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       Book of Genesis
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Adam and Eve by Titian"Genesis" redirects here. For other uses, see Genesis
(disambiguation).
Genesis (Greek: "birth", "origin") is the first book of the Bible, and the first of five books
of the pentateuch. It recounts the Judeo-Christian history of the world from the creation to
the descent of the children of Israel into Egypt, and contains some of the best-known
stories of the Old Testament, including Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, the
Tower of Babel, and the biblical Patriarchs.

For Jews the theological importance of Genesis centers on the Covenants linking God to his
Chosen People and the people to the Promised Land. Christianity has reinterpreted Genesis
as the prefiguration of Christian beliefs, notably the Christian view of Christ as the new
Adam and the New Testament as the culmination of the covenants.

Structurally, Genesis consists of a "primeval history" (Genesis 1-11) and cycles of
Patriarchal stories. The narrative of Joseph stands apart from these. Scholars see the book
as the product of anonymous authors and editors working between the 10th and 5th
centuries BC.[1]

Books of the Old Testament
(For details see Biblical canon)
Hebrew Bible or Tanakh
Common to Judaism
and Christianity
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1–2 Samuel
1–2 Kings
1–2 Chronicles
Ezra (see Esdras for other names)
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Minor prophets

Included by Orthodox and Roman Catholics, but excluded by Jews and Protestants:
Tobit
Judith
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
Wisdom (of Solomon)
Ben Sira
Baruch,
Letter of Jeremiah (Additions to Jeremiah) (included as Baruch chapter 6 by Roman
Catholics)
Additions to Daniel
Additions to Esther

Included by Greek & Slavonic Orthodox:
1 Esdras (see Esdras for other names)
3 Maccabees
Prayer of Manasseh (included in the Book of Odes)
Psalm 151 (included as an appendix to the Psalter)

Included by Georgian Orthodox:
4 Maccabees
2 Esdras (also included in the Latin Vulgate Appendix)

Included by Ethiopian Orthodox:
Apocalypse of Ezra (also in the Armenian Appendix)
Jubilees
Enoch
1–3 Meqabyan
4 Baruch

Included in Syriac Peshitta Bible:
Psalms 152–155
2 Baruch (Apocalypse of Baruch)
Letter of Baruch (sometimes part of 2 Baruch)

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Tanakh
Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of the Torah
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy
Contents [hide]
1 Title
2 Summary
2.1 Primeval history
2.2 Abraham
2.3 Isaac
2.4 Jacob
2.5 Joseph
3 Family Tree of Certian Patriach Mentioned
4 Composition
4.1 Manuscripts
4.2 Composition
5 Themes
5.1 Cosmology
5.2 The religion of the Patriarchs
5.3 Covenants
6 Genesis and subsequent tradition
6.1 Christianity
6.2 Islam
7 See also
8 Notes
9 Further reading
10 External links
10.1 Online texts and translations of Genesis

Title:

"Genesis" derives from the Greek title Γένεσις, meaning "birth", "creation", "cause",
"beginning", "source" or "origin", given to the book in the Septuagint, a Greek
translation of Jewish scriptures made between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC. In Hebrew it is
called בְּרֵאשִׁית, B'reshit or Bərêšîth,[2] "in the beginning", from the first words of the text
in Hebrew, in line with the other four books of the Torah.

Summary:

Rolf Rendtorff's division of Genesis into a primeval history and Patriarchal cycles -
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph - is followed here for convenience in organising the
summary.

Primeval history:

"In the beginning God[3] created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was
moving over the face of the waters." God creates light; the "firmament" separating "the
waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the
firmament;" dry land and seas and plants and trees which grew fruit with seed; the sun,
moon and stars in the firmament; air-breathing sea creatures and birds; and on the sixth
day, "the beasts of the earth according to their kinds." "Then God said, Let us make man
in our image ... in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."[4]
On the seventh day God rests from the task of completing the heavens and the earth: "So
God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work
which he had done in creation."

God forms Adam "from the dust of the ground...and man became a living being."[5] God
sets the man in the Garden of Eden and permits him to eat of all the fruit within it, except
that of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, "for in the day that you eat of it you
shall die." God makes "every beast of the field and every bird of the air, ... and whatever
the man called each living creature, that was its name ... but for the man there was not
found a helper fit for him." God causes the man to sleep, and makes a woman from one of
his ribs, and the man awakes and names his companion Woman, "because she was taken
out of Man."[6] "And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed."[7]

The serpent tells the woman that she will not die if she eats the fruit of the tree: "When
you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,[8] knowing good and evil."
So the woman eats and gives to the man who also eats. "Then the eyes of both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves aprons." God curses the serpent: "upon your belly you shall go, and dust you
shall eat all the days of your life;" the woman he punishes with pain in childbirth and with
subordination to man: "your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you;"
and the man he punishes with a life of toil: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
till you return to the ground." The man names his wife Eve,[9] "because she was the
mother of all living." "Behold," says God, "the man has become like one of us, knowing
good and evil," and expels the couple from Eden, "lest he put forth his hand and take also
of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever." The gate of Eden is sealed by a cherub and a
flaming sword "to guard the way to the tree of life."[10]

Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel, the first a farmer, the second a shepherd.
Cain murders his brother, and, asked by God what has become of Abel, replies, "Am I my
brother's keeper?" God then curses Cain: "When you till the ground, it shall no longer
yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." Cain fears
that whoever meets him will kill him, but God places a mark on Cain, with the promise
that "if any slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." Cain settles in the
land of Nod,[11] "away from the presence of the Lord."[12]

The descendants of Cain are Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methushael, and Lamech. Seth is born
to replace Abel.[13]

The generations of Adam are described, including Enoch, who "walked with God...[and] was
no more, for God took him",[14] Methuselah, and Noah. The ante-antediluvian Patriarchs
are notable for their extreme longevity, with Methuselah living 969 years. The list ends
with the birth of Noah's sons, from whom all humanity is descended.[15]

