Creation, Fall and the Patriarchs (Genesis 1-11 and the Ancestral Narratives)
This section tests narrative theology: what Genesis says about God, humanity, sin and covenant. Questions typically ask about the image of God, the effects of the fall, the flood, and the promises to Abraham.
Creation and fall
- Genesis 1 gives the ordered six-day account climaxing in divine rest; Genesis 2 zooms in on humanity. They are complementary, not rival, accounts.
- Humanity alone bears God's image (Gen 1:26-27): rational, moral, relational, and given dominion as stewardship rather than exploitation.
- Genesis 3: the serpent sows doubt about God's word; disobedience brings shame, pain in childbirth, toil and death. Gen 3:15 promises an offspring who will crush the serpent's head.
- Genesis 4-11 spirals downward: Cain's murder, the flood with the Noahic covenant sealed by the rainbow, then Babel's pride and scattered languages.
The patriarchs
- Genesis 12:1-3: Abraham leaves Haran and receives three promises - land, descendants, and blessing for all nations.
- Gen 15:6 grounds righteousness in faith; Genesis 17 seals the covenant with circumcision and the change of name.
- Isaac is the child of promise; Jacob, the younger, is chosen and renamed Israel; Joseph's suffering becomes his family's salvation (Gen 50:20).
Worked example
'What did God require of Abraham?' Not merely migration. Hebrews 11:8 stresses obedient faith in an unseen future; the covenant is God-initiated, unconditional in promise yet calling for faithful response - which is why the near-sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22) tests that faith.
Traps
- Saying Genesis 1 and 2 contradict each other.
- Treating the Noahic and Abrahamic covenants as the same.
- Forgetting that Jacob, not Esau, was the younger and chosen.