The Hebrew Bible
Overview
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Time of Composition: 1000-300 B.C.E.
The Hebrew Bible encompasses a
variety of texts from different periods.
These texts are composed in poetry
and prose, sometimes in a mixture of
both.
They include historical narratives,
short story, genealogy, proverbs, laws,
visionary narratives and many kinds of
lyric poetry.
Together they tell the story of the
Jewish people in different modes and
from different perspectives.
Genesis (1)
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The Book of Genesis forms part of
an interconnected group of writings
that are central to Jewish belief and
are known collectively in Hebrew as
the Torah (meaning “instruction,”
“guidance,” or “law”).
They are also often called the
Pentateuch (“five scroll”).
Genesis (2)
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The narrative parts of the Torah told
a continuous story, from the
creation of the world to the sojourn
in Egypt, the Israelites’ exodus from
Egypt, their subsequent wandering
led by Moses, and finally Moses’
death just before the entry into the
Promised Land.
Embedded within this narrative are
laws given by God to Moses, and
passed on by Moses to his people.
Genesis (3)
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The law is central because it defines
the Jews’ relation to God.
Moses dominates the Torah and
Jewish tradition as the intermediary
through whom God gave the law to
his people.
The book falls into two parts.
The first part (chapters 1-11)
recounts “creation story”—God’s
creation of the world and of
humankind, and the evolution of
early human society.
Genesis (4)
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This early stage is marked
especially by human wrongdoing
and God’s punishment.
In the second part of Genesis
(chapters 12-50), the focus shifts
from humanity in general to four
generations of ancestors of the
people of Israel.
In the transition between the two
parts, a passage at the beginning of
chapter 12 plays a pivotal role.
Genesis (5)
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When God tells Noah’s descendant
Abram to go forth from his land to
the land that He will show him (the
Promised Land), it is the first
statement of God’s covenant with
Israel.
In Genesis, the land is left again
and again, and the attainment of a
settled home in it is deferred
beyond the end of the Torah.
A Note on the Translation of the
Hebrew Bible
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There are many translations of the
Hebrew Bible.
The King James or authorized
version of 1611 was the work of a
team of 54 scholars named by King
James I of England.
The King James version remains
one of the greatest literary text in
the history of the English language.
The Creation Story (1)
God created the world in six days
and ceased on the seventh day
from all the work He had done.
 On the first day, God created light
by commanding “Let there be
light.” He called the light Day,
and the darkness Night.
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The Creation Story (2)
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On the second day, God made the
sky, and called it Heaven.
On the third day, God created land
and seas; He made the earth to
produce all kinds of plants, grass,
and trees, shrubs and flowers.
On the fourth day, God made the
Sun, the Moon, and the Stars and
set times for days and years.
The Creation Story (3)
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On the fifth day, God filled the seas with
fishes and other water animals. In to the
air above the earth He put many birds of
all kinds and colors and sizes.
On the sixth day, God created all the
other animals, large and small. Towards
the end of the sixth day, God created the
human in his own image. He created
male and female and said to them, “Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and
conquer it.”
The Creation Story (4)
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God also gave the human the power
of speech and He made the human
superior to all other creatures of the
earth. God placed all the creatures
of the earth and the powers of
nature in the control of the human.
God rested on the seventh day.
God blessed the seventh day and
hallowed it.
Adam and Eve (1)
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Another story of the creation of the
human:
God created the human from the soil and
blew into his nostrils the breath of life.
God then planted a garden in Eden and
made the human to till the garden and
watch.
He commanded the human to stay away
from the tree of knowledge, good and evil.
He said that if the human ate the fruit of
this tree, he would be doomed to die.
Adam and Eve (2)
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God created animals from the soil
so that the human would not be
alone.
God took one of the human’s ribs
and created a woman to keep him
company.
The serpent tricked the woman into
eating fruit from the forbidden tree.
God cursed the serpent, the woman,
and the human; and He drove the
human and his woman from the
garden of Eden.
Noah’s Ark (1)
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God saw that human beings were
corrupt and decided to wipe out the
human race.
Noah was a righteous man and God
told Noah to build an ark to save
himself, his wife, his sons, and the
wives of his sons.
He also told Noah to bring a pair of
each kind of animals and birds to
the ark.
Then God flood the earth with
heavy rains for forty days and forty
nights.
Noah’s Ark (2)
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All living things outside the ark
perished.
The waters surged over the earth
one hundred and fifty days.
When the waters subsided, Noah
ascertained its condition by means
of a raven and a dove sent out from
the ark.
Noah obeyed the Divine command
to leave the ark, built an altar,
offered sacrifice, and made a
covenant with God.
References
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http://www.chabad.org/library/articl
e_cdo/aid/246605/jewish/Creationof-the-World.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesi
s_creation_narrative
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_
and_Eve
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/
04702a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah%
27s_Ark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluge
_myth