''Genesis A'' (or ''Elder Genesis'') is an

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

poetic adaptation of the first half or so of the biblical

book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...

. The poem is fused with a passage known today as '' Genesis B'', translated and interpolated from the

Old Saxon Genesis ''Genesis'' is an Old Saxon Biblical poem recounting the story of the Book of Genesis, dating to the first half of the 9th century, three fragments of which are preserved in a manuscript in the Vatican Library, ''Palatinus Latinus'' 1447. It and t ...

. ''Genesis A'' (and ''B'') survive in the

Junius Manuscript The Junius manuscript is one of the four major codices of Old English literature. Written in the 10th century, it contains poetry dealing with Biblical subjects in Old English, the vernacular language of Anglo-Saxon England. Modern editors have ...

, which has been held in the Bodleian Library at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

since 1677.

Lacunae

The sole manuscript containing ''Genesis A'' is incomplete, with a number of leaves missing. This means that, as we have it today, there are gaps ( lacunae) in the poem. Paul G. Remley has estimated the number of missing lines thus: The total length of the combined ''Genesis A'' and ''B'' poems when the junius Manuscript was complete was therefore around 3339 lines.

Summary

''Genesis A'' begins before Biblical Genesis—not with the creation of the world but with the creation of Heaven and the angels and with Satan's war on Heaven. Then the poet describes the days of creation, culminating with the creation of Adam and a description of the Garden of Eden. After this, the poem scholars call '' Genesis B'' resumes the story of Adam in the Garden, while also going back to the war on Heaven ''Genesis A'' already discussed. Following the material from ''Genesis B'', the poem is a fairly close translation of the Biblical book of Genesis up to and including the

sacrifice of Isaac The Binding of Isaac ( he, , ), or simply "The Binding" (, ), is a story from Genesis 22 of the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Moriah. As Abraham begins to comply, having bound Is ...

(Genesis 22.13).

Textual background

Scholars consider the poem in the Junius manuscript of separate authorship than Genesis B, though both are presented concurrently in the

Charles Leslie Wrenn Charles Leslie Wrenn (1895–1969) was an English scholar. After taking an MA at the University of Oxford, he worked for a year as a lecturer in the department of English Language and Literature at the University of Leeds in 1928–29. Following hi ...

even considers ''Genesis A'' to be a composite work. Scholars such as Wrenn once considered the work to be partially written by

Cædmon Cædmon (; ''fl. c.'' 657 – 684) is the earliest English poet whose name is known. A Northumbrian cowherd who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (now known as Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy of St. Hilda, he wa ...

, though as far back as Laurence Michel in 1947 there were critics: he calls the attribution based on "circumstantial evidence" and that any connection "may be laid to the prevalence of well-known pious introductory formulas".

Editions and translations

The editions and translations of ''Genesis A'' include: * . https://web.archive.org/web/20181206091232/http://ota.ox.ac.uk/desc/3009 * Doane, A. N. (ed.), ''Genesis A: A New Edition'' (Madison, Wisconsin, 1978)
Aaron K. Hostetter's translation

References

{{Authority control Book of Genesis Cultural depictions of Adam and Eve Fiction about the Devil Apocrypha Old English poetry

Lacunae

Summary

Textual background

Editions and translations

See also

References