Genesis

Bereshit = Hebrew name for Genesis

I. The primeval history 1.1–11.26

A. Creation and violence before the flood 1.1–6.4
B. Re-creation through flood and multiplication of humanity 6.5–11.9

II. Transitional genealogy bridging from Shem (the Primeval History) to 11.10-26 Abraham (Ancestral History)

III. The ancestral history 11.27–50.26

A. Gift of the divine promise to Abraham and his descendants 11.27–25.11
B. The divergent destinies of the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac (Jacob/Esau) 25.12–35.29-C. The divergent destinies of the descendants of Esau and Jacob/Israel 36.1–50.26

Genesis 1 (1-31): P SOURCE

First day: God created light and dark; day and night; good and bad
Second day: God created the sky
Third day: God created the Earth; Seas; vegetation
Fourth day: God created the Sun and Moon
Fifth day: God created water animals and birds with the message to be fruitful and multiply
Sixth day: God created wild animals; Then, God made humankind to reflect his image and rule over the Earth. Male and female were created at the same time: He blessed them to: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

Genesis 2 (1-4a): P SOURCE

Seventh day: God blessed the land and then rested

Genesis 2 (4b-25): J SOURCE

Earth is created in six days and God rests on the seventh.
God forms man from dust
God plants a garden in Eden and puts Man there, as well as planting trees for food, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil
A river flows out of Eden and divides into four branches: 1) Pishon which flows around the whole land of Havilah which contains gold (which is good) and bedllium and onyx stone. 2) Gihon: Flows around the whole land of Cush. 3) Tigris which flows east of Assyria. 4) Euphrates.
God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. God told him he can eat any tree’s fruit in the garden besides that of the tree of knowledge or else he shall die.
God felt bad that the man was alone so he formed every animal out of the ground.
God felt bad he had no partner so he put the man to sleep and then took one of his ribs and turned it into a woman. The man coined the term woman. The man and woman were both naked and unashamed.

Genesis 3 (1-24): J SOURCE

A talking serpent approaches the woman and tells her she should eat the fruit to gain the wisdom of God
The woman grabs the fruit and gives some to the man. They eat the fruit and essentially gain self-awareness. They immediately become ashamed of their nakedness and make clothes for themselves.
They then hear God coming and hide from him.
God finds them and asks why they’re hiding.
The man says its because they are self-conscious from being naked.
God asks how he knew they were naked and then asks if they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The man tells God that the woman gave him the fruit.
The woman tells God that the serpent tricked her into eating it.
God then tells the serpent he is the most cursed among all animals and that the woman’s offspring shall strike his head and the serpent shall then strike the heel of her offspring.
God then tells the woman he will increase the pangs of childbearing and she shall be subservient to man.
God then tells the man he is essentially a slave to the land he tills.
The man names his wife Eve, for she is the mother of all living.
God makes clothes of skins for the man and Eve.
Then God realizes the man will probably try to steal from the tree of life given that he has knowledge of good and evil. For this reason, he sends the man east of Eden (ha ha ha) and places a cheribum (essentially a sphinx) and flaming sword to guard the tree of life.

Genesis 4 (1-26): J SOURCE

Eve births Cain, and later Abel
Cain is tiller of the ground while Abel is keeper of sheep
Cain brought an offering of fruit from the ground he tills to the Lord, and Abel brought forth the first sheep of his flock.
The Lord liked Abel’s offering but not Cain’s
Cain became angry so God told him not to be because anger is a sin
Cain told Abel that they should go out to the field. Cain then killed Abel in the field.
God asked Cain where Abel was.
Cain said “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”
God knew Cain killed Abel so he cursed him; From then on, when Cain tilled the ground, it would no longer yield him strength; Now, he would be a slave to the ground.
Cain told God that anyone who meets him may kill him, since he’s a fugitive to the Earth.
God told Cain that anyone who kills him will be punished sevenfold.
God then marked Cain so no one would kill him.
Then Cain went away from the presence of God and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden
Cain got a wife, and she birthed a son named Enoch.
Cain then built a city and called it Enoch.
Enoch had a son named Irad.
Irad had a son named Mehujael.
Mehujael had a son named Methushael.
Methushael had a son named Lamech.
Lamech had two wives; Adah and Zillah.
Adah bore Jabal (ancestor of those who bore tents and had livestock) and Jubal (ancestor of those who play lyre and pipe)
Zillah bore Tubal-cain (who made bronze and iron tools) and Naamah (a woman)
Lamech told his wife that he killed a man for wounding him and a young man for striking him. He then said he assumes he is avenged seventyfold in the event of his murder, since Cain is avenged sevenfold.
Adam and Eve had a son named Seth because apparently God wanted Eve to replace Abel.
Seth had a son named Enosh.
Here is the point where people began to invoke the name of the Lord (Yahweh).

