LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF GENESIS
Preparing for Lesson 1
A great place to begin any Bible study is at the beginning. So, our first lesson is appropriately titled Introduction to the Book of Genesis. It lays the foundation for everything else in Scripture that follows.
Don’t underestimate the many forces at work today that want you to believe the Bible is outdated and irrelevant in the twenty-first century, and that anything in the supernatural world just isn’t real. There are becoming fewer and fewer of us Bible-believing Americans. When my choices are to place my hope in the goodness of human beings to build a better world, or to place my hope in Jesus Christ, I’m sticking with Jesus.
Sometimes Christians are called “haters” because we do not follow the crowd in doing and believing things we view as sin. Instead, we choose to follow biblical principles. We also must remember that we are called to hate the sin but not the sinner (Jude 1:22-23). It is very easy to view our own sins as being trivial and socially acceptable while being disgusted by the sins of someone else. The truth is that in God’s eyes, there are no trivial sins. We are either perfect as God is perfect or we are sinners. We are not called to judge unbelievers (1 Corinthians 5:12-13) but to be a light in a dark world (Matthew 5:14) by sharing biblical truth in our words and actions. Perhaps one day, a fellow sinner may reach out to you when the Holy Spirit lifts his veil because he knows you will share the truth without being judgmental. And this is how we will win souls for Christ.
And finally, always come to Scripture with a believing heart and an open mind.
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Becky
Lesson 1: Introduction to the Book of Genesis
I love the book of Genesis.
J. Vernon McGee has called Genesis one of two important key books in the Bible (the other being the Gospel of Matthew). It opens the Old Testament and is critical to our understanding of the rest of Scripture. In fact, the New Testament refers back to Genesis over 100 times.
Genesis is a book of beginnings: the beginning of our universe, the beginning of human history and the beginning of our knowledge of and relationship with God. It describes God’s original and very good plan for human beings on His perfect earth as well as His redemptive plan for them after their disobedience brought death into the world. In other words, it reveals things that we could not otherwise know.
Before we begin our detailed study of Genesis, let’s look at some important facts about the book itself.
Authorship
Of course, God is the author of all Scripture, but He worked through various human beings to record His revelations and preserve them for future generations. Those human authors imparted their own personalities and styles into their writing but because their work was superintended by the Holy Spirit, the resulting sixty-six books of the Bible form one cohesive and unified work, inerrant and infallible in the original manuscripts. It was written in three different languages over a period of 1,500 years by no fewer than forty different men who ranged from kings to shepherds and who lived on three different continents.
The authorship of Genesis has traditionally been ascribed to Moses. As Charles Ryrie explains, Genesis is the first book of a larger work: the Pentateuch (the word Pentateuch is a combination of the Greek words penta meaning “five” and teuchos meaning “scroll”, so the literal meaning of the word is Five Scrolls) and Moses identified himself as the writer of the Pentateuch. Of course, another writer, possibly Joshua, recorded Moses’ death in the final chapter of Deuteronomy.
Archaeological discoveries have demonstrated the historical accuracy of the Pentateuch and have brought to light customs practiced in the second millennium BC that were not practiced in the first millennium BC. Examples of these customs include a double portion of an inheritance for the oldest son, the sale of a birthright and the validity of an oral will. How could the author of the Pentateuch have known these things unless he had lived during that time?
Remember that for the first 40 years or so of his life, Moses was a member of the royal household of Pharaoh, and as such, he would have had the finest education available at that time. He likely studied astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, literature, music and art. As we will see when we actually get into the book of Genesis, Moses put this education to work in the writing of God’s Word.
Date
Most commentators estimate that the book of Genesis, along with the remainder of the Pentateuch, was written between 1450 BC and 1410 BC. This date range was based on the likely date of the Hebrew exodus from Egypt. The material contained in the book of Genesis was among that given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai.
We do not know how long after the six days of creation Moses found himself face-to-face with God on Mount Sinai, but I don’t think we should be too tough on him for not passing that information along to us. It boggles my mind to imagine the sights and sounds Moses must have experienced during that time on the mountain.
In any case, just because the date of creation is not revealed in Scripture, that has not stopped many from attempting to calculate the date themselves. One such scholar was Archbishop Ussher, an “illustrious prelate of the Irish Church”, who lived from AD 1580 to 1656. His goal was not necessarily to calculate the date of creation but to determine the amount of time that elapsed between certain events in recorded history. For his starting point, he took the year AD 1, the beginning of the Christian era, and calculated backwards as far as reliable recorded history allowed. He got as far as 4004 BC and then, finding no more available material in the form of either written or inscribed history, he had to stop. Thus, many scholars since the time of Archbishop Ussher have used his dates in their own works.
How to Study Genesis
The book of Genesis naturally falls into two divisions. The first division includes chapters 1 through 11, which primarily focus on important events, such as creation, original sin, the flood, and the confusion of languages at Babel. Chapters 12 through 50 focus on people: Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and the impact their decisions made on the future of mankind on earth.
What We Will Learn
Creation…
Many notable Scripture-loving people throughout the ages have had differing views when it comes to interpreting the six days of creation. We will discuss six of these views and come away from the discussion by reinforcing the fact that we must not go beyond what Scripture actually says.
We all know that at the end of days one through six, Scripture says, “…and there was evening and there was morning…”. But that phrase is not used at the end of the seventh day.
Moses carefully composed this portion of God’s Word through his “majestic arrangement, symmetry and subtle craft of his writing”. He has perfectly divided the six days of creation so the first three days describe the forming of the earth and the last three describe its filling. We will explore this further in thelesson on creation.
Original Sin…
When Eve confirmed to the serpent that God had instructed them not to eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, she added something to God’s words. Whether Eve added the words herself, or was simply repeating what Adam had told her, this is the first example of humankind adding to and subtracting from God’s Word.
The Flood…
When God said that only Noah was righteous in his time, He did not mean that Noah was perfect. Rather, when compared to his contemporaries, he alone lived by faith and sincerely wanted to do God’s will.
Adam died when Noah’s father, Lamech, was 56 years old. Adam had first hand experience concerning God’s wrath and I wonder what he taught his descendants about the need for obedience to God. But just like today, such warnings about God’s coming judgment fall on deaf ears. In fact, Lamech had other sons and daughters besides Noah, and they presumably died in the flood.
These are just a few of the topics we will cover in our study of Genesis. I hope you are all revved up and ready for next week’s lesson: Creation.
Think About it, Talk About It
Why do commentators like J. Vernon McGee call the book of Genesis one of two important key books in the Bible?
What are some reasons to believe that Moses is the human writer of Genesis?
What are the natural divisions of the book of Genesis. How do the divisions differ from one another?
Sources
Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, NASB, AMG Publishers, Inc.
Hughes, R. Kent, Preaching the Word – Genesis
McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible – Genesis through Deuteronomy
Ryrie, Charles, NASB Ryrie Study Bible, Expanded Edition