GENESIS

WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? - Z

1. “God wrote the Bible.” The Holy Spirit moved prophets like Moses and apostles like
Paul to write about God’s relationship with the world (1 Ti 3:16; 2 Pe 1:20–21).
2. “About 40 people wrote the Bible.” The individual books were written by many
authors over many years in many places to different people groups.

MOSES from Egyptian mose (“is born”)

Moses, (flourished 14th–13th century BCE), wrote the book, Genesis. He was a Hebrew
prophet, teacher, and leader who, in the 13th century BC, delivered his people from Egyptian
slavery. In the Covenant ceremony at Mt. Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were
promulgated, he founded the religious community known as Israel. As the interpreter of these
Covenant stipulations, he was the organizer of the community’s religious and civil traditions.
In the Judaic tradition, he is revered as the greatest prophet and teacher.

According to the biblical account, Moses’ parents were from the tribe of Levi, one of the
groups in Egypt called Hebrews. Originally the term Hebrew had nothing to do with race or
ethnic origin. It was a class of people who made their living by hiring themselves out for
various services. The biblical Hebrews had been in Egypt for generations, but apparently,
they became a threat, so one of the pharaohs enslaved them. Unfortunately, the personal
name of the king we do not know.

According to tradition, Moses’ parents were Amram and Jochebed (whose other children
were Aaron and Miriam). They hid him for three months, then set him afloat on the Nile in a
reed basket daubed with pitch. The child, found by the pharaoh’s daughter while bathing, was
reared in the Egyptian court.

BACKGROUND – ABOUT THE WORK – Z

Genesis: the origin of something, when it begins or starts to exist

It is the first book of the Bible. Its name derives from the opening words: “In the beginning….”
Genesis narrates the primeval history of the world (chapters 1–11) and the patriarchal history of the
Israelite people (chapters 12–50). The primeval history includes the familiar stories of the Creation,
the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. Genesis must thus
be seen as a part of a larger unit of material traditionally understood to comprise the first five books of
the Bible, called the Torah.

Genesis contains extremely old oral and written traditions. Scholars have identified three literary
traditions in Genesis, usually identified as the Yahwist (it used the name Yahweh (Jehovah) for God)
Elohist (God as Elohim, is traceable to the northern kingdom of Israel and was written 900–700
BCE.), and Priestly strains (The Priestly strain, so called because of its cultic interests and regulations
for priests, is usually dated in the 5th century BC). Because each of these strains preserves materials
much older than the time of their incorporation into a written work,

About the structure

Style: Sacred writings and religious narrative

Genre: History or fiction? Myth; folktale; epic; poetry; wisdom literature

Narrator / POV: anonymous, third person point of view

Setting: Ancient Mesopotamia, probably around 2000 - 1800 BCE

Structure: Genesis is divided into two main parts. Chapters 1-11 detail the story of God and
his relationship to the whole word, while chapters 12-50 focus on the story of God's
relationship with Abraham and his family.

The pattern of creation in Genesis 1 follows regularly as: an announcement (And God said),
command (let there be), report (and it was so), evaluation (And God said that it was good),
and temporal framework (And there was evening and morning, the ... day).

Tone: the first part is grandiose-designed, in the second part the tone becomes simpler,
familiar

Characters

GOD

In the Old Testament, God is unique, sovereign, powerful and unchanging. His unchanging
nature is hinted at by his names. In biblical Hebrew, God is called “YAHWEH,” meaning “to
be.” This title is similar to the title God uses with Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” However, the
God presented in the Old Testament does contradict himself at times. In the course of two
chapters in Exodus, God threatens to destroy the Israelites, relents, and then pronounces
himself loving, forgiving, and slow to anger. God grants himself the power of self-
description; he is whoever he says he is. Each biblical writer gives God human
characteristics. For example, God speaks, listens, and understands. Also, God assumes human
form. He casually walks in the garden with Adam and Eve. He is the creator of everything
and considers himself to be the only one worth of worship.

