Genesis Study Guide

Clare Bradley
Atharva Marathe

Book 1:
1. First story of Creation
a. God created Earth from nothingness, and separated light from darkness
i. Two kinds of light; the greater light ruled the day while the lesser ruled the
night
b. Sky separated the earth into two: the water below it and the water above it
c. Dry land→ Earth; waters→ Seas
d. Created animals and vegetation before humans, but still allowed humans
dominion over both
e. Humankind was created in God’s image
. Every plant with seeds in its fruit was meant as food
f. Takes God six days to create all of this

Book 2:
1. Second story of Creation
a. God formed man from the dust of the ground→ meant to till the earth
b. Creates the Garden of Eden
i. Man can eat from every tree besides the tree of knowledge
1. Similar to Helios’ cattle in the Odyssey
ii. Women were created to be helpers of man
1. Earliest roots of patriarchy
2. Made from the rib bone of man
iii. Man was allowed to name every animal→ similar to establishing man’s
dominion over animals seen in book one
2. Man and his wife become one
. Establishes sacredness of sex because it is at the heart of Creation
a. Man and woman were not ashamed of nakedness
3. God rested on the seventh day→ Sabbath

Book 3:
1. Story of Eve and the serpent
a. Serpent tricks Eve into eating from the Tree of Knowledge because he asserts that
the God doesn’t permit this out of fear that humanity become like Him
b. Eve eats and gives to Adam
i. Eve receives blame for this→ further establishes the power of Man
because the woman is blamed for misfortune
c. They both become aware that they are naked and cover themselves immediately
2. God finds out
. Punishes the serpent by forcing him to walk on his belly
a. Punishes Eve in two ways:
. Increases pain during childbearing
i. Husband will rule over her
 b. Condemns man to till the earth for life and eat its grains
. Establishes cycle of life
1. Man is dust→ returns to dust upon death
3. Both Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden

Book 4:
1. Story of Cain and Abel
a. Cain is the eldest son of Adam and Eve; Abel is the next oldest
i. Cain a farmer; Abel is a herdsman
b. Both Cain and Abel offer their harvest to God
. Cain: fruit; Abel: firstborn of his flock
1. God chooses Abel’s offering over Cain’s, which angers Cain to the
point where Cain takes his brother to the field and kills him\
a. Abel’s blood cries out to God
c. God’s punishment: Cain will no longer be able till the ground successfully, he
will wander the earth for the rest of life and anyone who kills him will receive a
punishment seven times worse
2. Cain leaves the presence of God and settles in Nod
. Cain’s (and everyone else’s) ancestory is described only through the names of
sons
. Reinforces the importance of continuing the bloodline and name as well as
masculinity writ large
3. God gives Eve another son, Seth, to replace Abel
4. The people Earth start calling God as “Lord”

Book 5:
1. The ancestry of Adam is described
a. 2 important features:
i. As the lineage continues, people live shorter and shorter lives,
comparatively→ they are not only distancing themselves from God
because of time, but also in their lifestyles; people have begun to sin far
more frequently→ As they get further away from God in time and lineage,
they also start living less like God
ii. Noah is born eight generations later

Book 6:
1. The sins of human angered God and He declares to wipe them from the face of the earth
a. God favors Noah, because he lived a righteous life→ Warns Noah that He will
flood the earth→ Tells Noah to build and an Ark and keep two of every animal
and plant (alongside his own family)
i. Explicitly refers to this by saying to take “the male and its mate”
1. Subtle reinforcement of the importance of male; the possessive
form (“its mate”) is representative of the ways in which man
controlled woman
b. This the first covenant God establishes with Noah
Books 7-10:
1. God sends the flood for 40 days and 40 nights→ Water remains for 150 days
a. All life is destroyed except for that which is on the Ark
2. Noah sends a dove→ doesn’t return so he knows that there is land
3. Noah burns offerings to God→ God makes another covenant: He won’t ever kill all of the
creatures on Earth like He did
. This is because humans are born evil→ Humans don’t know better than to sin
a. Rainbow is symbolic of this covenant
4. God revokes vegetarianism→ Humankind is free to eat every moving thing
. Can’t eat flesh with blood→ have to cook meat
a. For every life taken, you must give a life
i. Similar to Hammurabi’s Code (Eye for eye)
5. Noah plants the first vineyard→ Gets drunk and is asleep naked
. Ham, the father of Canaan, sees him and tells his brothers, Shem and Japheth, to
cover his father
. They don’t see his nakedness→ Noah curses Canaan (Ham’s son), yet
blesses Shem and Japheth
6. Noah’s descendants spread throughout the Earth and covered it

