Word Wednesdays: A Book for All Generations

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God (Genesis 5:1)

For the ‘Word Wednesdays’ posts, I decided to do a word study on ‘book’ in both the Old and New Testaments in the hopes of discovering God’s view on books. After all, I am The Literary Mama! I’ll focus on one scripture a week. This exploration will take at least a year but all good things come with time.

The Hebrew word for ‘book’ is ‘cepher’ and it means “book” or “tablet”. This word represents something one writes upon.  The first biblical occurrence of the word ‘book’ occurs in Genesis 5:1. Its use in Genesis this passage means something that has been written upon or a written record.

Genesis is a written record of the generations of Adam (the Hebrew definition of ‘Adam’ is “man”, “mankind” or “people”).  Since Genesis is the first of 66 books in the Bible then, by extension, the entire biblical account is a written record of the generations of mankind.

By reading the Bible, we read about us, the highs and the lows, the beautiful and the ugly. All books contain some type of record. The Bible is our record. If you’ve read my posts on journaling (click the drop down box on the right to see all posts labeled ‘journaling’), you know keeping a journal is a way to write our own books. These can be books on thankfulness (Gratitude Journal), books on your children or motherhood,  even books on eating (Food Journal)! One individual act of journaling can change a person. One individual act of reading the Bible can change generations.

How?

Since the Bible records ‘us’, reading (and re-reading) the Bible points us to who we really are. With this knowledge, there’s no telling what can happen to a person, to a family, to a generation. It can radically change one’s approach to living.

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God (Genesis 5:1)

P.S. Next week I’ll write about the next occurrence of ‘book’ in Scripture: Exodus 17:14 If you’d like to read it in preparation for next week, go ahead! Get that cepher in you J