Genesis, << JEHN uh sihs, >> is the first book of the Bible. It is the oldest and most complex of the ancient writings that have been accepted as the word of God by Western religions. Genesis begins the events of the Bible. It describes the origins of the world, and it introduces the earliest ancestors of the Israelite people. Biblical scholars believe that parts of Genesis began as oral literature, perhaps as early as 2000 to 1500 B.C. The book did not achieve its final form until at least 1,000 years later.
Genesis consists of two main parts. The first part (chapters 1-11), called primeval history, describes the origin of life and civilization on earth. It includes the stories of the Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah and the Flood. The primeval history is not history in the traditional sense, but an attempt to provide basic information about the nature of the world and humanity. Many of the primeval accounts resemble those in other ancient literatures. But the Biblical stories present a unique idea of one benevolent God, an ordered universe, and humanity that has goodness at its core.
The second part of Genesis (chapters 12-50), called patriarchal history, focuses on the ancestors of ancient Israel. This part of Genesis presents stories about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are considered the patriarchs (fathers) of the Israelite people.
