Torah
בְּרֵאשִׁית
Genesis
The world, then one family. The book narrows from everything to a household.
Read it
Open chapter 1What is in it
Genesis runs in two movements. The first eleven chapters are about humanity in general: creation, the garden, the flood, and a tower. From chapter twelve it narrows sharply to one family and stays there, following Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rivkah, Jacob, and finally Joseph in Egypt.
The narrowing is the argument. Whatever the book is claiming about the world, it makes the claim by following one household through four generations of favouritism, deception, exile and reconciliation, and it does not tidy any of them up.
If you read one chapter
Genesis 22
The binding of Isaac. Short, unbearable, and the chapter everything else in the book is measured against.
Passages worth knowing
- Genesis 1The seven days, structured as three of separation and three of filling.
- Genesis 12:1 to 3The call to Abram: leave, and become a blessing.
- Genesis 24Rivkah at the well. The chapter this house is named for.
- Genesis 32:24 to 32Jacob wrestles through the night and is renamed.
- Genesis 50:20Joseph reframes everything that was done to him.
Questions to sit with
- 01
Chapters 1 and 2 tell the creation twice, differently. What does each account want you to notice?
- 02
Almost every generation repeats the previous one's mistake. Is the book criticising the family or explaining it?