"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
Genesis 1:1 · King James Bible
What it is
Genesis is the first book of the Bible — the book of beginnings. In fifty chapters it moves from the creation of the universe to the death of a single man in a coffin in Egypt. The Jews call it Bereshith, 'in the beginning' — the first word of the Hebrew text. The tradition of the Church has always attributed it to Moses. It is one of the most-read books in the world.
How to think of the shape
The book has two halves. Chapters 1–11 are the primeval history — creation, the fall, Cain and Abel, the flood and Noah, the tower of Babel. The chapters move quickly through the story of the whole human race. Chapters 12–50 slow down and stay with one family — the family of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. What is the whole world for? Genesis 12 answers: it is for the calling of one family through whom every family of the earth will be blessed.
How to read it in a household month
One workable rhythm: read one large story per evening, five nights a week, for a month.
• Week 1 — Creation (Gen 1–2); the Fall (3); Cain and Abel (4); the flood (6–9); Babel (11).
• Week 2 — Abram's call (12); Melchizedek (14); the covenant (15); Ishmael and Isaac (16, 21); Sodom (18–19); the binding of Isaac (22).
• Week 3 — Isaac and Rebekah (24); Jacob and Esau (25, 27); Jacob's ladder (28); Jacob meets Rachel (29); the wrestling at Peniel (32).
• Week 4 — Joseph and the coat (37); Joseph in Egypt (39–41); the brothers come down (42–45); Jacob dies (49); Joseph forgives (50).
Verses to memorize as a family
Genesis 1:1 · Genesis 1:27 · Genesis 12:2–3 · Genesis 15:6 · Genesis 22:14 · Genesis 50:20.
The line that holds the whole book together
Every violent, comic, painful, tender story in Genesis is a step toward Joseph's last line to his brothers: "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive" (Genesis 50:20). That is what Genesis teaches a household about God.