The Book of Genesis
Genesis Chapters One Through Three

INTRODUCTION TO THIS STUDY

The purpose of this work is to guide you in Spirit Filled interpretation of this "Selected Study". As necessary we will provide outlines, historical backgrounds, note the purpose and focus of the text, and also provide the original Hebrew language definitions for the key words in the highlighted text. The English translation used is the King James (Authorized) Version, not because it is the best translation available, but because I just plain prefer it for study!

All Scripture text will be presented in normal cased lettering, and all notes within the text will be in TRUE TYPE FONT, as shown. This (I hope) will allow you to avoid confusion between God's Word and my notes. As I update this website, I will continue to embellish the text so that anyone using NETSCAPE 3.0 or MICROSOFT 3.0 or higher will be able to read the document easier.
 

An excellent site to study Biblical Hebrew is by Lee R. Martin, Biblical Hebrew. The following are excerpts from his Hebrew Dictionary (if you want more, go to his site):

ABSOLUTE: In Hebrew Greek grammar, a word is absolute when it stands independently and has no grammatical relation to other elements in the sentence. The most common instance in Greek is the genitive absolute.

ABSOLUTE STATE: The Hebrew absolute together with a word in the construct state expresses the genitive. Do not confuse with the infinitive absolute. Heb: king (absolute); horse of (construct) the king (absolute), i.e., the king's horse (genitive).

ACCIDENCE: That part of grammar that treats inflection; a subcategory of morphology.

ACCUSATIVE CASE: A substantive used as the direct object of a transitive verb is said to be in the accusative case. In Greek, the accusative is the case of extension. Heb: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Gk: "He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).

ACCUSATIVE ENDING: In Hebrew see DIRECTIVE h.

ACTIVE VOICE: In the active voice, the subject is the doer of the action that is expressed by the verb.

AKTIONSART: German for "kind of action."

ANARTHROUS: A word that appears without the article is anarthrous.

ARAMAIC: A branch of the northwest Semitic languages that is closely related to Hebrew. In the OT Masoretic text, Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan. 2:4b-7:28; and Jer. 10:11 are in Aramaic rather than Hebrew. Aramaic had become the common language of the Jewish people by NT times.

CASE: Case shows the grammatical relation of inflected forms such as nouns and pronouns to other words (nominative, possessive, objective cases).

CAUSATIVE VERB: A transitive verb that can be said to cause the action depicted in a corresponding intransitive verb. Ex: lay ("cause to lie") is the causative of lie; raise, the causative of rise.

DIRECT OBJECT: The word, phrase, or clause that is the primary goal or result of the action of the verb (cf. accusative case); the person or thing is directly affected by the action of the verb. Heb: "God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Gr: "He grabbed him and began to choke him" (Matt. 18:28).

GENITIVE: The case that expresses possession or specifies a relationship that can be expressed in English by "of." In Hebrew this is called a construct relationship. The Greek genitive is the specifying case answering the question "What kind?" Heb: "the expanse of the sky" (Gen. 1:21). Gk: "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4).

GUTTURALS: The mute consonants whose sounds are produced when the front of the tongue approaches the palate of the mouth. Four letters in Hebrew, a h j and [ are the guttural letters (r has some guttural characteristics). Hebrew gutturals cannot be doubled, prefer a-class vowels, and composite shevas. In Greek, the guttural letters are g k and c also called velars, laryngeals, or palatals.

HITHPAEL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses intensive or emphatic action (classified by some grammars as causative action) and reflexive voice. For this emphasis in Greek, middle voice. Heb: "A group of adventurers gathered around [lit., gathered themselves around] him" (Judg. 11:3).

HOPHAL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses causative action and passive voice. Heb: "Let seven of his male descendants be given [hophal] to us" (2 Sam. 21:6).

IMPERATIVE: A verb or verbal mood that expresses command or makes a request.

