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World English Bible: Genesis

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This is the opening chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, belonging to the ancient Near Eastern cosmogonic and primordial history tradition. The text presents two sequential creation accounts: the first (chapters 1–2:3) depicts God creating the cosmos in six days through spoken commands — light, sky, land, vegetation, celestial bodies, sea creatures, animals, and finally humanity — before resting on the seventh day; the second (chapters 2–3) offers a more intimate narrative in which Yahweh God forms the man from dust, plants the Garden of Eden, creates woman from the man's rib, and issues the prohibition against eating from the tree of knowledge. The narrative then recounts the Fall — the serpent's temptation, the humans' disobedience, and their expulsion from Eden along with a cascade of curses — followed by the first human family story: Cain and Abel's rivalry, Cain's murder of his brother, and his subsequent exile. A distinctively theological claim runs throughout: humanity holds a unique status as made "in God's image" and given dominion over creation, yet is also bounded by divine command, and transgression brings irreversible consequence — mortality, labor, pain, and exile from divine presence.

World English Bible: Genesis

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