Genesis for the Modern Reader

"Genesis for the Modern Reader", by David Bruce Taylor, is an exposition of the whole text of Genesis aimed particularly at a non-specialist readership. The author detects throughout a combination of two authors, the Elohist and the Jahvist, the former being the earlier, the latter being responsible for the final shape of the book. He appears to have been a traveller who actually visited the many shrines whose origins he describes, and who seems to have gathered most of his own material in the course of those travels. It is suggested that such early narrative material need not, and probably should not, be treated as history. David Bruce Taylor has a thorough and detailed knowledge of the Bible in its entirety that enables him to quote extensively (and occasionally also from non-Biblical sources) to illustrate the meaning of all the various episodes. Where reference is made to other parts of the Bible, the passage in question is usually copied into the text rather than simply referred to. "Genesis for the Modern Reader" is intelligently, lucidly and attractively written. It will prove interesting not only to the generalist but also to undergraduates and anyone else who wants to know what the authors of Genesis really had in mind. Its scope is wide enough also to offer a useful introduction to biblical studies generally.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. The Beginning of Time 2. The Beginning of Culture 3. The Beginning of Intelligence 4. The Beginning of Competition 5. A kind of Genealogy 6. God's Patience in the Days of Noah 7. God's Patience Finally Gives out 8. God Recovers his Tranquillity 9. God's Threefold Covenant 10.Too Much to Drink and Too Many Children 11.God's Reprobation and Election 12.Abram's Wanderings - and the Jahvist's 13.Abram Surveys the Promised Land 14.Melchizedek, Priest of God Most High 15.God's First Covenant with Abram 16.The Son Born According to the Flesh 17.The Covenant of Circumcision 18.Promises of Birth and Death 19."Evidence of their Wickedness Still Remains" 20.Abraham Causes More Confusion 21.The Son of the Slave and of the Free Woman 22.The Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul? 23.The Cave of Machpelah in the Field of Ephron 24."The Thing Comes from the Lord; We Cannot Speak" 25.Abraham's Other Family 26.Tidying Up Isaac 27."...Every Brother is a Supplanter" 28.The House of God, the Gate of Heaven 29.Rachel and Leah 'Who Together Built up Israel' 30.Family Rows About Money 31.Jacob Does a Runner 32.The Past Catches Up 33.Burying the Hatchet 34.A Most Unfortunate Interlude 35.Concluding the Jacob Story 36."Away from the Fatness of the Earth" 37.The Spoilt Brat of the Family 38.A Rather Shocking Interlude 39.Joseph's Early Success - and Failure 40.The Ups and Downs of Royal Service 41.A Rapid Rise to Greatness 42.Corn in Egypt 43.Joseph has a Cunning Plan 44."God Has Found Out the Guilt of Your Servants" 45.Struck as if by a Thunderbolt 46.Jacob's Second and Last Pilgrimage 47.Providing for the Family 48.Incorporating Ephraim Manasseh 49.A Noble patriarch's Last Words 50.The End of the Matter: All Has Been Heard