The many contradictions (real or apparent) that appear in the book's pages, and the hints they offer about the book's authorship The reasons the Book of Genesis has not one but two creation stories, and the very different messages they contain His approach to the Book of Genesis is one you may never have experienced before-a detailed, line-by-line literary parsing that gently probes its language, exploring how and why its effects were achieved what its author-or authors-was saying and revealing, between those lines, more information than most of us have ever dreamed was there.Īs a noted scholar whose major interests include the literature of the Bible, the history of ancient Israel, the development of the Hebrew language, and the relationship between ancient Egypt and ancient Israel, Professor Rendsburg is an ideal choice for introducing what will be, for many, a new way of reading, as well as a wealth of fresh insights. And in the 24 lectures of The Book of Genesis he offers the tools needed to change our perceptions, showing us how we might read, hear, think about-and feel-its words as an ancient Hebrew would have, allowing us to gain a new appreciation of "one of the most remarkable literary compositions from the ancient world," as Professor Rendsburg says, the book with which both Jews and Christians alike begin their Bible. Rendsburg, who chairs the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University, thinks so.
Is it possible that the understanding of the Book of Genesis we've all grown up with isn't as complete as we'd like to believe? That its deceptively simple sentences and surface appearance hide from contemporary readers a purposeful and intricate structure designed to let its depth and detail and implication resonate with the readers and listeners of its own time? That we are overlooking, despite all of our modern sensibilities as readers, many of the astonishingly sophisticated literary devices and techniques used by the author-or, indeed, authors-of this beautiful work? After all, its language, despite its remarkable elegance, is simple. The Book of Genesis, regardless of our faith, is something with which almost all of us in the Western world are familiar-a foundational work of our culture we have read and, we believe, understood.
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