Last week I mentioned that the first readings at the weekday Mass in the coming week are taken from Genesis. Genesis is the first book of the Bible and contains 50 chapters the first chapter being an account of the Creation and the last chapter an account of Jacob’s funeral up to the death of his son Joseph. It is often seen as divided into two major sections — the first from chapter 1 to chapter 11 and then from chapter 12 to 50. The first section is further divided into two parts – the first part deals with the Creation, through Adam and Eve down to Noah and the birth of his sons (chapters 1 to 5) and the second part from chapter 6 to chapter 11 deals with Noah, the flood, the aftermath of the flood and finishes at chapter 11 which is made up of the story of the Tower of Babel and the list of the descendants of Noah through Shem, his third son, to Terah, the father of Abram. The second section, Chapter 12 to 50 covers the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the great patriarchs of the Jewish tradition. The readings from Genesis up to 1st July speak about Abraham.