What Is the Book of Genesis?

Creation of the World and Humanity

The first book of the Bible, Genesis tells the story of the creation of the world and the origins of the people of Israel. Creation progresses through several stages, culminating in the creation of humans. The humans commit wrongful acts, and eventually God sends a flood to destroy the earth. A remnant—Noah, his family, and the animals in his ark—is saved. The flood is an undoing of creation, and after it, life begins anew. In response to human hubris, God divides humanity into different nations, speaking different languages, and scatters them over the whole earth.

The Origins of the Family of Israel

Moving from the origins of the world at large, the biblical account focuses on the origins of Israel. First to appear is Abraham, to whom God promised the land of Canaan and the progeny that would ultimately become the nation of Israel. God’s promise is not easily fulfilled but is threatened by episodes of famine, childlessness, and family strife during the lives of Abraham and his wife Sarah. The narrative continues through the stories about Isaac and Jacob, and their wives, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, and about Joseph and his brothers. Jacob is the progenitor of the twelve tribes, the nucleus of what will become the people of Israel. The ancestors’ movement in and out of Canaan culminates in the Joseph story, when the entire family of Jacob settles in Egypt. The sustained focus on life and relations within the family in the formative generations of the nation, as distinct from the heroic battles of epic literature, is one of the notable features of these narratives.