Genesis

(jën'e-sis.) [Gr., an origin.] (Script.) The name given to a canonical book of the Old Testament, and so styled by the Greeks on account of its recounting the generation of all things. It stands the first of the Pent a teuch, or five books of Moses, and its history goes back over a period of 2,370years. It is divided into two parts-one universal, and one special, the first from chapter i. to xi. telling the primal history of the whole human race; the second (xii.-. 1), the dawning history of the children of Israel. Christ specifically admitted the authenticity of G., and citations from it very frequently occur in the New Testament. [s. 400]