Genesis

Bible #1

by Anonymous

The theme of Genesis is creation, sin, and re-creation. It tells how God created the world as very good, but that it was distroyed in the flood as a result of man's disobedience. The new world after the flood was also spoiled by human sin (ch. 11). The call of Abraham, through whom all the nations would be blessed, gives hope that God's purpose will eventually be realized through Abraham's descendants (ch. 49).

Genres: Religion, Classics, Christian, Nonfiction, Christianity, Theology, Judaism

50 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 801

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book.
It doesn't really matter whether or not you believe in God because the book itself is worth looking at just as an ancient religious text if nothing else.



I personally picked this up because I'm currently listening to The Great Courses lecture on The Book of Genesis by Gary A. Rendsburg, and I thought a refresher would be nice before I dove in.
Both creation stories are fascinating on their own, but after learning what some of the meanings of the working and phrasing in Hebrew meant to ancient Hebrews, it took on a whole new level for me.



I hadn't noticed some of the more odd bits when I read this as a young person, so that was also an interesting experience for me this time around.
Now, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this particular audiobook. The man didn't seem to have a professional narrator's voice command and the reading seemed a bit dry at times. The thought ran through my head that this might be a minister doing this audiobook as a freebie labor or love or something. But it wasn't awful or anything. I just think you could probably find a better rendition out there.
Recommended.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book of Genesis is such an amazing book. I love how it teaches so many life lessons of simply walking with God.
Abraham, who gave up everything and trusted in God implicitly, leaving all behind and travelling to a new country where he owned nothing, not even the land he set his tent up on. Trusting God through childlessness. Trusting Him through war and loss of family. Trusting Him with his precious, only son.
Isaac, who waited patiently for a wife. Prayed patiently for children. Lived patiently waiting for the land to become his. Learned to trust God would provide for him.
Jacob, who endured his father-in-law and his sons. Who learned to trust God when everyone was out to get him and when life went terribly south.
Joseph, who suffered quietly for the right. Who stood strong even when he was unfairly hated and mistreated. Who bore no grudge but forgave freely. Who never lost sight of the Lord.
There is so much to learn about trusting the Lord and simply walking along with Him in this book.

P.S. This is for you, Eva-Joy ;)

[ray ౨ৎ]

learning how to forgive like Joseph brb<33


genesis⋆ pre-read
↳ started on 01.05.24

꒰⛪️꒱ I’m not Christian, but I want to be. See, my dad’s Catholic and my mom is Buddhist, so they told me I could choose my religion. I decided to start the Bible because I want to live for God. I asked my dad if they could sign me up for church and he said yes so fingers crossed my mom agrees !! 🤞🏻

[Manny]

I do not know Swahili at all, but I have been reading Jakob Ejersbo's phenomenal Afrika trilogy and he is very good at making you want to find out more about this interesting and important language. By the time I reached the final volume, I could resist no longer: I downloaded the first chapter of Genesis in Swahili and spent half an hour creating an initial LARA version. You can access it here using Chrome or Firefox. Hovering over a word shows a popup translation, and clicking on it plays TTS audio. Clicking also brings up a concordance on the right-hand side of the screen.

The first cut is very rough. I used Google's free Swahili TTS engine to create the audio, and even not knowing the language I can hear that the quality is terrible. I don't think Google Translate has done a good job of the word translations either. But I am so ignorant that even this is quite helpful to me. I have doubled my vocabulary and learned a little bit of grammar. Swahili grammar is unlike anything I've previously seen in an Indo-European, Asian or Australian language, and where I expect an ending it always seems to have a prefix instead. So for example the word aliziumba ("created") in Genesis 1.1 should apparently be split up as a-li-ziumba, where the initial a- is "third person singular" and -li- is "past tense". Different!

If someone reading this knows Swahili and would like to improve the quality of our initial text, it's very easy to use LARA. Message me and I'll tell you how to record audio and edit the annotations.

[Maha. ALyazedi]

سفر التكوين من وجهة نظري هو أهم سفر يجب أن يعرفه كل مسلم
لأنه يعتبر حجه و هذا السفر و أربعة غيره
تعتبر أسفار يهودية أتعرفت بها الكنيسية الأنجلية فيما بعد
بعض قصص هذا السفر
نوح عليه السلام خمار يحب الخمر و السكر
و تعرى بسبب السكر
لوط عليه السلام زنى بأبنتيه بعد أن سكر و أنجبتا منه
إبراهيم عليه السلام عديم الغيرة سمح لزوجتة بالذاهب و المكوث مع فرعون ليجني منها المال
إسحاق عليه السلام فعل مع زوجته كما فعل أبيه سمح لزوجته بالمكوث مع فرعون

لن أضع عليه و لا نجمه

[Lizzy (Elizabeth) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good! I am so happy I started to read the Bible more!
(My goal is to read the whole Bible this year)

[Sarita · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been a while reading Genesis. It was so refreshing to get back to where everything started. Genesis always leaves me with a few questions I look forward to getting the answers to one day in Heaven.

Some lessons/highlights from this round of reading:
Adam and Eve - oh the closeness and intimacy they had with God - God Walking among them.
Noah - Building an ark on dry land - what will God ask of us which seems crazy, but is part of His ultimate plan.
Abraham - trusting God with the impossible.
Joseph - God can even take the most negative circumstances and change it for His ultimate purpose.

Joseph's story is my favourite. From a spoiled, a bit arrogant boy, to a prisoner, to second in command. I love how he issued forgiveness and grace to His brothers.

[Arman]

1.
کتاب‌(سفر) "پيدايش" یا "برشيت"، اولین کتاب از عهد عتیق، و اولین کتاب از کتب پنجگانه‌ی "شریعت" می‌باشد. بنابر فرضیه اسنادی ، این کتاب نیز (همچون بقیه‌ی عهد عتیق) از ادغام و در هم تنیده شدن چهار سنت روایی و الهياتی "الوهيمی"، "يهويستی"، "تثنیه‌گرا" و " کهانت‌گرا" شکل گرفته است.

2.
"کتاب پيدايش"، متنی ست از هر نظر غنی؛ در این کتاب کم‌حجم، با حجمِ به‌طور غافلگیرکننده‌ای چگال و متراکم از شخصیت‌ها، خرده داستان‌ها، نمادها، تصويرپردازی‌ها، و اشاراتِ الهیاتی و اساطیری روبرو هستیم.
به این ترتیب جای تعجب نیست که این کتاب به محلِ ارجاعِ بقیه‌ی کتب عهد عتیق و عهد جديد، و بسیاری از کتبِ ادبی و حتی آثار تجسمیِ غربی تبدیل شده است.

3.
به دلیل همین تراکم بالای و جزئیات زیاد، من فقط یکی از تم‌های اصلی عهد عتیق را که در کتب بعدی نیز دنبال می‌شود، معرفی می‌کنم:

"سرگردانی" و سفرهای مداومِ و پیوسته پدرسالارها (= قوم يهود)، یکی از تم‌های خیلی مهم در کتاب آفرینش می باشد...
چندین نسل بعد اخراجِ آدم و حوا از باغ عدن و پراکنده شدنِ فرزندان نوح بر روی زمین (پس از فرونشستن توفان)، یهوه ابراهیم رو انتخاب می‌کند و با تجدید کردنِ عهدی که با وی و فرزندان برگزیده‌اش (دیگر پدرسالارها) می‌بندد، و برکت و وعده‌هایی که به آن‌ها می‌دهد، در مسیر رسیدن به این وعده ها (مستولی شدن بر دیگر اقوام، مقیم شدن در ارض موعود و زیاد شدن سلاله‌شان بر روی زمين)، از آن‌ها حمایت کرده و نمی‌گذارد که تسلیم ناملایمت‌ها شوند.... در این مسیر، این خانواده‌ی برگزیده (که قرار است بعدها به یک قوم، قومِ برگزیده یهوه تبدیل بشوند)، مرحله به مرحله با جابجایی‌های جغرافیایی‌شان، انگار توسط غربالِ الوهی پالایش می‌شوند؛ در طی نسل‌های متمادی، لوط، اسماعيل، عیسو و بقیه از آن‌ها جدا می شوند، تا سرانجام به ترکیبِ نهایی فرزندان اسرائیل می رسیم (=اسباط یعقوب)(در پایان کتاب و همین‌طور داستانِ یوسف). در پایان کتاب پیدایش نیز یهوه باز هم با همان وعده‌های همیشگی‌اش، یعقوب و خانواده‌اش را به دنبال یوسف روانه مصر می کند (تا بعدا با خروجِ بنی اسرائیل به رهبری موسی از مصر، در "کتاب خروج"، شاهد سرگردانیِ دیگری برای این قوم برگزیده باشیم".

اما مسيحيان بیشتر روی گناه نخستین و تبعید آدم و حوا از باغ عدن دست گذاشته اند...
در نگاه آن‌ها، سرگردانیِ اصلی، از همان لحظه‌ی تبعید رقم خورده است، و وعده‌ی اصلی يهوه زمانی محقق می‌شود که فرزندانِ آدم دوباره به همان جایگاه‌شان در باغ عدن و در جوارِ یهوه دست پیدا کنند؛ در واقع آن‌ها ارضِ موعودِ راستین را نه کنعان و شهر اورشلیم، بلکه باغ عدن می‌دانند.

این تم به همراه داستان‌های کتاب مقدسی، به اسلام و تاریخ آن نیز منتقل شده است؛ سفرِ بخشی از مسلمان ها به حبشه، سفرِ مسلمان ها از مکه به مدینه، و بعد با سفرِ علی(امام اول شیعیان) به کوفه، و بعد سفرِ فرزندان و نوادگانِ امامان شیعه به ایران. این تم به تاریخِ تشیع نیز تسری پیدا کرده و رنگی دیگر به خود گرفت.
بدین ترتیب در تاریخ اسلام، این سفر و سرگردانی با نام "هجرت" مفهوم‌سازی می‌شود.




پ‌نوشت ۱: اصلا ‌به راحتی و با عجله از کتاب مقدس رد نشوید؛ شاید بشود آن‌را مهم‌ترین کتابِ عهد عتیق (حداقل از نگاه غیر‌الهياتی) به حساب آورد.
پ‌نوشت ۲: با تشکر ویژه از دوستان عزیزم شایان و سهيل که در کنار يکديگر تلاش کردیم تا جای ممکن خوانش‌ها، نمادها و تفسیرهای مختلفی از متن کتاب پیدایش را از منابع گوناگون جمع‌آوری کرده و گرد هم بیاوریم.... خلاصه من که حظِ مُکرری را تجربه کردم.
پ‌نوشت ۳: طبق معمول به این کتاب هم به خاطر تقدسِ آن برای جمعی از افراد، امتیازی نمی دهم.