Genesis 5 (1-31): R SOURCE

Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born.
Adam lived 800 years after Seth was born and had other sons and daughters.
Adam lived to be 900.
Seth become father of Enosh at 175 years old.
Seth lived 807 years after Enosh was born and had other sons and daughters.
Seth lived for 912 years.
Enosh was 90 years old when Kenan was born.
Enosh lived 815 years after Kenan was born and had other sons and daughters.
Enosh lived a total of 905 years.
Kenan was 70 years old when Mahalalel was born.
Kenan lived 840 years after Mahalalel was born and had other sons and daughters.
Kenan lived a total of 910 years.
Mahalalel was 65 years old when Jared was born.
Mahalalel lived 830 years after Jared was born and had other sons and daughters.
Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years.
Jared was 162 years old when Enoch was born.
Jared lived 800 years after Mahalalel was born and had other sons and daughters.
Jared lived a total of 962 years.
Enoch was 65 years old when Methuselah was born.
Enoch walked with God 300 years after Methuselah was born and had other sons and daughters.
Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God and then he was no more because God took him.
Methuselah was 187 years old when Lamech was born.
Methuselah lived 782 years after Lamech was born and had other sons and daughters.
Methuselah was 969 years old when he died.
Lamech was 162 years old when Noah was born.
Jared lived 595 years after Noah was born and had other sons and daughters.
Jared lived a total of 777 years.
Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth after turning 500.

Genesis 6 (1-8): J SOURCE

Sons of God mate with women.
God limits the number of years those children can live to be 120.
Products sons of God and humans = Warriors of renown
The Nephilim = race of giants
God saw that humans are wicked and evil and regretted making them, except for Noah

Genesis 6 (9-22): P SOURCE

Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham, and Japeth
God told Noah that He was going to make an end to all flesh since they’ve grown corrupt.
He instructed Noah to make an ark of cypress wood for He is to flood Earth and everything on it shall die.
God then tells Noah he will establish his covenant with him and Noah is to put his family, every kind of food, and a male and a female of each and every animal onto his ark which shall be spared from the floods.
Noah followed God’s instructions.

Genesis 7 (1-5): J SOURCE

The Lord told Noah to go into the ark with his household and seven pairs of all animals, for in seven days he will send rain on earth for forty days and forty nights and everything he created shall die.

Genesis 7 (6): P SOURCE

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood occured.

Genesis 7 (7): J SOURCE

Noah and his sons and his wive and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the flood.

Genesis 8: ALTERNATES BETWEEN J & P

After all living creatures were dead, God made a wind blow over the earth to stop the flooding.
After around a year since the wind, Noah sent out a raven and it went to and fro until the water dried up.
Then he sent out a dove to test if the waters had dried, but the dove returned, meaning the land is still uninhabitable.
He waited a week, and then sent the dove out again. This time, the dove came back with an olive branch, meaning that the waters had subsided from the earth.
Then he waited another week, and sent the dove out again. This time the dove did not return.
God instructed Noah to leave the Ark along with all of its inhabitants.
Noah built an altar to the Lord and offered every animal to him (?)
God was so pleased by this offering that he said he shall never again curse the ground or destroy every living creature.

Genesis 9 (1-17): P SOURCE

God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to be fruitful and multiply and gave them the Earth.
God explained what an eye for an eye means.
God told Noah he is establishing his covenant with him and with his descendants after him.
God explained that he set his bow in the clouds and that shall be a sign of the covenant between him and all flesh on Earth.

Genesis 9 (18-27): J SOURCE

Noah’s sons = Shem, Ham, and Japeth
Ham’s son = Canaan
Noah got drunk and lay naked in his tent
Ham ratted out his father’s drunk nakedness to his brothers
Shem and Japheth took a garment and covered their father and walked with him while facing away from him as not to see his nakedness
When Noah awoke and found out Ham ratted him out, he cursed his son Canaan and made him slave to his other sons.