God sets the days of man at 120 years.[16] "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days,
and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore
children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown."[17]

Angered by the wickedness of mankind, God selects Noah,[18] "a righteous man, blameless
in his generation," and commands him to build an Ark, and to take on it his family and
representatives of the animals.[19] God destroys the world with a Flood,[20] and afterwards
enters into a covenant with Noah and his descendants, the entire human race, promising
never again to destroy mankind in this way.[21]

Noah plants a vineyard, drinks wine, and falls into a drunken sleep. Ham "uncovers his
fathers nakedness," and Noah places a curse on Ham's son Canaan, saying that he and all
his descendants shall henceforth be slaves to Ham's brothers Shem and Japheth[22]

The seventy generations of the descendants of Noah are named, "and from these the
nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood."[23] Men decide to build "a tower with
its top in the heavens" in the land of Shinar, "lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of
the whole earth." God fears the ambition of mankind: "This is only the beginning of what
they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let
us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's
speech." And so mankind is scattered over the face of the earth, and the city "was called
Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth."[24][25]

The Generations of Shem brings the biblical genealogy down to the generation of Abraham.
[26]

Abraham:

Terah leaves Ur of the Chaldees with his son Abram,[27] Abram's wife Sarai, and his
nephew Lot, the son of Abram's brother Haran, towards the land of Canaan. They settle in
the city of Haran, where Terah dies.[28] God commands Abram, "Go from your country and
your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of
you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a
blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you
all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." So Abram and his people and flocks
journey to the land of Canaan, where God appears to Abram and says, "To
your descendants I will give this land.[29]

Abram is forced by famine to go into Egypt, where Pharaoh takes possession of his wife, the
beautiful Sarai, who Abram has misrepresented as his sister. God strikes the king and his
house with plagues, so that he returns Sarai and expels Abram and all his people from
Egypt.[30]

Abram returns to Canaan and separates from Lot in order to put an end to disputes about
pasturage. He gives Lot the valley of the Jordan River, as far as Sodom, whose people
"were wicked, great sinners against the LORD." To Abram God says, "Lift up your eyes,
and look ... for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants for
ever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the
dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and
the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you."[31]

Lot is taken prisoner during a war between the King of Shinar[32] and the King of Sodom
and their allies, "four kings against five." Abram rescues Lot and is blessed by
Melchizedek, king of Salem (the future Jerusalem) and "priest of God Most High". Abram
refuses the King of Sodom's offer of the spoils of victory, saying: "I have sworn to the
LORD God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a
sandal-thong or anything that is yours, lest you should say, `I have made Abram rich.'"[33]

God makes a covenant with Abram, promising that Abram's descendants shall be as
numerous as the stars in the heavens, that they shall suffer oppression in a foreign land
for four hundred years, but that they shall inherit the land "from the river of Egypt to the
great river, the river Euphrates."[34]

Sarai, being childless, tells Abram to take his Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as wife. Hagar
becomes pregnant with Ishmael,[35] and God appears to her to promise that the child will
be "a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him,"
whose descendants "cannot be numbered."[36]

God makes a covenant with Abram: Abram will have a numerous progeny and the
possession of the land of Canaan, and Abram's name is changed to "Abraham"[37] and
that of Sarai to "Sarah," and circumcision of all males is instituted as an external sign of
the covenant. Abraham asks of God that Ishmael "might live in Thy sight," but God replies
that Sarah will bear a son, who will be named Isaac,[38] and that it is with Isaac and his
descendants that the covenant will be established. "As for Ishmael, I have heard you;
behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; he shall be
the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But I will establish my
covenant with Isaac."[39]

God appears again to Abraham. Three strangers[40] appear, and Abraham receives them
hospitably. God tells him that Sarah will shortly bear a son, and Sarah, overhearing,
laughs: "After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?"[41] God
tells Abraham that he will punish Sodom, "because the outcry against Sodom and
Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave." The strangers depart. Abraham protests
that it is not just "to slay the righteous with the wicked," and asks if the whole city can be
spared if even ten righteous men are found there. God replies: "For the sake of ten I will
not destroy it."[42]

The two[43] messengers are hospitably received by Lot. The men of Sodom surround the
house and demand to have sexual relations with the strangers; Lot offers his two virgin
daughters in place of the messengers, but the men refuse. Lot and his family are led out of
Sodom, and Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire-and-brimstone; but Lot's wife,
looking back, is turned to a pillar of salt. Lot's daughters, fearing that they will not find
husbands and that Lot's line will die out, make their father drunk and lie with him; their
children become the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites.[44]

Abraham represents Sarah as his sister before Abimelech,[45] king of Gerar. God visits a
curse of barrenness upon Abimelech and his household and warns the king that Sarah is
Abraham's wife, not his sister. Abimelech restores Sarah to Abraham, loads them both with
gifts and sends them away.[46]

Isaac:

Sarah gives birth to Isaac, saying, "God has made laughter for me, everyone who hears will
laugh over me." At Sarah's insistence Ishmael and his mother Hagar are driven out into
the wilderness. While Ishmael is near dying, an angel speaks to Hagar and promises that
God will not forget them but will make of Ishmael a great nation; "Then God opened her
eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the skin with water, "... And God
was with the lad, and he grew up..." Abraham enters into a covenant with Abimelech, who
confirms his right to the well of Beer-sheba.[47]

God puts Abraham to the test by demanding the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham obeys; but, as
he is about to lay the knife upon his son, God restrains him, promising him numberless
descendants.[48] On the death of Sarah, Abraham purchases Machpelah for a family tomb
[49] and sends his servant to Mesopotamia, Nahor's home, to find among his relations a
wife for Isaac; and Rebekah, Nahor's granddaughter, is chosen.[50] Other children
are born to Abraham by another wife, Keturah, among whose descendants are the
Midianites; and he dies in a prosperous old age and is buried in his tomb at Hebron.[51]