[rue mortensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

i've literally never finished a *whole* book of the bible in my life (i mean,,, i think i've finished short ones,,, but not anything as big as genesis). im so happy (:

also?? hagar's story is officially my favorite bible story, i think. her story is an important reminder that God sees us, and cares for us <33

[Drew Canole · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pretty epic story and pretty entertaining. I read the same translation R. Crumb used in his comic adaptation, but I would probably recommend just reading the Crumb version (from a literature stand point, of course).

Unlike other ancient cosmologies this one starts at the very start with God creating everything. Then later he has issues with the humans he created causing pain for Eve, toil for Adam, a huge flood, confusion during the tower of babel saga. He spurns Cain for no apparent reason, causing Cain to kill his brother. He puts Abraham through some serious turmoil (although not as bad as he does to Job).

The story of Esau and Jacob is pretty interesting. Jacob (later named Israel) was born second (so not entitled to become the heir) and is born clutching his (slightly) older brother's ankle. But through some smooth manipulation/negotiations get his brother's birthright.

Jacob's favourite son Joseph is sold by his family into slavery in Egypt but eventually does well there and later helps his family. The story of Jacob's family is continued hundreds of years later in Exodus.

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is part of a series where I am reading the Bible in chronological order. I am not doing this for reasons of faith, as I am agnostic, but because of my interest in mythology, ancient literature, and history. I chose the NRSV because I used to be Catholic and still have sympathies there. More importantly, this version seeks a balance between an accurate translation and the literary qualities of the King James Bible. So it seems you get the best of two worlds.

Genesis is the grandest, weirdest, and most mythological book of The Bible. So many phrases of language and features of Western myth and storytelling are here. Of course, to a more progressive ear, it is pretty dark stuff. Slavery is casually discussed (including the law that when you get a new slave, they must be circumcised), and misogyny is baked into the cake. It is also downright weird. There is casual incest, Onan's death due to pulling out (spilling his seed), people living past 100 years on the regular, and of course an evil talking serpent (which is not Satan). From the beginning, God has no motive. He creates the world on a kind of whim. At least here he is not all-knowing and as petty as any Greek god and far more destructive. This is a deity of power and fear. Indeed, the Tower of Babel is struck down not because it is folly but because God fears that it will succeed and man will ascend to heaven.

I liked the early chapters best. The tales here are primordial and visceral. The Garden of Eden is short and sad, God cursing man, woman, and snake. The destruction of the Earth in a rainstorm without end is harrowing. Then it swiftly becomes a multi-generational tale of God creating a special covenant with one family because... I guess they won the spiritual lottery? Here the stories are of more mixed quality, although Joseph's tale is certainly the most compelling with its twists and themes of forgiveness and fate. It is also interesting that we go from Abraham, who literally hangs out with God, to Joseph, who receives things only in dreams and visions. Joseph also has a shorter life. I guess because our elders were closer to God, a neat way to explain why I do not get to walk around with him in an arid climate and live to be 150. All in all, an uneven book, but a must-read for anyone with more than a passing interest in Judeo-Christian art, thought, culture, and all the rest. It is simply too foundational to be ignored, and as literature it can pack quite a punch.

[Mohamed · Rating 1 out of 5]

بعض الآيات التي أستوقفتني وبعض مما نسب لله ولأنبيائه مما لا يليق

8-21
وقال الرب في قلبه : لا أعود ألعن الارض ايضا من أجل الانسان
لإن تصور قلب الانسان شرير منذ حذاثته ولا أعود أيصا أميت كل حي كما فعلت
9-16
فمتى كانت القوس في السماء أبصرها لأذكر ميثاقا أبديا بين الله وبين كل نفس حية في كل جسد على الأرض
9-26
وقال: مبارك الرب آله سام وليكن كنعان عبدا لهم
9-27
ليفتح الله ليافث ليسكن في مساكن سام وليكن كنعان عبدا لهم
11-5 فنزل الرب لينظر المدينة والبرج اللذين كان بنو آدم يبنونهما
11-7
هلم ننزل ونبلبل هناك لسانهم حتى لا يسمع بعضهم لسان بعض
17-13
يختن ختانا وليد بيتك والمبتاع فضتك فيكون عهدي في لحمكم عهدا أبديا
17-14
واما الذكر الاغلف الذي لا يختتن في لحم غرلته فتقطع تلك النفس من شعبها إنه قد نكث عهدي
24-2
وقال إبراهيم لعبده كبير بيته المستولى على كل ما كان له:ضع يدك تحت فخذي
24-9
فوضع العبد يده تحت فخذ ابراهيم مولاه وحلف له على هذا الأمر
27_35
قد جاء أخوك بمكر وأخذ بركتك
27_36
ثم قال: ـأما ابقيت لي بركة؟
29_31
ورأي الرب أن ليئة مكروهة ففتح رحمها وأما راحيل فكانت عاقرا
30_38
توحم الغنم
31_20
وخدع يعقوب قلب لابان الآرامي
31_53
أله إبراهيم وآلهة ناحور آلهة أبيهما يقضون بيننا
32_20
هو ذا عبدك يعقوب ورائنا
32-24:32
صراع يعقوب مع الله
33-3:7
سجود يعقوب وزوجاته وابنائه لعيسو
33:10
لأني رأيت وجهك كما يرى وجه الله
34
قصة دينة..وقتل كل ذكر باالمكر والخيانة
35:22
رأوبين وزناه بسرية أبيه
38
زنا المحارم ..قصة ثامار و يهوذا
42:15-16
هل يقسم يوسف بحياة فرعون؟
49:4
علم يعقوب بفاحشة رأوبين وبالرغم من ذلك لم يعاقبه
49:10
لا يزول قضيب من يهوذا ومشترع من بين رجليه حتى يأتي شيلون وله يكون خضوع شعوب
50:25
الله سيفتقدكم

