Genesis



Genesis ("Name means::birth, origin") or Bereshith ("in the beginning") is the first book of the Bible. More specifically, it is the first book of the Torah (five books of Moses), and hence the first book of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) or Christian Old Testament. Most Christians believe the book of Genesis was written by Moses.

Characteristics
The Book of Genesis tells the stories of the creation; Adam and Eve; the Fall of Man; Cain and Abel; Noah and the flood; God's covenant with Abraham; Abraham and Isaac; Jacob and Esau; Joseph and his brothers. Genesis also provides genealogies for the line from Adam to Noah giving the year each had the next child in the line and the year they died. For example:

Genesis also provides a remarkable degree of geographic detail. For example:

Some other ancient historical and mythological accounts do indeed provide rudimentary genealogies and basic geography. However, none do it in such striking detail, with such objective style. The description of Eden reads like a dry geography text, not a mass-market novel.

The earliest known form of Genesis is written. There is no evidence that it arose from oral traditions. Some academics assume that there was one, but they do this without evidence to support their claim. Genesis has been held out as being based on documents written by Moses himself. Other apocryphal accounts like the Book of Jubilees which are totally factually consistent with Genesis (and stop before Moses's death, unlike Genesis) explicitly claim to have been written by Moses. This contrasts sharply with Greek mythology, which was collected from oral traditions by Greek historians like Herodotus seeking to record their country's beliefs, as well as poets and dramatists whose manifest purpose was to entertain and inspire, rather than to provide historical annals.

Genesis provides specific dates and time frames for the major events, particularly those related to the flood. For example:

On the other hand, the author is unaware of a single mythological account from another ancient culture which records its events in such a detailed time frame.

Outline

 * Main Article: Book of Genesis

The Book of Genesis
 * - The Creation Week
 * - The Garden of Eden
 * - The Fall of Man
 * - Cain and Abel
 * - Genealogy from Adam to Noah
 * - The Flood of Noah
 * - God's Covenant With Noah
 * - The Table of Nations. This book describes the genealogy of the clans of Noah's sons (Shem, Ham and Japheth)
 * - The Tower of Babel
 * - The Call of Abram