An overview of Genesis (also means beginning):

1) The primordial history chapters 1-11
2) Abraham cycle 12-25.18
3) Jacob cycle 25.19-36.43
4) Saga of Joseph and his brothers 37-50

-Six days of Creation and the Sabbath-

"In the beginning..."God creates everything by saying "Let there be..." or just "Let the..."

Order of creation in chapter 1-2 is light and day, sky, earth and seas with vegetation, sun and moon, sea monsters and birds, animals and humans "male and female he created them." He gave the humans dominion over everything that has the breath of life, "and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done." This became the hallowed day of rest.

It is curious that the order of creation here is similar to the modern theory of evolution; vegetation, sea creatures, fish, birds, animals, and humans.

-The Garden of Eden-

This is where the book of J is believed to begin, and the order of creation differs. It is a more personal account of God because it illustrates him as being on the earth physically breathing life into the nostrils of mankind. It is more in detail and from a human's perspective. The order of creation is earth and heavens with an underground stream, man, the garden, vegetation, all living creatures, and woman from one of the man's ribs.

-Expulsion from the Garden-

The serpant comes to tempt the humans to eat from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The woman is first to eat from it, but the man also ate. Then they realized they were naked and made clothes from fig leaves. God came and they admitted their sin, but the man blamed the woman who rebuted that the serpant tricked her. God curses them and makes them mortal.

-Cain Murders Abel-

The woman is now referred to as Eve, the mother of Cain and Able, and man is now Adam. "Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground." The Lord favored Abel's offering, and Abel is angry. The Lord tells him to master the desire to sin, but instead Abel lures Cain out to a field and kills him. He lies to the Lord when asked of Abel's whereabouts, and the Lord makes Cain a "fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." He protects his life with the warning that anyone who kills Cain will suffer sevenfold. God puts the mark on Cain who settles east of Eden in Nod.

-Beginnings of Civilization-

Cain marries and has a son, Enoch, which is also the name of the city they create. There is then a list of decendents. Adam and Eve have another son Seth who had a son Enosh. "At that time people began to invoke the name of the Lord."

-From Adam to Noah-

"This is the list of the descendants of Adam." Everyone lives to be incredibly old. I find it interesting that there is another Enoch born from Adams bloodline. The last on the list is Noah who "became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth." Noah is cursed to be the relief for the people.

-The Wickedness of Humankind-

Daughters begin to be born and taken as wives, so the population grows rapidly. God gives an age limit of 120 years, and he noticed the wickedness of the people. "I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created-people together with animals and creeping things adn birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah finds favor in the Lord's eyes.


I am going to be very brief for the rest of the summaries

-The Command to Build an Ark-

Noah builds the ark and God creates a covenant with him to save his family and two, one of each sex, of every living thing on his ark. Noah obeyed everything.

-The Great Flood-

Noah gets everybody on the ark, and the flood came for forty days and forty nights.

-The Flood Subsides-

-God's Resolve Not to Destroy-

Noah builds an alter for the Lord and made offerings to him. God promises "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind."

-The Covenant with Noah-

God blesses Noah and his sons and gives them everything. They are to be fruitful and multiply but never eat flesh with life, or blood. The covenant is God's promise to never kill the earth with water again and is represented by a rainbow.

Then comes the list of Noah's descendents which nations then descend from. Geneology is very important to document in this book. The Lord scatters the people so to complicate the language. Then there are geneologies of Shem and Terah. Terah was the father of Abra whose brother was the father of Lot. The Lord makes a deal with Abram that if he goes where God asks, he and the nation he creates will be blessed. Abram goes. There is a famine so Abram goes to Egypt with his wife, Sarai. He tells her to say she is his sister, not wife, in order to not be killed. The Pharaoh takes her because she is beautiful and the Lord afflicts the Pharaoh's house with plagues. Sarai is returned to Abram. Abram left Egypt with his wife and Lot. They returned to Bethe, but there was not enough land to sustain both families, so Abram tells Lot to leave. Lot goes to the plain of the Jordan river eastward by Sodom, and Abram in Canaan. The Lord gives the land to Abram and promises him a large family.


Sodom and Gomorrah's enemies rebelled and took all goods, including Lot. Abram heard and gathered forces to reclaim the goods and Lot with success. Abram is blessed by Melchizedek, the King of Salem for his success. Abram refuses to take anything from him in return on the advice of God.

God makes a covenant with Abram in a vision and promises him descendants. Abram lays with a slave girl because Sarai insists since she cannot bear children. But she is angry when the girl conceived, so she treats her badly forcing the girl to run away. An angel finds her and tells her to return, and the Lord tells her to name the child, Ishmael. God makes another covenant with Abram that all his sons shall be circumcised when eight days old. Then he blesses Sarai and calls her Sarah. God says she will have a child and they both laugh at this. The son is born and named Isaac, which was the will of God. He is also blessed with being fruitful and numerous.

God is going to rid the earth of Sodom and Gomorrah because they are filled with evil people. Abram pleads him not to by arguing there may be good people there. God agrees not to destroy it for the sake of ten righteous men. Two angels came to Sodom and met Lot. He invites them to stay the night, and they agree. The men from the city gather aroung and yell for Lot to bring them out 'so that we may know them.' Lot begs them to reconsider this wickedness and he offers his two virgin daughters. The men turn then against Lot, but the angels, disguised as men, saved him. They told Lot to gather the good people and get out of the city because the Lord was going to destroy it. He doesn't do this in time, so the angels drug him and his wife and daughters out and told them to flee for their lives without looking back. Lot's wife did and became a pillar of salt. The cities were destroyed with sulfer and fire. Lot settled in a cave with his daughters who worried they were never going to be with a man. They agreed to get Lot drunk and each take turn laying with him. They do this and bear children Moab, the ancestor of the Moabites, and Ben-ammi, the ancestor to the Ammonites.