Book 11:
1. Tower of Babel story
a. The entire earth had one language and the people of Shinar sought to make a
tower high enough to reach the heavens; and make a name for themselves
b. God destroys the Tower and scrambles languages, making it difficult to
communicate with one another
i. Precursor for how to achieve salvation: individual works and deeds can’t
lift you up to God, only faith
ii. Independently, this also is another mechanism through which God seeks to
humanity’s pride, especially in materiality
2. Ancestry of Shem:
. Terah is his descendant→ Father of Abram, Nahor and Haran
. Haran is father of Lot
3. Abram’s family:
. His wife’s name was Sarai and she could not bear any children

Book 12:
1. Abram’s and God’s interactions
a. God commands him to take his family and leave to go the land He shows him
i. First covenant between God and Abram: if Abram does this, God will
grant him a great nation
1. Lot also goes with him
b. Passes through the land of Canaan and stays at Shechem
. God says that He will give Abram’s children this land→ Modern day
Israel/Palestine conflict
c. Abram builds an altar an invokes the name of the Lord
 2. Abram ventures to Egypt to reside there as an alien because there is a famine in the rest
of the land
. Says that Sarai is his sister, so that the Egyptians do not kill him out of spite
and/or jealousy
. His sin does not cause him harm, instead this hurts the Egyptians
i. Shows the power of remaining in the favor of God
a. Pharaoh takes Sarai in and God punishes him (plagues his family) because she is
married
. Pharaoh dismisses Abram

Book 13:
1. Abram and his family leave Egypt→ Returns to the place where he built the altar
a. The land cannot support both Abram and Lot, because their livestock and
possessions were that great→ Both split
i. Lot chooses the plains of Jordan
1. Lot goes as far as the wicked city of Sodom
ii. Abram goes to the land of Canaan
1. God reiterates his promise to give all of these lands to Abram’s
offspring
Book 14-15:
1. The 3 kings of Shinar, Elam, and Goiim went to war with the 5 kings of Sodom,
Gomorrah, Admah, Shemeber, and Bela in the Valley of Siddim→ Lot is captured and
taken
2. Abram finds out and recruits his army to release Lot from captivity→ he succeeds
a. Abram refuses to take any material possessions from the King of Sodom, so that
the King cannot say he made Abram rich
3. God comes to Abram in a vision
. Explicitly states His first covenant with Abram: He will offer him protection,
land, and a son
a. Abram sacrifices a heifer, a female goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon
b. Reiterates once more the promise of land to his offspring
4. Foreshadowing of Moses’ enslavement
. God says that Abram’s offspring will be enslaved for four hundred years in a
foreign land
Book 16:
1. Serai and the slave-girl, Hagar
a. Serai is barren, so she tells Abram to have a child with her slave-girl, Hagar
i. This is in spite of God promising Abram that he will have his own child
b. Abram impregnates Hagar→ She gives birth to Ishmael
. Ishmael gives rise to the nation of Islam
c. Serai looks with contempt upon Hagar
. Abram lets Serai do with Hagar as she wishes
1. Hagar runs away out of fear
d. The angel of the Lord (God) finds her and promises her that Ishmael will lead a
nation (Islam)
. Hagar names God, El-roi
Book 17-18:
1. God makes another covenant with Abram
a. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham
b. Promises that Abraham will be the ancestor of a multitude of nations→ Abraham
has to practice the tradition of circumcision (and so do his offspring)
c. God changes Sarai’s name to Sarah
i. She will give birth to a son, Isaac
2. Abraham circumcises every male in his household, including himself and Ishmael
. Abraham was 99 and Ishmael was 13
3. The Lord appears as 3 men in front of Abraham and asks for water
. Abraham suspects that this may be God, so he asks Sarah to make 3 cakes for the
men and gave them milk
a. The men say they will return in due season and Sarah will be pregnant
4. Sarah is in disbelief because she is so old
. God is taken back, because He assumes that Sarah questions His power
5. God seeks to destroy the city of Sodom
. The people of Sodom are extremely wicked and sinful
a. Abraham convinces God to only destroy the city if he cannot find 10 innocent
people
. Shows God’s ability to show mercy and listen to the voices/concerns of
humans
i. Transitioning away from the fear-inducing God
Book 19:
1. Two messengers (angels) come to Lot, who is living in Sodom
a. Sodom duplicates hospitality shown by Abraham to the 3 men
b. The rest of the town does not wish to show the angels such hospitality and show
up at Lot’s house to ask for the messengers→ Lot offers his two daughters instead
(even says the they can rape them)
2. The messengers blind the mob outside of Lot’s house→ Lot runs away with his family,
because the messengers tell him that God is going to destroy the town
. Lot’s wife looks back to the city and is turned to a pillar of stone→ Punished for
not heeding God’s word
3. Abraham sees the city burning; God could not find 10 innocent people, yet He does keep
His word because He does not destroy the innocent along with the guilty (Lot)
4. Lot’s daughters sleep with him
. Lot goes out of the city of Zoar and settled in the hills, because he was afraid to
stay in Zoar
a. His daughters get him drunk and proceed to have sex with him, eldest born first
and then the second daughter
i. This represents the importance of fertility and reproduction, because the
daughters did so in order to preserve offspring
1. Give birth to Moab and Ben-ammi