Genesis 10: ALTERNATES BETWEEN J & P

Japheth’s descendants = Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubah, Meshech, Tiras
Gomer’s descendants: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah
Javan’s descendants: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, Rodanim

Ham’s descendants = Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan
Cush’s descendants = Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca
Raamah’s descendants = Sheba and Dedan
Cush became the father of Nimrod; the first on earth to become a mighty warrior/a mighty hunter before the Lord
Canaan's sons = Sidon and Heth. Canaan became the father of the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites.
The Canaanites spread abroad, extending from Sidon in the direction of Gerar, as far as Gaza and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
Shem’s descendants = Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.
Aram’s descendants = Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash
Arpachshad’s son = Eber
Eber’s sons = Peleg and Joktan
Joktan’s sons = Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab

Genesis 11 (1-9): J SOURCE

Whole earth had one language
As humans migrated east, they settled in the plain in the land of Shinar
They tried to build a city and a tower to heaven to make a name for themselves
God realized they would soon become unstoppable, thus he scrambled all of the humans to different locations across the earth and gave each of them a different language
City where this occurred was named Babel

Genesis 12

God blessed Abram (Abraham) and told him to go create a great nation with his guidance
Abram, his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot left Haran and went to the land of Canaan.
When they got to Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh.
At the time of their arrival, Canaan belonged to the Caananites, but God told Abram that his offspring would be granted the land now.
Then, he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched a tent with Bethel on the East and Ai on the east.
Abram built the Lord an altar and invoked the name of the Lord.
Abram then journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt.
When entering Egpyt, he told Sarai that the egyptians will kill him to take his wife since she is so beautiful, so she must lie and pretend to be his sister so they wouldn’t kill him and he could offer her up in exchange for goods.
The plan worked, and Abram was granted slaves and livestock from the the officials of Pharaoh.
The Lord afflicted Pharaoh with great plagues because he married Sarai.
So Pharaoh called Abram and asked why he lied about Sarai being his sister and gave Sarai back to him.
So the Pharaoh’s men kicked out Abram.
Now that Abram was rich with livestock, slaves, silver, and gold, he ventured back to Negeb with Sarai and Lot.
When he passed the altar he made on the way there, he called on the name of the Lord.
Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents, and the land could not support them both.
Thus, a strife occured between the herders of Abram’s livestock and that of Lot’s.
Then, Abram told Lot that they shouldn’t strife and should seperate.
Thus, Lot went to Jordan and settled as far as Sodom and Abram settled in Canaan. The people in sodom were great sinners.
The Lord told Abram that all the land he can see is his and his offspring’s. He will have lots and lots of offspring.
Abram moved his tent to the oaks of Mamre in Hebron and built an Altar to the Lord.

Genesis 14: J SOURCE

The Canaanite kings (King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, and King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and Zoar, the king of Bela) had served Chedorlaomer for 12 years but rebelled in the 13th.
In response, Chedorlaomer and his allies (King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, and King Tidal of Goiim) invaded the Jordan valley defeating several groups along the way (Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, Horites)
The invading kings then defeat the five Canaanite kings in the Valley of Siddim (The Dead Sea)
The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah flee and their cities are looted.
Lot, Abram’s nephew (who lives in Sodom) is captured along with his possessions.
A survivor of the raid informs Abram of Lot’s capture
Abram gathers 318 trained men from his household and allies himself with Aner, Eschol, and Mamre, his Amorite neighbors
Abram pursues the invaders as far as Dan (in the north of Israel), attacks by night, and defeats them.
He retrieves Lot along with all the captives and their goods.
On Abram’s return, his met by Melchizedek, the king of Salem (Jerusalem) and El Elyon, the priest of God Most High
Melchizedek brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram
Abram gives Melchizedek a tenth (tithe) of everything he recovered from Sodom
King Bera of Sodom offers Abram the recovered goods, asking only for the people back
Abram refuses, saying he will not take even a thread of sandal strap from Sodom so that no one can take credit for his wealth
Abram allows his allies (Aner, Ehscol, Mamre) to take their share, but he himself accepts nothing

Genesis 15: J SOURCE

God came to Abram in a vision
Abram asked God why he’s still childless and complained about a slave having to become his heir
Abram sacrificed some animals for God
God told Abram that his offspring shall be alien to a land that is not theirs and shall be slaves there, but in four hundred years he will bring judgement upon their land and they shall come out with great possessions. As for Abram, he shall be buried in a good old age and his descendants shall return to his land four generations later to continue the lineage of the Amorites
The Lord then made a covenant with Abram saying his descendants shall be granted the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Jebusites, and the Girgashites