Jacob:

Isaac's wife Rebecca is barren, but Isaac prays to God, and she gives birth to the twins Esau,
[52] and Jacob.[53] While the twins were still in the womb God stated that the two would be
forever divided, and that the elder would serve the younger. When they are older, Esau the
hunter sells his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red porridge, and "therefore his name was
called Edom."[54]

Isaac represents Rebekah as his sister before Abimelech, king of Gerar. Abimelech learns
of the deception and is angered. Isaac is fortunate in all his undertakings in that country.
His prosperity excites the jealousy of Abimelech, who sends him away; but the king sees
that Isaac is blessed by God and makes a covenant with him at the well of Beer-sheba.[55]

Jacob deceives his father Isaac and obtains the blessing of prosperity[56] which should have
been Esau's. Fearing Esau's anger he flees to Haran, the home of his mother's brother
Laban.[57] Isaac, prohibiting Jacob from marrying a Canaanite woman, tells him to go and
marry one of Laban's daughters. On the way, Jacob falls asleep on a stone and dreams of a
ladder stretching from Heaven to Earth and thronged with angels, and God promises him
prosperity and many descendants; and when he awakes Jacob sets the stone as a pillar[58]
and names the place Bethel.[59]

Jacob hires himself to Laban on condition that, after having served for seven years as a
herdsman, he shall marry the younger daughter, Rachel, with whom he is in love. At the
end of this period Laban gives him the elder daughter, Leah, explaining that it is the
custom to marry the elder before the younger. Jacob serves another seven years
for Rachel, and he has sons by his two wives and their two handmaidens, the ancestors of
the tribes of Israel. Jacob then works another six years, deceiving Laban to increase his
flocks at his uncle's expense, and gains great wealth in sheep, goats, camels, donkeys and
slave-girls.

Jacob flees with his family and flocks from Laban; Laban pursues and catches him, but God
warns Laban not to harm Jacob, and they are reconciled.[60] On approaching his home he
is in fear of Esau, to whom he sends presents under the care of his servants, and
then sends his wives and children away. "And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with
him until the breaking of the day."[61] Neither Jacob nor the stranger can prevail, but the
man touches Jacob's thigh[62] and pleads to be released before daybreak, but Jacob refuses
to release the being until he agrees to give a blessing; the stranger then announces to
Jacob that he shall bear the name "Israel", "for you have striven with God and with men,
and have prevailed."[63] and is freed. "The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel,[64]
limping because of his thigh."[65]

The meeting with Esau proves friendly, and the brothers are reconciled: "to see your face is
like seeing the face of God," is Jacob's greeting. The brothers part, and Jacob settles near
the city of Shechem.[66] Jacob's daughter Dinah goes out, and "Shechem the son of Hamor
the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humbled her".
[67] Shechem asks Jacob for Dinah's hand in marriage, but the sons of Jacob deceive the
men of Shechem and slaughter them and take captive their wives and children and loot the
city. Jacob is angered that his sons have brought upon him the enmity of the Canaanites,
but his sons say, "Should he treat our sister as a harlot?"[68]

Jacob goes up to Bethel; there "God said to him, Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your
name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So his name was called Israel"; and
Jacob sets up a stone pillar at the place and names it Bethel. He goes up to his father Isaac
at Hebron, and there Isaac dies and is buried.[69]

Joseph:

Jacob makes a coat of many colours[70] for his favourite son, Joseph. Jacob's son Judah
takes a Canaanite wife and has two sons, Er and Onan; Er dies, and his widow Tamar,
disguised as a prostitute, tricks Judah into having a child by her (Onan, who should have
fathered the child, refused). She gives birth to twins, the elder of whom is Pharez, ancestor
of the future royal house of David. Joseph's jealous brothers sell him to some Ishmaelites
and show Jacob the coat, dipped in goat's blood, as proof that Joseph is dead. Meanwhile the
Midianites[71] sell Joseph to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard,[72] but Potiphar's
wife, unable to seduce Joseph, accuses him falsely, and he is cast into prison.[73] Here he
correctly interprets the dreams of two of his fellow prisoners, the king's butler and baker.
[74] Joseph next interprets the dream of Pharaoh, of seven fat cattle and seven lean cattle,
as meaning seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, and advises Pharaoh to
store grain during the good years. He is appointed second in the kingdom, and, in the
ensuing famine, "all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine
was severe over all the earth."[75]

Jacob sends his sons to Egypt to buy grain. The brothers appear before Joseph, who
recognizes them but does not reveal himself. After having proved them on this and on a
second journey, and they having shown themselves so fearful and penitent that Judah even
offers himself as a slave, Joseph reveals his identity, forgives his brothers the wrong they
did him, and he promises to settle in Egypt both them and his father[76] Jacob brings his
whole family to Egypt, where Pharaoh assigns to them the land of Goshen.[77] Jacob
receives Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh among his own sons,[78] then calls his sons
to his bedside and reveals their future to them.[79] Jacob dies and is interred in the family
tomb at Machpelah (Hebron). Joseph lives to see his great-grandchildren, and on his death-
bed he exhorts his brethren, if God should remember them and lead them out of the
country, to take his bones with them. The book ends with Joseph's remains being "put in a
coffin in Egypt."[80]

Bereshit aleph, or the first chapter of Genesis, written on an egg, which is kept in the
Israel Museum.
Family Tree of Certian Patriach Mentioned
Adam   Eve



Cain         Other Children         Seth     Abel

Composition:

Manuscripts:

The oldest extant Masoretic (Hebrew) manuscripts of Genesis are the Aleppo Codex dated
to ca. 920 AD, and the Westminster Leningrad Codex dated to 1008 AD. There are also
fragments of unvocalized Hebrew Genesis texts preserved in some Dead Sea scrolls (1st
century BC). According to tradition the Torah was translated into Greek (the Septuagint, or
70, from the traditional number of translators) in the 3rd century BC. The oldest Greek
manuscripts include 2nd century BC fragments of Leviticus and Deuteronomy[81] and 1st
century BC fragments of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the
Minor Prophets.[82] Relatively complete manuscripts of the Septuagint include the Codex
Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus of the 4th century and the Codex Alexandrinus of the
5th century—these are the oldest surviving nearly-complete manuscripts of the Old
Testament in any language. There are minor variations between the Greek and Hebrew
texts, and between the three oldest Greek texts.

