Primeval History

The story opens with no nation, no covenant and no temple — only God speaking a world into being. Adam and Eve are placed in a garden in Eden and given work, food and one prohibition (Genesis 2:15–17). When they eat, the ground itself is cursed and they are driven east of Eden (Genesis 3:17–24). The first family becomes the first crime scene: Cain kills his brother Abel in a field and is sent out as a restless wanderer (Genesis 4:8–12), while Seth is given "in place of Abel" and the line of the promise continues (Genesis 4:25).

Two family lines run side by side through these chapters. From Cain come Lamech, Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-cain — city builders, herdsmen, musicians and metalworkers, and with them the first boast of vengeance (Genesis 4:17–24). From Seth come the long-lived names of Genesis 5: Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch who "walked with God, and he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:24), and Methuselah, the oldest man in Scripture.

The flood narrative turns on one household. Noah finds favour in the eyes of the LORD (Genesis 6:8), builds the ark at God's word, and enters it with his wife and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives (Genesis 7:13). When the waters recede, God sets a bow in the cloud and swears never again to destroy all flesh by flood (Genesis 9:11–17). Yet the very next scene is Noah drunk in his tent and a curse falling on Canaan (Genesis 9:20–27) — the old trouble survived the water.

The Table of Nations spreads Noah's descendants across the earth (Genesis 10), and among them Nimrod becomes "a mighty hunter before the LORD" and the founder of Babel and Nineveh (Genesis 10:8–12). At Babel humanity builds a tower to make a name for itself and God scatters the languages (Genesis 11:1–9). The era closes as it began, with a genealogy: from Shem to Terah, who takes his son Abram, his grandson Lot and his daughter-in-law Sarai out of Ur of the Chaldeans and settles in Haran (Genesis 11:27–32). Everything that follows begins there.