Genesis 16: J SOURCE

Sarai bore Abram no children
She had an egyptian slave-girl named Hagar and told Abram to impregnate her since she was barren
10 years later in Canaan, Abram took Hagar as a secondary wife (concubine) and impregnated her
After getting pregnant, Hagar despises Sarai
Sarai blames Abram for the situation and Abram tells her she may punish Hagar if she likes, since she is her slave
Hagar ran away from Sarai
An angel found Hagar by the spring on the way to Shur and told her to return to Sarai and she will be rewarded by having a multitude of offspring
The angel then tells Hagar that the son she will bear shall be called Ishmael and he shall live at odds with all his kin
Hagar named the Angel El-roi, and the well where she was found was hence named Beer-lahai-roi and it lies between Kadesh and Bered
Hagar bore Abram a son and Abram named the son Ishmael
Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael

Genesis 17: P SOURCE

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared appeared to him and told him he would make a covenant between them: He shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations and his name shall now be Abraham and his offspring descendants shall be fruitful and of kings
Then, God told Abraham his covenant between them and Abraham’s offspring is circumcision. Every male born unto him shall be circumcised.
God then told Abraham Sarai shall now be called Sarah and he shall bless her to be fertile and produce lots of offspring
Then, Abraham fell on his face and laughed at the vision of a 90 year old woman baring a child
God told Abraham that Sarah shall birth a child named Isaac
Abraham then proceeded to circumcise every single male at his house

Simeon:

The second son of Jacob and Leah — one of the twelve tribes of Israel is named after him
He and Levi massacred the men of Shechem to avenge the rape of their sister Dinah
The tribe of Simeon became absored into the larger tribe of Judah

Sheol:

The ancient Hebrew concept of the underworld —- all of the dead go there, both the righteous and the wicked
It’s not Hell, but a place of silence and darkness “below the earth”
Sheol later evolves into Heaven and Hell

Abimelech:

Royal title
Abimelech in time of Abraham: Pharaoh who took Abraham’s wife
In time of Isaac: Same story repeated with Isaac and Rebekah.

The Wives:

Jacob’s wives, Leah and Rachel and their maidservants (Bilhah and Zilpah)
Leah: Jacob was tricked into marrying her; The unloved but fertile wife who bore many of Jacob’s sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah)
Rachel: The beloved but initially barren wife who bore (Joseph and Benjamin)
Bilhah and Zipah: Maidservants who bore children to Jacob on behalf of their mistress

Clean vs. Unclean Animals:

Clean (ritually pure and may be eaten or sacrificed): Cattle, sheep, goats, fish
Unclean (impure and must be avoided): Pigs, camels, shellfish, birds of prey

Different Years:

Sabbath Year (Leviticus 25:4): Every 7th year, the land rests (No planting or harvesting)
Jubilee Year (Leviticus 25:10): Every 50th year, slaves are freed, debts are forgiven, and land returns to its original owner
Festival year: Marked by agricultural and religious events like Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot

Pharaoh in Exodus:

King of Egypt who enslaved the Israelites and refused to free them, leading to the 10 Plagues

10 Plagues:

Divine punishments sent by God (YHWH) upon Egypt to compel the Pharaoh to release the enslaved Israelites

Water turned to blood
Frogs swarm everywhere
Dust turns into gnats covering people and animals
Swarms of flies fill Egyptian homes but don’t affect Goshen (where Israelites live)
All Egyptian livestock die; Israel’s animals remain unharmed
Moses throws soot into the air; it becomes festering boils on humans and animals
Hail and fire destroy crops, trees, and people
Locusts devour all remaining crops and greenery
Darkness covers Egypt for three days, yet Israel has light
The firstborn of every Egyptian household dies (including livestock); The Israelites, who mark their doors with lamb’s blood are passed over

10 Commandments:

“You shall have no other gods before me.”
“You shall not make for yourself an idol.”
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.”
“Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.”
“Honor your father and your mother.”
“You shall not murder.”
“You shall not commit adultery.”
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
“You shall not cover your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”’

Baker and Cupbearer:

Two of Pharaoh’s officials imprisoned with Joseph in Genesis 40
The cupbearer’s dream foretold his restoration to Pharaoh’s service
The baker’s dream foretold his execution
Foreshadow Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams.