Just a heads up on why we are skipping over to Job. While it isn't known when Job comes in chronologically, scholars have taken hints from the way that Job is living that he existed around the time of Abram. So for our purposes of being as chronological as possible while we read together, we will segue to Job and then back to Genesis afterward.

Helpful Hints & Tips

• Get a journal to take notes as you read so sharing will be easier.
• The Bible books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are attributed to Moses as their author. In Jewish tradition, Moses is one of the greatest prophets and the one who gave Israel their initial law. So, all 5 of the books attributed to him are under the section of books in the Bible library called "The Law" — in Hebrew, Torah.
• Most of the names in most English bible translations are not in their original spelling. Some are translated and transliterated and sometimes many times over. For instance, the english name John in Hebrew is actually Yochanan.

Bible Overview

• The bible is a library written by at least 35 different authors, split into 2 sections called testaments*.
  _{* Testament: a person's will, especially the part relating to personal property.}
  • Old Testament
    • before the birth of Christ
    • 39 books
    • spans about 2000 years (not including creation: Genesis 1-11 is prehistoric to that)
  • New Testament
    • after the birth of Christ
    • Spans about 100 years
• Chapters and verses were added into the scriptures for ease of use, but in some of the books, the breaking points in the chapters may not be seamless. Just something to keep in mind while reading.Dominican, Stephen Langton, thou he was not the first, created the chapter divisions in 1205, which are used today.
• If your translation has them, it may be more readable to follow section headings instead of chapters as breaking points.