IMPERFECT: In Hebrew, the form of the verb used to express action that is incomplete or unfinished. Heb: "What if they do not believe me" (Exod. 4:1). The Greek imperfect tense expresses incomplete, linear action in past time. Gk: "People were eating and drinking..." (Luke 17:28). Other regular uses of the tense include iterative, frequentative, inceptive, and conative.

INFINITIVE: A verbal noun that has characteristics of both verbs and nouns. In English usually introduced by to. Hebrew has both infinitive absolute and infinitive construct forms. Heb: "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land" (Gen. 15:7). The Greek infinitive is used as a substantive, in subordinate clauses, with prepositions, and in epexegesis. Gk: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).

INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE: A form of the Hebrew infinitive that may function in a number of ways: to express certainty or intensification ("you will surely die," Gen. 2:17); to express repeated or continued action ("Be ever hearing," Isa. 6:9); as a finite verb ("They...broke the jars," Judg. 7:19); to express an emphatic imperative ("Remember the Sabbath day," Exod. 20:8).

MASORETIC TEXT: The vocalized text of the Hebrew Bible, prepared by a group of Jewish scholars around A.D. 700 to preserve the oral pronunciation of the Hebrew words.

MOOD: Mood indicates the manner in which the action is conceived (or its relation to reality). Moods are indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and optative. Mood may be expressed by finite verbs in Greek and by various means (form, words, or context) in Hebrew. Mode.

NIPHAL: A verbal form (stem) in Hebrew that expresses simple action and passive or reflexive voice. Heb: "She was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah" (1 Sam. 18:19).

OPTATIVE MOOD: The mood of possibility and more doubtful assertion that expresses wish or desire. See also jussive and cohortative. Heb: "If only we had died in Egypt!" (Num. 14:2). Gk: "Maythe Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance" (2 Thess. 3:5).

PARTICIPLE: A verbal form that has characteristics of both noun and verb. In Hebrew it represents characteristic, continual, uninterrupted action. Heb: "The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Gen. 1:2). The Greek participle is widely used as a substantive, adjective, and adverb in phrases and clauses. Gk:"...in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him" (1 Peter 1:21).

PARTICLE: A unit of speech that is ranked as an uninflected word but expresses some kind of syntactical relationship or some general aspect of meaning. Some grammarians classify all conjunctions, prepositions, and negatives as particles.

PASSIVE VOICE: A voice form of the verb that represents the subject as receiver of the action. Heb: "This land was given to us as our possession" (Ezek. 11:15). Gk: "You were marked in him with a seal" (Eph. 1:13).

PERFECT/PERFECT TENSE: In Hebrew, this form of the verb is used to express completed action, whether in reality or in the thought of the speaker or writer. Heb: rm'v; is a perfect form of the verb and would be translated "he guarded." The Greek perfect tense, by contrast, represents a state of completion with abiding results and is often translated as a present perfect. Gk: The perfect leluke would be rendered "he has released."

PIEL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses intensive or emphatic action and active voice. Heb: "They destroyed the high places and the altars" (2 Chron. 31:1).

PREPOSITION: A word that shows relationships between its object and some other word in the sentence. Some common English prepositions are in, to, from, with, above, for, by.

PRETERITE: A Latin name for the past tense; it is the equivalent of the perfect in Hebrew and the aorist indicative in Greek.

PUAL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses intensive or emphatic action and passive voice. Heb: "There was Baal's altar, demolished" (Judg. 6:28).

QAL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses simple action and active voice; it is sometimes spelled Kal. Ex:"Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew" (Gen.25:34).

REFLEXIVE VOICE: Denotes an action that is directed back upon the agent or subject; expressed in Hebrew by the niphal and the hithpael, in Greek by the middle voice.Heb: "I have...kept myself from sin" (Ps. 18:23). Gk: "Then he went away and hanged himself" (Matt. 27:5).