Book 20:
1. Abraham goes to Negeb
a. Tricks King Abimelech of Gerar into thinking that Sarah is Abraham’s sister
 i. God comes to Abimelech and informs him of this
1. Once again, God refuses to punish the innocent
a. Differs from how He treated the Egyptian earlier
b. Abraham says he does this because there is no fear of God and because he thinks
they will kill him for his wife
. He says that Sarah is his half-sister (related through father)
2. Abimelech allows Abraham to stay and gives him money and food
. Starkly different ending from the similar story regarding the Egyptian King, to
whom Abraham had played the same trick

Book 21:
1. Sarah gives birth to Isaac
a. Isaac is circumcised when he is 8 days old
2. Sarah sees Isaac playing with Ishmael and immediately grows angry
. God tells Abraham not to worry, but to do as Sarah tells him
3. Abraham gives hagar some water and sends her away
. When the water runs out, she hid Ishmael under some bushes, because she could
not bear to see him die
a. God hears the sound of Ishmael and shows Hagar a well of water
b. Ishmael lives and is able to grow up
4. Abimelech strikes a covenant with Abraham, because he sees that Abraham is in God’s
favor
. Abraham gives him sheep and oxen
a. He sets 7 lambs apart so that Abimelech will bear witness to him digging a well

Book 22:
1. God tests Abraham
a. God commands Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac
i. It’s important to note that all of God’s covenants with Abraham are
dependent upon the survival of Isaac
b. Abraham packs supplies and goes to the land of Moriah
. Isaac sees the fire and wood and asks about the missing lamb
1. Abraham brings Isaac under the pretense that he is sacrificing a
lamb
i. Abraham says that God will provide the lamb
c. Abraham binds Isaac and took his knife to kill his son
. An angel of the Lord stops him
d. God understands that Abraham fears Him, so he allows Abraham to sacrifice a
ram instead
. Abraham names the location “The Lord will provide”
2. God reiterates his covenant once more

Book 23:
1. Sarah passes away at age 127
a. Abraham asks the Hittites if he can bury her in their land
i. The Hittites quickly agree to let him bury her anywhere
 ii. Abraham insists upon paying for a burial spot
b. Abraham pays the Hittites and buries Sarah in Canaan
. This spot passes down to Abraham and his offspring
Book 24:
1. Abraham promises a wife for Isaac
a. Abraham swears with his oldest servant that the servant will find Isaac a wife
from Abraham’s homeland
i. This oath is conducted by placing the servant's hand under Abraham’s
thigh
b. The servant went to the city of Nahor and asks Rebekah if he can drink water
from her jar
. Rebekah allows him to do so and waters his camels
c. The servant asks if Rebekah’s brother, Laban if Rebekah will marry Isaac
. The servant asks this before he eats→ reversal from the practices of the
Iliad and Odyssey
d. Rebekah agrees to Isaac
. Rebekah is asked if she wants to marry, not forced to do so
e. Rebekah comforted Isaac after his mother’s death
. Exemplifies God’s word from book two, that man replaces his mother
with his wife

