Genesis.
Genesis.
§ 119. The first Booh of Moses is called 
by the Hebrews from its initial word; the rabbis call it 
, “the Book of Creation”; the Greeks, 
[“Genesis”], and this name the Latin Church has kept. The reason for the name is twofold: first, because it describes the “generations of heaven and earth” (as Moses says, Gen. 2:[4]) and, second, because it sets forth the genealogy of the patriarchs (c. 5 and elsewhere).
Some think that this same book is called the book 
—”of the upright man” or “of the right and just (
) men” (Josh. 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18)—because it describes the history of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom the Cabalists call with the special title “upright men.” Jerome thinks that that “Book of the Just” is the first Book of Samuel or of Kings because they mention many just men, such as Samuel, David, Nathan, Gad, and others. Some think it signifies the “Book of Life” mentioned in Ps. 69:[28]. Some understand it as the twelve minor prophets who nevertheless lived and wrote many centuries later. Many claim that this was a special book in which were described the lives and accounts of the saints, a book that has not come down to us. We have already mentioned something about this earlier (§ 16).
Furthermore, Genesis has fifty chapters and gives a history of 2,368 years, namely, from the creation of the world to the death of Joseph. It can be divided into six sections according to the number of the patriarchs: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. It can also be divided into the history of the time before the flood and after the flood. Jerome tells us in Genes. that there was a prohibition among the Jews that no one should read Genesis 1 or tell it to others before he was thirty years old. Our blessed Luther thinks that there was no need for such a prohibition because all of Scripture was a sealed book for them because of the veil placed before their eyes.
The chief reasons why Moses, the lawgiver of the Israelites, wanted to begin his writing with the history of creation and of the patriarchs are these: (1) So that, from the description of those things that he could not have known except by divine revelation, he might acquire authority for his teaching. Augustine, De civ. Dei, bk. 18, c. 40: “Do we believe one who tells the past rather than one who has also foretold things that would happen, which we now see happening?” (2) So that there might be a definite foundation of faith in the Church against the opinions of the heathen about the eternity or origin of the world. (3) In order to teach the people of Israel the majesty of the Creator and move them to obedience. (4) To set before the Israelites their own forefathers as examples of the rewards for godliness and the punishments meted out for wickedness. Eusebius, Praepar. evang., bk. 7, c. 3: “Before he set down the laws, he impressed the lives of their ancestors on the minds of men. Thus after exhorting them with the rewards of the good and the punishments of the wicked to embrace virtue and flee wickedness, he finally put the laws into their midst.” (5) To teach that one must seek or invoke no other God but Him who is the Creator of the world and who with a sure word has revealed Himself to men right from the beginning of the world.