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The Pentateuch, which includes the first five books of the Old Testament, beginning with Genesis and running through Deuteronomy, has always been held in special veneration. These five books are called THE LAW, as opposed to the later books, which are either historic or poetic or prophetic, while the Pentateuch, though partly historic, is mainly occupied with proclaiming the Law of God, and establishing the rules by which the Hebrews aimed, and still aim today, to regulate their lives.

Tradition assigns the authorship of these books to Moses, the chief prophet, leader, and law-giver of his race. Hence the books are often called the five books of Moses. Indeed, the later Hebrews seem to have believed that the early writings of Moses were
identical with the five books as we possess them today; and this Hebraic view was widely adopted in the early Christian Church. It is now generally supposed, however, that the Pentateuch in its present form was written some centuries after the
death of Moses, uniting in a single account several detached earlier records of his teaching.

Genesis, the name of which means "the beginnings," is the first of these five books of the Law, or "five fifths" as the Hebrews call them. Genesis receives its name both from its opening words and from its contents ; for it explains the beginning of earth and of man. Many of its verses contain poetic metaphors, which should not be too exactly construed; yet it is historical in a vague and vastly broad sense. The purpose of its history is to point out the relations existing between God and man, and especially between God and the "chosen race," the Hebrews. The book is thus the natural preliminary to the four following ones, which proclaim the laws of God as established for man's guidance, and tell the story of the revelation of these laws to Moses and his followers.

Opening with the Creation, Genesis devotes five chapters to the first peopling of the earth. Then in five more chapters it tells of the destruction of mankind by the deluge, and of the second peopling of the earth by the descendants of Noah. In the eleventh chapter, Abraham appears as the central figure of the narrative. In him the faith and knowledge of the true God was preserved or rather it was strengthened and revealed anew, and he was sent with his family into Palestine, the Holy Land. The story of Abraham and of his covenant with God occupies fifteen chapters, toward the close of which his son and successor, Isaac, becomes the central figure. Then in the twenty-sixth chapter Jacob, the son of Isaac, is born, to succeed in his turn to the position of the special friend and servant of God.

The twelve sons of Jacob were the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel, so that the story of each of them is told at some length. Joseph was the most prominent among them, and from the time of his birth, as related in the thirtieth chapter,
he becomes gradually the central personage of the narrative, and so continues till the end of the book. It was under his leadership that the Hebrews left the Holy Land and settled in Egypt, where four hundred years of bondage were to punish them for their sins, before Moses appeared. Genesis thus stands as the introduction, not only to the account of Moses and his promulgation of God's law, but to all the historical books which follow, and which tell of the return of Abraham's descendants into Palestine, and their fortunes during their second dwelling there. It introduces also the poetical books and prophecies, which refer frequently to the story of the creation, or of the patriarchs and their covenant with God. Also in a sense Genesis introduces the New Testament; for the Old Testament tells of the fall of man, and the New proclaims His redemption.

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