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Questions about Genesis


Book of Genesis - Bible Survey

Who wrote the book of Genesis? Who was the author of Genesis?

What is the tablet theory of Genesis authorship, and is it biblical?

What is the Genesis Apocryphon?

Does Genesis chapter 1 literally mean 24 hour days?

What does it mean that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)?

What does it mean that God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)?

What does it mean that the earth was without form and void (Genesis 1:2)?

Why did God say, “Let there be light,” during creation?

Why is a day measured from evening to morning in Genesis 1?

What is the Gap Theory? Did anything happen in between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2?

What is the canopy theory?

How could there be light on the first day of Creation if the sun was not created until the fourth day?

Why are there two different Creation accounts in Genesis chapters 1-2?

What happened on each of the days of Creation?

Why does the Bible describe the moon as a light?

What does it mean that God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:18)?

What does it mean when God said, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26)?

What does the Bible mean by “male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27)?

What does God mean when He tells Adam and Eve to fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28)?

Why did God rest on the seventh day of creation (Genesis 2:2)?

Why did God make man out of the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7)?

What is the biblical Creation story?

How do beliefs about creation impact the rest of theology?

What is the meaning of the Hebrew word adamah?

What is the breath of life?

Were Adam and Eve saved? How many children did Adam and Eve have? When were Adam and Eve created?

Who was Eve in the Bible?

What does it mean that God gave humanity dominion over the animals?

Why weren’t Adam and Eve created at the same time (Genesis 2)?

What does it mean that it is not good for a man to be alone (Genesis 2:18)?

Why did God use Adam’s rib to create Eve?

Since God took a rib from Adam to make Eve, does that mean men have one less rib than women?

What does it mean that a wife is supposed to be a helpmeet / help meet?

How was the woman a helper suitable for the man (Genesis 2:18)?

What did God mean when He told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply?

What does it mean that a man shall leave his father and mother (Genesis 2:24)?

What does it mean that “the two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24)?

What does it mean that Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed (Genesis 2:25)?

Did God create other people in addition to Adam and Eve?

What is a toledot?

Was Satan the serpent in Genesis chapter 3?

Why did God allow Satan to enter the Garden of Eden?

Was Adam with Eve when she spoke to the serpent (Genesis 3:6)?

Why is Adam blamed for the fall of humanity when Eve sinned first?

What is the meaning of the tree of life?

Was Adam and Eve’s sin really about eating a piece of forbidden fruit?

Did God literally and visibly walk in the garden (Genesis 3:8)?

Who is “the seed of the woman” in Genesis 3:15?

What does Genesis 3:15 mean that “he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel”?

How is a woman’s desire for her husband a curse (Genesis 3:16)?

Did Adam and Eve know what death was when God commanded them not to eat from the tree of knowledge?

Why didn’t Adam and Eve immediately die for their sin (Genesis 3)?

Why did God punish women with pain in childbirth (Genesis 3:16)?

Is it wrong to reduce birth pains by taking pain relievers?

What does it mean when God tells Adam, “For dust you are and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19)?

What is the significance of the garments of skin that God made Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21)?

What is the Adamic covenant?

What is the protoevangelium?

Did we all inherit sin from Adam and Eve?

How did the Fall affect humanity?

What was the Garden of Eden like?

What is the location of the Garden of Eden?

Why did God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden?

Why didn’t Adam and Eve find it strange that a serpent was talking to them?

How did the knowledge of good and evil make man like God (Genesis 3:22)?

Why was it wrong for Adam and Eve to know good and evil (Genesis 3:22)?

Why did God have the cherubim guard just the east side of Eden (Genesis 3:24)?

What does it mean to live “east of Eden”?

Why did God accept Abel’s offering, but reject Cain’s offering? Why did Cain then kill Abel?

What is the significance of God telling Cain, “Sin is crouching at your door” (Genesis 4:7)?

Who was Cain’s wife?

Who was Cain afraid of after he killed Abel?

What was the mark that God put on Cain (Genesis 4:15)?

Why wasn’t Cain’s punishment death (Genesis 4:14)?

Am I my brother’s keeper?

How did Cain die? What happened to Cain?

Why did people in Genesis live such long lives?

Who was the oldest man in the Bible?

Why did Lamech think Noah would bring comfort (Genesis 5:29)?

Who are the sons of God and daughters of men in Genesis 6:1-4?

Who / what were the Nephilim?

What does it mean that God will not strive with man forever (Genesis 6:3)?

What is the significance of the fact there were giants in those days (Genesis 6:4)?

What is the definition of antediluvian?

Who was Noah in the Bible?

What was it like in the days of Noah?

Why did God send the flood when He knew sin would continue after the flood?

Why did God also destroy animals in the Flood (Genesis 6-8)?

Were fish and sea creatures also destroyed during the Flood (Genesis 6-8)?

Was Noah’s flood global?

