Introduction

On the Book of Genesis

On the Book of Genesis

The name of the book. The first sacred book of our Slavic-Russian Bible bears the name “Genesis.” This name is a literal translation of the Greek heading of this book in the LXX text, pointing to the content of the first sacred book (in the strict sense – its first two chapters), inscribed in the Hebrew original with the first word of the text of verse 1 – בראשית – bereshith.

The origin and meaning of its name. From what has already been said, it is clear that the key to understanding the name of the first book of the Bible should be sought in the text of its original. Turning to the latter, we see that each of the first five books of the Bible, forming the so-called Torah (“book of the Law”) or Mosaic Pentateuch, received its title from the first or two first words; and since the beginning book in the Hebrew original opens with the words בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא, these very words were placed by the Hebrews as its heading.

The 1st book (or Genesis) in the Hebrew text is called bereshith (“in the beginning”); the 2nd (Exodus) – elleh-schemoth (“these are the names”); the 3rd (Leviticus) – vajigra (“and he called”); the 4th (Numbers) – vajedabber (“and he said”; another name – bemidbar – “in the wilderness”, cf. Num 1:1); the 5th (Deuteronomy) – elleh-haddebarim.

But although the name of the book “Genesis” has a chance origin, it has nevertheless coincided with its essential content in a remarkable way and is full of broad meaning. In the 1st book of Moses, the name toldoth, synonymous with the word “Genesis,” is encountered repeatedly. Under the name תוֹלְדוֹת toldoth – “generations, origins, descendants” (from the Hebrew verb תלד “to beget”) the Hebrews understood their genealogical tables and the historical-biographical records attached to them, from which subsequently their history itself was compiled. Clear traces of the existence of such “genealogical records,” corrected and unified by the hand of their divinely inspired editor Moses, can be found in the book of Genesis, where not fewer than ten times we encounter the inscription תוֹלְדוֹת toldoth, namely “the generations of heaven and earth” (Gen 2:4), “the genealogy of Adam” (Gen 5:1); “the generations of Noah” (Gen 6:9); “the genealogy of the sons of Noah” (Gen 10:1); “the genealogy of Shem” (Gen 11:10); “the genealogy of Terah” (Gen 11:27); “the genealogy of Ishmael” (Gen 25:12); “the genealogy of Isaac” (Gen 25:19); “the genealogy of Esau” (Gen 36:1); “the generations of Jacob” (Gen 37:2).

From this it is evident that the first book of the Bible is pre-eminently a book of genealogies and that its Greek and Slavic-Russian name could not better acquaint us with its inner essence, giving us the idea of “the generations” as the first genealogy of the world and of mankind.

As for the division of the book of Genesis, the most profound and correct must be recognized as the division into two far unequal parts: one, embracing the first eleven chapters, contains as it were a universal introduction to universal history, insofar as it concerns the starting points and initial moments of primeval history of all mankind; the other, extending through all the remaining thirty-nine chapters, gives the history of one chosen people, the Hebrew people, and then only as yet in the person of its patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

The unity and authenticity of the book of Genesis are demonstrated first and foremost from an analysis of its content. Looking more deeply into the content of this book, despite all its brevity, we cannot help but notice the remarkable harmony and sequence of its narratives, where one flows from another, where there are no real disagreements and contradictions, and everything stands in perfect harmonious unity and purposeful plan. The basic scheme of this plan is served by the aforementioned division into ten “genealogies” (toldoth), constituting the main parts of the book and uniting in themselves a greater or lesser amount of secondary material, depending on the importance of one genealogy or another.

The authenticity of the book of Genesis has both internal and external grounds. To the former, in addition to everything said above about the content and plan of this sacred book, we must refer its language, bearing marks of deep antiquity, and especially the biblical archaisms found in it. To the latter we refer the agreement of the Bible’s data with natural-scientific and ancient-historical information, drawn from various external scientific sources. At the head of all of them we place the most ancient traditions of the Assyro-Babylonian Semites, known by the name of the “Chaldean Genesis,” giving rich and instructive material for comparison with the accounts of the biblical genesis.

Finally, the importance of the book of Genesis is evident in itself: being the most ancient chronicle of the world and mankind and giving the most authoritative resolution of the world questions about the origin of all that exists, the book of Genesis is full of the deepest interest and has the greatest significance for questions of religion, morality, worship, history, and in general for the interests of truly human life.

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For more on this, see Comely, “Introductio in libro V. T”. II, 1881; Arko, “Defense of the Mosaic Pentateuch”, Kazan, 1870; Eleonskii, “An Examination of Rational Objections Against the Book of Genesis”; Vigoureux, “Introduction to the Sacred Scripture of the Old Testament”, translated by Father Vorontsov.