The Book of Genesis opens with the story of creation. God creates the world by speaking into the darkness and calling into being light, sky, land, vegetation, and living creatures over the course of six days. Each day, he pauses and calls his works “good” (1:4). On the sixth day, God declares his plan to make a being in his “own image,” and he creates humankind (1:26). He makes a man out of dust and forms a woman out of the man’s rib. God places the two people, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, encouraging them to procreate and to enjoy the created world fully, and forbidding them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In the garden, Eve encounters a cunning serpent that convinces her to eat the tree’s forbidden fruit, assuring her that she will not suffer if she does so. Eve shares the fruit with Adam, and the two are immediately filled with shame and remorse. While walking in the garden, God discovers their disobedience. After cursing the serpent, he turns and curses the couple. Eve, he says, will be cursed to suffer painful childbirth and must submit to her husband’s authority. Adam is cursed to till and work the ground for food. The two are banished from Eden.
Adam and Eve give birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain, a farmer, offers God a portion of his crops one day as a sacrifice, only to learn that God is more pleased with Abel, a herdsman. He presents God with the fattest portion of his flocks. Cain, enraged, kills his brother due to jealousy. God exiles Cain from his home to wander in the land east of Eden. Adam and Eve give birth to a third son, Seth. Through Seth and Cain, the human race begins to grow.
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