Five MORE books on Genesis I could not do without . . .

My post immediately below on "Five books on Genesis I could not do without" has caused me to reflect further on other Genesis volumes that I have found particularly insightful or helpful. As I have glanced at my bookshelves since making that post, I have been plagued by a guilty conscience. "Is ____ really that much more valuable to me than ____?" Perhaps I should rename the original post "Five books on Genesis I ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT, CERTAINLY could not do without"? (but I fear that would only introduce greater guilt!) So, perhaps in a sympathetic vein, I submit to you another list of five books on Genesis--some of them perhaps little known--that I could not do without . . .


1. Michael James Williams, Deception in Genesis: An Investigation into the Morality of a Unique Biblical Phenomenon. Studies in Biblical Literature 32; New York: Peter Lang, 2001.

Williams' volume is perhaps not that well-known, but given that it deals explicitly (one of only a handfull of titles I can think of off the top of my head) with deception in Genesis, I have found it to be a worthy dialogue partner. Williams offers a catalog of deceptions in Genesis (a list to which I would add several other episodes), and traces out the way in which they were interpreted in later Jewish tradition. Ancient Near Eastern and folklore parallels round out the volume. As a conclusion, Williams avers that deceptions in Genesis are positively evaluated when they succeed in restoring shalom and are negatively evaluated when they disrupt shalom. While I ultimately disagree with Williams on many matters--for instance, I would argue that the narratives often provide either no evaluation (i.e., Jacob's fleeing from Laban in Gen 31 or his promise in 33:17-18 to join Esau in Seir, only to instead go to Sukkot) or an ambiguous/mixed evaluation (i.e., compare Gen 27; 29:26; 48:13-20)--his careful analysis of specific texts of deception, their history of interpretation, as well as their aNE precurors makes his volume a seminal one for any study of biblical deception.

2. Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books, 1981.

I am unquestionably indebted to Alter not merely for his methodological programme put forward in this classic volume, but also for the many illustrations from the Jacob cycle he employs. Alter has, in my mind, wholly revolutionzed the study of the Hebrew Bible, and while this work comes some six years after Fokkelman's Narrative Art in Genesis (see post below), Alter has arguably set the agenda for subsequent literary readings of biblical texts (I would venture Alter to me a much 'tamer' version of Fokkelman). He has successfully demonstrated the highly literary quality of the Hebrew narratives--his work on Hebrew poetry, I feel, is less adequate, although still insightful--and his views cogently wed modern literary understandings with a careful, close, and sympathetic reading of the biblical text.

3. Susan Niditch, A Prelude to Biblical Folklore: Underdogs and Tricksters. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Niditch's study interprets the biblical text--specifically the three wife-sister stories in Gen 12, 20, 26; Jacob and Joseph; and Esther--against the background of broad, cross-cultural sensibilities regarding the underdog and trickster. Viewing these narratives as a product of oral tradition, Niditch notes how they inform an Israelite worldview and identity. Seminal to her conception of the trickster is that this irascible figure serves the purpose of cementing group identity, which I take to be a helpful starting place for deciphering the function of these narratives within a postexilic (Persian) context. I further appreciate her work as a modern attempt to continue Gunkel's work with folklore, which sees many parallels with the texts of deception in Genesis. Niditch and I are also one of only a few who interpret the extortion of the firstborn scene (Gen 25:27-34) as an episode of deception.

4. Diana Lipton, Revisions of the Night: Politics and Promise in the Patriarchal Dreams of Genesis. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 288. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1999.
Lipton's volume is perhaps little known, which is unfortunate given that its content is replete with great insight and depth. She treats five dream texts in Genesis--Abimelech's dream (Gen 20); Jacob's Bethel dream (Gen 28); Jacob's dream about the spotted and speckled sheep (Gen 31); Laban's dream (Gen 31); and the covenant of the pieces (Gen 15)--in the attempt to demonstrate how these dreams seek to revise the reader's understanding of events. I have yet to finish the entire volume, but her analysis of Jacob's dream in 30:10-13 coheres very well with what I argue to be the relationship between the seemingly incompatible chapters 29 and 30 (see my forthcoming article in PRSt). Given also my view of these dream texts as ultimately 'theophanic' texts and thus of decisive importance for interpretation of the Jacob cycle as a whole--more particularly YHWH's role within the cycle--I am appreciative for Lipton's sustained treatment of these narratives in a single volume.

