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Rethinking Genesis 1–11: Gateway to the Bible is unavailable, but you can change that!

Genesis 1-11 contains some of the best-known stories in the world. To modern Westerners they may look like no more than entertaining tales that children can enjoy, but modern adults cannot take seriously. However, when read in the context of the ancient Orient, Genesis 1-11 looks very different. It turns out to be a truly revolutionary document. In retelling the history of the ancient world, it...

our image.” By describing mankind as the “image of God,” the Creator is assigning a unique status to the human race: its many members are God’s representatives on earth, given the duty of managing the rest of creation for God. This is why they are instructed: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (1:28). Filling the earth and subduing it is not a license