Genesis

Genesis is the first book of the Torah or Pentateuch and, therefore, it is also the first book of the Jewish Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. In Hebrew the books of the Pentateuch are known by their first word, so for the Hebrews this book is Bereishit (“In the beginning”). Genesis is an account of the creation of the world, of the early history of humanity, and of the ancestors of Israel and the origins of the Jewish people.

The name genesis comes from the Greek γένεσις (/genesis/), 'birth, creation, origin', in Genesis 2:4. In Hebrew this word "genesis" is said תּוֹלֵדוֹת ('generation') although בְּרֵאשִׁית (/bereshit/) is used as the title of the book, in ʿivrit or Hebrew Be reshith are the first words of the Torah (and therefore from the Tanakh) and mean «In (the) Beginning», following Genesis 1:1

The book is divided into 50 chapters. The first 11 chapters combine primitive history with the account of the creation of the world and the first human beings, the Fall and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, the Ark of Noah and the Tower of Babel.

The last 39 chapters contain the stories of the three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They recount, among other things, God's choice of Abram, who came to be called Abraham, and God's promise to Abraham that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through his offspring, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own son Isaac, and Jacob's wrestling with the angel. The book also offers an overview of the prehistory of the people of Israel. The book ends with Jacob's descendants (also called Israel) traveling to Egypt, where they establish a good relationship with Pharaoh.

The text is traditionally attributed to Moses, but this has been disputed. The text contains the mythological foundations and the narrative basis of many national and religious institutions of classical Israel and is an introduction to the history and tradition of the country and its people.

Title

The Greek name comes from the content of the book: the origin of the world, mankind and the Jewish people, the genealogy of all mankind since the beginning of time. Also "genesis" has the sense of "prologue," since Jewish history properly begins with Exodus, of which Genesis is merely a prolegomena. This title appears in the Version of the Septuagint or Greek Septuagint. In Hebrew, the name of the book is "Bere'schíth": "In the Beginning," which is taken from the first word of the opening phrase.

According to Genesis, man was created in the image and likeness of God. Several of the characters in this book are relevant to the Jewish people: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, for example.

Composition

The Book of Genesis does not mention any author. Many academic studies agree that it has several sources, written by various religious, for example at the time of the captivity in Babylon, and that it has many authors (documentary hypothesis or JEDSR hypothesis).^{[citation required]}

For most of the 20th century, scholarly studies of the origins of genesis were dominated by the documentary hypothesis formulated by Julius Wellhausen in the late 19th century.^{[citation needed]} This hypothesis views Genesis as a compilation of initially independent sources: the J text, named for its use of the term YHWH (JHWH in German) as the name of God; the E text, so called because it uses Elohim as the name of God; and the P text, or priestly source, because of its concern with the priesthood of Aaron and the Levites. These texts were independently composed between 950 and 500 BCE. C. and underwent numerous redaction processes, culminating in its current form around 450 B.C. Several additional sources have been identified that cannot be attributed to any of the three original documents, notably Genesis 14 (the battle of Abraham and the "kings of the East") and the "blessing of Jakob."

Tradition holds that Moses wrote the Pentateuch (the 'five books' containing Genesis). Among medieval scholars this tradition remained unchallenged until the Enlightenment era.

In the first half of the 20th century, the science of Biblical archaeology, developed by William F. Albright and his followers, combined with the application of new methods of study such as source criticism and the history of tradition, developed by Hermann Gunkel, Robert Alter and Martin Noth, seem to show that the stories of Genesis are based in oral traditions of the 2nd millennium B.C. Thus, by the middle of the XX century, it seemed that archeology and the academic world had reconciled Wellhausen's hypothesis with a version Modified from the authorship of Moses.

This consensus was broken in the 1970s with the publication of two books: The Historicity of Patriarchal Narratives (1974) by Thomas L. Thompson and Abraham in History and Tradition (1975) by John Van Seters. They pointed out that the archaeological evidence connecting the author of Genesis to the second millennium B.C. C. could equally point to the 1st millennium and that oral traditions were not as easily recoverable as Gunkel and others had claimed. A third work, "The Making of the Pentateuch" (1987) by R. N. Whybray discussed the assumptions underlying Wellhausen's work and found them illogical and unconvincing, while William G. Dever attacked the philosophical foundations of Albright's biblical archaeology, arguing that it was neither desirable nor nor is it possible to use the Bible to interpret the archaeological records.