ADAM AND EVE

The first people, both created by God (Adam from dust, Eve from Adam’s rib), they were
created in the image and likeness of God, we can’t see much of a character development (we
barely know their inner characteristics), they disobey God and get punished for it.

THE SERPENT

Craftier than any other wild animal, cunning, and a trickster, it seduced Adam and Eve to eat
the fruit from the forbidden tree causing their banishment from the Garden. He also possesses
the ability to speak. However, there is a debate about whether the serpent in Eden should be
viewed figuratively or as a literal animal.

CAIN AND ABEL

Cain and Abel were brothers, and their story is often cited as an example of sibling rivalry.
This rivalry ultimately led to a tragic event. Cain was jealous of his brother, angry, and he felt
resentment. However, after committing the murder, Cain expressed remorse and fear for his
life, as he believed that others might seek revenge against him. The story of Cain and Abel is
often interpreted allegorically, with Cain representing human sinfulness, jealousy, and
disobedience to God, while Abel symbolizes innocence, righteousness, and faithfulness.

Plot:

- Creation: Video + handout with questions – Z

1. What happened on the second day of creation?

2. Correct the order of creations: people, plants, animals.

 3. When did God create a human?

4. What happened on the fifth day of creation?

5. One sentence is repeated in the text. Which one? What literary device is it?

6. What did God use to make the woman?

7. How many days did God create?

8. What did God create the world from?

9. When did God decide that the light is a day and the dark is a night?

10. What is the opening line of Genesis?

Adam and Eve: Role play

Cain and Abel: Questions

Themes

The creation of the world / The beginning of humanity / The history of Jewish people

God creates the earth out of nothing, a perfect home for Adam and Eve, the first man and
woman. He places them in the perfect Garden of Eden and blesses their relationship, which
marks the beginning of humankind and is the starting point of the history of Jewish people.

The problem of evil

The Old Testament both raises and attempts to answer the question of how God can be good
and all-powerful yet allow evil to exist in the world. From Adam and Eve’s first disobedient
act in the garden, each biblical book affirms that human evil is the inevitable result of human
disobedience, not of God’s malice or neglect. The first chapters of Genesis depict God as
disappointed or “grieved” by human wickedness, suggesting that the humans, rather than
God, are responsible for human evil.

Doubles and opposites

At the beginning of Genesis, God creates the world by dividing it into a system of doubles—
the sun and the moon, light and dark, the land and the sea, and male and female. When Adam
and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, and when Cain kills his brother Abel, good and evil enter the
world. From this point on, the Old Testament writers describe the world as a place of binary
opposites, or sets of two basic opposing forces. These forces include positive and negative,
good and bad, and lesser and greater.

Subject matters

Creation, god, mistrust, disobedience, rebellion

Symbols - Z

Dust symbolizes the idea that humans are part of Creation—that is, they are made by God.
God forms the first human being, Adam, out of the dust, or earth, of the ground and then
breathes life into his nostrils. In fact, “Adam” means “earth”. After Adam eats fruit from the
forbidden tree, God curses Adam with death, telling him “You are dust, and to dust you shall
return”—a reminder that, dependent on God, the human being is susceptible to dissolution
and death.

Fruit—specifically the fruit forbidden by God in the third chapter of Genesis—symbolizes

the temptation to mistrust and disobey God. The fruit growing in the garden of Eden is good,
specifically provided by God for Adam and Eve to eat and delight in. However, God has
forbidden Adam and Eve from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Eve tried the fruit anyway and she thought that she won’t really die as God had warned and
that God simply doesn’t want human beings to gain divine knowledge.

● Heaven/Light = Things of God

● Earth/Darkness = Things of men
● Eden = God’s Garden/Sanctuary from which water flows to the earth beyond (taking
God’s word to the nations)
● Being Naked = Symbol of not having covering for Sin