From Creation to Abraham
Old Testament Division—Prelude, First Period, Second Period
PRINCIPAL EVENTS
Prelude.
Account of the Creation.—The creation days: Light (Gen. 1:3-5); firmament (1:6-8); land and water separated, vegetation (1:9-13); heavenly bodies—sun, moon, stars (1:14-19); fish, birds and animals (1:19-25); man (1:26-31).
First Period.
Creation of Man.—Man made in God's image (Gen. 1:27); creation of Eve (Gen. 2:21, 22). Entrance of sin and the fall (3:1-6); Cain, son of Adam and Eve, killed his brother Abel (4:3-8).
Second Period.
The Flood.—The prevalence of wickedness (Gen. 6:5) caused God to destroy the population of the world by flood, with the exception of Noah, his family, and selected animals (Gen. 6-8). God made a covenant with Noah not to destroy the people again by flood (9:8-17)
The Tower of Babel.—The wickedness in the heart of men found expression in the building of the great tower of Babel, and the punishment therefor was the confusion of tongues (11:1-9).
TIME.—From an unknown time to 1928 B. C.
PLACES.—Garden of Eden, Western Asia, Babylon.
SIGNIFICANCE OF EVENTS.—The creative period marks God as the supreme author of the universe and of its inhabitants; sinless at first, man falls, and begins the battle with evil which shall cease only with the ultimate complete triumph of Christ, the Redeemer. The flood marks the first of a series of tremendous efforts to save the world from the thraldom of sin.