5. W. Lee Humphreys, The Character of God in the Book of Genesis: A Narrative Appraisal. Louisiville: Westminster John Knox, 2001.
I would contend that next to Brueggemann's commentary on Genesis in the Interpretation series (see below), very few books on Genesis focus on issues of theology or of the divine. Humphreys goes one step further, reading God as a literary character in the book of Genesis. The opening chapters offer a helpful orientation into matters of literary characterization, and Humphreys' ensuing, synchronic treatment of the Genesis text highlights God's characterization from two sources: the narrator's own statements about God and what other characters have to say about God. Against this backdrop, the diversity and ever-changing role(s) of God are discussed: designer, destroyer, patron, parent, etc. And, as has perhaps become the norm in all of these volumes discussed here, while I do not agree with Humphreys' characterization of God in relation to the texts of deception, his careful attention to the non-static roles God plays throughout the text make this work an important one with which all students of Genesis should be acquainted. I will be posting a more thorough review of Humphreys in the next few weeks.

A few other important works deserve mention here:

David M. Carr, Reading the Fractures of Genesis: Historical and Literary Approaches. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996.

Joel S. Kaminsky, Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election. Nashville: Abingdom Press, 2007.

Mignon R. Jacobs, Gender, Power, and Persuasion: The Genesis Narratives and Contemporary Portraits. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.

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I look forward to your comments!

All the best!

Five books on Genesis I could not do without . . .

Those who have read my profile are aware that my primary area of interest is the book of Genesis, more specifically, the texts of deception in the Jacob cycle. My first entry into this topic in any sustained way was a paper I wrote while getting my master's at Duke. I have since written a piece focusing on the Jacob/Laban narratives specifically that is being published in the Spring 2009 issue of Perspectives in Religious Studies (and which I will post here on the blog in the very, very near future), as well as a paper looking at the divine oracle in Gen 25:23 as it relates to and informs the deceptions in Gen 25:27-34 and 27:1-45 (see the abstract a few posts down; I will be presenting a version of this piece at SBL in New Orleans).

That said, I have done much reading on Genesis and Jacob, and I have found myself reflecting on the bibliography I have compiled, noting what works I have interacted with most or found to be exceptionally good and helpful dialogue partners (which of course does not necessitate agreement!). I here provide five books on Genesis I could not do without. I recognize this list is terribly, terribly exclusive--and to be sure there are many great and seminal volumes worth mentioning (for instance, Gunkel's classic commentary on Genesis from 1901, or Westermann's three-volume work in the 'Continental Commentary' series, or even Robert Alter's The Art of Biblical Narrative)--yet given my methodological leanings and the specific questions I am asking, these are the five books (in no particular order) on Genesis that I could not do without.

1. Walter Brueggemann, Genesis (Interpretation; Atlanta: John Knox, 1982).

In my view, anything by Brueggemann is going to be a worthy read. But all prejudices aside, this volume is by far one of the most honest assessments of the theological complexity within Genesis. Foundational for Brueggemann's treatment is that the Genesis narratives--the Jacob cycle included (contra Westermann)--are highly theological. In fact, one may say that for Brueggemann, Genesis says much more about God than it does about humanity. But what I am most appreciative for in this volume is the absolute candor of Brueggemann's understanding of God's character. For Brueggemann--and for myself--God is a "scandalous" challenge in the book of Genesis (and elsewhere in Scripture, I would venture). That the portrait of God is not 'white-washed' but rather allowed to stand in all its theological complexity makes this volume a wonderfully honest attempt to interpret the 'difficulties' of Genesis.