Had it ever rained before the Flood in Noah’s day?

What are the windows of heaven (Genesis 7:11)?

Did the Bible copy the Flood account from other myths and legends?

How long did it take Noah to build the ark? How long was Noah on the ark?

What is gopher wood?

Why did Noah release a raven? Why did he later release a dove (Genesis 8)?

How did Noah fit all the animals on the ark?

What made some animals clean and others unclean (Genesis 7)?

Would the discovery of Noah’s Ark be important?

What is the Noahic Covenant?

Why did God prohibit eating meat with blood in it (Genesis 9:4)?

Why did God mandate capital punishment for murder (Genesis 9:6)?

Why did Noah get drunk after the flood?

Why did Noah curse Canaan instead of Ham?

What does it mean to uncover nakedness in the Bible?

Who were the sons of Noah, and what happened to them and their descendants?

In what way was the earth divided in Peleg’s time?

What happened at the Tower of Babel?

What is the Table of Nations?

What is the biblical account of Shem, Ham, and Japheth?

Who were the Rephaim?

Who was Chedorlaomer / Kedorlaomer?

Who was Melchizedek?

Why was a burial place so important in the Bible?

Who was Abraham in the Bible?

What was Abraham’s religion before God called him?

What is the blessing of Abraham?

Why was Abraham promised land that belonged to others (Genesis 12)?

What is the story of Abraham and Lot?

Why did God punish Pharaoh for Abram’s lie (Genesis 12:17)?

How many wives did Abraham have?

How many sons did Abraham have?

How is God an exceedingly great reward (Genesis 15:1)?

What is the Abrahamic Covenant?

Who was Sarah in the Bible?

How long did Abraham and Sarah have to wait for Isaac?

What was a blood covenant (Genesis 15:9-21)?

Why did God send the Israelites to Egypt for 400 years (Genesis 15:13)?

What does it mean that “the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:16)?

What is the land that God promised to Israel?

Who were the three men who visited Abraham in Genesis 18?

Why does God ask Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14)?

Why did Abraham bargain with God in regard to Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18)?

What is the significance of a city gate in the Bible?

What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?

Why was Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt?

Why did Lot offer up his daughters to be gang raped? Why did God allow Lot’s daughters to later have sex with their father?

What were Admah and Zeboiim in the Bible?

Who was Isaac in the Bible?

What was the significance of weaning a child in the Bible (Genesis 21:8)?

What is the story of Sarah and Hagar?

Why does Hagar call God “the God Who Sees” (Genesis 16:13)?

Was Hagar Abraham’s wife or his concubine?

Why did Abraham banish Ishmael (Genesis 21:14)?

Who are the descendants of Ishmael?

Why did oaths involve putting a hand under someone’s thigh (Genesis 24:9)?

Why did God command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?

How did Abraham know that God will provide a lamb (Genesis 22:8)?

How old was Isaac when Abraham almost sacrificed him?

What is the significance of the cave of Machpelah?

Who was Jacob in the Bible?

Why is Jacob called Jacob and Israel alternately in the book of Genesis?

What was the story of Jacob and Esau?

Why was a father’s blessing so highly valued in the Old Testament?

What is the difference between a blessing and a birthright (Genesis 25)?

What does it mean that someone was gathered to his people?

What is Jacob’s Ladder?

What is the significance of Peniel in the Bible?

How could Jacob not notice he married Leah instead of Rachel?

What is the story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel?

What was the purpose of a dowry (Genesis 31:15)?

Did Jacob placing branches in front of his flock really result in the offspring being speckled and spotted?

Why did Laban say to Jacob, “May the Lord watch between you and me” (Genesis 31:49)?

What is the Fear of Isaac?

What is the birth order of Jacob’s thirteen children?

Why did people keep family idols in the Bible?

What is the meaning of Jacob wrestling with God?

What are the mandrakes mentioned in the Bible?

Who was Joseph in the Old Testament?

Why did Jacob give Joseph a coat of many colors?

What is the significance of a scarlet thread?

What is the story of Joseph and his brothers?

What is the story of Joseph and Potiphar?

What can we learn from the account of Potiphar’s wife?

How long was Joseph in prison?

Who were the priests of On? Was Joseph wrong to marry the daughter of a pagan priest (Genesis 41)?

Was Joseph the same person as Imhotep in Egyptian history?

Why did Pharaoh give Joseph so much power?

What is the meaning of Zaphenath-Paneah in Genesis 41:45?

Was Joseph’s governing in Egypt an example of socialism?

What kind of divination did Joseph do in Genesis 44:5, 15?

What are the twelve tribes of Israel?

Were Jacob’s prophecies about his sons fulfilled?

Who/what is the Lion of the tribe of Judah?

What does it mean that the scepter will not depart from Judah (Genesis 49:10)?

What did Joseph mean when he said, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20)?



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This page last updated: February 27, 2024