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The first stories about God and his people
(The book in the Holy Bible called Genesis)
About these stories
This is the 1st book in the Holy Bible, called Genesis. That word Genesis means start. It is the book that tells us how God started everything that is here today.
Genesis was in God’s book that the Jewish people had before Jesus came to this earth. That book is now the first part of the Holy Bible, called the Old Testament.
Genesis is a very old book. The Jewish people say that Moses wrote it about 3,400 years ago. He was their leader at that time.
Genesis is a very important book for us today. It tells us that God made everything. He made the world and everything in it, and he made people. Genesis tells us that people went wrong, but God was still good to them. God picked a man called Abraham, and God promised to use Abraham’s family to do good things for all the people in the world. This book has lots of stories about the people in Abraham’s family.
Genesis shows us that God is really good and really powerful. He will always look after the people that trust him and do what he says.
1
God made everything
1 First of all, a long time ago, God made everything. He made the sky, and he made the earth. He made all the things that are everywhere. 2 The earth didn’t have any shape. It didn’t have anything. It was covered with deep water. Everything was dark. It was dark all over the water, but God’s spirit moved around on the top of the water.
Day number 1
3 God said, “I want light.” Straight away, light was shining everywhere.*2 Corinthians 4:6 4 God looked at it, and he saw that it was good. So God split up the light and the dark. 5 He called the light day time, and he called the dark night time.
After that all happened, there was night time and there was morning time. That was day number 1.
Day number 2
6 Then God said, “I want something to split the water in half.”*2 Peter 3:5 7 So God made the sky to split the water in half. God left some of the water up high, and he left some of it on the ground, and he put the sky in the middle. 8 And when God made it, he called it sky.
After that all happened, there was night time and there was morning time. That was day number 2.
Day number 3
9 Then God said, “I want all the water that is on the ground to come together to one place, and I want dry ground to come up.” Then the water moved to the places where God wanted it, and the dry ground came up. 10 God called the dry ground land, and he called that water sea. God looked at the land and the sea, and he saw that everything was good.
11 Then God said, “I want the land to grow all sorts of plants on the earth. I want plants with seeds, and trees with fruit that have seeds inside.” And God made it happen. 12 So all sorts of plants grew on the land, plants with seeds, and trees with fruit that have seeds inside. God looked at all those plants, and he saw that everything was good.
13 After that all happened, there was night time and there was morning time. That was day number 3.
Day number 4
14 Then God said, “I want some lights in the sky. I want the lights to split up the day time from the night time. They will show the time. They will show the season, and the time of the year, and the time of day. 15 I will put these lights in the sky to shine on the earth.” So God did that. 16 He made 2 big lights. He made one light brighter than the other light. That bright light shines in the day time. We call it the sun. The other light shines in the night time. We call it the moon. And God made the stars too.
17 God put all those lights in the sky to shine on the earth. 18 One light shines during the day, and another light shines at night. Those lights split the day time from the night time. God looked at those lights, and he saw that everything was good.
19 After that all happened, there was night time and there was morning time. That was day number 4.
Day number 5
20 Then God said, “I want the water to be full of fish and all sorts of living things. And I want birds that fly around in the sky, above the earth.” 21 So God made all the different sorts of things that live and move in the sea. He made the great big sea animals and a lot of other things that live in the sea. And God made all the different sorts of birds too. God looked at all those things, and he saw that everything was good.
22 God was good to them, and he said to them, “All of you living things will have lots of young ones, so that the sea will be full of fish, and lots of birds will fly around everywhere.”
23 After that all happened, there was night time and there was morning time. That was day number 5.
Day number 6
24 Then God said, “I want the land to be full of all different sorts of animals. I want animals that are wild, and animals that are not wild. I want lizards, and insects, and other things that crawl around on the ground.” And God made it happen just like that. 25 God made all the different sorts of animals, the animals that are wild and the animals that are not wild. And he made all the different sorts of lizards, and insects, and other things that crawl around on the ground. God looked at all those things, and he saw that everything was good.
26 Then God said, “We are going to make people. They will be like us. They will be boss over the fish and everything that lives in the sea, and they will be boss over the birds that fly in the sky, and they will be boss over all the animals that are on the land, the animals that are wild, and the animals that are not wild, and all the lizards, and insects, and other things that crawl around on the ground. People will be boss over all of them.”*1 Corinthians 11:7
27 So God made people to be like himself. He made them man and woman.*Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6
28 God was good to them, and he said to them, “You will have lots of kids, and the earth will be full of people. You people will be boss over all the earth. You will be boss over the fish in the sea, and you will be boss over the birds in the sky, and you will be boss over all the animals that live on the land.”*Genesis 5:1-2
29 Then God said to them, “Look, I made lots of food plants for you. I made plants that have seeds in them, and trees with fruit on them too. You can eat the seeds from those plants and the fruit from those trees. That bush tucker will be your food. 30 And I made green plants too, for all the animals of the earth to eat, and for all the birds of the sky to eat, and for all the lizards, and insects, and other things that crawl around on the ground to eat too. Everything that breathes air can eat those green plants.”
31 God looked at everything he made, and he saw that all of it was very good.
After that all happened, there was night time and there was morning time. That was day number 6.

- Genesis
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*1:3 2 Corinthians 4:6

*1:6 2 Peter 3:5

*1:26 1 Corinthians 11:7

*1:27 Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6

*1:28 Genesis 5:1-2

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