[Katherine S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep the bible on a constant rotation, reading a chapter or two (or more) every day. I read from a single volume, but thought I might as well add the individual books to my shelf as I finish them. (I've been reading all year without adding them, so I'm caching up.)

[Elandra Guibert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Noah named one of his sons Ham

[Loraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book of Genesis covers from the beginning of Creation through the final Patriarch Joseph. I read through it this time including Biblical fiction books that connected to each of the important characters covered in Genesis. This definitely gave me a new perspective on this Old Testament book and brought it more vividly to life.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

An artefact left to us by the ancients, The Book of Genesis opens as a magnificent prose poem intended to express mankind’s wonder when faced with the grand mystery of the cosmos. It is, at times (especially during its first few pages), a beautiful piece of writing. These opening lines are a thing of pure gorgeousness:

“In the beginning God created the heaven 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 moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

However, as the story moves away from its early primaeval chapters (which deal in generalities and poetically broad brush strokes) it starts to focus more on specifics, and this is where I felt some of its magic receding. It becomes a collection of loosely interrelated short stories, interlinked by listed genealogies almost as long as the stories themselves. The artistic effect of these lists is, I suppose, that each story rises out from the crowded babble of life, but they can become a little bit tedious. (Genesis? More like Genealogis! — Wayoo!) Short stories are rarely my thing: I find they don’t generally leave enough space for their characters to fully develop. However, despite a lack of clear structure, the God/LORD/Yahweh figure quickly, nonetheless, becomes an overarching protagonist/antagonist, appearing as the unifying feature in many of the stories. He is an enigmatic, complex riddle of a character. We’re never given direct access to why he makes any given decision, and, often, his motive seems to simply be “Because I could” (as is evident from the book’s first sentence).

The reason I came to Genesis in the first place was because I was in Vienna earlier this week, and, while having a look around the Kunsthistorisches Museum, I stumbled on Pieter Bruegel’s The Tower of Babel (1563), a truly astonishing painting in both scale and detail, which, along with Hunters in the Snow (1565) (hung in the same room), stirred something deep inside me: a sort of gentle yearning to touch the ancient and prehistoric past.




Once I left the museum, I went away and did two things, the first of which was rewatch the Levitation Scene from Solaris, and the second of which was to wikipedia the story of the Tower of Babel, a story which turned out to be slightly hard to take. In it, a united mankind sets about trying to build a tower that will touch the sky — a sort of manmade utopia. Yahweh, once He is made aware of the effort, responds like this:

“And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth, and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.”

I mean, just what is the LORD Yahweh’s purpose, here? Divide and Rule? I don’t think I understand His reasoning. It appears to simply be that He doesn’t like the idea that mankind — His own creation — has the potential to rise up and become His equal. Either way, He acts a bit like a petty tyrant with an all-too-fragile ego when He (in one mindless act of cultural vandalism) forever ends mankind’s unity and dooms it to an existence of continuous warfare and self-misunderstanding. It’s like He’s a sort of cosmically scaled Logan Roy, always trying to manipulate the other players in a game that He already has the upper hand on.

I thought: but, surely, this interpretation can’t be right, can it? — I felt like I had to find out, so I decided to finally start reading His book, something I’ve never actually done before (mostly because I’ve always found the more toxic aspects of its fanbase slightly off-putting).

Having now read it properly, I can confirm that Yahweh is an enticingly complex character. He creates a Universe (for no reason whatsoever, apparently), then populates it with flawed and helpless creations whom He insists on testing continuously (exploding into wrath whenever their inbuilt failings inevitably come to fruition). On the basis of the results of these tests, He then lays down mostly random proclamations which, realistically, can only be interpreted as manifestations of the fragility of His ego. He actively works against the unity of mankind and is swift to use mass murder as a solution when His subjects aren’t following His absolutist rules; conveniently, however, this absolute morality of His is open to being haggled with arbitrarily (see: the Abraham and Sodom debacle). He is also particularly keen on Genital Mutilation and quickly decides to make it a prerequisite for all of His male worshippers — should they wish to be considered worthy — to have a truncated willy (I mean, if you weren’t keen on foreskins, why did you give us them in the first place? — you bellend!). In short, the LORD is an altogether chilling figure, and, as such, He’s the main reason I think I might slowly keep reading this series. His interpretation of life seems to be that it’s all just a game, and He’s created His very own Universe with its rules cleverly rigged entirely in His favour: His very own theatre for a game of “Boar on the Floor”.

It makes sense, really: He must have been bored before He created Heaven and Earth. I can’t help but wonder what He was doing back then. Was He just chilling out in the dimensionless blackness, or is there an older Superverse that He is free to move in and out of, but which — like an airport club lounge — we normoes aren’t granted access? If so, who (or should that be “Who” with a capital-w?) created the Superverse He grew up in? Did He have His own abusive, game-playing Parent there Who made Him the way He is in The Book of Genesis, or was He just always born to be a bit of a capital-p Psycho?

