Portal:Bible/Featured article/May, 2007

Genesis is the first book of the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Old Testament. As Jewish tradition considers it to have been written by Moses, it is also called The First Book of Moses. In Hebrew, it is called בראשית (B'reshit or Bərêšîth), after the first word of the text in Hebrew (meaning "in the beginning"). Genesis begins with an account of God's creation of the world, Adam, Eve, and creatures. It describes their banishment from the Garden of Eden, followed by an account of two brothers, Cain and Abel. The text goes on to relate events surrounding the account of Noah and the great flood, and building of the Tower of Babel. Later, it records Abraham's acceptance by God, and of God's promise to him that through his seed all people on earth would be blessed (22:3). The book records the doings of his son Isaac, grandsons, Esau and Jacob (known as Israel), and great grandson Joseph, as well as their families. It ends with Jacob's descendants, the Israelites, in Egypt, in favour with the Pharaoh.

Genesis contains the historical presupposition and basis of the national religious ideas and institutions of Israel, and serves as an introduction to its history, laws, and customs. It is the composition of a writer (or set of writers, see documentary hypothesis), who has recounted the traditions of the Israelites, combining them into a uniform work, while preserving the textual and formal peculiarities incident to their difference in origin and mode of transmission.

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