The book of Genesis

Main theme

God creates a very good world, man ruins it through sin, and God answers with a promise: he chooses one family — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph — through whom all the families of the earth will be blessed (12:3).

Outline

1. Genesis 1-11 — The origins of humanity

   Creation, fall, flood and Babel: sin spreads, but God does not give up on his creation.

2. Genesis 12-25 — Abraham, the father of faith

   God calls Abram, promises him a land, descendants and a blessing for all nations, and gives him Isaac.

3. Genesis 25-36 — Isaac and Jacob

   The promise passes to Jacob, the cunning twin whom God transforms into Israel, father of the twelve tribes.

4. Genesis 37-50 — Joseph and the descent into Egypt

   Sold by his brothers, Joseph becomes governor of Egypt, saves his family and settles them in Goshen.

Key points

• God creates everything by his word and makes man and woman his image, called to govern creation (1:26-27).
• The fall brings in sin and death, but God at once announces the victory of the woman’s offspring over the serpent: this is the “protoevangelium” (3:15).
• The flood judges a corrupt world; Noah, who “found grace,” is saved with his family, and God promises never again to destroy the earth by water (6:8; 9:11-13).
• The call of Abram is the hinge of the book: a land, descendants, and a blessing for all the families of the earth (12:1-3).
• Abram is declared righteous by faith, before any work and before circumcision (15:6; Rom 4:3).
• On Mount Moriah, God provides a ram in place of Isaac: the principle of substitution is laid down (22:8, 13-14).
• Jacob the schemer is broken and transformed by God at the Jabbok: he becomes Israel, father of the twelve tribes (32:28; 49:28).
• The story of Joseph reveals providence: God turns the evil done by men into good in order to save many people (50:20).

Jesus in Genesis

From 3:15 on, Genesis announces a descendant of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head: this is the first announcement of the gospel. The promise then narrows to the offspring of Abraham, whom Paul identifies as Christ (Gal 3:16), and then to the tribe of Judah, from which Shiloh will come (49:10). Isaac carrying the wood toward Moriah, the ram offered in his place, Melchizedek the priest-king (Heb 7:1-3), and Joseph, rejected and then exalted to save his own, all foreshadow Jesus.

Did you know?

• Methuselah is the oldest man in the Bible: 969 years (5:27). His grandson Noah was 600 when the flood came (7:6).
• Pharaoh gave Joseph an Egyptian name, Zaphnath-paaneah, and a wife, Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On (41:45).
• Joseph made them swear to carry his bones out of Egypt: Moses took them at the Exodus, and they were buried at Shechem (50:25; Exod 13:19; Josh 24:32).