[Ryan Jung · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I read the Gilgamesh Epic, I was able to distance myself from it with the knowledge that pretty much nobody believes in the exploits of Gilgamesh in the service of Ekidnu and Innana, etc. I thought I could read the Bible with the same level of detachment, but it's really quite impossible. Even if you can get past the "people are running our country who wholeheartedly believe this stuff" aspect, Genesis is a pretty objectively bad book.

Let's start with the various inconsistencies... Chapter One of the thing pretty explicitly describes a six-day period of time in which all of the universe was created - man is created last, after everything else, specifically the flora and fauna. Chapter Two immediately contradicts this by saying man was created before the flora and fauna and that animals were created one by one and paraded before Adam to be named.

Chapter Ten is a lineage chapter describing what became of Noah's three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Each of them spread out and formed nations that all speak different languages. Three times in this chapter is this confirmed: "every one after their tongues" is the verbiage used (I'm reading the King James version, but I cross-referenced this against the New International Version, and it confirmed that these passages mean they spoke different languages). Chapter Eleven, which tells the story of the Tower of Babel, begins, "And the whole earth was of one language." From one verse to the next, a glaring contradiction.

We also have cases like in 26:33 where a city is given the name Beersheba, even though it was given that name five chapters prior in 21:31. We also have several chapters chock full of people having kids at upwards of 100 years of age, but then Abraham is dumbfounded that such a thing should be possible in 17:17. We have a history of the world that tells us there were only two people in the world and they had two sons, but suddenly "Cain knew his wife; and she conceived". Who is the wife if no woman but his mother exists at this point? Onan is killed by God in 38:10 (because his brother also pissed off God, so God killed him, and then Onan's dad wanted Onan to carry on the family line by having sex with Onan's dead brother's wife, but Onan pulled out at the last second and "spilled his seed on the ground"), but suddenly in 46:12, Onan is alive again and moving to Egypt.

During the Great Flood, God kills everyone because everyone in the world is bad and sinful, but afterward he ends up killing a lot of people destroying Sodom and Gommorah because everyone there is bad and sinful, so what was the point of killing everything if it didn't resolve all that badness and sinfulness? Is this the power of an omnipotent God? It seems like just another in a long series of contradictions to me.

On top of that, for all the moralizing Christians do, the morality of this book sure is completely awful. You have an omnipotent, omnicient creator who creates a whole world and its people and then tempts those people to violate his will... which is a thing that is impossible because a world created by an omnicient, omnipotent creator is by definition a world on rails, completely deterministic, in which no free will can exist. If that's the case, then Adam and Eve acted the way God created them to act, and it was impossible for them to act in any other way, and yet God punishes them for it. And the thing they do that makes God so mad? They develop an independent sense of morality. Of course, that morality involves covering genitals in shame, so I'm not really in agreement with that either.

A quick laundry list of bad moral tales you can find here:

* Cain kills Abel because God rejects his offering of plants in lieu of Abel's animal sacrifice, so you'd better get to cutting those cow throats.
* Incest, incest, incest. Dozens of people marry and impregnate their cousins throughout. Sometimes, like at the beginning of everything, and right after the Flood, this is implied to be requisite.
* Twice in this book, people lie to Pharoah, saying their wife is their sister, to avoid some potential cultural fallout. And then God punishes Pharoah for acting on the knowledge he has, which is intentionally not true. The lying party in both cases, as well as their actions, are endorsed by God.
* Jacob gets mad in chapter 29 because he wants to fuck one of his cousins, but he is deceived and fucks a different cousin. Did I mention the rampant incest? Also, he believes he is owed this cousin-fucking because he has labored for seven years. He has bought his cousin through manual labor. So women are chattel, too.
* Jacob's brothers sell him into slavery (human chattel again), and this is ultimately a good thing because a series of events lead to Jacob being rich and in good favor with Pharoah so he can actually now feed all of those people who sold him into slavery in the first place.

And then there's the complete absurdity of things like...

* Wives selling their husband's sex to each other for the cost of mandrakes
* An omniscient deity discovering... anything at all
* A blind guy unable to tell the difference between a hairy guy's arm and a sheep hide
* Carving strips out of a tree branch and placing them near the cattle's feeding trough, which makes the cattle and their offspring stronger
* Pervasive male genital mutilation to appease God
* A woman going to have sex with her father-in-law and she knows it but he doesn't recognize her, but she still asks, "What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?"
* Political leaders responding to omenous dream interpretations

I would love to be able to read something like this as though it's a weird Terry Pratchett novel, but there are people (in positions of political power in the wealthiest, most powerful countries in the world) who believe against all reason that this is all 100% true, and that will always mar any reading of this. I should be able to take an anthropological view, to use this as a yardstick to measure human progress against, but... too many people use this as a guide to life, and that's fucking crazy.

[kler · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this for school, otherwise I would have given up very quickly. I hated this. It is boring and too complex (which makes you lose the point very easily), you cannot find any pleasure reading this. It's only about men, obviously! Religion has been the first inculcation to a patriarcal society and an initiation to misogyny. Women are only living in order to procreate and look like decerebrate people. I hate religions.

[Basilius · Rating 5 out of 5]

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.