Composition:

For much of the 20th century, academic scholarship on the origins of Genesis was
dominated by the documentary hypothesis advanced by Julius Wellhausen in the late 19th
century. This sees Genesis as a composite work assembled from originally independent
sources: the J text, named for its use of the term YHWH (JHWH in German) as the name
of God; the E text, named for its characteristic usage of the term "Elohim" for God; and
the P, or Priestly source, named for its preoccupation with the Aaronid priesthood. These
texts were composed independently between 950 BC and 500 BC and underwent numerous
processes of redaction, emerging in their current form in around 450 BC. Several
anomalous sources not traceable to any of the three major documents have been identified,
notably Genesis 14 (the battle of Abraham and the "Kings of the East"), and the "Blessing
of Jacob" contained in the Joseph narrative. One such work, the Book of Generations, was
used by the Redactor (final editor of the Pentateuch) to provide the narrative framework
for Genesis, ten occurrences of the toledot (Hebrew "generations") formula introducing ten
units of the book.[83]

For centuries, Moses had been believed to have been the author of Genesis, and
Wellhausen's hypothesis was thus received by traditionally-minded Jews and Christians as
an attack on one of their central beliefs. But in the first half of the 20th century the
science of Biblical archaeology, developed by William F. Albright and his followers,
combined with the new methods of biblical scholarship known as source criticism and
tradition history, developed by Hermann Gunkel, Robert Alter and Martin Noth, seemed to
demonstrate that the stories of Genesis (or, at least, the stories of the Patriarchs; the early
part of Genesis—from the Creation to the Tower of Babel—were already regarded as
legendary by mainstream scholarship) were based in genuinely ancient oral tradition
grounded in the material culture of the 2nd millennium BC. Thus by the middle of the 20th
century it seemed that archaeology and scholarship had reconciled Wellhausen with a
modified version of authorship by Moses.[84]

This consensus collapsed in the 1970s.[citation needed] The immediate cause was the
publication of two seminal books, Thomas L. Thompson's "The Historicity of the
Patriarchal Narratives" (1974), and John Van Seters's "Abraham in History and Tradition"
(1975), both of which pointed out that the archaeological evidence connecting the author of
Genesis to the 2nd millennium BC could equally well apply to the 1st millennium, and that
oral traditions were not nearly so easily recoverable as Gunkel and others had said. A third
influential work, R. N. Whybray's "The Making of the Pentateuch" (1987), analysed the
assumptions underlying Wellhausen's work and found them illogical and unconvincing, and
William G. Dever attacked the philosophical foundations of Albrightean biblical
archaeology, arguing that it was neither desirable nor possible to use the bible to interpret
the archaeological record.

The theories currently being advanced can be divided into three[citation needed] revisions
of Wellhausen's documentary model, of which Richard Elliot Friedman's is one of the
better known;[85] fragmentary models such as that of R. N. Whybray, who sees the Torah
as the product of a single author working from a multitude of small fragments rather than
from large coherent source texts;[86] and supplementary models such as that advanced by
John Van Seters, who sees in Genesis the gradual accretion of material over many
centuries and from many hands.[87] The 19th century dating of the final form of Genesis
and the Pentateuch to c. 500-450 BC continues to be widely accepted irrespective of the
model adopted,[88] although a minority of scholars known as biblical minimalists argue for
a date largely or entirely within the last two centuries BC.

Alongside these new approaches to the history of the text has come an increasing interest
in the way the narratives tell their stories, concentrating not on the origins of Genesis but
on its meaning, both for the society which produced it and for the modern day, placing "a
new emphasis on the narrative's purpose to shape audiences' perceptions of the world
around them and to instruct them in how to live in this world and relate to its God."[89]

Themes:

The Flammarion woodcut portrays the cosmos as described in Genesis chapter 1.

Cosmology:

Genesis 1-11 "appears to be a reformatting of motifs and characters from four
Mesopotamian myths, Adapa and the South Wind, Atrahasis, the Epic of Gilgamesh and the
Enuma Elish."[90] The Babylonian myths are inverted in the Hebrew retelling: for
example, the Babylonian serpent-god Ningishzida is a friend of mankind who helps the
human hero Adapa in his search for immortality, while Genesis' serpent is man's enemy,
seeking to trick Adam out of the chance to attain immortality.[91] The inversions
represent a rejection of the power of Babylon's gods in favour of the might of Yahweh;
more than this, they replace the essentially optimistic worldview of the Mesopotamian
mythos - "things were not nearly as good to begin with as they have become since" - with a
worldview in which the world was created perfect but grew steadily worse, "until God finally
had to do away with all mankind except for the pious Noah who would beget a new and
better stock."[92]

The religion of the Patriarchs:

In 1929 Albrecht Alt proposed that the Hebrews arrived in Canaan at different times and as
different groups, each with its nameless "gods of the fathers," In time these gods were
assimilated with the Canaanite El, and names such as "El, God of Israel" emerged. The
"God of Abraham" then became identified with the "God of Isaac" and so on. Finally
"Yahweh" was introduced in the Mosaic period. The authors of Genesis, living in a later
period when Yahweh had become the only God, partly obscured and partly preserved this
history in their attempt to demonstrate that the patriarchs shared their own monotheistic
worship of Yahweh. According to Alt, the theology of the earliest period and of later fully-
developed monotheistic Judaism were nevertheless identical: both Yahweh and the tribal
gods revealed himself/themselves to the patriarchs, promised them descendants, and
protected them in their wanderings; they in turn enjoyed a special relationship with their
god, worshipped him, and established holy places in his honour.