Currently the majority theories can be divided into three groups:

1. Revisions of the Wellhausen documentary model, of which the Friedman model is one of the best known.
2. Fragmentary models, such as R. N. Whybray, which see the Torah as the product of a single author working from a multitude of small fragments more than from extensive coherent sources.
3. Supplementary models such as John Van Seter, which you see in the Genesis the gradual addition of material over many centuries by many authors.

Genres

The Genesis fits exactly the definition of a biblical historical book, always remembering that the term "historical" it should not be understood in the sense given to modern historiography. This is especially true for the chapters on origins and for the history of the patriarchs.

But the Genesis is also the following:

• Family history: a long series of biographies, chronologies and genealogies of ancestors that focus on family events despising political or religious events. It does not follow the succession of governments but that of relatives.

• Popular history: It usually stops in tiny arguments that may interest the plain people and often omits facts that seem essential to modern historians.

• Religious history: All the narrated is seen under the criterion that it is the consequence of the direct action of Yahweh, the only God, who intervenes unquestionably in every and every decisive moment. In addition, all the facts are grouped and explained according to theological postulates intended to prove one or another religious thesis.

Despite these details, Genesis gives every impression of narrating -in the history of the patriarchs- facts that were or seem to be real, giving some very vivid images of the origin and migrations of the Jewish people, their ethnic and linguistic roots and their moral, social and cultural structures.

Structure

Primitive history

THEME: four main events:

• Creation
• The Fall of Man
• The Flood
• The tower of Babel

Structure:

• Creation 1:1 - 2:3 (the first account of creation).
• 2:4 - 4:26 (the second account of creation and stay in Eden).
• Book of generations of Adam: 5:1 - 6:8
• Record of the generations of Noah: 6:9 – 9:29
• Registration of the generations of Sem, Cam and Japheth: 10:1 – 11:9
• Registration of the generations of Sem: 11:10-26

The Patriarchal Story

THEME: four outstanding characters:

• Abraham
• Isaac
• Jacob
• José

Structure:

• Registration of the Taré generations: 11:27 - 25:11
• Record of the generations of Ishmael: 25:12-18
• Record of the generations of Isaac; 25:19 - 35:29
• Record of the generations of Esau: 36:1 - 37:1
• Registration of the generations of Jacob: 37:2 - 50:26

Themes

The basic themes that this book deals with are three: the Promise, the Election and the Alliance. This is not original, since all three are repeated throughout the Torah, but each of them is dominant in different parts of Genesis.

In primitive history the intentions of Yahweh (God) are hindered by the infidelity of Man. In Abraham's story faith is abandoned, put to the test and is victorious in the end to be fully restored; those who have never lost it are rewarded. In Jacob's time it is explained that God's choice for the Hebrew people does not pursue any spurious end, but is generous and disinterested. With Joseph, finally, Providence frustrates evil human impulses and patiently directs them to make them comply, ultimately, with the plans and objectives of divine design.

Interpretations of the creation of the world and the story of Eden

Abraham presents Isaac in sacrifice.

For many, the first eleven chapters of Genesis deserve to be considered apart from the rest, since they describe in a popular way the origin and creation of the world, man and life in general.

The story of the creation of the world begins with a substantial contradiction between the first chapter and the second chapter of Genesis. In the first chapter God first creates the animals, and then creates man and woman in his image, without establishing any priority between them; but in the second chapter there is a new introduction to a different story: God, this time called Yahweh first creates the first man, Adam and places him in the garden of Eden; later he creates the animals and lastly he creates the first woman, Eve, from Adam's rib.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1.1 (Reen-Valera version, 1960)

And God created man in his image, in the image of God created him; male and female created them

Genesis 1.27 (version Reyna-Valera, 1909)

And from the rib that God took from man, made a woman, and brought her to man

Genesis 2.22 (version Reyna-Valera, 1909)

Innumerable readings of the first chapters of Genesis and various explanations of the double account of the creation of the world have been carried out: in addition to the official interpretations of each Christian Church and the different Judaic traditions, readings outside of the official religion: mystical, allegorical and scientific-academic. Among them is the Hebrew Kabbalah, the allegorical, including an allegory to the evolution of the Universe (Big Bang theory) and the Darwinian theory of evolution. But evolutionary theism is generally rejected by most Christians, Catholics, and Protestants in the United States.

For creationists, defenders of the absolute veracity of the Sacred Scriptures, there is no contradiction between the two chapters. Each one emphasizes a different aspect of creation. The first chapter of the book presents a global summary of creation that culminates with the institution of the Sabbath, while in the second, human creation and the institution of marriage are detailed: while the first announces that God created the man and woman, the second details how it was done.

