From "Elohim Creating Adam" by William Blake

Chapter 1 Genesis 1-11: The Primeval Story The book of Genesis is the book of origins. It begins by describing the creation of the world, and along the way it conveys basic features of the Hebrew view of God, the universe, and humanity. Genesis also accounts for the origin of the nation of Israel by telling tales of its ancestors.     Genesis is such an important book that it gets two chapters: Chapter 1. Genesis 1-11: the Primeval Story and Chapter 2. Genesis 12-50: the Ancestral Story.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction and Key Terms
Story Line

1. Creation to the Flood (1-7)
A. Creation (1-3)
1. Priestly Creation Story (1:1-2:4a)
Day 0: Waters of Chaos
Day 1: Light
Day 2: Water Barrier / Dome
Day 3: Dry Land and Vegetation
Day 4: Heavenly Lights
Day 5: Birds and Fish
Day 6: Animals and Humanity
Day 7: Sabbath
The Toledot of Heaven and Earth
2. Yahwist Creation Story (2:4b-3:24)
Creation of Adam and Eve (2:4b-25)
Disobedience and Expulsion from Eden (3:1-24)
3. Ancient Middle Eastern Creation Stories
Creation Theology from Egypt
Atrahasis Epic
Enuma Elish
B. Pre-Flood Generations (4:1-6:4)
1. Cain, Abel, and After (4)
2. Genealogy: Adam to Noah (5)
3. Divine-Human Intermarriage (6:1-4)
C. The Flood (6:5-7:24)
1. Prologue to the Flood (6:5-13)
2. Undoing Creation (6:14-7:24)
3. Mesopotamian Flood Stories
Deluge Tablet
Gilgamesh Epic

2. Recreation to Abram (8-11)
A. Re-Creation (8-9)
1. Return of Earth and Life (8)
2. God's Covenant with Noah (9:1-17)
3. Noah's Insobriety (9:20-27)
B. Post-Flood Generations (10:1-11:9)
1. Table of Nations (10)
2. Tower of Babel (11:1-9)
C. Generations to Abram (11:10-32)

3. Genesis 1-11 as a Whole
A. Literary Unity
B. Thematic Unity

For Further Study

RESOURCE LIST

ToC | Reading the Old Testament

. . . Chapter 1. Genesis 1-11