In 1934 Julius Lewy, drawing on the recently discovered Ugarit texts, argued that the "God
of Abraham" was not anonymous, but was probably El Shaddai, "El of the Mountain", El
being identified with a mythical holy mountain. The name Shaddai, however, remains
mysterious, and has also been identified with both a specific city and with a Hebrew root
meaning "breast".[93] In 1962 Frank Moore Cross concluded that the name Yahweh
developed as one of the many epithets of El: "El the creator, he who causes to be." For
Cross the continuity between El and Yahweh explained how the other El-names could
continue to be used in Genesis, and why Baal - in Canaanite mythology a rival to El who
gradually took over the father-god's position - was regarded with such hostility.[94] More
recently, Mark S. Smith has returned to the Ugarit texts to show how polytheism "was a
feature of Israelite religion down through the end of the Iron Age and how monotheism
emerged in the seventh and sixth centuries."[95]

In contrast to this picture of a Canaanite background to Genesis, Lloyd R. Bailey (1968)
and E.L. Abel (1973) have suggested that Abraham worshipped Sin the Amorite moon-god
of Harran, pointing, among other things, to Abraham's association with Harran and Ur,
both centres of the cult of Sin, to the epithet "Father of the gods" applied to Sin
(comparable to Abram's name, "Exalted Father") and to the close similarity between
names associated with Abraham and with Sin: Sarah/Sarratu (Sin's wife); Milcah/Malkatu
(Sin's daughter); and Terah/Ter (a name of Sin).[96] M. Haran has also distinguished
between Canaanite and Patriarchal religion, pointing out that the Patriarchs never worship
at existing shrines but build their own, fitting a semi-nomadic lifestyle. He also points to
the invocation of Shaddai by Baalam and the identification of the Patriarchal God with the
"sons of Eber" in Genesis 10:21 as evidence that their god was not originally Canaanite.
Gordon Wenham has pointed out that Il/El is a well-known member of the
third-millennium Mesopotamian pantheon, concluding: "Whether El was ever identified
with the moon god is uncertain. To judge from the names of Abraham's relations and the
cult of his home town, his ancestors at least were moon-god worshippers. Whether he
continued to honour this god identifying him with El, or converted to El, is unclear."[97]

Covenants:

The covenants are a major theme in Genesis, "yet it has long been recognised that many of
the promises are not original parts of the stories in which they are found."[98] Otto
Eissfeldt, an early scholar of the Ugarit texts, recognised that in Ugarit the promise of a son
was given to kings together with promises of blessing and numerous descendants, a clear
parallel to the pattern of Genesis. Claus Westermann, (1964 and 1976), analysing the
Genesis covenants in the light of Ugarit and Icelandic sagas, came to the conclusion that
the Patriarchal stories were usually lacking any promises in their original form.
Westermann saw the promise of a son in Genesis 16:11 and 18:1-15 as genuine, as well as
the promise of land behind 15:7-21 and 28:13-15; the rest he saw as representing later
editors.[99] Rolf Rendtorff accepts Westermann's thesis that the Patriarchal stories were
originally independent, and suggests that the promises were added to link the stories of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob into cycles which grew through a process of gradual accretion
into the final book. John Van Seters, in contrast, sees Genesis as a late and unified
composition, from which it is impossible to excise the Covenants without doing damage to
the overall narrative.[100]

Genesis and subsequent tradition:

Christianity:

The early Church, with its Jewish roots, assumed an authoritative nature for Genesis and
based its own emerging theology on this and other Jewish holy texts. The author of the
gospel of John paraphrased Genesis 1 to personify the eternal logos (Greek λογος,
"reason", "word", "speech"): "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God,
and the word was God." This passage marks the first definitive emergence of the distinctive
Christian concept of the Trinity, and thus of Christianity's emerging break with Judaism in
the late 1st century. The serpent of Eden became Satan, and Genesis 3:15, "He shall bruise
your head, and you shall bruise his heel," became the Protevangelium, the "First Gospel",
predicting the coming of the Messiah who would be victorious over evil and Satan; Jesus
was interpreted as the "new Adam" who would redeem mankind from the sin of Eden, and
the Ark of Noah became symbolic of the Church itself, offering salvation through the
waters of baptism. The Abrahamic covenant was reinterpreted to further underline the
separation from Judaism: God's promise of a chosen people had passed from the children of
Abraham, who had rejected Jesus, and was bestowed upon all those who accepted the new
Covenant between God, in the divine person of his Son, and his Church.

Not only the general theology of Christianity but also specific narrative details of the new
faith drew on the authority of Genesis: thus the three messengers who visit Abraham to
announce the birth of Isaac are paralleled by an undisclosed number of magi who visit the
infant Jesus; and the tale of Joseph in Egypt is echoed by the Holy Family's flight into
Egypt.

Islam:

Many of the stories from Genesis are retold in the Qur'an, with frequent variations. The
Qur'an emphasises the moral stature of the Prophets; stories such as the drunkenness of
Lot therefore find no place in it. While Islam accepts the Torah in principle, the view of
Islamic scholarship is that the revelation given to earlier times had become somehow
corrupted, and that the only valid text is that revealed by God to his prophet Mohammed.
The Qur'an is believed by them to be the final revelation, contains the essence of all
previous revelations, including the Torah.

========================================
                             Exodus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the second book in the Torah.
Discussion of the Exodus, a major event in the book, is
in a separate article.

Exodus (Greek: "departure") is the second book of the
Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. It
tells how Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and
through the wilderness to the Mountain of God (Mount
Sinai). There Yahweh, through Moses, gives the
Israelites their laws and enters into a covenant with
them, by which he will give them the land of Canaan in
return for their faithfulness. The book ends with the
construction of the Tabernacle.