According to creationists, the apparent contradiction stems from a translation error. In the Old Reina Valera, in verse 19 of chapter 2, the past perfect is used '"formó"' instead of the past pluperfect '"had formed"', giving the passage an ambiguous meaning.

He formed, therefore, the God of the earth, every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens, and brought them to Adam to see how he would call them; and all that Adam called to the living animals, that is his name.

Genesis 2.19

As for the creation of Adam and Eve, the passage from Genesis 1:27 does not say that they were created simultaneously, but that they were created on the same day. that the second chapter does not contradict the first, but only adds details not mentioned in chapter one. For example; that before creating the woman, God brought all the creatures before Adam so that he could name them. All this with a greater purpose than the mere taxonomy of the fauna.

And God said, It is not good for man to be alone, that I will give him good help.

Genesis 2.18

According to this interpretation, God created a woman and gave her to Adam. He wanted the man to first recognize that something was missing, and that is why he brought him all the animals.

And Adam named every beast and bird of the heavens and every beast of the field: but for Adam was found no help fit for him.

Genesis 2.20

Adam saw that there was a lion and a lioness, a ram and a sheep. But for the male (ish) there was no male or female (isha).

And God made a dream fall upon Adam, and fell asleep: and he took one of his ribs, and shut the flesh in his place; and God took of man from the rib, and made a woman, and brought her to man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. This will be called Varona ('Isha'), because of the man was taken.

Genesis 2.21-23

Outside of the creationist readings, the biblical discrepancy about creation fed the later legend of Lilith, according to which God first created a woman named Lilith, who would be the woman referred to in the first chapter, and Eve, who appears in the second. second, it would turn out to be the second woman instead. (see Legends of Christianity).^{[citation required]}

In academic circles another interpretation predominates. The contradiction between chapters one and two of Genesis is explained by the documentary hypothesis. According to this interpretation, the book of Genesis was not written by Moses and is actually a fusion of four different sources, written by different people at different times and places. Chapter 1 is identified with the priestly tradition, while chapter 2 belongs to the Yavista school. However, the documentary hypothesis has been discredited with new archaeological discoveries.

The priestly tradition, which makes up the first chapter of Genesis, is the latest source, after the exile in Babylon, when Judaism was established more as a religion than as a particular nation, and whose purpose would also be to reinforce the idea of Saturday as a sacred day of rest, in addition of course to make it clear that all creation, including man, is the work of Elohim.

On the other hand, the second chapter of Genesis would be a much older writing, from the time of the kings in Israel, which would come to be a lament in which the sedentary situation and civilized culture centered on cities of the kingdom also entailed injustice, poverty and marginalization, since for them the story of the second chapter of Genesis would seem to extol the values of nomadism and closeness to Yahweh coming from life in the desert.

Relation between the Biblical "Genesis" and the Sumerian myths

When analyzing Sumerian and related mythology (Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians), in tablets with Sumerian origin stories ―such as the Enuma Elish―, similar, or potentially influential points can be found in the Biblical story of Genesis.

• According to the Sumerian mythology, the goddess Ki took an Enki bone and created a goddess called Nin-ti, the ‘woman of the bone’. (Paralelismos with Eva's story).
• Enki created human beings and a place where man could live without fear of animals, a place without terror; but later his brother Enlil discovered that humans had inappropriate behavior, and so he drove them out of this paradise. (Paralelismos with the history of the Garden of Eden).
• Also mentioned are the disputes of two gods, the goddess of the grain called Ashnan and the goddess of the cattle called Lahar. A similar problem is mentioned between Emesh and Enten who were in charge of the vegetation, forests and fields, and the other of the crops and the agriculture and the animals and the livestock, which had a great dispute (Paralelismos with the history of Abel and Cain).
• The biblical history of the Universal Flood, and the history of Utnapishtim.

But there is no evidence that reveals a causality between the Sumerian accounts and Genesis. Dr. Murray Adamthwaite (historian, archaeologist and linguist) states in an article titled "Is Genesis Just a Reworked Babylonian Myth?" that Genesis does not correspond to the Enuma Elish, ruling out this hypothesis.

Weekly Judaism Torah Portions in the Book of Genesis

It is the custom of the Hebrews to divide the book —like the rest of the books of the Pentateuch— into twelve parashiot (feminine plural of parashah or parashah) or weekly readings, each of which it is read each week in the annual cycle of Torah readings in the synagogue.

Bibliography, references and footnotes