Genesis 1

The chapter

Genesis 1 is the opening chapter of the Bible. It tells of the six days in which God creates the heavens and the earth, and the seventh day on which He rests. Everything the Bible has to say about the world — its origin, its order, its goodness, its purpose, and the special place of the human person made in God's image — begins here.

Who wrote it

Traditionally attributed to Moses, as the opening of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Christian tradition holds Moses to be its author (see Christ's own reference to 'Moses' as author of the Pentateuch — John 5:46-47).

Historical and geographical context

Genesis 1 does not narrate a geographical setting; its setting is the whole creation and the very beginning of time. Christian tradition reads it with the eyes of faith — an authoritative account of the world's origin — while granting that its literary form is neither modern science nor bare mythology.

Important verses

• Genesis 1:1 (KJV) 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.'
• Genesis 1:3 (KJV) 'And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.'
• Genesis 1:26 (KJV) 'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…'
• Genesis 1:27 (KJV) 'So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.'
• Genesis 1:31 (KJV) 'And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.'
• Genesis 2:2-3 (KJV) 'And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day…'

Christ-centred reading

The Church has always read Genesis 1 with the prologue of John 1 at hand — 'All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made' (John 1:3). The Word who was with God in the beginning is the Word by whom all things were made. Genesis 1 is not only about the world; it is about Christ as the world's Maker.

In Christian tradition

• Read at every Christian Easter Vigil as the first of the great readings of salvation history.
• Cited by Christ Himself as the ground of His teaching on marriage (Matthew 19:4-6, citing Genesis 1:27 and 2:24).
• Cited by Paul in Romans 1:20 as the visible witness of God to all humanity.
• The Trinitarian plural of Genesis 1:26 ('Let us make man…') has been read since the Fathers as an early hint of the Trinity.

Connected People

• Christ Jesus — 'by him were all things created' (Colossians 1:16).
• Moses — the traditional author.
• Abraham — the father of the faithful whose covenant story begins in Genesis 12.

Connected Places

• The whole created order — Genesis 1 does not name a place; it names all places.

Household application

Read Genesis 1 aloud as a household at the start of every liturgical year (Advent Sunday, or the first Sunday in September). It is the household's yearly reminder that the world is God's, not ours.

Teach the little ones the seven-day rhythm: work six days, rest one. The Sabbath rest of Genesis 2:2-3 is the household's charter for Sunday.

Room connections

Where this entry meets the household in the wider house of CrossAIHub.

• Read (Library) — Read Genesis 1 aloud at the family table on the first Sunday of Advent.
• Pray (Chapel) — Pray the Benedicite (Song of the Three) — the Christian doxology of Genesis 1.
• Family (Kitchen Table) — Bless the meal with 'God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.'
• Sing (Choir Room) — Sing 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' (Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848).
• Learn (Workshop) — Study Basil of Caesarea's Hexaemeron (fourth century) — the greatest patristic commentary on Genesis 1.

Further reading

Genesis 1-2 in the KJV.

Basil of Caesarea, Hexaemeron (nine homilies on Genesis 1).

Augustine, On the Literal Meaning of Genesis.

Elsewhere in the Atlas

• John 1 — the Word made flesh
• Moses
• Abraham
• Christ Jesus
• Return to the atrium — the Atlas's main room.