Genesis: Jesus Christ the Word was God in the Beginning
After spending countless hours studying the book of Genesis with the help of multiple study Bibles and various resources, I have been blessed to see numerous connections between Jesus Christ and the first book of the Bible. Everything shows that we have received the full revelation of faith through Jesus Christ so that we may be blessed with a clear view of the entire story of salvation. It is through this long and deep story of salvation that God calls each and every one of us to Him, and all of this started “in the beginning” (Genesis 1:1).
Creation
Throughout Genesis 1, we read that God created everything out of nothing. In the act of creation, God speaks and then creation unfolds. What does God speak? God speaks words, and more importantly, God speaks the Word. That is because, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was in the beginning with God;all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:1-3).
We can also understand God’s speaking creation into existence as a presentation of the Trinity because the word used for “Spirit” also can translate to “wind” or “breath.”1 So, when God spoke the Word, God used His breath, which is the Spirit. God the Father through the breath of the Holy Spirit, spoke the Word to create the universe.
Moving forward through Creation, when God created man, God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). The keywords here are God said, let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness. This shows that God is a communion of Persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. With this, there are a few objections to address.
One may object and argue that the Jewish people were actually polytheists. This is quickly shown as false because God is referred to with singular pronouns, not plural. Whereas throughout the Bible, polytheist deities spoke of together are referred to with pronouns describing plurality, a group of gods. If the Hebrews worshipped multiple gods, their language would reflect this, instead their language is clearly monotheistic.
The next argument is the “royal we.” In older eras of royalty, that kings and queens historically referred to themselves with the “royal we” as “we” rather than “I”. The issue with this objection is that the Hebrew language does not offer a “royal we” instead only offering “we” for a group to refer to themselves in the plural.
A third objection is that God was speaking with the angels to utilize “we”. The issue with this is, God created man in His image and likeness, not the image and likeness of the angels. As shown in verse 27, we are made in the image of God, not God and the angels.
A fourth objection is that the Christians modified the translation to reflect the communion of Persons within the Holy Trinity, however Jewish translations use the same language in this verse as the Christian translations.
So, this leaves us with the conclusion that the inspired authors used language from the Holy Spirit that, unbeknownst to them, expressed the communion of Persons within the Holy Trinity, that is, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, something that was not understood until we received the Full Revelation of Faith through Our Lord Jesus Christ.
More references to the Trinity
We also see this language in Genesis 3:22 after the Fall when God said “Behold, the man has become like one of us” and again in Genesis 11:7 with the Tower of Babel when God said, “Come let us go down…” This shows a deliberate writing of the Holy Spirit through the inspired authors of the Scriptures of the monotheistic religion of Judaism. Utilizing “us” and “we” this many times is no mere mistake, because God was speaking through the inspired authors to express His Trinitarian nature.
Noah’s Ark
After the great flood of Noah’s Ark, God establishes a covenant with Noah and all of creation. This is a covenant with the new creation born after the flood. This comes to fruition with the baptismal waters which bring about a new creation. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor 5:17). The new creation are those who enter into the life of Christ through the baptismal waters to be born anew (John 3:3). The Great Flood and Noah’s ark a type to the life of Christ because creation was born anew just as we are born anew through the baptismal waters.
Hagar sees God
In Genesis 16 we read that the “angel of the Lord” found Hagar by a spring in the wilderness and spoke to her. Who is this angel of the Lord? There are various beliefs. We are accustomed to hearing the word “angel” and picturing a beautiful human with great white feathery wings, however that is not always the case. The word “angel” means “messenger”, so we can understand this was a messenger of the Lord. We can work to identify this messenger by reading more on the interaction.
The angel of the Lord says “I will so greatly multiply your descendants” (Genesis 16:10). This angel, this messenger, spoke in the first person stating that he will do something of his own volition. It is often believed that this angel is not a created angel because created beings cannot act in such a way as to multiply human’s descendants by their own angelic will. Angels in particular often refer to God doing something not they themselves, such as in Luke 1:35 when Angel Gabriel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” which shows the angel is describing what God will do rather than the angel saying he will cause something himself.
Because of this, many people believe this messenger is actually Jesus Christ pre-incarnate. A created angel cannot act in this manner, but the Son of God would most definitely make a statement of what He will do for someone. We can see that Hagar understood this to be God incarnate because she said “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?” (Genesis 16:13). She recognized upon seeing Him that this angel, this messenger, was God Himself, Jesus Christ.
