Commentary:

Genesis may well be the most important book in the Bible. It is foundational to all matters discussed in the remainder of the Bible. In Genesis we learn about God, creation, science, man's purpose, marriage, family, Satan's plan, the original sin and why we need a Savior.

From Ken Ham, The Lie:

Biblical Creation is based on the Genesis account from the Word of God (the Bible) of the One who is a witness of past events. Pg.53

The Biblical creationist view consists of a threefold view of history.: a perfect creation, corrupted by sin, to be restored by Jesus Christ. Pg.53

This account is divided into seven periods, what we call the seven C’s:

1. Creation: in six days God created the heavens, the earth and all that is in them from nothing. When God completed his work, He called it “very good.” There was no death. People and animals were all vegetarian. Pg.53
2. Corruption: However, we no longer live in a world that God originally created. Because Adam and Eve placed human opinion above God’s Word (as we continue to do), struggle and death entered the world, and God cursed creation. Paul describes this in Romans 8:22, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Pg.54
3. Catastrophe: After mankind’s sin and rebellion, the earth became so filled with violence and corruption that God destroyed that world with a global flood and gave it a fresh start with Noah, his family and the animals on the ark. Pg.55
4. Confusion: Man disobeyed God’s command to spread out over the earth. Instead, people worked together to build a tower to the heavens. As a result God confused their languages so that groups began speaking in different languages, which resulted in the diverse cultures and nations that we have today. Pg.55
5. Christ and Cross: The earth once again became filled violence, corruption and death because of human’s sin. God had a plan to save man from sin and its outcome of eternal separation from God. God’s son stepped into human history to become Jesus Christ, the God-man. Fully God, fully human. Christ came to heal and restore, by his death and resurrection He conquered death. Pg.56
6. Consummation: As surely as God created the world, and judged the world with the flood, our unGodly world will be destroyed by fire (2 Peter 3:10). All will have eternal life. For those who trust in Jesus Christ they will dwell in the new heaven and new earth. For those that reject Jesus they will suffer a second death, eternal separation from God (Rev. 20:14). Pg.56

From J. Vernon McGee:

The name Genesis is taken from the Septuagint. The Septuagint (LXX) is a Greek translation made of the Old Testament in Alexandria at the order of Ptolemy Philadelphus about 285-247 B.C. Josephus tells us that this translation was made by 72 priests (hence its name) in 72 days. Six priests were from each of the 12 tribes. Christ and Paul quoted from this translation of the Old Testament. It is older than any of the Hebrew texts extant today.

Genesis is the book of beginnings and the families — the beginning of creation, man, woman, sabbath, marriage, family, work, sin, murder, sacrifice, races, languages, culture, civilization, and redemption.

Genesis means “origin,” “source,” “birth.” The meaning closest to that of the original is “birth.” It is derived from the Greek verb gennao, which means “to beget” or “give birth to.” Genesis is the book of beginnings and sources, but more particularly it is the book of births — this is often overlooked. It is the book of generations. According to this understanding of Genesis, it falls into two natural divisions:

1. Genesis 2:4 — The Book of the Birth of Heaven and the Earth (from Septuagint)
2. Genesis 5:1 — The Book of the Birth of Men

Simply stated, the Book of Genesis is the record of the “family tree” of the Jews. It is the genealogy of heaven, earth, and man. Even the new birth is suggested in Genesis 3:15, where is the first mention of a Redeemer.

From Mathew Henry:

We have before us that part of the Old Testament which we call the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses. We have before us the first and longest of those five books, which we call Genesis, written, some think, when Moses was in Midian, for the instruction and comfort of his suffering brethren in Egypt: I rather think he wrote it in the wilderness, after he had been in the mount with God, where, probably, he received full and particular instructions for the writing of it.

Genesis is a name borrowed from the Greek. It signifies the original, or generation: fitly is this book so called, for it is a history of originals--the creation of the world, the entrance of sin and death into it, the invention of arts, the rise of nations, and especially the planting of the church, and the state of it in its early days. It is also a history of generations--the generations of Adam, Noah, Abraham, not endless, but useful genealogies.