Book Review: The Fall Reconsidered: A Literary Synthesis of the Primeval Sin Narratives against the Backdrop of the History of Exegesis

Abstract

The Fall Reconsidered: A Literary Synthesis of Primeval Sin Narratives against Backdrop of History of Exegesis. By Igal German. Eugene, Ore.: Pickwick Publications, 2016. xv + 135 pp. $36.00 (cloth); $21.00 (paper).The Christian theological tradition typically looks to Adam and Eve narrative for entrance of sin into story of scripture. This monograph, a revision of Igal German's doctoral dissertation, uncovers various exegetical currents in Jewish and Christian tradition that resist this theological tendency. Many ancient interpreters understood account of human failure before God introduced in Genesis 3 as extending to Cain and Abel narrative in Genesis 4. The connection between these two narratives is subject that The Fall Reconsidered explores.In this work, German seeks to demonstrate how Genesis 3 and 4 can be read as a unified family saga through a combination of literary analysis and recourse to history of interpretation. Three neatly organized chapters incorporate an introductory review of modem scholarship on Genesis (chapter 1), a survey of significant contributions from history of interpretation (chapter 2), and Germans own argument for literary cohesion of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel accounts (chapter 3).Chapter 1 presents complex character of modem scholarship on Genesis 3 and 4 from nineteenth century to present. Historicalcritical scholars, who are concerned with text's literary development and its historical background, tend to isolate accounts of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, whether assigning them to different literary sources (Christian Dillmann) or attributing their origins to different social situations, such as tribal conflict in case of Cain and Abel narrative (Hermann Gunkel).Although familiar with historical-critical approaches, German himself identifies with method of narrative criticism which looks to the world within text as primary hermeneutical locus of meaning (pp. 28, 32). Practitioners of this approach, such as Gordon Wenham and Michael Fishbane, attend closely to interweaving storyline that one encounters in present form of Genesis and underline textual markers of unity (p. 28) that connect narratives in Genesis 3 and 4.Grounding these textual markers of unity in Jewish and Christian tradition is concern of chapter 2, which incorporates texts from Second Temple Judaism, New Testament, and church fathers, in addition to a short section (four pages) on Martin Luther and John Calvin. …