“Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5,” Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025)
Scripture Helps
Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5
Heavenly Father directed the Creation of the earth through Jesus Christ. God created man and woman in His image. He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He gave them dominion over the animals that had been created. God rested on the seventh day of Creation. God commanded Adam and Eve to have children and to be equal partners as husband and wife.
Resources
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Background and Context
What is the book of Genesis?
Genesis is the first of the five books of Moses in the Old Testament. The word genesis means “origin” or “birth.” Genesis is a book of beginnings. This book describes the Creation of the earth and all life thereon, the Fall of Adam and Eve, and the introduction of sin into the world. It also describes the origin of the house of Israel and the establishment of God’s covenants with His children.
The majority of Genesis focuses on the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s 12 sons. This emphasis serves to teach the children of Israel about the covenants the Lord made with their forefathers. Through this covenant, Israel would join Him in the work of blessing all the nations and families of the earth.
Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5
How can I approach my study of the Creation?
When studying the Creation, it is important to keep in mind that the scriptures do not provide details about how or when the earth was created. But they do testify of why the earth was created and who the Creator was. The Creation is an essential part of Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. Because of the Creation, we are able to come to the earth, receive a physical body, exercise our agency, and experience joy as we create eternal relationships.
The Creation, by Annie Henrie Nader
President Russell M. Nelson taught: “I testify that the earth and all life upon it are of divine origin. The Creation did not happen by chance. … It is God who made us and not we ourselves. We are His people! The Creation itself testifies of a Creator. We cannot disregard the divine in the Creation. Without our grateful awareness of God’s hand in the Creation, we would be just as oblivious to our provider as are goldfish swimming in a bowl.”
The Lord has promised that the day will come when the specific details concerning the Creation of this earth will be revealed.
Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5
How long did the Creation take?
Using our measurement of time, we do not know how long it took God to create the earth. President Russell M. Nelson explained: “The physical Creation itself was staged through ordered periods of time. In Genesis and Moses, those periods are called days. But in the book of Abraham, each period is referred to as a time. Whether termed a day, a time, or an age, each phase was a period between two identifiable events—a division of eternity.”
Genesis 1:1–2; Moses 2:1–2; Abraham 4:1–2
Did God create the earth out of nothing?
A belief of traditional Christianity is that God created all things ex nihilo, which means “out of nothing.” Speaking about the earth’s Creation, the Prophet Joseph Smith taught that to “create … does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize, the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship.”
Abraham’s Creation account teaches us that Jesus Christ organized the earth out of preexisting “materials.” Abraham’s account also uses the phrase “empty and desolate” to describe the earth in its earliest stages, rather than “without form, and void.”
Genesis 1:26; Moses 2:26; Abraham 4:1–31
Who was involved in the Creation?
The phrase “Let us make man in our image” suggests that God did not work alone in the Creation process. The book of Moses clarifies that Heavenly Father was speaking to Jesus Christ in this verse. From Abraham’s account and other prophetic sources, we have reason to believe that others may have assisted Jesus Christ with the Creation.
Genesis 1:26–27; Moses 2:26–27; Abraham 4:26–27
What does it mean to be created in the image of God?
President Thomas S. Monson taught: “God our Father has ears with which to hear our prayers. He has eyes with which to see our actions. He has a mouth with which to speak to us. He has a heart with which to feel compassion and love. He is real. He is living. We are his children, made in his image. We look like him, and he looks like us.”
As children of God, we have the potential to become like Him. In “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” we read: “All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”
President Lorenzo Snow taught: “We were born in the image of God our Father; he begat us like unto himself. There is the nature of deity in the composition of our spiritual organization; in our spiritual birth our Father transmitted to us the capabilities, powers and faculties which he himself possessed, as much so as the child on its mother’s bosom possesses, although in an undeveloped state, the faculties, powers and susceptibilities of its parent.”
Genesis 1:28; Moses 2:28; Abraham 4:28
How does the Lord’s commandment to multiply and replenish the earth apply today?
In “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles wrote, “The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.”
Genesis 1:28–30; Moses 2:28–30; Abraham 4:28–30
What does it mean to have “dominion” over the things of the earth?
As children of God created in His image, men and women hold a unique position among God’s creations. To have dominion means to “rule over.” Part of our dominion over God’s creations involves being responsible for them as good stewards. Elder Marcus B. Nash taught, “Life on this earth is both a blessing and a responsibility. The Lord declares, ‘Behold, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance’ (Doctrine and Covenants 49:19). However, because the earth and all on it are the ‘workmanship of [His] hand’ (Doctrine and Covenants 29:25), it all belongs to Him. As temporary inhabitants of this earth, we are stewards—not owners. As such, we are accountable to God—the owner—for what we do with His creation.”
