GENESIS (means beginning):
At first, God (also called Yahweh or Jehovah) said, "Let
there be light" (Genesis1:3). Then... the heavens and earth
-- all taking six days. God rested on the seventh day and
declared it holy, giving rise to the observance of a holy day.
God created the first man (Adam) and then the first woman (Eve)
from one of the ribs of the man.
First Sin Story (Genesis 2,3): God provided the
Garden of Eden, telling Adam and Eve not to eat fruit from the
Tree of Conscience, since it provided awareness of right and
wrong, good and bad, and caused eventual death. A snake convinced
Eve to eat the fruit. This act condemned mankind to die and
womankind to have painful childbirth, because God's instructions
were not followed.
Lineage of Adam and Eve :
Cain was their first child, followed by Abel. Cain was jealous of
Abel and eventually killed him. Adam died at 930 years old. The
oldest man was Methuselah, living to 969.
Noah:
A large population occurred and humans had become wicked, so God
told Noah that He was to destroy the life but that Noah (the
truly righteous person of the time) would be saved, along with
his family and a pair of each kind of bird and animal and
reptile. Noah built a boat according to God's instruction
([Genesis 6:15] 450 ft. long, 75 ft. wide, 45 ft. high). Noah, at
600 years old, boarded the boat, and it rained for forty days and
forty nights. After 150 days, the boat rested upon the mountains
of Ararat. After almost six months more, Noah left the boat to
restore the people and animals of the earth. Noah had three sons
(Shem, Ham, and Japheth): from these three sons of Noah came all
the nations of the earth. God promised to never send another
flood to destroy the earth.
Tower of Babel (Genesis 11):
A temple-tower was to be built, rising high to the skies, to
demonstrate mankind's power. God gave people different languages
to prevent this being built.
Abram/Abraham:
God promised Abram (75 years old at the time -- possibly around
1900 B.C.) that He would cause him to be "the father of many
nations." When Abram was 99 years old, God changed his name
to Abraham (meaning Father of Nations) and changed his wife's
name from Sarai to Sarah (meaning Princess). God told Abraham
that He would give all the land of Canaan to Abraham and his
children, forever. As part of the contract with God
, Abraham was to circumcise every male (cutting off the foreskin
of the penis) [Genesis 17: 10-12] on the eighth day after birth.
God then told Abraham that he (at 100 years old) would have a son
with his wife, Sarah (90 years old), and she gave birth to Isaac
(meaning "he laughs").
Sodom and Gomorrah (two cities that were wicked): God allowed Lot
(a nephew of Abram) and his family to leave while God destroyed
the cities. Lot's wife looked back at the cities, against
instructions of God, and was turned into a "pillar of
salt" (Genesis 19:26).
Abraham lived and prospered in the Philistine country. A well
named Beersheba ("Well of the Oath") was one of many
that he established.
TEST OF ABRAHAM (Genesis 22): Abraham was asked by
God to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and Abraham was willing to carry
out God's wishes. God stopped him from killing Isaac, and Abraham
sacrificed a ram to God.
Abraham and Sarah were both buried near Hebron in the land of
Canaan: this burial place became a prime one for the oldest
persons of Biblical history.
Isaac : Isaac married Rebekah and had two twin sons --
Jacob and Esau . Esau was a very hairy person who
liked the outdoors and hunting. Jacob was not hairy and liked to
cook, not to hunt. Isaac favored Esau; Rebekah favored Jacob.
Jacob traded food to Esau for his "birthright," and
Jacob and Rebekah tricked Isaac into giving his blessing to Jacob
instead of Esau (Genesis 27). Jacob wore furry material so that
his near- blind father would "feel" him to be like
hairy Esau.
Jacob left his father to go find a mate to not marry one of
"the daughters of the Canaanites." He met Rachel and
worked for her father for seven years to marry her. He was
tricked into marrying her sister, Leah, first, and had to work an
additional seven years to marry Rachel. Finally, he left his
father-in-law, Laban, and went back to where his brother Esau
lived, Edom. Jacob was given a friendly reception by his brother
Esau. Jacob moved to Bethel, where God told him his name would be
changed from Jacob (meaning "he grasps the
heel") to Israel (meaning "he struggles with
God")[Geneses 35:10]. Rachel, Jacob's wife, had two sons --Joseph
and Benjamin. Jacob had twelve sons in all, leading to the
twelve "tribes" of Israel.
COAT OF MANY COLORS :
Joseph, 17, was given a "richly ornamented (i.e.,
bright-colored) robe" (Genesis 37:3) by his father, Jacob.
His brothers were very jealous of him. They threw him into an
empty well, then sold Joseph into slavery (going to Egypt).
Joseph's brothers dipped his robe with goat's blood, convincing
his father that he had died. In Egypt, Joseph became a great
leader there by telling the fortunes of several men and
eventually the Pharoah. Reading the Pharaoh's dream, he predicted
7 years of harvest followed by 7 years of famine. The Pharaoh
made Joseph leader of the project to prepare for these 14 years.
Joseph later met his brothers when they needed to buy food in the
7 years of famine. He tricked them at first, but later let them
all come to Egypt and live in the land of Goshen in Egypt.