ROOT: That part of a word left when all affixes are removed; the morpheme that carries the minimal unit of meaning in a word and can be common to several different words. The three consonants in Hebrew that ordinarily compose the basic uninflected spelling of a word are called the root letters. Occasionally a Hebrew word may have two or four root letters. Gk: the root dik- is common to dikaio", "righteous," dikh, "justice," and dikaiow, "to acquit." Also called "Lexeme."

STATIVE VERB, STATIC VERB: A stative verb is one that indicates a state of being or relationship rather than action. In Hebrew, its vowel pattern is different from that of verbs of action or motion. Greek statives include eijmi, ginomai, and uJparcw. Heb: "the hands...will be strengthened (2 Sam. 16:21). Gk: "Who, being in very nature God" (Phil. 2:6).

STEM: The noun or verb base formed by the addition of derivational affixes to the root. Thus, in Greek, doro- is the stem of the noun doron, "gift"; do- is the root, ro is the affix (in this case, a suffix). Also called base in recent grammars. In Hebrew, the term is used to designate verb forms that express certain kinds of action and voice; the major Hebrew verbal stems are qal, niphal, piel, pual, hithpael, hiphil, and hophal.

STRONG VERB: In Hebrew, the regular verb whose stem consonants do not change, i.e., remain unmodified in conjugation, in contrast to the weak verb. In Greek, a tense stem formed from the verb stem or root itself by vowel gradation.

VOICE: Voice is a modification of a verb that tells whether the subject of the verb acts or is acted upon. There are three voices in English, Hebrew, and Greek: active, passive, and reflexive.

WEAK VERB: In Hebrew, the verbs with gutturals or weak letters ( n in first root position, y and w in first or second root position, identical second and third root letters) as radicals, which produce modifications in the conjugation, in contrast to the strong verb. In Greek, a tense stem formed by adding a suffix to the verb stem or root.

If you discover obvious errors (as I am human, and do make mistakes), please let me know. Do not contact me to argue about the doctrinal differences that you may have with my teaching. I do not argue Theology with anyone, so all Legalists, cultists, and others with extremist views, please save your (and my) time. If you want to discuss your doctrinal differences, or share a viewpoint, please contact me at Didaskalos Ministries. I am not so arrogant as to think I know it all, or even 1% of what the scripture teaches.

1In the beginning (There are some theologians who hold to a first and a second creation of the universe. They state that God created the universe in an instant (Psa 33.6; Heb 11.3; 2 Pet 3.5), and that it was destroyed by fallen angels. Creation was then restored by the Spirit in 6 days (Isa 45.18; Ezek 28; Isa 14). Is this possible? I suppose it is theologically possible that verse 1 depicts the first creation, then verses 2 and following the second. However, this 2 creation theory to me seems to add much to the Word of God in order to make it compatible with archeological discoveries)

God ('elohiym, plural form of word for God, used when the Trinity of God is to be shown in the text. The Father planned, 1 Cor 8.6; The Son created, John 1.3; Col 1.16; Heb 1.10; the Spirit restored creation, Gen 1.12; Psa 104.30; Job 33.4)

created (bara', to create something out of nothing)

the heaven (shamayim, heavens)

and the earth.
 

2 And the earth was without form, (tohuw, a wasteland, desolation, dump. See Isa 45.18)

and void; (bohuw, barren, destroyed, empty, void)

and darkness (choshek, darkness, misery)

[was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: ('owr, illumination, elemental light. Light results from molecular action or combination. Here God evolved light, created it as a concept in this universe without benefit of sun or moon. This was, perhaps, the elemental cosmic light or the shekinah glory of God)

and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. ('echad yowm, in Hebrew syntax when yowm is used with a prime number, this always refers to a 24 hour day)
 

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament (raqiya`, atmosphere, air, oxygen. See Psa 104.2; Isa 40.22; Exo 24.10; Job 37.18)

in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
 

7 And God made (`asah, to make out of existing materials, make something out of something)

the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament: and it was so.
 