Isaac is born to Sarah and Abraham and he was circumcised when he was eight days old. Sarah commands Abraham to banish the slave-girl and her child, and God tells him to do as his wife says. A nation is promised to Hagar as well. She sends him out to the wilderness, and God helps him to grow. He gets a wife.

Abram lives in teh Philistines, and makes a covenant with Abimelech so his armies will leave.

God tests Abrahams loyalty by asking him to sacrifice his only son Isaac, but right when he is about to God tells him not to. Sarah dies and is buried. Isaac marries Rebekah. Abraham remarries Keturah and has more sons. Abraham dies and is buried in a cave with Sarah. Ishmael's descendents are listed. Twins Esau and Jacob are born from Isaac. Esau is the oldest and very hairy. He was a hunter, and Jacob was a quiet man. isaac loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Jacob makes Esau sell him his birthright. Isaac settled in Gerar and the story of Abram and Sarai is repeated. Isaac lies and says his wife is his sister. He is granted land and safe passage but is so successful he is asked to leave. He returns to the land of Abraham and digs up teh old wells. The herders fought against him, and the Lord came to Isaac and spoke. He blesses him adn Isaac builds and alter. Esau marries a Hittite Judith, and is trouble for Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac blesses Jacob instead of Esau because Rebekah and Jacob tricked Isaac into thinking he was blessing Esau. His blessing could not be revoked. Esau is pissed and wants to kill Jacob. Rebekah tells Jacob and advises him to go stay with her brother Laban. Isaac blesses Jacob. Rebekah commands him not to marry a Hittite, and Isaac commands him not to marry a Canaanite. Esau marries Ishmael's daughter because she was a Canaanite and it displeased his father.

Jacob has a dream that made him realize the power of god was in the land, so he named it Bethel and made a pillar. Jacob meets Rachel, the daughter of Laban. Laban agrees to give her to him for seven years of service, but at the end of teh seven years he is tricked into marrying Leah, Rachel's older sister. He serve Laban for seven more years to finally marry his love, Rachel. Leah bore Jacob many children, and so did Bilhah and Zilpah. Rachel was very upset, and then God remembered Rachel. She named her son Joseph. Jacob prospers at Laban's expense and asks to leave. He has also made Laban a rich man. Laban's sons were mad that Jacob was the reason their father had anything and has gained wealth from their father. Jacob decides to leave with his family and flocks. Laban catches up, and wants his idols back. Jacob does not know that Rachel has stole them, and when he searches for them, she sits on them and claims she cannot get up because the way of the woman is upon her. Laban leaves empty handed. Jacob and Laban make a covenant and Laban goes home.

Jacob wants to appease Esau and sends him presents. becasue Esau sends message that he is coming with four hundred men, and Jacob is afraid. Jacob leaves and crosses a river where a man fights with him. Jacob does not give in and the man hit on the hip socket. The man gives Jacob a new name of Israel. I think the man is God.

Jacob and Esau meet. Esau embraces him with a kiss and they wept together. Jacob reaches Shecem adn the daughter of Leah, Dinah, is raped. The prince loved her, and wanted her to be his wife. Dinah's brothers were not happy about the rape. The prince agreed to circumcise all the men of the city, and when they were still healing, Dinah's brothers avenge their sister and kill all the men in the city. Jacob returns to Bethel and Rachel dies while giving birth to Benjamin. Isaac dies and Jacob and Esau bury him. Then Esau's descendents are listed and teh clans and kings of Edom that they made.

Joseph dreams of greatness, and his brothers hate him. They want to kill him, but Reuben talks them out of it and suggests faking his death, and Judah wants to sell him which is what they did. They tore his robes and soaked them in blood adn brought them to their father who morned for many days.

Judah marries Tamar and has kids. One of the sons dies, and Judah tells his other son to take the dead man's wife. He refused to fertilize her, and the Lord was not pleased and put him to death. He told Tamar to be a widow in her father's house until Shelah grows up. Judah's wife dies, and he goes to sheer sheep. Tamar finds out where he is going and dresses up in a veil. Judah sees her and thinks she is a prostitute and sleeps with her. Judah tries to find her and no one knows anything about her. Judah finds out, and she gives birth to twins, Perez and Zerah.

Joseph worked for a potiphar whose wife liked Joseph because he was handsome and good-looking. He refused her, so she made accusations that he tried to rape her. He was taken to prison. The Pharaoh finds out Joseph can interpret dreams and releases him from prison to interpret for him. Joseph rises to power, and one day his brothers come to Egypt in search of grain. Joseph wants all the brothers there, so they go and bring Benjamin whose safety Jacob leaves Judah responsible for. When they are all together, Joseph reveals his identity and returns home to a very happy Jacob. Jacob brings his family to Egyp adn settles in Goshen. There is a famine in Egypt adn Jacob blesses Joseph's sons and dies. Joseph forgives his brothers. Genesis ends with the death of Joseph.