Genesis wrap up

What have we learned from the book of Genesis?

*We don't know who wrote this book or exactly when. Historians place its origin long after Moses would have lived. Nowhere does the book of Genesis claim it is God's word, or is inspired by God. Nor does it claim to be the words of Moses. The Hebrew language  in which Genesis is written comes from approximately the 6th  century B.C.E., about a thousand years after the last events recorded in the book. There are few place name anachronisms.

*We are not told anything about an afterlife, Hell, Satan, or demons. Everybody died and stayed dead, except Enoch.

*The God of Genesis is very powerful but not  omnicient or omnipresent. He is able to do human activities like walking, talking, seeing, smelling, wrestling, and eating. He comes down to earth from some unknown place in the sky where he lives with some unknown others and angels. He likes dead animals, and the smell of roasting meat. He doesn't like grain sacrifices, tall towers, or clueless Pharoah's and kings. He doesn't seem to mind deceit, slavery, or the mistreatment of women. He needs to be reminded of his promises. His powers seem to be limited to being able to manipulate people and nature. He can be overpowered by a man. (Jacob) After God wrestles with Jacob, he no longer appears in physical form as a man. For the rest of the book, he is only seen in visions.

*Nothing derogatory is said about other gods. There are no prohibitions against worshiping other gods. Yahweh ( the lord) is said to be "Abraham's God, " not the only God.

*Angels look and act like regular people. They have a few powers. Sometimes they speak for God. We aren't told why he can't speak for himself.

*Circumcision is an everlasting covenant with all of Abraham's descendants who want to be part of the family and in on the promise of owning the land of Canaan. I underlined everlasting because about 2,000 years in the future a person named Paul will claim it is no longer necessary, and that it was actually just a metaphor. There is no indication in Genesis that circumcision is a metaphor for a spiritual state. It is an act of obedience, pure and simple.

*Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are all enriched, with God's support, at the expense of others, by deceit.

*We are given the supposed names of dozens of rulers of petty Canaanite kingdoms, who lack any proof of their existence.  We are not given any of the names of the at least three Pharoah's of Egypt mentioned in Genesis. This is in spite of the fact that Hebrew writing would not have existed in the time frame of Genesis and that Egypt is a rich source of recorded ancient history.

*The first few chapters are obviously mythological, containing completely unrealistic and magical creation events.

*There are no concrete extra biblical evidences for any of the main characters in the stories contained in Genesis. Many of the place names and people groups are also unknown to history, with a few notable exceptions. The events themselves are also impossible to verify. In fact, it is very reasonable to accept Genesis as an etiological story, written as folk lore for a people (Israelites) trying to forge an identity and explain how their world came to be the way it was at the time of the story's writing. Other people groups had their own explanations of the world and humanity. Today, we know that the history of humanity didn't really revolve around the Middle East. It just happened to have very effective propaganda.