sacrifice his son Isaac. Sarah dies, and Abraham arranges for her burial.
A fairly small amount of material about Isaac moves the reader from the Abraham stories to the Jacob stories. In his old age, Abraham finds a wife for Isaac (24). Abraham dies, and Isaac gives birth to Esau and Jacob (25). Isaac lies about his wife to protect himself from the Philistine king Abimelech (26).
Jacob is a trickster, and struggles in life. He begins his adult life by taking Esau's birthright (27). Jacob runs off to Padan Aram, and on the way sets up a sacred site at Bethel (28). Jacob marries two sisters, both daughters of his uncle Laban, and they become rivals, each trying to have more children than the other (29). They get their female slaves involved as surrogate parents. Jacob becomes wealthy due to an unusual compensation scheme he sets up with his uncle Laban (30). As Laban and his sons become less friendly toward Jacob, Jacob flees with his wives toward Canaan. Laban chases Jacob down, rebukes him, and the two men establish a covenant (31). As Jacob prepares to meet his estranged brother Esau again, he is injured in a mysterious wrestling match (32). The meeting goes better than Jacob might have feared, and Jacob settles in Shechem (33). Jacob's daughter Dinah is violated by a powerful local man, and in revenge two of her brothers massacre the town of Shechem (34). Jacob builds an altar at Bethel, and is named Israel. Isaac and Rachel die (35).
A digression on Edomites follows (36), and then the narrative moves to focus on Joseph.
Joseph, Jacob's favorite, has dreams of superiority and is sold into slavery in Egypt (37). A digression follows about Judah's illicit (and unintentional) sexual relations with his daughter-in-law Tamar (38). Joseph, now a steward of an Egyptian official named Potiphar, is accused of attempted rape of Potiphar's wife, and imprisoned (39). Joseph successfully interprets dreams in prison (40), and gains his freedom by interpreting a dream of Pharaoh, who places him in authority over all Egypt (41). A famine strikes, and Joseph's brothers come to Egypt to buy grain (42). The brothers must return for more grain, and begin to interact with Joseph, whose identity they do not know at this point (43). Joseph forces a crisis by framing Benjamin for theft (44), and finally reveals his identity to his brothers (45). The family of Jacob, now numbering seventy men, journey to Egypt to live there (46). Jacob and company enter Egypt and are allotted land for their flocks, while Joseph secured the slavery of the Egyptian people to the Pharaoh (47). In extreme old age, Jacob blesses Joseph's sons (48), and then his own twelve sons, before he dies (49). In the final chapter of Genesis, the Israelites mourn for Jacob, Joseph's good relations with his brothers continue after Jacob's death, and finally Joseph himself dies (50).
But he becomes the father of twelve sons, who would one day be the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel. The most significant of these sons is Joseph, forefather of the Northern Kingdom. His father's favorite, he is hated by his brother's, who sell him as a slave. He goes from success as a steward to failure as a prisoner, but is raised by God to become the ruler of Egypt. Fleeing a famine, Joseph's brothers and father eventually move to Egypt, where they are treated well by the Pharaoh. Joseph dies, and Genesis comes to an end.
As with other pages migrated from biblicalambiguities.net, this page may contain material paraphrased or even outright copied without direct attribution from the KJV, RV, ASV, JPS (1917), WEB, NHEB, Kittel's BH, the pre-1923 volumes of the ICC series, or the commentaries on Genesis of Dillmann, Skinner, and Driver. More details on this policy can be found here: biblicalambiguities-general-disclaimer and biblicalambiguities-translation-disclaimer.
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