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The Book of '''Genesis''' contains the pre-history of the people of Israel. It starts the first part the [[Old Testament]] section of the [[Bible]] called the [[Pentateuch]], Torah, or Books of [[Moses]]. The name ''Genesis'' comes from the Greek for beginning, origin, or birth because of [[Septuagint]]'s division of the Pentateuch into five books. Tradition has it that the Genesis was mostly written by the [[Prophet]] Moses 1,300 years before [[Christ]].
[[image:Viennagenesis.jpg|right|thumb|A page of the Vienna Genesis, made in sixth century Syria, with an illustration of Jacob/Israel blessing his grandsons Ephraim and Mannasseh.]]
==Name==
In Hebrew the book is called {{Hebrew|בְּרֵאשִׁית}} (''Bereishit''), meaning "in the beginning." This title is the first word of the Hebrew text - a method by which all five books of the Torah are named. When the Torah was translated into Greek in the 3rd century BC to produce the [[Septuagint]], the name given was Γένεσις ''Genesis'', meaning "birth" or "origin". This was in line with the Septuagint use of subject themes as book names. The Greek title has continued to be used in all subsequent Latin and English versions of the Bible, and most other languages.
==Contents==
{{OldTestament}}