Genesis, along with the early chapters of Exodus, is undoubtedly the most popular book of the Hebrew Bible. It’s probably the only portion people manage to read, and for good reason. Compared to the history, genealogy, philosophy, laws, prophesy, and poetry of other books, the fables of Genesis carry charm and digestible wisdom. Here the rich heritage of Mesopotamia and Egypt drip down into Hebrew folklore and our faith. Meant to be viewed as allegorical tales, imbued with ancient and time-typical morals, we read these stories not to learn about the universe, but ourselves.

“Hebrew” means wanderer. This is important, as the historical context of the biblical Semites helps explain some of the Bible’s obscurity. We must picture nomadic sheep-herders wandering across desert for suitable land to graze, where in their downtime they constructed, copied, and altered various middle-eastern and near-eastern mythologies. Thus the Garden of Eden is a typical paradise fable where knowledge, sex, and human agency spoil the bliss of primitive man. It reveals a growing self-awareness in humanity's early psyche. The eating of the forbidden fruit entails guilt and suffering, but also adventure. The loss of innocence is required for maturity and memorable experience.

Cain and Able, as rivals symbolizing the conflict between pastoral and agricultural communities, also initiate the Bible’s tone. No matter what pearls of truth and beauty are thrown before us these are still bronze-age uneducated tribesmen, and will act accordingly. There’s is a harsh world ravished by war and capricious gods. The uneasy yet desperate faith people put into their divinities is a double edged sword: sometimes they will like your gifts, sometimes they will not. One of the many running themes pulsating through this text is the Hebrew’s wariness of Yahweh. The Bible is clearly an advocate of the god, but there are ample stories demonstrating why he’s untrustworthy. It is not until his personality is drastically altered and updated during the Babylonian exile does he gain popularity.

Noah is a plagiarized diluvial tale from Sumerian legend; we see its superior in Gilgamesh. But the Hebrews found it relevant for their God, who errs, regrets, is quick to destroy his mistakes, picks favorites, and creates deals. The recreation story is a tad anti-climactic, but with it comes some semblance of progress in God’s morals, which in an omnipotent being is always welcome.

Abraham is the great looming father of all monotheistic people, but one can doubt whether his God was also Moses’ God. If we take his word for it, we can assume he adopted Yahweh as a family deity while in Canaan which his successors exported to Egypt during the famine. There Yahweh accumulated a cult following which Moses found and converted to. (His journey is plotted in Exodus.) With Abraham I imagine he told his children, lying through his teeth, that Yahweh would protect and support the family if they stayed faithful to him. This makes no claim to monotheism, or even henotheism, but simply that they hedge their bets. And while God spared Isaac at the last moment of Abraham’s test, we suspect this was a later revision to a more honest story about human sacrifice.

The covenant with Abraham’s descendants was later limited to the more hopeful kids: Isaac and Jacob respectively. But it’s this promise to the privileged few that lies at the center of the Hebrew Bible; around it everything revolves. Basically God offered a select group of desert Semites a deal. If they worshiped him and him alone, he would give them a small piece of land in the Eurasian near-east. In return for obeying his laws they’d breed like rabbits and rule the Promised Land in prosperity. Unfortunately for the Hebrews the gods of Egypt and Assyria, Babylon and Persia, Greece and Rome were more powerful than a tribal war-god of the Levant. Jerusalem fell multiple times, eventually for good, and it wasn’t until the stubborn prophets killed Yahweh and recreated him in a more civilized image, embedded with their hopes, that he would become ‘God’ and rule most of the Earth. This phoenix was of course Jesus Christ, and we’ll explore him later.

The story of Joseph, the last protagonist of Genesis, details the Hebrew’s entry into Egypt. Judging by how refined and charming this tale is we can see a clear improvement in God’s writing by this time. As we know Joseph, son of Jacob, is almost killed and abandoned by his brothers, who by a twist of fate later need his help. Jealousy, reversal of fortune, dream interpretation, tricks, forgiveness, and brotherly love: this story has it all. We also have our first real example of God’s tender and subtle protection for those he loves.

Before we end this review it’s worth taking a further look at Yahweh. It’s noteworthy that this is the only robust character portrayal of a deity in world literature; we always see the gods quarreling with each other and mankind in other religions, but none are given the space to develop individually. The God of the Hebrew Bible is first and foremost alone. He creates the universe apparently out of boredom or loneliness, and takes joy in life and creation. He walks through the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day, and talks with both mankind and his heavenly court (see Job). And while he makes reference to a polytheistic pantheon there is always a sense of alienation. Yahweh seems to define himself in opposition to other divinities and mortals. He’s vain enough to bribe a small group of nomadic tribesmen to worship him, but seems more like a new parent learning the trade than an all-knowing, all-powerful being.

In his defense God never claims to be omniscient or omnipotent, or even ethical. Those claims are all postulated by his adherents. He makes mistakes, sometimes repents, and is taught compassion more from humans than the other way around. He certainly approves of murder, racism, theft, and rape (though only under the right conditions) and also awards the clever trickster over the honest, hardworking man; as seen in Able and Jacob over Cain and Esau. Looking at Genesis we must conclude that God is not role model to be followed, but merely a complex and fascinating character. Just as the Hebrews grow from meaningless tribes to a powerful nation-state, so must we view Yahweh as a deity trying to make his way in a world of multiple and powerful gods (recall that he even loses a battle to his rival, Chemosh, in 2 Kings). It's only with the help of some of the most tenacious people in history--the Jews--that Yahweh succeeds, and becomes the most powerful god the world has ever seen.

