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The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament. It details the origins of the Jewish peoples.
Characters[]
- God - the divine figure
- Noah - a descendant of Adam who becomes the spawn of humanity after it is destroyed by God
- Abraham (or Abram) - one of the first patriarchs
- Isaac - son of Abraham and one of the first patriarchs
- Jacob (or Israel) - son of Isaac and one of the first patriarchs
- Joseph - son of Jacob and an important force in Egyptian politics
- Adam - the first man
- Eve - the first woman
- Lot - brother of Abraham
- Sarah - wife of Abraham
- Ishmael - half-brother of Isaac, progenitor of the "Ishmaelites"
- Simeon - son of Jacob
- Judah - son of Jacob
- Benjamin - youngest son of Jacob
- Levi - son of Jacob
- Cain - son of Adam, kills his brother Abel
- Abel - son of Adam, slain by Cain
- Hagar - handmaiden of Sarah, mother of Ishmael
- Esau (or Edom) - brother of Jacob, progenitor of the Edomites
- Laban - local landowner
- The serpent
Summary[]
Note: This is based off of the King James Bible
God creates the universe in six days. After creating the Earth, God creates the first man and woman (Adam and Eve) and lets them live in the utopian Garden of Eden. He gives them only one rule - do not consume the fruit from the tree of knowledge. A serpent convinces Eve to eat from the tree. She and Adam eat from the tree. They are found by God, who punishes them by casting them out of the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve have two sons - Cain and Abel. Cain, jealous of Abel's better standing in the world, bludgeons his brother to death with a rock. God finds out about this and punishes Cain by making him an outcast among all other creatures. Adam has another son after this.
Hundreds of years later, and man has begun to gain a foothold over the Earth. These people are violent, without fear from God, and frequently copulate with "giants". As such, God decides to flood the Earth entirely. Before he does so, he tasks a descendant of Adam named Noah with building an ark onto which two of every animal will be placed. Noah does so, with God flooding the Earth. Noah's ark is marooned on "the mountains of Ararat" for several weeks. During this time, Noah uses doves to decipher if the waters have begun to descend or not. Once they have, Noah leaves the ark. God commands his descendants to repopulate the Earth.
The descendants of Noah spread across the Earth. One kingdom decides to build a tower into Heaven. Seeing this, God decides to end this project by giving the peoples of the Earth different languages. The kingdom is given the name "Babel".
A descendant of Noah, Abram (given the name Abraham), is told by God that he needs to leave his birthplace and travel to the land of Canaan. Abraham's brother Lot travels moves to the city of Sodom. The city of Sodom (and its sister city of Gomorrah) are filled with sinners and are destroyed by God. Before Sodom and Gomorrah is destroyed, Lot escapes with his wife (who looks back onto Sodom and is turned into a pillar of salt) and his two daughters.
Abraham has two sons, one (Ishmael, a "wild ass of a man") born to his wife's slave (Hagar) and another (Isaac) born to his aged wife (Sarah). In Isaac's youth, Abraham is told by God to sacrifice Isaac. Though Abraham nearly goes through with this, he is stopped by an angel.
In Isaac's adulthood, he marries a young woman named Rebekah. After his father dies, Isaac gains God's blessing and has two sons - Esau (a hairy man with reddish skin) and Jacob. Jacob tricks Esau into losing his birthright and a blessing from his dying father, leading to Esau reviling his brother and Jacob fleeing from Esau.
While on the run, Jacob sees a ladder into heaven and meets a young woman named Rachel (the daughter of a local leader named Laban). Laban has Jacob work for seven years before he can marry Rachel but switches out Rachel with her sister Leah. Jacob is able to convince Laban to give him Rachel's hand in marriage as well.
Jacob fathers several children with his wives (and their handmaids) and decides to return to his homeland. Laban is hesitant to allow Jacob to leave, as Jacob's presence influenced Laban's flock of livestock. Jacob asks for "all the spotted, speckled, and brown goats and sheep" as payment. After this, Jacob is told by God to flee immediately without any notice to Laban.
As such, Jacob flees with his immediate family. Laban chases after him, and after a week catches up to Jacob. Before Laban can inflict any violence upon Jacob's family, he is told by God to "not to say anything good or bad". As such, Jacob and Laban make a truce.
While returning to his birthplace, Jacob wrestles with a Heavenly being (possibly an angel) and is given the name "Israel" (though the name Jacob is used after this). Though Jacob fears being attacked by Esau, his fears are unwarranted. Esau welcomes Jacob with open arms.
While in Shechem, one of Jacob's daughters (Dinah) is raped by a local prince. Two of Jacob's sons (Simeon and Levi) trick the king of Shechem by having him circumcise every man in Shechem. They then ransack the city - slaying every man in Shechem while they are weakened. Jacob is disappointed in his sons due to the slaughter of Shechem.
While Jacob's family settles in Hebron, Jacob's children become jealous of one particular son - Joseph. As such, they conspire to have him disappear. First they throw him into a pit but then decide to sell him into slavery and make it appear to Jacob that Joseph was killed by a wild beast. Jacob is left despondent, believing that his favorite son is dead.
Joseph is brought to Egypt. Initially, his time in Egypt is filled with misery - he is nearly raped by the wife of his owner and is arrested after the wife accuses him of rape. While in prison, he meets with two of the Pharaoh's former servants and interprets their prophetic dreams. After this, one of the servants summons Joseph after the Pharaoh has odd dreams. Joseph interprets these as prophetic of a coming famine.
Due to his predictions, Joseph is made a vizier and helps to bring prosperity to Egypt during the famine. In the second year of the famine, Joseph's siblings visit Egypt to gain bread for their homeland. Joseph recognizes his siblings (who do not recognize him) and, after labelling them as spies, demands that they bring the youngest sibling to him. After some time, Benjamin ventures with his siblings into Egypt.
While in Egypt, Joseph manufactures the theft of a silver drinking cup and then (when it is found) demands that Benjamin be enslaved. An elder son of Jacob (Judah) pleads with Joseph that he be taken instead. Overcome with emotion, Joseph reveals who he is and asks that the family move to Egypt.
As the the family moves to Egypt, Jacob becomes bedridden as he reaches the end of his life. Dying, he asks to be buried in the land of his forefathers instead of in Egypt and prophesizes the fate of his children. After Jacob dies, his children fear retribution from Joseph. Joseph (viewing the evil act of being sold into slavery as having a beneficial end) decides against seeking revenge. The Book of Genesis ends with the death of Joseph.
Sources[]
- Wikipedia