The
Book of Genesis (from the Latin
Vulgate, in turn borrowed or transliterated from
Greek γένεσις, meaning "origin";
בְּרֵאשִׁית,
Bərēšīṯ, "In [the] beginning"), is the first book of the
Hebrew Bible (the
Tanakh) and the
Christian Old Testament.
The basic
narrative expresses the central theme: God
creates the world and appoints man as his regent, but man proves disobedient and God destroys his world through the Flood. The new post-Flood world is equally corrupt, but God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At God's command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and through the agency of his son Joseph, the
children of Israel descend into Egypt, 70 people in all with their households, and God promises them a future of greatness. Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of
Moses and
the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, successively narrowing in scope from all mankind (the covenant with Noah) to a special relationship with one people alone (Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob).
The book's author or authors appear to have structured it around ten "
toledot" sections (the "these are the generations of... " phrases), but modern commentators see it in terms of a "primeval history" (chapters 1–11) followed by the cycle of Patriarchal stories (chapters 12–50). For
Jews and
Christians alike, the theological importance of Genesis centers on the
covenants linking
God to his
Chosen People and the people to the
Promised Land. Christianity has interpreted Genesis as the prefiguration of certain cardinal Christian beliefs, primarily the need for
salvation (the hope or
assurance of all Christians) and the
redemptive act of
Christ on the Cross as the
fulfillment of covenant promises as the
Son of God. Tradition credits
Moses as the author of Genesis,
Exodus,
Leviticus,
Numbers and most of
Deuteronomy, but modern scholars increasingly see it as a product of the 6th and 5th centuries BC.