Book 25:
1. Abraham takes another wife, Keturah
a. She bears him many sons, but Abraham sends them away from his household
b. Abraham still passes everything down to Isaac
2. Abraham passes away at the age of 175
. He is buried in the same spot as his wife, Sarah
3. Isaac has twins
. God says that both sons are two nations divided and the elder will serve the
younger
i. Esau is oldest; he is characterized as hairy and red
1. He was a hunter
ii. Jacob is younger; he is characterized as quiet and he lived in tents
a. Isaac loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob
4. Esau gives up his eldest birthright
. Esau was famished and asks Jacob for food
. Jacob only gives him food in exchange for his birthright
i. Esau concedes it

26: Isaac and Abimelech of the Philistines

· There’s a famine and Isaac goes to Gerar
· God tells Isaac to settle in Gerar, but not to make it his home
· Isaac tells everyone Rebekah is his sister, so they won’t kill him to marry her
· When King Abimelech sees Isaac fondling Rebekah, he realizes they tricked him and gets
very mad
· Isaac digs wells and quarrels over water with the herders of Gerar
· Isaac goes to Beer-sheba and God tells him to build a well there
· Esau marries Judith, a Hittite and Basemath, another Hittite
· Trickery for deceit vs. trickery for survival

27: Jacob gets Isaac’s blessing through trickery

· Isaac is blind and old and about to die so he tells Esau to go out and hunt him something to
eat and promises to bless him when he returns
· Rebekah tells Jacob to pretend to be Esau to get Isaac’s blessing and prepares Isaac’s
favorite food for him
· Jacob gets Esau’s blessing and Esau returns, but there is nothing left for Isaac to give him
· Esau threatens to kill Jacob once Isaac dies, so Rebekah tells Isaac to go to her brother
Laban and stay with him until Esau is no longer angry

28: Isaac sends Jacob to Paddan-aram

· Jacob goes away and dreams of a ladder on the earth with angels descending
towards him
· In the dream, God makes the same covenant with him as he did with Abraham and
Isaac
· He places a stone on the ground and calls the place Bethel

29: Jacob meets Rachel, Laban’s daughter

· Jacob stays with Laban and meets his two daughters, Leah and Rachel
· Rachel is younger and prettier, and Jacob wants to marry her
· He serves Laban for seven years in order to marry Rachel
· Laban then tricks Jacob into marrying Leah because the elder daughter has to get married
before the younger one.
· Jacob agrees to work another seven years in order to marry Rachel
· God opens Leah’s womb because she is unloved and makes Rachel barren
· Leah gives birth to six sons and a daughter, Dinah

30: Children with Maids and Leaving Laban

· Jacob has sex with Rachel’s maid, Bilhah, so that if Bilhah bears a child it will be Rachel’s
· Bilhah gives birth to two sons
· Leah’s maid also gives birth to two sons by Jacob
· God then opens Rachel’s womb and she gives birth to Joseph
· Jacob asks to leave Laban’s service and asks for his wages
· Jacob wants every speckled and spotted sheep and goat and every black lamb, but Laban
tries to trick him by removing the all of the speckled and spotted goats
· Jacob takes rods of poplar and peels them
· Then when the flock breeds in front of the rods, the young they produce are striped,
speckled, and spotted

31: Jacob leaves for Canaan

· God tells Jacob to return to Canaan and Jacob sneaks away with his wife, children, and all of
his flock
· Laban pursues Jacob and wants his idols back that Rachel stole
· Laban ends up making a pact with Jacob and divide the land