According to tradition, Exodus and the other four
books of the Torah were written by Moses in the latter
half of the 2nd millennium BC. Historians and
archaeologists have been unable to verify any of the
events recounted in Exodus,[1] and modern biblical
scholarship sees it reaching its final form around 450
BC.

Contents [hide]
1 Title
2 Summary
2.1 Israelites in Egypt
2.2 Journey through the wilderness to Sinai
2.3 At Sinai: Covenant and laws
3 Composition
3.1 Mosaic authorship
3.2 10th-6th centuries BC
3.3 5th century BC
3.4 Post-5th century BC
4 Historicity
5 See also
6 Notes
7 Further reading
8 External links
8.1 Online versions and translations of Exodus
8.1.1 Arabic translations
8.1.2 Jewish translations
8.1.3 Christian translations

Title:

The title "Exodus" derives from the Greek Ἔξοδος, Exodos, meaning "departure, out-
going," the name given to the book in the Septuagint, a Greek translation of Jewish
scriptures made between the 3rd to 1st centuries BC. In Hebrew it is called Shemot (שְׁמוֹת)
from the opening phrase Ve-eleh shemot, ואלה שמות, "These are the names", a practice in
line with the other four books of the Torah.

Summary:

There is no universally accepted method of dividing Exodus into smaller units, and the
following headings are c adopted purely for convenience.

Israelites in Egypt:

Pharaoh, fearful of the Israelites' numbers, orders his people to throw all newborn boys
into the Nile. A Levite woman saves her baby by setting him adrift on the river in an ark of
bulrushes. Pharaoh's daughter finds the child, and names him Moses, and brings him up as
her own. But Moses is aware of his Hebrew origins, and one day, when grown, kills an
Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew man, and has to flee into Midian[2] to escape Pharaoh's
anger. While herding the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro[3] on Mount Horeb,[4] Moses
encounters God, who reveals his name Yahweh and tells him to return to Egypt and lead
the Israelites into the land promised to Abraham.

On Moses' return to Egypt, Yahweh reveals his name and instructs him to appear before
Pharaoh and inform him of Yahweh's demand that he let God's people go. Moses and his
brother Aaron do so, but Pharaoh refuses. Yahweh sends a series of plagues, but Pharaoh
does not relent. Yahweh instructs Moses to institute the Passover sacrifice among the
Israelites, and then kills all the firstborn children of the Egyptians. Pharaoh agrees to let
the Israelites go. Moses explains the meaning of the Passover: it is for Israel's salvation
from Egypt, so that the Israelites will not be required to sacrifice their own sons, but to
redeem them.

Journey through the wilderness to Sinai:

The Exodus begins. The Israelites, 600,000 men plus women and children and ä mixed
multitude,"with their flocks and herds, set out for the mountain of God.[5] But Yahweh, to
demonstrate his power, makes Pharaoh pursue the Israelites, and at the Red Sea crossing
destroys Pharaoh's army in the sea. The Israelites celebrate their deliverance with the
Song of the Sea.

The Israelites continue their journey, but they immediately begin to complain of the
hardships. In the Wilderness of Sin they complain about the lack of food and speak with
longing of Egypt, and Yahweh sends them quail and manna to eat. At Rephidim, he
provides water miraculously from the rock of Meribah. The Amalekites attack the
Israelites, and Yahweh orders an eternal war against them. Jethro[6] visits Moses, and
exclaims that Yahweh is "greater than all the gods" because he has delivered Israel from
Egypt; at Jethro's suggestion, Moses appoints judges over Israel.

At Sinai: Covenant and laws...

In the third month the Israelites arrive at Mount Sinai, and Yahweh asks via Moses
whether the Israelites will agree to be his people, and the people accept. On the appointed
day the people gather at the foot of Sinai, and with thunder and lightning, fire and clouds of
smoke, and the sound of trumpets, and the trembling of the mountain, God appears at the
top of the mountain, and the people see the cloud and hear the "voice".[7] Moses and
Aaron are told to ascend the mountain.[8] God pronounces the Ten Commandments (the
Ethical Decalogue) in the hearing of all Israel.[9]

Moses goes up the mountain into the presence of God, who pronounces the Covenant Code,
[10] (a detailed law code of ritual and civil law), and promises Canaan to the Israelites if
they obey.[11] Moses descends and writes down Yahweh's words and the people agree to
keep them. Yahweh calls Moses up the mountain together with Aaron and the elders of
Israel, and they feast in the presence of Yahweh. Yahweh calls Moses up the mountain to
receive a set of stone tablets containing the law, and he and Joshua go up, leaving Aaron in
charge. Yahweh appears on the mountain "like a consuming fire" and calls Moses to go up,
and Moses goes up the mountain.[12]

Yahweh gives Moses instructions for the construction of the tabernacle so that God can
dwell permanently amongst the Israelites, priestly vestments, the altar and its
appurtenances, (Bezaleel and Aholiab are identified by God as the appointed craftsmen to
construct these things), the ritual to be used to ordain the priests, and the daily sacrifices
to be offered. Aaron is appointed as the first High Priest, and the priesthood is to be
hereditary in his line. Then Yahweh gives to Moses the two stone tablets of the testimony,
written by God's own finger.[13]

Aaron makes a golden calf, which the people worship. God informs Moses and threatens to
kill them all, but Moses intercedes for them. Moses comes down from the mountain,
smashes the tablets in anger, and commands the Levites to massacre the disobedient.
Yahweh commands Moses to make two new tablets on which God will personally write the
words that were on the first tablets. Moses ascends the mountain, and God dictates the Ten
Commandments[14], and Moses writes them on the tablets.[15]

