ear Friends,

Good morning! Over the coming months, I would enjoy walking with you through the events of Genesis. It is, of course an immense Word, covering many centuries. Genesis also sparks much argument and controversy. What I am particularly interested in learning about in this encounter with Genesis is the phrase, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

A word about the book – this is the book about beginnings, about the source. The book introduces us to God and to the people to whom we belong. I assume its author is Moses, though the actual document called Genesis was assembled from his writings some centuries later. The book is very skillfully edited and consists of two major sections – Primeval history, in which we are introduced to God and watch both the creation and the fall; and the history of the Patriarchs. Most of the argument about Genesis revolves around the early material, the Primeval history, which runs from chapter one through chapter eleven. I will be taking this material in big chunks, for it is the background for the great stories – cycles of stories – about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.