32: Jacob struggles with God

· Jacob gets closer to Canaan and sees angels
· Jacob sends messengers ahead to his brother, Esau
· Jacob brings a present of many sheep and goats for Esau – nervous that Esau won’t
have forgiven him
· Jacob brings his family across the ford of the Jabbok and stays on the other side of
the river alone
· That night, he wrestles with a man all through the night
· In the morning, he asks the man to bless him and the man names him Israel (which
means the one who strives with God)
· Jacob asks what the man’s name is, but there is no answer
· Power of Names in this story – Israel becomes a collective name and God is never
named (giving name relinquishes power)
· God gives man the power to name
· God and Jacob striving together – mutuality
· New name – rebirth
o Encounter with God changes you – outward sign of an inward change

33: Esau forgives Jacob

· Esau approaches with 400 men and runs to meet him and forgives him
· Very nice reconciliation scene

34: Rape of Dinah

· Dinah, Leah and Jacobs daughter, is raped by Shechem
· Shechem wants to marry Dinah, but Dinah’s brothers are furious with him and say he can
only marry her if he’s circumcised and all the other men in his clan are as well
· The men all get circumcised, but then in the middle of the night, Simeon and Levi kill all the
men while they are recovering from their circumcisions

35: God tells Jacob to build an alter in Bethel

· Jacob tells his people to get rid of all their idols
· God again tells Jacob he will be called Israel and names himself God Almighty
· Rachel gives birth to Benjamin
· Isaac dies aged 180

36: Esau and his descendants

· Esau married foreigners and had foreign children in Canaan – not something God wants
· Esau moves away because he and Jacob both have large flocks and he needs more space

37: Joseph and his brothers

· Jacob settles in Canaan
· Joseph, Jacob’s son, has a dream that he and his brothers are all binding sheaves in a field
and all of his brothers sheaves bowed down to his sheaf
· His brothers already hated him because he was Jacob’s favorite and Jacob had made him a
special robe
· Joseph has another dream that the sun, moon, and eleven stars are all bowing down to him
· When he tells his brothers and his father this, they are all mad at him
· Joseph’s brothers conspire to kill him, but then realize they shouldn’t shed his blood
· They strip Joseph of his robe and throw him in a pit then sell him to some traders who are
going to Egypt
· They dip Joseph’s robe in goat’s blood and show it to Jacob who mourns Joseph’s apparent
death
· Joseph is sold to one of Pharoah’s officials

38: Tamar and Judah

· Tamar marries Judah’s son, but then he dies
· Judah tells his second son Onan that he must marry Tamar instead, but when he and Tamar
have sex, he spilled his semen on the ground so that she never became pregnant
· God kills Onan for this and Tamar went to live in her father’s house
· She then tricks Judah into sleeping with her by pretending she is a prostitute
· She asks him for his signet, cord, and staff, which she says she will return to him when he
pays her.
· Three months later, Tamar is visibly pregnant and they are going to kill her until Tamar
proves that Judah is the father by showing everyone the signet, cord and staff
· Judah says she is in the right (less slut-shaming)

39: Joseph in Egypt

· Joseph becomes a successful steward in the house of a high Egyptian official and God
blesses the house because Joseph is there
· The wife of the official tries to seduce Joseph and Joseph refuses
· She then accuses Joseph of trying to rape her
· Joseph goes to prison

40: The Cupbearer and the Baker

· Pharaoh is angry with the cupbearer and the baker and puts them both in jail with Joseph
· The cupbearer dreams that three grapes grow and he squeezes them into pharaoh’s cup –
Joseph interprets that to mean that in three days Pharaoh will forgive him
· The baker dreams that birds were eating out of the three baskets of baked food on his head –
Joseph says that means that in three days Pharaoh will hang him on a pole and the birds will eat
his flesh
· Both of these things came true, but the cupbearer forgot about Joseph

41: Pharaoh’s dreams

· Two years later, pharaoh dreams that seven fat cows came out of the Nile, followed by
seven ugly and thin cows who ate the fat cows.
· Pharaoh then dreams of seven ears of plump grain and seven ears of thin and blighted grain
growing after them
· Pharaoh tells everyone his dream and the cupbearer tells pharaoh about Joseph’s skill with
dream interpretation.
· Pharaoh sends for Joseph and he interprets his dream to mean that there will be seven years
of abundance in Egypt followed by seven years of famine
· Joseph tells Pharaoh to pick someone to take one fifth of the produce of Egypt during the
seven good years and save it for the seven years of famine
· Pharaoh chooses Joseph to oversee this
· Joseph does this successfully and everyone comes to buy grain from Joseph during the
famine