Genesis 2:1–3; Moses 3:1–3; Abraham 5:1–3
What is significant about God resting on the seventh day of Creation?
The Lord resting on the seventh day provides a pattern for us to follow. To Moses, He commanded, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, … For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
To rest on the Sabbath does not mean do nothing. In the Creation account, the Lord taught that He “sanctified” the seventh day. The Hebrew word translated “sanctified” means “made holy” or “consecrated” or “belong[ing] to God.” Elder David A. Bednar taught: “The Sabbath is God’s day, a sacred time set apart to remember and worship the Father in the name of His Son, to participate in priesthood ordinances, and to receive and renew sacred covenants. … On His holy day, our thoughts, actions, and demeanor are signs we give to God and an indicator of our love for Him.”
What is the Church’s position on evolution?
The scriptures teach that Adam was the first man. Some have wondered how to reconcile this truth with the theory of organic evolution. The Church has no official position on the theory of evolution.
“Though the details of what happened on earth before Adam and Eve, including how their bodies were created, have not been revealed, our teachings regarding man’s origin are clear and come from revelation.
“Before we were born on earth, we were spirit children of heavenly parents, with bodies in their image. God directed the creation of Adam and Eve and placed their spirits in their bodies. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve, our first parents, who were created in God’s image. There were no spirit children of Heavenly Father on the earth before Adam and Eve were created.”
President Jeffrey R. Holland taught, “I do not know the details of what happened on this planet before [the Fall of Adam and Eve], but I do know these two were created under the divine hand of God, that for a time they lived alone in a paradisiacal setting where there was neither human death nor future family, and that through a sequence of choices they transgressed a commandment of God which required that they leave their garden setting but which allowed them to have children before facing physical death.”
Genesis 2:16–17; Moses 3:16–17; Abraham 5:12–13
Why were Adam and Eve commanded not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
Genesis 2:18; Moses 3:18; Abraham 5:14
What is a “help meet”?
The words translated in the King James Version as “help meet” come from two Hebrew words that mean helper, ally, or rescuer in an equal relation or role. The term does not suggest that the helper is inferior, but rather that Adam and Eve could assist each other beyond their individual abilities. Elder Ulisses Soares taught that “in the Lord’s plan, a ‘help meet’ was a companion who would walk shoulder to shoulder with Adam in full partnership.”
As partners in marriage, Adam and Eve had the opportunity to experience the greatest satisfaction and joy that mortality can provide. Elder David A. Bednar described how the attributes of men and women enable them to help one another: “The unique combination of spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional capacities of both males and females were needed to implement the plan of happiness. Alone, neither the man nor the woman could fulfill the purposes of his or her creation.”
Genesis 2:21–22; Moses 3:21–22; Abraham 5:15–16
Was Eve really created from Adam’s rib?
President Spencer W. Kimball taught that Eve was not literally created from Adam’s rib. He said, “The story of the rib, of course, is figurative.”
President Russell M. Nelson described what we can learn from this symbolism: “The rib, coming as it does from the side, seems to denote partnership. The rib signifies neither dominion nor subservience, but a lateral relationship as partners, to work and to live, side by side.”
Genesis 2:23–24; Moses 3:23–24; Abraham 5:17–18
How did Adam and Eve become a married couple?
After Eve was created, God joined them together in marriage. President Spencer W. Kimball taught, “The Lord … [brought] together Adam and Eve, his first male and first female on this earth, and perform[ed] a holy marriage ceremony to make them husband and wife.”
Genesis 2:24; Moses 3:24; Abraham 5:18
What does it mean for husbands and wives to become “one flesh”?
President Jeffrey R. Holland taught, “From the Garden of Eden onward, marriage was intended to mean the complete merger of a man and a woman—their hearts, hopes, lives, love, family, future, everything. Adam said of Eve that she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, and that they were to be ‘one flesh’ in their life together. This is a union of such completeness that we use the word seal to convey its eternal promise. The Prophet Joseph Smith once said we perhaps could render such a sacred bond as being ‘welded’ [Doctrine and Covenants 128:18] one to another.”
Learn More
The Creation
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Russell M. Nelson, “The Creation,” Ensign, May 2000, 84–86
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“A Harmony of the Creation Accounts,” in The Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (2017), 82–92
Caring for the earth
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Gérald Caussé, “Our Earthly Stewardship,” Liahona, Nov. 2022, 57–59
Marriage and family
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D. Todd Christoffersen, “Why Marriage, Why Family,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2015, 50–53
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Ulisses Soares, “In Partnership with the Lord,” Liahona, Nov. 2022, 42–45
Media
Videos
“God’s Greatest Creation” (2:51)
“Our Home” (1:34)
“We Lived with God” (4:00)
Images
Christ and the Creation, by Robert T. Barrett