Abraham greets God
In Genesis 18 we see yet another prefiguration of the Trinity. We read ‘The Lord appeared to Abraham…in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing nearby He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant” … so they said, “Do as you have said.”’ (Genesis 18:1-3,6).
We can see the prefiguration of the Trinity because Abraham saw three men but acknowledged them as One Lord. The three men also spoke in unison as though they were One. This is not inherently the Trinity Himself because we see later in Genesis 18 and 19 that two of the men are angels, but this shows Abraham is familiar with the Trinity because he saw his Lord with two other men and recognized the three men as one, just like the Trinity is Three Persons and One God. Abraham knew about the Trinity and the writing in Genesis 18 shows this.
Jesus at Sodom and Gomorrah
During Genesis 19 when Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, we read “Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven” (Genesis 19:24). There are two references to the Person of the Lord. One Lord rained down fire and brimstone which came from a second Lord out of heaven. It is important to remember that in this verse, word the LORD, which is in all caps, is a substitute for the name of God, Yahweh. LORD was substituted for God’s name because the Hebrews have a tradition, maintained through today, where they do not write God’s name, instead substituting with other Hebrew words that translate to LORD.
So, this reads that God rained down fire and brimstone from God out of heaven, as though there are two Gods, but the reference to each person is with the same name, because the Father and the Son are equal and one.2 This is a belief that was held by multiple Church Fathers such as Athanasius, Basil, Ambrose, and Hilary.
The Sacrifice of Isaac
During the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22, we do not see Christ preincarnate in person, but we do see startling parallels that are too close to be a coincidence. Isaac was the son of his father Abraham and carried wood up the mountain. Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Father and He also carried wood up a mountain in the same mountain range as Isaac. Isaac allowed himself to be bound by Abraham, shown by the fact that Abraham was old in age and could easily be overpowered by his son, just as Jesus Christ, God incarnate, allowed Himself to be crucified despite being able to overpower the executioners by means of His Divinity. After God revealed that Isaac was to be spared, Abraham saw a ram caught by the horns on its head in a thicket, a thorn bush, and offered the ram as sacrifice in place of Isaac, and Jesus Christ had a crown of thorns on his own head, and was offered as the one and eternal sacrifice in our place for all of our sins.
Jacob wrestles with Christ
In Genesis 32, we read that Jacob wrestled all night with a mysterious man. At the end of it, we read that Jacob said “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved” (Gen 32:30). The identity of this man is debated with some believing this to be an “angel of the Lord” and others believing this to be Jesus Christ preincarnate. The fact that Jacob says he has seen God face to face is an indication this just may be Christ preincarnate. Jacob’s words also harken back to Hagar when she spoke similarly saying, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?” (Genesis 16:13).
The opinion that this is Christ preincarnate is also shared by Church Fathers such as Saint Augustine who said, “no doubt the Almighty Son of God appeared both to patriarchs and prophets in the semblance of flesh; for instance, when he engaged in a struggle, and entered a conversation (with Jacob).”3 This opinion was also shared by Church Fathers Athanasius and Hilary because “He who has seen [the Son] has seen the Father” (John 14:9) and would understand they have seen God because they saw the Son.4
Joseph of Old precedes Christ in the New
There a number of typological references between the patriarch Joseph and Jesus Christ but the last one within Joseph’s story encompasses them all. The famine was severe throughout all the land surrounding Egypt, so much so that “all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain.” Everyone was starving for nourishment, just as we all are starving spiritually. Joseph was thrown into a pit, sold for twenty shekels of silver into slavery, punished for the lies of others, and then eventually removed from the imprisonment of the dungeon to be exalted as the lord of Egypt for all to come to him for grain. Jesus Christ was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, scourged and crucified for our sins despite Himself being innocent, buried in a tomb, and ultimately manifested Himself as Lord of all, and said that all must come to Him to receive the “Bread of Life” (John 6:35).
Joseph was unjustly punished for that which he did not do, just as Jesus Christ became man to take our sins on Himself to save us. Through Joseph, the people were saved from a great famine, a famine that could have wiped out all the people, especially the people of the Covenant. Jesus Christ saved all humanity from sin, and established the new and everlasting covenant with us all.