Moses descends from the mountain, and his face is transformed, so that from that time
onwards he has to hide his face with a veil. Moses assembles the Israelites and repeats to
them the commandments he has received from Yahweh, to keep the Sabbath and to
construct the Tabernacle. "And all the construction of the Tabernacle of the Tent of
Meeting was finished, and the children of Israel did according to everything that Yahweh
had commanded Moses",[16] and Yahweh dwelt in the Tabernacle, and ordered the travels
of the Israelites.[17]

Composition:

There is no single, universally accepted theory regarding the origins of Exodus; instead
various theories are currently advanced placing it in a variety of different periods ranging
from the 2nd millenium BC to the period after 300 BC. Jews and Christians have
traditionally understood the Torah to have been written by Moses. The most well-regarded
scholarly theory, the documentary hypothesis, describes Exodus as comprising three
sources, combined c 400 BC.[1]

Mosaic authorship:

The traditional belief in both Jewish and Christian circles was that Moses was the author of
all five books of the Torah. This theory is still advanced by Orthodox Jewish and evangelical
Christian scholars but is not considered viable by mainstream biblical critics.

10th-6th centuries BC:

19th century biblical criticism concluded that the Torah was composed of four originally
independent documents, known as the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist, and the
Priestly source. Of these the Elohist is identified as uniquely responsible for the episode of
the golden calf, and the Priestly source as uniquely responsible for the chiastic, and
monotonous, instructions for creating the tabernacle, vestments, and ritual objects, and the
account of their creation. The poetic Song of the sea, and the prose Covenant Code, both in
Exodus, were identified as smaller independent works embedded in the main documents. In
1878 Julius Wellhausen, in his Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels, argued that the
Priestly source was the last to be composed, in the 6th century BC, and his formulation
became the consensual view.

The southern Jahwist source promotes Aaron, the progenitor of the southern, Aaronite
priestood. Meanwhile, it portrays Moses in a less flattering light. The northern Elohist
denigrates Aaron as instigating worship of the golden calf. It also includes the Covenant
Code, incorporated from an earlier source.

5th century BC:

According to most scholarly analyses, the Yahwist source (J) provides the main narrative of
Exodus, supplemented by the Elohist (E).[1] The priestly editors (c 400 BC) reworked the JE
source and added substantial material, such as the description of the tabernacle in chapters
35-40.[1]

There is no agreement amongst scholars today on just how the final Torah was produced.
[citation needed] Documentary approaches such as Wellhausen's classic formulation see it
as an act of redaction, in which an editor (usually seen as Ezra) took the four sources - a
9th century Yahwist, 8th century Elohist, and 6th century Priestly source (the
Deuteronomist is not present in Exodus) - and combined them with minimal changes. Thus
Richard Elliott Friedman's The Bible with Sources Revealed (2003) is a modern
documentary hypothesis more or less identical with Wellhausen but accepting Yehezkel
Kaufmann's dating of the Priestly source to the early 7th century. By contrast, John Van
Seters and Rolf Rendtorff see the Torah as a process of progressive supplementation in
which generations of authors added to and edited each other, although Van Seters sees the
final author as a late, 5th century, Yahwist, Rendtorff as a Priestly school. R. N. Whybray,
whose The Making of the Pentateuch (1987) was a seminal critique of the methodology and
assumptions of the documentary hypothesis, has proposed that the creation of Exodus and
the Torah was the action of a single author, working from a host of fragments. The only
areas of agreement between these views is that the terms "Yahwist", "Priestly" and
"Deuteronomist" do have some meaning in terms of identifiable and differentiable content
and style, and that the final Torah emerged in the 5th century BC.

Post-5th century BC:

Still a minority view today is the so-called Biblical minimalism school, which holds that the
Torah is a very late composition, created in the 4th century BC or even later.

Historicity - the Exodus:

The time-span in this book, from the death of Joseph to the erection of the tabernacle in
the wilderness, covers about one hundred forty-five years, on the supposition that one
computes the four hundred thirty years (12:40) from the time of the promises made to
Abraham (Galatians 3:17).

There have been several attempts to fix the date of the events in the book to a precise
point on the Gregorian Calendar. These attempts generally rest on three considerations

Who the unnamed pharaoh was
The dates for non-biblical accounts of large numbers of semitic people leaving Egypt
The date that archaeology implies Jericho was destroyed
Generally, fixing the identification of the Pharaoh is considered the key, and two dynasties
are usually suggested:

Ramses II or Merneptah of the 19th Dynasty, around 1290 BCE, favoured by the large
majority of both religious and secular scholars
Thutmose III or Amenhotep II of the 18th Dynasty, around 1444 BCE, favoured by a large
minority of mostly religious scholars, since it precedes the destruction of Jericho, although
some doubt surrounds the archaeological evidence supporting the Exodus and Canaanite
conquest dating. Egypt still dominated Canaan during that period in history [1], making
such a date less plausible. The carbon-dating tests at Jericho are also disputed regarding
dating.
Akhenaton of the 18th Dynasty, around 1340 BC. The link to Akhenaton is that, like
Moses, this pharaoh was struggling to convert the people to monotheism. The brother of
Akhenaton was named Thutmose,[18] and while it is often assumed that this Thutmose
died young, Professor Cyril Aldred shows that he was the commander of the king's chariot
forces. [19] The Jewish historian Josephus Flavius similarly records that Moses was an
Egyptian prince and army commander.[20][21]
Many others have been suggested, such as Dudimose, the Hyksos expulsion, and others.

