Genesis means "origin". It is the gateway to the whole Bible: it answers the great questions about God, the world, humanity and evil, and tells how God chose one family to bless all nations.
Understand the message of Genesis, its historical setting and its place in the history of salvation.
It gathers traditions handed down orally for centuries and written down in Israel, largely during and after the Babylonian exile (587-538 BC), when the people needed to remember who they were and which God they believed in, against the myths of neighbouring peoples.
Mesopotamian peoples had creation and flood stories with many warring gods. Genesis answers with faith in one Creator God, good and personal, who creates by his word and makes humanity in his image.
The Bible opens with the creation of the world and of human beings in God's image, the fall into sin, the flood and the tower of Babel. It then tells the story of the patriarchs —Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph— with whom God begins his covenant and the promise of a people and a blessing for all nations.