Genesis

For the British rock band, see Genesis (band). For the Sega video game console, see Mega Drive.

Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible (the first book of the Torah) and of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. It tells the story of the Creation of the universe and man by God, the Fall of mankind and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the story of Noah, Cain and Abel, the testing of Abraham's faith by God, and the founding of Israel. It is followed by Exodus.

Name

The name Genesis is the Greek name for this book used in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. In Hebrew, the book is called B^erēšît. The name denotes the opening word of the book and means 'beginning' or 'origin' in English.

Author

The authorship of the book has traditionally been ascribed to Moses, though during the twentieth century many Biblical scholars have proposed that portions of the book existed in writing before Moses collated the book.

Contents and interpretive difficulties

The first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis present a view of the Creation and the first generations of man on this earth. With the advance of science and the adoption of Darwinistic Evolutionary Theory as the primary theory of the origin and development of life in the twentieth century, many scientists feel unable to accept the Genesis account of the origins of the world and of man. For Creationist believers from both Judaic and the Christian backgrounds, the apparent contradiction between Genesis and modern science has produced a dilemma, revolving around the central question: Is the Bible really the infallible Word of God? Many Jews and Christians have adopted a compromise position, believing that much of the first 11 chapters should not be taken literally but is largely metaphoric or mythological, a position that allows them to accept the moral teachings of the Bible without rejecting modern science. Orthodox groups within both faith traditions continue to hold that since the Bible is the inerrant and infallible Word of God, science cannot dictate exegesis of the Bible. They consider chapters 1-11 as literally true and reject some of the specific claims of Evolutionary Theory.

A subgroup of orthodox believers also hold to the literal meaning of the first chapter of Genesis, believing that Creation took place in the span of six ordinary days of twenty-four hours. Other groups, even among the orthodox, are willing to accept a looser interpretation of the concept of "day" as used in Genesis 1.