See also:

Bible Portal
The Exodus
The Exodus Decoded
Moses
Tabernacle
Weekly Torah portions in Exodus: Shemot, Va'eira, Bo, Beshalach, Yitro,
Mishpatim, Terumah, Tetzaveh, Ki Tisa, Vayakhel, and Pekudei
Film adaptations of the Book of Exodus

Notes:

^ a b c d Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.
^ Midian: the desert region between Egypt and the Negev.
^ Moses' father-in-law is named Reuel and Jethro in the Torah, and Hobeb in
Judges. Hobeb also appears in the Torah (in Numbers), but is identified there as a
son of Reuel.
^ Horeb: an alternative name for mount Sinai.
^ Mountain of God: this phrase is sometimes used for the holy mountain; at other
times it is called Horeb or Sinai.
^ Jethro is here described as "priest of Midian".
^ "Voice", Hebrew beqol. This normally means voice, but a few verses earlier
(Exodus 19:16) it has been used to mean "thunder", in the context of the thunder and
lightning from the mountain. It is not therefore clear exactly what "beqol" means
here. The implication of the following verses in Exodus 20:18-19 is that the people
hear only thunder and trumpets and for this reason appoint Moses as their mediator
with God: "And the people saw the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the
trumpet and the mountain smoking...And they said [to Moses], "You speak with us,
so we may listen, but let God not speak with us or we will die."
^ It is not totally clear who goes up the mountain - Exodus 19:24 has Yahweh
instructing Moses and Aaron to up while the people and priests remain below, but at
Exodus 19:22 the priests are told they may approach Yahweh after consecrating
themselves.
^ A slightly different version of the Commandments is given at Deuteronomy 5, the
most striking variation being in the reason given for keeping the Sabbath: in Exodus,
the Sabbath is kept because God made the heavens and earth in seven days; in
Deuteronomy, it is a memorial for Israel's deliverance from Egypt.
^ Exodus21:1-23:19
^ Exodus 21-23
^ This passage has a confusing sequence of events, but the summary is roughly
accurate.
^ According to the context the writing on the tablets is the instructions for the
tabernacle etc. The directions for the tabernacle provide for:
The Ark of the Covenant, to contain the tablets
A mercy seat, with two gilt cherubim either side, for God to sit upon
A menorah, never to be extinguished, and its oil
A construction to contain these things, involving curtains for a roof, walls on silver
feet, outer curtain, and a purple veil to separate the Holy of Holies, table, and
menorah, from the remainder.
The outer court, involving pillars on bronze pedestals, connected up by hooks and
silver crossbars.
The priestly vestments include:
A shoulder-band (ephod), containing two onyx stones, each engraved with the names
of six of the tribes of Israel
A breastplate containing Urim and Thummim
Golden chains for holding the breastplate set with twelve specific precious stones, in
four rows
A robe for the ephod, with bells and pomegranates around the seam
A coat
A mitre
A golden mitre plate with the inscription Holiness to the Lord
A girdle
^ The Ritual Decalogue, unlike the Ethical Decalogue, is explicitly called the "ten
commandments" - see Exodus 34:28
^ At Exodus 34:1 God has told Moses that he, God, will personally write on the
tablets, but at Exodus 34:27 he tells Moses to write them. Also, although God tells
Moses that he is about to receive a copy of the first set of tablets, Exodus 24:12
makes clear that the first tablets contained the instructions for the tabernacle, while
Exodus 34:27-28 makes it equally clear that the second set contain the Ritual
Decalogue.
^ Exodus 39:32
^ This is a broad summary of the final verses, Exodus 40:34-38
^ Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt,
Thames & Hudson (2004), p.157
^ Cyril Aldred, Akhenaton, King of Egypt p.259.
^ Antiquities 2:232, 2:241
^ Ralph Ellis, Jesus, Last of the Pharaohs p.131.

Further reading:

Colin J. Humphreys, The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist’s Discovery of the
Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories 2003, HarperSanFrancisco
W. F. Albright From the Stone Age to Christianity (2nd edition) Doubleday/Anchor
W. F. Albright Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (5th edition) 1969,
Doubleday/Anchor
Encyclopedia Judaica, Keter Publishing, entry on "Population", volume 13, column
866.
Y. Shiloh, "The Population of Iron Age Palestine in the Light of a Sample Analysis of
Urban Plans, Areas and Population Density." Bulletin of the American Schools of
Oriental Research (BASOR), 1980, 239:25-35
Exploring Exodus: The Origins of Biblical Israel Nahum Sarna, Shocken Books,
1986 (first edition), 1996 (reprint edition), chapter 5, "Six hundred thousand men on
foot".
"Those Amazing Biblical Numbers: Taking Stock of the Armies of Ancient Israel"
William Sierichs, Jr.
"The Rise of Ancient Israel : Symposium at the Smithsonian Institution October 26,
1991" by Hershel Shanks, William G. Dever, Baruch Halpern and P. Kyle
McCarter, Biblical Archaeological Society, 1992.
The Biblical Exodus in the Light of Recent Research: Is There Any Archaeological
or Extra-Biblical Evidence?, Hershel Shanks, Editor, Biblical Archaeological Society,
1997
Secrets of the Exodus: The Egyptian Origins of the Hebrew People", by Messod
Sabbah, Roger Sabbath, Helios Press, 2004
"Did the Red Sea Part? No Evidence, Archaeologists Say", by Michael Slackman,
New York Times, April 3, 2007

External links:

Online versions and translations of Exodus:

Arabic translations:

Exodus in Arabic language) from http://St-Takla.org

Jewish translations:

Exodus at Mechon-Mamre (Jewish Publication Society translation)
Exodus (The Living Torah) Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's translation and commentary at Ort.
org
Shemot - Exodus (Judaica Press) translation with Rashi's commentary at Chabad.org
Shmot (Original Hebrew - English at Mechon-Mamre.org)

Christian translations:

Exodus (Douay-Rheims Bible)
Exodus (New American Bible)
Online Bible at GospelHall.org (King James Version)
Exodus (King James Version)
oremus Bible Browser (New Revised Standard Version)
oremus Bible Browser (Anglicized New Revised Standard Version)

Preceded by:

Genesis Books of the Bible Succeeded by
Leviticus

=======================================

Adam and Eve by
Titian

"The Original Sin"

"The Cosmos"

Religion Page I