Bible Commentaries
Genesis

The First Book of Moses called Genesis

THE ARGUMENT.

This Book is called GENESIS, i.e. generation, or birth, giving an account of passages during 2300 years and upwards, viz. from the creation of all things, to the death of Joseph. In which history Moses, by Divine inspiration, treats of the creation of the world, with all the parts and uses in it, and of it, but chiefly of man, who alone was made after God's image; where he lays down God's concessions and prohibitions to him; and man's transgression, together with the woeful effects, and the remedy of them in the promise of a Saviour; the original, progress, and preservation of the true church, springing from Abel, and carried on by Seth, Enoch, &c.; and the ground and rise of apostacy, begun in Cain, and carried on by his posterity, separating themselves from the holy seed, till by their monstrous provocations they had brought a universal deluge to destroy all mankind from off the earth, excepting only Noah and his family; out of which, as the church did again spring forth, so another cursed race carrying on the former enmity to a greater height, not only fell into idolatry, after it had continued a considerable time in Sem's race, but breaking out into all outrages, and tyrannical oppressions, it was almost extinct among those numerous nations that Noah's posterity sprang out into. But God calling Abraham into the Land of Promise, who was an idolater in Chaldea, and giving him temporal and spiritual promises, and especially that of the Messiah coming out of his loins, and assuring it by a special covenant sealed by circumcision, the church began now to take root, and to be embodied in Jacob's family under the name of Israel; and here God undertook the protection of his people and worship, by the visible presence of Christ her Head, that Angel of the covenant, going continually with them, comforting and defending them, till they came into Egypt, where the church continued until Joseph's death; where this Book ends.