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The Beginnings

[Gen 1-11]

Creation

[Gen 1:1-2:4] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God gives us His brief and precise account of creation, culminating in the sixth day with the creation of a man, Adam, and the forming of a woman, Eve, from one of Adam’s ribs, followed by the institute of marriage, ordained as part of His creative work. On the seventh day God rested from His work, blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. The narrative now continues from Gen 2:5 with an account of creation and events that followed from Adam’s viewpoint.

The fall

[Gen 2:5-3:24] It was on the sixth day that God had put Adam in the Garden of Eden to take care of it. Adam is able to eat from any tree in the garden with one exception: He is not permitted to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . If he does, then his death will surely follow. It is after this that Eve is formed as a wife for Adam. God tells them they are to fill the earth with their descendants. Soon after, Satan, in the guise of a serpent, puts doubt in Eve’s mind concerning the forbidden tree and persuades her she could eat from it after all. Eve succumbs then persuades Adam to do the same. As a consequence of this sin (disobedience of God’s word), God pronounces three curses, one each for Satan, Eve and Adam. The curse on Satan initiates the spiritual warfare that continues to exist between him and God, but at the same time foretells its outcome. The woman is to endure pain in childbirth and is reduced to being subordinate to her husband, and man is henceforth to toil for his food.

Cain and Abel

[Gen 4] Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel, who grow to be a shepherd and farmer respectively. When they offer their sacrifices to God, Abel's is accepted but Cain's rejected. This rejection has an adverse impact on Cain which eventually leads him to kill his brother. He is consequently banished by God to the land of Nod, East of Eden, where he builds a city named after his son Enoch. His great- great-great grandson is Lamech, the first person recorded to violate God’s ordinance of marriage by taking more than one wife.

The generations of Adam

[Gen 5] The generations of Adam are the genealogical link from Adam to Noah and the flood. Of the descendants of Adam, Enoch (not Cain’s son) is a righteous man who, from the age of 65, preaches the coming of the Lord’s judgement. He is spared death and taken to heaven at the age of 365 years.

The flood

[Gen 6-9] In time, mankind becomes contaminated by Nephilim, the hybrid offspring of the sons of God (fallen angels) and the daughters of men, and grows to be so wicked that God decides to destroy the earth’s inhabitants with a flood. Noah and his family are righteous people and are to be spared this fate, so God instructs Noah to build an ark for his family and many animals. Following the death of Enoch’s son Methuselah, the flood comes and drowns the whole earth. After the flood abates, God makes a covenant with Noah never again to destroy the earth in this way, and gives the rainbow as a reminder of this covenant. Not long after, Noah plants a vineyard, becomes drunk one evening, is offended by his son Ham’s behaviour towards him and so foretells the fate of Ham’s offspring, Canaan: a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren .

The Table of Nations

[Gen 10] From Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, we get all the nations of the earth. Abraham is descended from Shem.

The Tower of Babel

[Gen 11] As the population grows, men resist spreading throughout the earth and begin to build the tower of Babel, thinking it will establish them in one place. But God confounds their language, causing them to divide and scatter abroad as He had originally intended.
Exodus & Conquest The Patriarchs The Beginnings Judges & Ruth The Monarchy A Divided Kingdom The Exile Israel’s Return The ‘Silent’ Years
Hierarchical Précis