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. (sheniy yowm, in Hebrew syntax when yowm is used with a prime number, this always refers to a 24 hour day)
 

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so. (The water was drawn under the earth. This is why in Noah's day there was no rain, but water came up out of the earth)

10 And God called the dry [land] Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that [it was] good.
 

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
 

12 And the earth brought forth grass, [and] herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed [was] in itself, after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. (sheliyshiy yown, in Hebrew syntax when yowm is used with a prime number, this always refers to a 24 hour day)
 

14 And God said, Let there be lights (ma'owr, light containers, light bearing planets, lighted bodies)

in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, ('owth, astrological events that announce unusual things. See Mat 16.1-4)

and for seasons, (mow`ed, refers to appointed times such as summer, winter, spring, fall)

and for days, and years: (God established enough order in creation to where a calendar could be devised)

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
 

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also.
 

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
 

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that [it was] good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. (rebiy`iy yown, in Hebrew syntax when yowm is used with a prime number, this always refers to a 24 hour day)
 

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature (literally = let the waters swarm with swarms of creatures)

that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
 

21 And God created great whales, (gadowl tanniyn, long marine or land monsters/ beasts. Could this refer to dinosaurs?)

and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. (chamiyshiy yown, in Hebrew syntax when yowm is used with a prime number, this always refers to a 24 hour day)

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
 

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.

26 And God ('elohiym, plural form of word for God, used when the Trinity of God is to be shown in the text. The Father planned, 1 Cor 8.6; The Son created, John 1.3; Col 1.16; Heb 1.10; the Spirit restored creation, Gen 1.12; Psa 104.30; Job 33.4)

said, Let us make (`asah, to make out of existing material)

man in our image, after our likeness: (demuwth, resemblence, model, fashion. God is sovereign, has self determination, self consciousness, moral reasoning. We as humans have that. Monkeys do not have this, nor can this be "evolved". To reason that an animal can develop that which God bestowed in man is the height of liberal arrogance and stupidity, on the level of moronity of looking at a lion making a kill and then shouting at it "Have you no feelings?")

and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
 

27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female (woman was not divided from man at the first of creation - this came later)

created he them.
 

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue (kabash, conquer, rule over. We are to dominate the earth, not, as the liberal teaches, to "love the little beasties better than we love our fellow humans". PETA and other militant animal rights organizations, as well as GREENPEACE, etc, are often so far out of bounds that they are living in delusion)

it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
 

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. ('oklah, food)

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have given] every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (shishshiy yown, in Hebrew syntax when yowm is used with a prime number, this always refers to a 24 hour day)
 
 

2 And on the seventh day (shebiy`iy yown, in Hebrew syntax when yowm is used with a prime number, this always refers to a 24 hour day)

God ended his work which he had made; (`asah, to manufacture something out of something)

and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. (God did not rest because He was tired, but rested because the work was not finished)
 

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified (qadash, to set apart, declare clean, set apart for His own holy use)

it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
 

4 These [are] the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, (bara', to create something out of nothing)

in the day that the LORD God (Jehovah Elohiym = Lord Creator God. See John 1.3; Col 1.16; Heb 1.10)

made (`asah, to create something out of something, manufacture)

the earth and the heavens,
 

7 And the LORD God formed (yatsar, to shape of form, mould)

man (adam = ruddy, red clay)

[of] the dust of the ground, ('adamah, country, red earth. Where adam came from)

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; (chay, lives {plural})

and man became a living soul.
 

8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; (`Eden, garden of delight)

and there he put the man whom he had formed.
 