As a whole Genesis is a spectacular introduction to the Bible. Ignoring the boring genealogies, we have a wonderful collection of near-eastern fables and raw tribal tales. It combines the brutish wisdom and tender hopes of a people who see in their history divine significance, and in their future eternal prestige. I can’t say I believe any of these stories, but to question their authenticity would miss the point. The Bible does what any good fiction does: imbues our life with meaning and purpose through engaging narrative. Indeed, it lives up to its reputation as being written by a god.

[Jackson Cyril · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Alter's prose translations helps one understand what Erich Auerbach meant when he claimed that the Hebrew Bible was "fraught with background" (Mimesis). The awesome grandeur of the KJV's God who declares, "I shall question thee, and answer thou me" (Job) is here gone and what we have instead is a rather capricious desert tyrant ruling over an unruly and exceptionally malicious people. And the prose! I have read few passages as strikingly fresh as the opening chapter of Genesis, with its repeated use of the word "and" (Hebrew: waw), which leaves the reader utterly fatigued at the conclusion of the first 6 days-- no wonder YHWH had to take a day off!

[Adham Kamar aldeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

((وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلِكَ وَبِالآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ)) 4 *سورة البقرة
إني آمنت بالذي أنزل إليي و لكني لا أعتقد إني كنت مؤمنا بالذي أنزل من قبلي قبل أن أبدأ بقراءه التوراة
في الحقيقه قبل أن أبدأ بقراءته أجزمت بإني سأعطيه 5 نجوم على أي حال فإنه كتاب سماوي و من أنا لانقده او أعيبه و لكن بعد قراءته أراه الآن من أروع التجارب التي مررت فلقد كان تماماَ كرؤية أشجار مألوفة على أرض غريبه و إني حقاً الآن أقف عاجزاً عن إيجاد تفسير لأي صراع يهودي إسلامي فإن التشابه هو أبعد ما بكثير مما تخيلته –من المحتوى و ليس الأسلوب – و ما يمتاز به سفر التكوين الكتاب الأول من التوراة ترتيبه الزمني و بساطته و من الغريب أيضاً أنك تشعر بنوع من التشويق في أثتناء قراءته !!
من أروع ما أستوقفني :
الأصحاح التاسع حيث يعاهد الله نوح و كل نفس حيَه و هنا تنزل الكثير من الأحكام التي هم عليها اليهود الآن و قد صيغت بأسلوب يبرز الرهبة في تخليف الأرض لنسل جديد طاهر
الأصحاح الخامس عشر (خطاب إبراهيم مع الله ) رائع !!!!!! و ذكر هنا الأرض الموعوده التي ما زالت تحتل ساحات الجدل في القضايا مع اليهود ((لِنَسْلِكَ أُعْطِي هذِهِ الأَرْضَ، مِنْ نَهْرِ مِصْرَ إِلَى النَّهْرِ الْكَبِيرِ، نَهْرِ الْفُرَاتِ. ))19
قصه يوسف تبدأ من الأصحاح التاسع و الثلاثون هذه القصه بالذات احداثها هي تماماَ !!!! كالقرآن ألا أنه يوجد في التوراة تفاصيل أدق و كانت حقاً مثيرة للتفكر و الامتثال
ولكن هناك قصه ابنتي لوط ما زلت لا أدرك لماذا ؟ او ما الحجه أو الغايه ؟ التي استوعب بها التوراة قصه كهذه لا يقبلها عقل أو فطره أوليس الانبياء معصومين !! و حتى لو كان ما كان لماذا لم يذكر بأنه حل بهم عذاب أو لعنه أو حتى إشاره بأن ما فعلوه مع أبيهم هو إثمُ أو فاحشه
إن سبب قرائتي للتوراة ليس لامتثال صفات المؤمنين في تلك الآيه فحسب بل رغبة في إعاده الإيمان و الدين حبلاً نعتصم به جميعاً بعد أن أصبح الدين رمز و عنوان ومبرر لك قطره دم تسال و لكل عرض يسفك و رغبه بأن لا نحكم على شيء قبل أن نفهمه و ندركه و رغبة في إثبات أن التوراة ليس كتاب يدعو إلى إخراج العرب من الأرض الموعوده أو كتاب يدعو إلى الجشع يعتبر أن اليهود هم قوم الله و بقية سائر البشر هم عبيد و ليس كتاب يبرر أفعال إرهاب و قتل أطفال بل التوراة هو عباره عن أشجار خضراء مألوفة على أرض- إنشاء الله – لن تبقى غريبه .

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of my READ THE BIBLE WITHIN A YEAR challenge.

Wish me luck, as I've got a long way to go!

I read Genesis quite a few years ago, but upon reading it again, I realise I had forgotten quite how much is included in this one book. Genesis covers a wide variety of stories, lives, subjects & moral issues. Overall, a very good first book of the Bible.

Main Subjects:

The Creation
Adam & Eve
Cain & Abel (the very first murder in the Bible)
Sodom & Gomorrah
Circumcision
Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac
Jacob's life, including having two sisters as wives
Rape
Noah's Ark
Joseph with his coat of many colours & not very nice brothers.
Joseph interpreting dreams for the Pharaoh

Questions it has left me asking:

Why did humans apparently live so long at first?