2. J.P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis: Specimens of Stylistic and Structural Analysis (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1991).

Fokkelman's volume is devoted entirely to the Jacob cycle save for one chapter on the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9). As the title suggests, Fokkelman emphasizes the artistic aspects of the Genesis text, focusing upon not only what the language communicates and means but how it communicates and means. I am grateful for his close, literary reading of the text, with an eye towards shifts in person, tense, as well as his intra-textual insights. As of yet, I have not come across a more satisfying, cogent articulation of the literary artistry of Genesis. Fokkelman, in my opinion, successfully demonstrates that literary form and meaning are indissoluably linked. To my eye, there is not another volume like this one.

3. Mark G. Brett, Genesis: Procreation and the Politics of Identity (Old Testament Readings; London: Routledge, 2000).

Brett successfully combines a literary reading of the biblical text with aspects of social theory in the attempt to demonstrate that the Genesis narratives covertly undermine Yehudian ethnocentrism. I am especially thankful for his treatment of Jacob in relationship to God (for instance, noting that Jacob is the only character to put specific demands on the deity [Gen 31]). I am also thankful for his situating of the final form of Genesis in a specific historical context, which allows for his literary interpretations to manifest themselves (albeit in a 'coded' way) in the social reality and experience of post-exilic Judah. While I ultimately think much more is going on in the Genesis narratives than a challenge to ethnocentrism, Brett's close reading of the text has been an invaluable tool in refining my own understandings and interpretations.

4. R. Christopher Heard, Dynamics of Diselection: Ambiguity in Genesis 12-36 and Ethnic Boundaries in Post-Exilic Judah (SBL Semeia Studies 39; Atlanta: SBL, 2001).

I first read Heard's book 4-5 years ago for a class at Duke, interestingly alongside Brett (above). It is fascinating to me that they both interpret by and large the same evidence in the same historical context (Persian era Yehud) and arrive at polar opposite conclusions. As I mention above, Brett sees the Genesis narratives as challenging Yehudian ethnocentrism whereas Heard sees the text (Gen 12-36 specifically) as affirming ethnocentrism "because [YHWH] said so." Heard's literary analyses of the ambiguous characterizations of Lot, Ishmael, and--most relevant for my interests, Esau--challenge any 'easy' or simplistic conception of any of these biblical figures. His insights have surely pressed me to articulate my sense of Esau's character (and I still see him as intentionally portrayed as a bumbling, ignorant, over-dramatic buffoon who is ever-prone to being tricked . . . even in the reconcilation scene in Gen 33) with a greater level of specificity and recognition of the alternatives. Heard's volume is one of the first I go to when I plan to write on Jacob or the ancestral narratives.

5. Laurence A. Turner, Announcements of Plot in Genesis (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2008) [original publication by Sheffield Academic, 1990].

When I first read Turner I was upset I had not come up with the argument myself! Put most simply, Turner avers that the 'announcements' in Genesis--for instance, 12:1-3 for Abraham, 25:23; 27:27-29, 39-40 for Jacob, and 37:5-11 for Joseph--are not reliable indicators for how the plot will ultimately unfold. Only one announcement, Joseph's initial dream, seems to be the object of perfect fulfillment. Other announcements are either partially fulfilled . . . or not fulfilled at all. I have found Turner to be a strong dialogue partner; of the five books listed here, he is the one I find myself struggling with the most. His reading of the overarching plot of the Jacob cycle is compelling for a number of reasons--but I have also come to believe it is wrong for a number of reasons (some of which I detail in my SBL paper). Yet, I must confess, Turner's careful reading of the entirety of the Jacob cycle has pressed me perhaps more than any other to hone and articulate in a careful and cogent manner my own interpretation of the whole of the Jacob cycle.

I look forward to reading your comments, thoughts, and/or questions on these volumes (or on others not listed here). It was difficult to narrow down to these five . . . but having written this post, I now stand more convinced than ever-----these are the five books on Genesis I could not do without.