42: Joseph’s Brothers Return

· Jacob tells his son to go to Egypt to buy grain because the famine has affected them as well
· All of them go except for Benjamin
· They see Joseph and bow to him, but don’t recognize him
· When Joseph sees his brothers, he pretends not to recognize them and accuses them of being
spies
· He tells them they can’t leave until they bring their youngest brother to him
· They believe that this is retribution for selling Joseph, but don’t recognize him
· Joseph chains up Simeon and lets the other brothers go get Benjamin
· He gives them grain and secretly returns the money they used to buy the grain
· They are afraid when they discover the gold and Jacob doesn’t want to send Benjamin
because he has lost too many sons

43: The Brothers Return to Egypt

· Jacob tells the brothers to go back to Egypt to buy more grain because they have eaten all
that they bought
· They bring Benjamin with them and Joseph once again receives them and eats with them
· Joseph asks about his father and almost cries when he sees Benjamin
· They have a big meal together

44: Benjamin and the Silver Cup

· Joseph tells his servant to fill their sacks with food and their money, but he also
places his silver cup in Benjamin’s bag
· Once they leave, Joseph sends his steward after them, who accuses the brothers of
stealing the cup
· The steward finds the cup in Benjamin’s cup and all of the brothers return to the city
· Joseph says he will take Benjamin as a slave and set the rest free, but Judah begs for
Benjamin’s freedom – he says that Jacob won’t survive without Benjamin as he’s the
only other surviving son of Rachel

45: Joseph Reveals All

· Joseph tells his brothers who he is and weeps
· Joseph says he will provide for them and tells them to bring the whole family closer to
Egypt
· Pharaoh tells Joseph to move his family to Egypt
· Jacob is thrilled and goes to see Joseph

46: Jacob and Family

· Jacob goes to Egypt with his whole family
· Joseph tells his family to say they are keepers of livestock, not shepherds, when they talk to
pharaoh because shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians

47: More Joseph and the Famine

· Joseph talks to pharaoh and introduces his family
· Pharaoh lets them settle in Goshen
· The famine is still going strong
· Egyptians are getting angry with Joseph – they bring him their livestock in exchange for
food
· Joseph buys all the land in Egypt and makes everyone a slave – then gives them grain to sow
· He tells them to give 1/5 of their harvest to pharaoh and keep the rest for themselves
· Jacob makes Joseph promise him not to bury him in Egypt

48: Blessings Part Two

· Joseph takes his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim to go see Jacob so he can bless them
· Jacob having trouble seeing like Isaac did
· Jacob/Israel blesses Joseph’s two sons
o Blesses the younger son, Ephraim, with his right hand which is usually reserved for the eldest
son
o Like Jacob and Esau but with less trickery

49: Jacob’s Death

· Jacob gathers his sons to say goodbye
· Addresses all of his sons individually and tells them about their futures
· They will be the twelve tribes of Israel
· Reminds them to bury him in Canaan
· Jacob dies

50: The End

· Joseph weeps and they embalm Israel
· Pharaoh allows Joseph to bury Israel in Canaan
· The whole family goes to bury him
· Joseph forgives his brothers for what they did – says that God intended what they did for
good even though they intended harm
· Says he will provide for them
· Joseph remains in Egypt
· Makes his brothers swear that when God comes to them to take them to the promised land,
they will bring his bones
· Joseph dies aged 110
Extra Notes:
God more forgiving by the end of Genesis
God has a plan – everything good and bad that happens is a result of that (joseph and his
brothers)
Abraham bought a plot of land for burial – bodies go back into the ground to claim the land
· Cements the claim to Canaan – like the wells
Wandering a privilege- can run into God
Brothers: Jealousy, birthright, death of the patriarch, separation, reconciliation, wandering,
trickey
Swift and brutal revenge in Genesis
Sense of morality – brothers separate after Dinah’s rape