Authorship - The tradition that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, called the
Pentateuch, is generally accepted and is sustained by many Bible passages, at least by inference.
They were written during the Forty Years of Israel's Wanderings, the first in order being Genesis.
Name - The book is appropriately named Genesis, signifying a book of beginnings. It opens with
the fundamental truth that God is; it is monotheistic throughout; it sets forth the claim that all that
there is owes its origin to the creative fiat of the One God. It tells of the beginning of the world
and numberless planetary bodies, of all life on the earth, of domestic relations, of institutions, of
the moral order, of sin and its consequences, of the scheme of redemption, of nations, of the
choice of the family from whom the Messianic nation should spring, and of the tribe from which
the Messiah would be given to the world.
Purpose and Religious Character - The records of Genesis cover, from a religious point of view,
the history of the ages from Creation to Moses. It is not, however, a political history of ancient
nations or of the evolutionary and scientific changes in the world or in the progress of the human
race during those pre-historic times. It shows how, after man had fallen into sin, God began to
give him a religion and to unfold to him his divine purpose and plan of salvation. It is a
progressive revelation of the plan of God for the redemption of the human race from sin-a
progressive self-revelation of God which culminates in Jesus Christ.
A Divinely-Inspired Book - Moses wrote the book of Genesis, not from traditions and legends
borrowed from other ancient peoples, but by divine inspiriation. Its inspiration and character as a
divine revelation are authenticated by t he testimony of history and by the witness of Christ.
(Matt. 19:46; 24:37-39; Mark 10:4-9; Luke 11:49-51; 17:26-29,32; John 1:5; 7:21-23; 8:44,56)
General Importance - Without Genesis the Bible would be incomplete; the germ of all the truth
unfolded in the whole Scripture is found in Genesis. The origin and problem of sin and its effect
on man's condition on the earth and in separating him from God, and the divine solutions for
these problems are all found in essence in this book. In a very significant sense, the roots of all
subsequent revelation are planted deep in Genesis. It enters into the fundamental structure of the
New Testament in which it is quoted more than sixty times in seventeen books.
Outline - Genesis falls rather naturally into five chief divisions: I. Creation (1:1-2:25) II. The Fall
and Redemption (3:1-4:7) III. History of the Two Distinct Lines of the Race, Cainite and Sethite,
to the Flood (4:8-7:24) IV. From the Flood to the Call of Abraham (8:1-11:9) V. From Abraham
to the Death of Joseph (11:10-50:26). According to Ussher, the events recorded in Genesis
cover a period of 2,315 years.
