The book of Genesis is foundational to understanding the rest of the Old Testament, and indeed, the entire Bible. Here we find answers to the fundamental questions of life: What kind of world do we live in? What is God like? What is humanity like? What is life for? What has gone wrong with the world? After an opening prologue (Genesis 1:1-2:3), the book is structured using the phrase, “This is the account of” (2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 36:9, 37:2).

The first eleven chapters of Genesis cover the creation of the heavens and earth (Gen 1-2), the fall of humanity (Gen 3), the stories of Adam’s family (Gen 4-5), Noah’s family and the flood (Gen 6-9), and move from families to nations, culminating at the tower of Babel (Gen 10-11).

This set of studies covers the first eleven chapters of Genesis, using the manuscript method (described below). It is possible to do a manuscript study of all eleven chapters, reading and marking the text of each. Alternatively, one or more chapters can be studied in a single session.