Genesis in Biblical History

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Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Definitions in Biblical History
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What is Genesis?
GEN'ESIS
, the first book of the Bible, and by far the most interesting of all books relating to the primitive history of mankind. The term signifies "beginning" or "origin." Contents. -- Genesis gives us a history of the origin of the world, of the human family, of sin, of the promise of redemption, and of the Jewish people. The first eleven chapters are occupied with a general account of the creation of all things, and with the history of Adam, of the first inhabitants of the earth, of the Deluge, of Noah, and finally of the confusion of tongues at Babel. With the twelfth chapter begins the history of the patriarchs and the chosen people. A detailed account is given of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. There are no good grounds for doubting Moses to be the author. With the use of older documents and traditions, he compiled, under divine direction, the history as we have it. Much criticism has been expended upon the account it gives of the creation of man and of the world in the first chapter. Here as in no other ancient account God is sharply distinguished from matter, and is made to exist before the world. The universe comes into being at his command. The order of created things in Genesis is substantially the order of geology and biology. Both begin with the formation of the earth and proceed from the vegetable to animal life; both stop with man. The word translated "day" probably means an indefinite period. The "seventh day," which has no evening, ch. Gen 2:2, cannot refer to a day of 24 hours, but to the long redemptive period in which we are living. See Creation. Few if any existing documents have a more venerable age than has Genesis. Covering nearly 2500 years, it gives us the account of the preparation of this planet as an abode for man and the first annals of the race. Its value cannot be over-estimated as a fragment of literature or as a work of history, and it has been well observed that in the first page of Genesis a child may learn more in an hour than all the philosophers in the world learned without it in a thousand years.

Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'genesis' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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