GENESIS 1–3, READ CLOSELY

In the beginning, God came to dwell with man.

The Bible's first pages, read the way the rest of the Bible reads them: the founding of a covenant world, told in the language of a temple.

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We affirm that God created the material universe. The question this site asks is different: what is Genesis 1–3 actually about?

ONE EDEN · ONE HEBREW DAY — EVENING, THEN MORNING

NIGHT SCENE 1 · GENESIS 1

In the beginning

A world framed, filled, and rested in — opened word by word, with light three days before any sun. The six days as the Bible's own table of contents.

✦ THIS SCENE'S SKY — THE HEAVENS · 15 FIGURES LIT

SUNRISE SCENE 2 · GENESIS 2

Eden, the sanctuary

A man formed of dust and brought in; a garden facing east, with a river running out and a priest's work in two verbs. Read it with Genesis and Exodus open, side by side.

✦ THIS SCENE'S SKY — THE RIVER OF EDEN

DUSK SCENE 3 · GENESIS 3

The breach

A question that bends a gift into a grievance; a guard standing by at the breach; and three mercies that walk out the east gate with the exiles.

✦ THIS SCENE'S SKY — THE SERPENT

DAWN — AND NO MORE NIGHT SCENE 4 · THE LAST ADAM

The garden at dawn

The gardener Mary mistook; the breath of John 20; the tree, the river, and gates that are never shut. Every thread, gathered.

✦ THIS SCENE'S SKY — THE TREE OF LIFE

New to reading pictures the Bible's way? On talking foxes — two minutes, and the door opens.