Genesis means origin or beginning, and this, the first book of the Bible, explains how things and conditions come into existence. The creative power of the universe is thought. Anything that exists must first be thought of by someone before it can exist, and so all creation is but the concrete expression of thought.

Genesis deals with this creative power of thought. The first section, consisting of Chapter 1 and three verses of Chapter 2, deals with generic thought. The second chapter with which we are primarily concerned in this essay gives the story of Adam and Eve and deals with specific thought, or how a given person (you, the reader, for instance) builds every condition that exists in his life.

The following sections, concerning Cain and Abel, the tower of Babel, the flood, the story of Abraham and his family, the story of Joseph and his brethren, all deal in different ways with the creative power of thought, showing how it is the genesis of all things that exist. The Book of Genesis is partly allegorical and partly historical, but, as is always the case in the Bible, the historical portions are allegories too.

The object of the Bible is to teach psychology and metaphysics, or Spiritual Truth, so that we may know how to live aright. For this purpose allegories and parables are used that everyone may receive the teaching at the point of development where he is; and if the Bible is to be of any use, these parables must be interpreted spiritually.

Unless you have the spiritual meaning behind the story, you do not possess the Bible at all, you have only the “letter which killeth” and you lack “the spirit which giveth life.” Paul, in the citation quoted above, compares one who has the letter only to the bondwoman, and the one who has the spiritual interpretation to the freewoman.

The spiritual interpretation of the Bible sets us free by teaching us how to bring health and harmony into our lives by an increased understanding of God. The covenant of Sinai, necessary and good in its place, signifies the attempt to order things from the outside and is, of course, much better than anarchy; but he who is on the spiritual path must pass beyond this to the spiritual Jerusalem which is the ordering of things from the inside by the Practice of the Presence of God. This is the new Jerusalem that cometh straight down from God out of heaven. 1

The study of the spiritual key to the Bible changes our consciousness for the better, and it is this raising of the consciousness that makes the higher revelation possible to us.

The Book of Genesis having explained the creative power of thought, the other books of the Bible then roceed to illustrate the way in which the laws of thought work in different circumstances, but Genesis is the foundation of it all.

1. Revelation 3:12; 21:2; 21:10.

EMMET FOX