This page is to help you begin reading the Bible in a systematic way rather than beginning randomly.

There is a short list of questions to be sure you noticed the most significant points in the reading as you begin.

Reading #1: Read Genesis Chapter 1

Beginning of the Bible: Book of Genesis: Read Chapter 1:

Questions::

  • Who does the Text identify as Creator?
  • By what method, or action, did God create?
  • When God had finished His creation work, what was His assessment of what He had created?
  • The text highlights two things about mankind. What were the two things?
  • God gave mankind two mandates from creation onward. What are the two mandates?
  • When God completed creating, what did He do?
  • When creation was complete, who did God leave “in charge?”

Reading #2:  Read Genesis Chapter 2:

This is not a second creation, but rather a more detailed account of the creation of mankind.
  • We are reminded once again, that God rested on the seventh day. He blessed the seventh day, declared it “holy.” 
  • The original language in which the Old Testament portion of the Bible was written is Hebrew. In these early passages we are introduced to words that will be used many, many times through the text. A knowledge of the meaning of these Hebrew words will help us to understand as we read on.
    • The word “holy” or “sanctified (depending on the translation into English) is the Hebrew word, “qadash”. It means “to set apart”, Something that is “holy” is “set apart” from the ordinary. It has a special or unique purpose, and is not to be trivialized.
    • The text says that God “rested” on the seventh day. The Hebrew word is “shabath” from which the Jewish people have derived their word for Saturday, “Shabbat”, which is translated into the English word “Sabbath.”  “Shabath” means to stop, and rest. So sometimes the text is translated, “God ceased from all his labor. God took a Shabbat… He stopped and rested.
    • Another idea worthy of note is the idea of a name, or naming. In the west, our names are generally a sound we use to identify something. However, in the Hebrew language names had meanings. An analogy may be how the native indians named people. The name was an identifying phrase, as in the popular movie “Dances with wolves” which was the name given to an Indian squaw who was observed, yes… dancing with wolves.
  • God planted a special garden in which He placed Adam, with one restriction. He was not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
  • God assigned Adam his first task. What was the task?
  • Consider the intelligence, wisdom, and mental acuity required to fulfil that task. This was not a primitive “caveman.” This was a brilliant human person created in the very image of God. The naming process was as highlighted above, to provide a “calling out” the nature of the animal.
  • The text says that God brought all of the animals to Adam for him to name them. What would Adam have noticed about all of the animals that was not true of himself? (Beside the fact that He was made in God’s image, and therefore was given dominion over the animals.)
  • In this chapter, God declares that something is “not good.” What is it?
  • What is God’s solution?
  • Consider Adam’s response to seeing Eve, in light of having just named all of the animals.