A guide to Genesis

Who wrote Genesis, and when?

Traditionally Moses. Traditionally 1400s BC; events span from creation to about 1800 BC.

Genesis does not name its author. Jewish and Christian tradition has long credited Moses with the first five books of the Bible, and that is the view reflected in the way the New Testament refers to them. On that view, Genesis was written in the 1400s BC, during Israel's years in the wilderness. Many scholars think the book reached its final form later, drawing on older written and spoken sources that were gathered and shaped over centuries. Christians hold both views, and the book's message does not depend on settling the question. What is not in doubt is that the events it describes happened long before the writer's own day, stretching from creation to the death of Joseph in Egypt, around 1800 BC by traditional dating.

Who was Genesis written to?

Israel in the wilderness after the exodus, a nation that needed to know where it came from and why God had chosen it.

The first readers were the people of Israel after the exodus from Egypt. They were a nation only a generation old, camped in the wilderness or standing at the border of Canaan. Most of them had been born as slaves or as the children of slaves. They knew the name of the LORD from the plagues and the Red Sea, but they needed to know who this God was before Egypt. Genesis told them that their God was the maker of heaven and earth, that the ground they were about to enter had been promised to Abraham centuries earlier, and that the strange story of their family (Jacob's sons, the sale of Joseph, the move to Egypt) had been guided by God all along. It gave a homeless people a past and a reason to trust God for the future.

What was happening at the time?

Genesis was written for a people who had just been freed from Egypt and were about to enter Canaan. It answers the questions a new nation asks: who is our God, how did the world get this way, and why us? It roots Israel in the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and explains how the family ended up in Egypt in the first place.

Why was Genesis written?

To show that the God who rescued Israel is the Creator of everything, and that his promise to bless all nations through Abraham is the storyline of the whole Bible.

Genesis was written to answer the questions every people asks: where did we come from, what went wrong, and who is our God? Its first eleven chapters set the world stage, showing a good creation ruined by human rebellion and a God who judges but keeps making a way forward. From chapter 12 onward the focus narrows to one family. God promises Abraham land, descendants and a blessing that will reach every nation on earth, and the rest of the book follows that promise through Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, often against the odds. The book wants its readers to trust the promise-keeping God even when the promise looks impossible. In the wider story of the Bible, Genesis plants the seeds that grow into Israel, the coming of Jesus and the renewal of all creation.

How to read Genesis today

Read the first three chapters slowly, because almost everything later in the Bible looks back to them. Then read chapter 12, where God calls Abraham, and notice how often the words land, offspring and blessing come up after that. Watch for the pattern of God choosing the younger or weaker person rather than the one everybody expects. Do not force the opening chapters to answer modern scientific questions they were not written to address; Christians hold a range of views on how creation and science fit together, and the text's main point is who made the world and why. The family stories are often ugly, with lies, favouritism and violence, and the book does not tidy them up. As you read, pray for the same trust Abraham showed, and ask God to help you see his patience in your own story.

The key verse in Genesis

I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Passages worth knowing in Genesis

• Genesis 1–2

  Creation

  God makes everything good and gives humanity his image and a task.

• Genesis 3

  The fall

  Sin enters, and the first promise of a rescuer is spoken.

• Genesis 6–9

  Noah and the flood

  Judgment and grace side by side, sealed with a covenant.

• Genesis 12:1-3

  The call of Abram

  The promise that shapes the rest of Scripture.

• Genesis 22

  The binding of Isaac

  God provides the sacrifice; a picture of the cross.

• Genesis 50:20

  Joseph forgives his brothers

  What people meant for evil, God meant for good.

The main themes of Genesis

• Creation
• Sin and its spread
• Covenant promise
• Blessing to the nations
• God’s providence

An outline of Genesis