Genesis

by

Anonymous

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God, Humanity, and Creation Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
God, Humanity, and Creation Theme Icon
Mistrust, Disobedience, and Death Theme Icon
Covenants and Faith in God’s Promises Theme Icon
The Role of Women Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Genesis, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God, Humanity, and Creation Theme Icon

The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Bible, the sacred text of Judaism and Christianity. Though traditional Jewish and Christian readers of this biblical book have attributed it to Moses (an early prophet and leader of the Jewish people), modern scholars believe that the book was written over a period of centuries—spanning from the 10th century B.C.E. to as recently as the 5th century B.C.E. Scholars also suggest that Genesis served to give the Jewish people a sense of their origins and identity at various points of their history. However, the theme of God as creator runs throughout Genesis, dealing with cosmic and human origins on a larger scale. Creating the world and the first human beings (Adam and Eve) by his own word and breath, God is portrayed as calling human beings to emulate his creative power within the world. By emphasizing God’s creative power, Genesis suggests that human beings, as bearers of God’s image, share in Adam and Eve’s inheritance of creation, as well as the obligation to extend God’s creative and caring work throughout the world.

According to Genesis, God created everything, and everything is an expression of God’s creative power—including human beings. Genesis opens with an account of God’s creation of all that exists: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. […] And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” In this account, God created the world out of nothing; before God creates, everything is “formless,” dark, and empty. God then speaks creation into existence by the power of a mere word. After creating the earth, skies, vegetation, and animals, God makes humanity. God declares, “‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over […] all the wild animals of the earth’ […] So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Humanity, both male and female, reflects God in some way (“in our image”—a phrase that’s interpreted in different ways, whether it’s God talking to himself or, from a Christian perspective, to other persons of the Trinity). In this passage, that “imaging” is linked to humans’ care for the other creatures God has made. In other words, humans, in their supervision of the created world, should reflect God’s creativity and his care for them.

Human beings’ existence reflects God’s being in a unique way. God makes human beings out of the substance of the earth and also grants them life from his own breath: “Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” As this verse shows, humans are an extension of God’s creation (“from the dust of the ground”) and even of God himself (“the breath of life”). After breathing life into the first man, God immediately places him in a lush garden home (the garden of Eden) in which the man can thrive. In Eden, the man is meant to enjoy the beauty and bounty of God’s creation; and, much as he is charged to “have dominion” over the animals, the man is also charged with tending the garden—again reflecting God’s creativity and care.

God provides for the continuation of humanity. He sees that the man, Adam, needs a partner, so Adam is tasked with surveying the animals, “but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man […] And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh[.]” The woman is a fitting companion for the man because she is made from his very substance. The man’s exultant reaction to the woman (“bone of my bones…”) also suggests that the woman is not simply a “helper,” but a perfect counterpart and match for the man. As Adam was made from the breath of God and so reflects God’s character, so also, it seems, the woman, made from the man, reflects the man in a way that suits them perfectly for one another. Together, their procreation will continue to reflect God’s creative work.

Later in Genesis, the theme of creation reappears when God destroys rebellious humanity and preserves a small, faithful remnant (Noah’s family) to fulfill his original purpose for creation. God tells Noah, “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you […] so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” The charge to Noah’s family—to “be fruitful and multiply”—recalls the original command to Adam and Eve. After the flood subsides and Noah’s family emerges from the ark to repopulate the earth, the story of Genesis increasingly narrows from humanity in general to those specific descendants of Noah who come to be known as the family of Abraham. Genesis’s audience is meant to see themselves as descendants of that family and fulfillers of God’s charge to them—to reflect God’s own character by extending and nurturing creation.

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God, Humanity, and Creation Quotes in Genesis

Below you will find the important quotes in Genesis related to the theme of God, Humanity, and Creation.
Chapter 1 Quotes

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Related Characters: God/the LORD God
Page Number: 1:1–5
Explanation and Analysis:

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it[.]

Related Characters: God/the LORD God (speaker), Eve (“the woman”), Adam (“the man”)
Page Number: 1:26–28
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.

Related Characters: Adam (“the man”) (speaker), God/the LORD God, Eve (“the woman”)
Page Number: 2:20–23
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Related Characters: The Serpent (speaker), God/the LORD God, Eve (“the woman”), Adam (“the man”)
Related Symbols: Fruit
Page Number: 3:4–7
Explanation and Analysis:

The LORD God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
cursed are you among all animals
and among all wild creatures;

upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;

he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

Related Characters: God/the LORD God (speaker), Eve (“the woman”), The Serpent
Related Symbols: Dust
Page Number: 3:14–15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

The LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the sight of the LORD.

Related Characters: God/the LORD God (speaker), Noah
Page Number: 6:5–8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth […] As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth […] I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Related Characters: God/the LORD God (speaker), Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth
Page Number: 9:1–13
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. […] So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.”

Related Characters: God/the LORD God (speaker), Abram (Abraham)
Page Number: 17:9–13
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Related Characters: God/the LORD God (speaker), Abram (Abraham) (speaker), Isaac
Page Number: 22:9–13
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 50 Quotes

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die; but God will surely come to you, and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, “When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here.” And Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old; he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Related Characters: Joseph (speaker), God/the LORD God, Abram (Abraham), Isaac, Jacob (Israel)
Related Symbols: Land
Page Number: 50:24–26
Explanation and Analysis: