OET-RV GEN Introduction

Introduction

The meaning of the English name Genesis is ‘source’ or ‘beginning’. Hebrew readers call this document ‘Bereshit’ which is the first word in the Hebrew and means ‘In the beginning’. Some European and other translations call it ‘The first book of Mosheh/Moses’.

This document describes the creation of space and of our planet and its contents, the origin of people, and the beginning of sin and suffering here in the world. This account also describes how God chose one particular people group and how he brought them to the land that he had promised them.

This document has two main parts:

1. The making of world and the account of the first two people, and then the first ten generations of their descendants. We read about the foundations of human culture, beginning with Adam and Eve and their banishment from the garden, about Kayin killing his brother Abil, about Noah and the worldwide flood, and about the construction of the tower at Babel.

2. The lives of the ancestors of the Jewish people: Abraham the first ancestor became famous due to his faith and trust, and his obedience of God’s commands. Following that is the account about his son Yitshak (Isaac), and his grandson Yacob (Jacob, also named ‘Yisra’el’ or ‘Israel’), and then Yacob’s twelve sons who became the founders of the twelve tribes of Yisra’el. That account also includes the part about Yacob’s son Yosef and what happened him when he was sold into Egypt (Heb. Mitsrayim) by his brothers as a slave.

We also read the accounts here about the various people groups that proliferated across the continent and formed into nations.

There in final parts of this account, we’re told about God’s eternal promise of God to the people group that he chose. God doesn’t forget his promises, but he also judges and punishes those who disobey him.

This is still a very early look into the unfinished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.