How to Read the Bible

Genesis 1:27 uses the word ha-adam (0-1N). Generally this is a gender-neutral term, used to convey the meaning "humankind" as well as "a person" of either gender.

Thus Israel became a vassal state of…

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The first step for reading the beginning of Genesis is complete. We know that the story that begins in 1:1 ends at 2:4a. This is a significant step, since it allows us, encourages us, or perhaps even forces us to…

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Rather, all biblical texts changed during their transmission. They were updated, expanded, and made to fit their broader context.21

Jews, however, view the original covenant as still operative. For this reason, Jews have tended to reject the term "Old Testament." Many simply call this body of literature "the Bible."

It begins from a simple premise: originally, people were immortal. In fact, the huge life spans recorded in the early chapters of Genesis are part of an effort to make a bridge between that original immortality and "normal" life spans. As immortal beings, they were asexual;

We have no informants from ancient Israel, so we must use other, less reliable criteria to determine whether we are reading the ancient texts correctlys

For these reasons, several scholars understand the story as a separate novella-, 21 in any case, we may certainly speak of the Joseph story.

These observations have important implications for Genesis 1-3. They do not begin with a genre label "science," and there is no reason why we should presume that…

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