14 And the name of the third river [is] Hiddekel: (the Tigris River)

that [is] it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river [is] Euphrates. (Babylon was located on this river)
 

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (literally = to dominate and guard it)
 

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (literally = dying thou shalt surely die. Refers to immediate spiritual death and eventual physical death)
 

22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made (banah, to build from parts)

he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
 

23 And Adam said, This [is] now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, ('ishshah, cling to, woman. Her name emphasized that she was a part of man developed to be a blessing to man)

because she was taken out of Man. ('iysh, man)
 

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave (dabaq, cling, adhere. Man initiates the love relationship)

unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
 
 
 

1 Now the serpent (nachash, bright and shining one. Satan was originally beautiful)

was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God (Jehovah Elohiym, eternal God. A title for Jesus the Creator)

had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God ('elohiym, God. Satan recognized the Lord as God, but refused to recognize Him as a person, much as many people say they believe in "a god", but not "Jesus Christ")

said, Ye shall not eat of every tree (one of the greatest traps of Satan is not terror or persecution, but false Doctrine. People fall into this trap often. "What's wrong with homosexuality? Isn't that between two people, their own business?", or "I don't see why it's wrong for women to pastor in authority over men. Besides, this is the year 2000", or "Keep those black people in their own churches - they're different than we are culturally". The soul that compromises Scriptural truth, God's Word, falls into Satan's trap)

of the garden?
 

2 And the woman (notice also that Satan attacked the woman, not the man. The man was supposed to tend to the things of God, but failed in his duties)

said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
 

3 But of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, (again, notice how Satan twists the words of God. God never said that Eve was forbidden to touch the tree, she added this. In the same way Satan has come into the Church and added certain elements unto the Biblical teaching. Satan has added hatred and belittling of women {women aren't to be in authority because they aren't as smart - which is a lie}, hatred and belittling of races, hatred and belittling of people in general. This has gone beyond that which the Scripture holds as truth)

lest ye die. (muwth, see Gen 2.17. The woman assumed only one, physical death, but both physical as well as spiritual death came on mankind)
 

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (literally = dying thou shalt not die. The first lie in Scripture, contradicts God in Gen 2.17)
 

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, (literally = you shall be like elohiym, like the eternal Godhead)

knowing good and evil.
 

6 And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant (ta'avah, delightful, beautiful. Sin usually enters the life through the eyes, then moves inward from there)

to the eyes, and a tree to be desired (chamad, NIPHAL stem = receiving desire. The stem shows that Eve had been looking at the tree, desiring it, before Satan ever offered that forbidden fruit)

 to make [one] wise, (sakal, HOPHAL Infinitive = to cause to make wise)

she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; (Adam was present with Eve throughout this exchange, yet did nothing. Symbolic of our world today where men allow their wives the fall into a pit in order to be "politically correct")

and he did eat.
 

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, (Once Adam partook, sin entered in)

and they knew that they [were] naked; (man was made in the image of God. God is light (1 John 1.5), and clothes Himself in light (Psa 104.2). Man was also clothed in light (Psa 36.9; 1 Tim 6.16; Rom 13.12), but lost this light on sinning)

and they sewed (taphar, to sew together, almost surgically. They tried, by their own human good, to make things right before God)

fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (chagowr, girdles, loin cloths)
 

8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves (chaba', HITHPAEL stem = they themselves hid themselves)

from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
 

9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou? (literally = Where are you where you are)

14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust (`aphar, dirt, ground, mud. The serpent has lost his hands, must crawl on the ground to eat)

shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
 

15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed (refers to unbelievers. See John 8.44)

and her seed; (prophetic of Christ)

it shall bruise (shuwph, to crush)

thy head, and thou shalt bruise (shuwph, to crush) his heel. (Isaiah 7.14)
 

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow (`itstsabown, labor pains)

and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.  (Psa 51.5; Eph 5)
 

17  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow (`itstsabown, labor pains)

shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; (Isa 35.1-2; Ro 8.19-22; Isa 11.6-9; 65.20, 25)
 

18  Thorns also and thistles (dardar, thorn bearing plants)

shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; (Ro 5.12; 1 Cor 15.22; Heb 9.22; 1 Pet 1.18-19)