Our main Q&A (FAQ) Page

Genesis Questions and Answers

Confused about what Genesis means? Drawing on more than 30 years of CMI’s pool of scientific research from around the world, we have developed Genesis Verse-by-Verse, an easy-to-use Genesis Bible study tool. This research is linked directly to verses in Genesis clearing up the confusion about how science fits with Genesis. Simply search for a verse in Genesis to find related articles with in-depth information.

Key articles

• Did God create over billions of years?
• Did God really take six days? (from the Creation Answers Book)
• Genesis as ancient historical narrative
• Genesis: Bible authors believed it to be history (available in Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Finnish and Russian)
• The History of Interpretation of Genesis 1–11 (from Refuting Compromise, Chapter 3 (plus part of Chapter 8), 3^rd Edn
• Modern-era theologians and prominent church leaders who uphold biblical creation
• The biblical minimum and maximum age of the earth

Should Genesis be taken literally?

• Morning has broken … but when?
• Should Genesis be taken literally?
• Genesis: Myth or History?
• Is the raqiya’ (‘firmament‘) a solid dome?
• Problems in methods of interpretation—Genesis 1–11: Part 1 and Part 2

How long were the days mentioned in the biblical creation account?

• How long were the days of Genesis 1?
• The numbering pattern of Genesis (from the Creation Answers Book)
• Hebrew scholar Dr Ting Wang affirms that Genesis means what it says!
• Old Testament scholar Dr Robert McCabe affirms Genesis means what it says!
• Genesis according to evolution
• Evenings and mornings
• Days of Revelation or Creation?
• How could the days of Genesis 1 be literal if the sun wasn’t created until Day 4? (available in Spanish)
• 2 Peter 3:8—“one day is like a thousand years”
• Does Genesis 2:4 refute literal creation days?
• “ … when Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens”, a proposal for the right translation of בְּיוֹם [b^əyôm] in Genesis 2:4
• Does yom with a number always refer to 24-hour days?

Do Genesis 1 and 2 contradict each other?

• Genesis 1 and 2: complementary not contradictory
• What’s in a name? The terms for God in Genesis 1 and 2: no contradiction!

Are the Genesis genealogies meant to be taken as strict chronologies?

• Are there gaps in the biblical genealogies?
• Biblical chronogenealogies
• The Genesis 5 and 11 fluidity question
• Why Genesis 5 is a key chapter in the Bible

Which chronology is more accurate: Septuagint or Masoretic?

• Textual traditions and biblical chronology
• Is the Septuagint a superior text for the Genesis genealogies?
• The Masoretic text of Genesis 5 and 11 is still the most reliable

Was Adam the real historical first man?

• Adam and Eve
• First Adam—last Adam: Both are vital to the Gospel … but exactly how?
• Was Adam a UFO (unidentified figurative object)?
• Romans 5:12–21: Paul’s view of literal Adam
• Pre-Adamic man: were there human beings on Earth before Adam?
• Made in the image of God
• Regenerating ribs: Adam and that ‘missing’ rib (available in Spanish)
• Adam and the immune system
• Eve created from Adam’s rib

What about the Garden of Eden? What about the serpent?

• Where was Eden?
  • Part 1: Examining pre-Flood geographical details in the biblical record
  • Part 2: Geological considerations—examining pre-Flood geographical details in the biblical record
• How could Adam have named all the animals in a single day?
• Did Eve lie before the Fall?
• Snakes do eat dust
• Who was the Serpent?
• What about the Snake in the Garden of Eden?

Who was Cain’s wife?

• Where did Cain find his wife?(from the Creation Answers Book)
• Cain’s wife and brother-sister intermarriage

Jesus and the rest of the Bible on Genesis

• The Creation foundation for the Gospel
• What the New Testament doesn’t say
• The use of Genesis in the New Testament
• Jesus on the age of the earth
• What does the New Testament say about Creation?
• But from the beginning of … the institution of marriage?
• The Resurrection and Genesis
• Christ as the Last Adam: Paul’s use of the creation narrative in 1 Corinthians 15 (PDF)
• Quotations in the New Testament: Do they mean that the quoted book is totally authoritative?
• The new earth

How has Genesis 1–11 been understood throughout history?

• The early church believed Genesis as written
• Does Genesis allow any scientific theory of origin? A response to J.P. Dickson
• Genesis 1 and theories of origin
• Creation days and Orthodox Jewish tradition
• Josephus says, Genesis means what it says
• Genesis means what it says according to great Church Father, Basil of Caesarea
• Augustine: young earth creationist
• How did Philo, Clement, and Augustine interpret Genesis 1?
• Roman Catholicism and Genesis
• Eastern Orthodoxy and Genesis
• Luther on Evolution
• Calvin says: Genesis means what it says
• The Church Fathers on the Genesis Flood
• British scriptural geologists in the first half of the nineteenth century

Who really wrote Genesis? Was Genesis copied from pagan mythology?

• Did Moses really write Genesis?
• Debunking the Documentary Hypothesis
• Noah’s Flood and the Gilgamesh Epic
• A comparative study of the flood accounts in the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis
• Ancient Near Eastern cosmogonies and Genesis 1

Related Media

If Genesis was poetry what would it look like?

Science, the Bible, and the Age of the Earth (Creation Magazine LIVE! 8-04)

The Bible: Word of God or word of man? (Creation Magazine LIVE! 7-21)

Creative Genesis Interpretations

Genesis: A case study for biblical authority

Are Genesis 1 and 2 contradictory?

Genesis: the seedbed of all Christian doctrine

Is Genesis poetry?