Genesis
Origins, Covenants, and the Messy Family of God
Genesis is the foundational text of the biblical story. Traditionally attributed to Moses, modern scholarship suggests it was compiled from older oral and written traditions over centuries, reaching its final form during or after the Babylonian exile (around 500 BC). It was written to an ancient Israelite audience to answer their deepest questions: Who are we? Who is God? And why is the world so broken?
For the modern reader, Genesis is surprisingly unvarnished. Rather than idealized religious heroes, it gives us flawed, complicated people—tricksters, fearful husbands, rival siblings, and doubting wives. It lays the groundwork for themes that run through the entire Bible: creation, covenant, the devastation of human sin, and a Creator relentlessly committed to redemption.
The New Testament constantly reaches back to these pages, seeing in figures like Adam, Abraham, and Joseph the early foreshadowing of Jesus. Genesis insists that God's grand project to heal the cosmos didn't start with a mighty empire, but with one messy, ordinary family learning to walk in faith.