Prophecies of Old fulfilled in the New
One of the first prophecies about Christ is after the Fall when God tells the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15). This verse is referred to as the protoevangelium, otherwise known as the first Gospel (CCC 410-411). Who is this woman? At first glance it looks like this is about Eve. We understand that prophecies in Scripture often had a double meaning, one meaning pertinent to the times, another about the Messiah. The traditional interpretation before Christ was that this is about Cain and Abel, Eve’s sons in Chapter 4. However, if one considers the woman from Revelation 12, the woman the devil was pursuing, then we can see through the Full Revelation of Faith in Jesus Christ, that this is also about Mary. The traditional Jewish interpretation is this is a prophecy about Cain and Abel, but at the same time this is also about the Blessed Virgin Mary as the woman and Our Lord Jesus Christ as the seed, the one Who Satan was trying to devour in Revelation 12.
God tells Satan that he will bruise Jesus’ heel while Jesus bruises, or crushes, Satan’s head. This is referring to the Crucifixion. Satan will have done all he can against Jesus Christ, God made man, but that will amount to nothing more than bruising His heel, meanwhile Christ will crush Satan’s head by defeating death, the death brought into the world by sin.
Prophecies fulfilled by Jesus
There are also prophecies given to the Patriarchs that are fulfilled in Christ.
God told Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.” (Genesis 12:2-3)
Later on after Abraham and Lot separated, God told Abraham, “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted.” (Genesis 13:14-16).
These promises are very hyperbolic. The boundaries are not clearly defined, instead it as all the land Abraham saw, north, south, east, and west. However, we knew this was not literal because we can only see a limited distance, and thus not being literal, this was not a reference to the boundaries noted later on to Abraham for his descendants of the flesh. Instead, this is a reference to the entire world because these promises would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ as the faith is spread “northward and southward and eastward and westward” to Abraham’s descendants, descendants not of the flesh but of faith, a people so numerous, that “if one can count the dust of the earth” so too will they be counted.
These promises are repeated to Isaac “To you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfil the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves.” (Genesis 26:3-4).
Again we see the hyperbolic number of his descendants and a reference to all the nations of the earth blessing themselves through Isaac, because the covenant given to Isaac was fulfilled in part due to Isaac for maintaining his constancy in faith which upheld his end of the covenant.
Once more this is iterated to Jacob: “the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves” (Genesis 28:13-14).
The promises of all the families of the earth blessing themselves in the patriarchs are reiterated all throughout the Old Testament with countless other references, all of which can be summarized by Simeon who said that Jesus would be, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel.” (Luke 2:32).
The promises were not of the land outlined as the land reserved for the nation of Abraham’s descendants of the flesh as outlined in Genesis 15:18-21 and 17:8. Instead we can see that this nation of Israel, a nation with multitudes of people more numerous than the stars and the sands is not a nation in an earthly sense. Instead, this nation of Israel is “the Israel of God,” “a new creation” (Galatians 6:15-16). This new creation, this Israel of God, is filled with those who are descendants of Abraham’s faith5 who enter into the life of Christ through the baptismal waters to be born anew (John 3:3). “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor 5:17).
Conclusion
Jesus Christ was not fabricated by Christians by forcing the Scriptures to bend to the New Testament. The Old Testament holds the recorded history of the story of salvation which found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. There are numerous connections that I have presented, and this is not at all exhaustive. These connections are too tightly wound and not at all forced together.
The connections between Genesis and Jesus are too numerous and profound to be accidental, intentional, or coincidental. Many of these connections were unknown to the first Christians and have only been revealed through time as the Sacred Tradition of the Catholic Church builds upon that which we have learned for two millennium. The Scriptures have every odd against them and their reliability, however all of these numerous details are retained in spite of this. By studying the Scriptures of our Faith, we can truly see that the Old is fulfilled in the New and the New is found in the Old. The full revelation of Faith has been given to us through Jesus Christ so that we may understand the story of salvation. Christ is the King Who would crush the head of the serpent to save us all.
References
1 n.d. “weruah.” Bible Hub. Accessed January 13, 2026. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/veruach_7307.htm.
2 2008. The Orthodox Study Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.pg25
3 Books, TAN. 2025. Advent & Christmas with the Church Fathers. Gastonia, NC: TAN Books.
4 2008. The Orthodox Study Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.pg44
5 See Galatians 3:9
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