HOW TO READ

GENESIS

TREMPER LONGMAN III

An imprint of InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

InterVarsity Press

P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426

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Paternoster Press

An imprint of Authentic Media

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World Wide Web: www.authenticmedia.co.uk/paternoster

©2005 by Tremper Longman III

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at <www.intervarsity.org>.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Design: Kathleen Lay Burrows

Images: Roberta Polfus

USA ISBN 978-0-87784-943-8

UK ISBN 978-1-84227-385-2

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Longman, Tremper.

How to read Genesis / Tremper Longman.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 0-87784-943-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Bible. O.T. Genesis—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.

BS1235.52.L67 2005

222’.1107—dc22

2005001666

Dedicated to ministers of the gospel.

In particular

Julian Alexander

Fran Park

Bruce Erickson

Jim Petty

David Clowney

Ron Jenkins

Neil Tolsma

Lawrence Eyres

Dick Gerber

Jack Miller

Ron Lutz

John Yenchko

Roy Clements

Harold Bussell

Meiji Working

Al Silvera

Tim Keller

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

PART I: READING GENESIS WITH A STRATEGY

1 Understanding the Book of “Beginnings”

PART II: READING GENESIS AS LITERATURE

2 Who Wrote Genesis?

3 The Shape of the Book of Genesis

PART III: READING GENESIS IN ITS OWN WORLD

4 Myth or History? Genesis and the Enuma Elish

5 Noah and Utnapishtim: Whose Flood Story Should We Trust?

6 Abraham and Nuzi: Patriarchal Customs in Their Cultural Context

PART IV: READING GENESIS AS GOD’S STORY

7 The Primeval History: Genesis 1–11

8 The Patriarchal Narratives: Genesis 12–36

9 The Joseph Story: Genesis 37–50

PART V: READING GENESIS AS CHRISTIANS

10 The Christological Difference

Appendix: Commentaries on the Book of Genesis

Names Index

Subject ...