I think it is very unlikely that humans were initially vegetarians, as the Bible implies. Also, what makes an animal clean or unclean?

Is it just me, or does everyone give birth to lots of boys, then has the odd daughter later on, almost as an afterthought? It left me feeling somewhat inferior for just being a female.

[Alisia]

Reading as literature, not theology.

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

1/1/2025 - 1/29/2025 with The Bible Recap
1/1/2024 - 1/31/2024 with the Bible Recap
1/9/2024 - 1/30/2024 with the kids (The Message)

[R.L.S.D]

The degree of divine interest in the tragic and sordid domestic affairs of one particular family has no parallel in literature. From the cosmic and the enormous we telescope with almost dizzying speed to individual humans whose principle virtue is that they have the favor of God, who spends most of the book introducing Himself, showing His work, and explaining very little. A story that begins in a burst of light, ends with the death and burial of a man who said that "few and evil" had been the years of His life. Marilynne Robinson's observation is apt: "When we consider what the favor of God can look like, Jacob and his sons must surely be borne in mind."
This Person's ways are not our ways. That He makes this family a promise - arching across thousands of years, dwarfing their own timelines - and then requests that they hold onto it, is only imaginable in light of the intimacy with which He has attended them.

Among many other things, this read through I've been pondering the following:

-Man's brotherly relationship to nature, *both* submitted to the One who creates. "and the man became a living creature."

-The saturation of baptismal imagery in Genesis. "And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." ("There's something about the spirit, water and new life" - Flame)

-God's intent that the family He chose *bless* the nations rather than curse them as they do so often in Genesis. "[To Abraham] How have I sinned against you that you brought on me and my kingdom this great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done."

-Moses/Israel's willingness to record their great patriarchs' most shameful moments "[When Judah realizes his own daughter in law is pregnant by him after he refused to care for her properly] She is more righteous than I."

-The hiddenness of God "Surely the LORD is in this place and I did not know it."

[anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

had some bars not gonna lie but it was so overarchingly misogynistic that i could not focus on anything else

[Caleb Vogel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This artful translation and commentary of Genesis provides a new perspective on the literary effect of this first book of Moses. Alter cleverly communicates many of the nuanced linguistic gems hidden in the Hebrew and lost in most English translations. This is best demonstrated by a couple examples:
_____________________________
Genesis 11: Alter translates the wordplay present throughout the Babel account. The builders suggest in verse 3 that they "brick bricks and burn for a burning." "The reiterated 'there,' sham, is the first syllable of shamayim, 'heavens,' as well as an odd echo of shem, 'name.' " Alter goes on to observe the linguistic similarities between Hebrew balal, Akkadian Babel, and the English "babble."

Genesis 22: Alter explains that the term usually translated "knife" in verse 6 more accurately refers to a butchering cleaver, greatly increasing the vividness and specificity of the scene. Further, in the final phrase of verse 14, it is unclear whether the verb is active or passive, i.e., it is unclear whether the LORD sees/provides as the actor, or if instead He is Himself seen/provided (!!). Alter therefore translates the phrase, "On the mount of the LORD there is sight," preserving the fascinating ambiguity.

Genesis 25.30: The translator vividly reflects Esau's gruff manner of speech by translating his outburst very literally: "Let me gulp down some of this red red stuff." The Hebrew uses rough, animalistic words, not the usual slightly elevated Hebrew terms.
_____________________________

Let these examples suffice as a taste of the insight found in Alter's translation. I must admit that he does at times become too much of a textual critic, by noting potential errors with regards to history, or raising suspicions over the origins and tradition of the text. But these flaws of the commentary can be wisely dealt with or passed over, as the reader's expertise allows. On the whole this translation and commentary help to awaken the dormant passion of Christians who may have already read this book more than a few times.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important things ever committed to writing. I have been thinking about the first chapters of this book for years. Finally have learned enough Greek to read a bit of the Septuagint as well. Will add some layman thoughts later.

[Bud Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

July 2019

5 stars but I wasn’t feeling this novella. However it did inspire a lot of my favorite authors in the creation of their fiction. So bravo for that. Saw a lot of things Moses could have done better in this likely first or second draft (chiseled into stone tablets?)

I did enjoy how people lived over 900 years and pretended not to laugh at God when God caught them and then God said, “But I heard you laugh, Sarah.” That was funny. So was the hairy brother and the smooth skinned brother, and how the Garden of Eden happens all on one page. Moses was okay at flash fiction.


Read this again August 2022

I understand a lot more of what is going on in the Book of Genesis after having read some of the New Testament. Lots of stuff lost on me the first time through, like how God was so annoyed with Adam and Eve that he kicked them out of Eden (everyone knows that) but they had two sons, one a murderer and God was so pissed at that he wondered if he’d made a mistake creating man at all, down the road the son of the son of the murderer does a double homicide and God decides, nah he’s got to erase the whole earth with a flood and start all over again. Enter Noah. And all that. I thought it was pretty cool how Genesis starts off with earth getting created and the New Testament ends with Jesus destroying earth again and heaven too, and having to make all new ones. Like father like son. And of course my little joke about Moses carving the story into stone tablets is all wrong, he was up on the mountain for a month and God told him all this and the stone tablet carving was with his laser beam finger. But I’m getting ahead of myself, that’s all after Exodus and into Numbers, etc.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually enjoyed this a lot more than expected! However, at times it did feel more like a history text book...