The Cambridge Companion to Genesis ed. by Bill T. Arnold

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Cambridge Companion to Genesis ed. by Bill T. Arnold Bradley C. Gregory bill t. arnold (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Genesis (Cambridge Companions to Religion; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022). Pp. xiii + 372. Paper $36.99. One of the challenges in assembling a "companion"-style volume is deciding whether the chapters should primarily aim for broad, even coverage of topics so that the volume represents a status quaestionis of current scholarship or whether chapters should primarily pursue narrower forays into current avenues of research. Bill Arnold's excellent volume on Genesis, which brings together an impressive group of scholars, represents a hybrid approach in which the earlier chapters incline toward the former and the later chapters incline toward the latter. The four parts of the volume essentially concern (1) the nature and formation of the text; (2) the world behind the text; (3) the world in the text; and (4) the world in front of the text. The volume begins with Bill T. Arnold's, "Introduction: Genesis and the status quaestionis" (pp. 1–8), which is mostly an overview of the chapters that follow. Next, part 1 deals with the "Composition and Structure of Genesis." In "Genesis in the History of Critical Scholarship" (pp. 11–52), Jean-Louis Ska gives an overview of how interpreters have made sense of Genesis. While the title might suggest beginning with figures like Baruch Spinoza and Richard Simon, Ska helpfully gives an overview of the interpretation of Genesis in antiquity and the Middle Ages in order to show how modern approaches to Genesis grew out of earlier hermeneutical currents. Importantly, giving an overview of the history of interpretation here allows the essays in part 4 to pursue more particular aspects of reception history. Jan Christian Gertz's chapter, "Genesis in Source and Redaction Criticism Today" (pp. 53–73), traces the developments of the documentary, supplementary, and fragmentary approaches to pentateuchal sources, especially as they are found in the Genesis narrative, in the wake of the collapse of the post-Wellhausenian consensus. In "Genesis in Form and Tradition Criticism Today" (pp. 74–98), Christoph Levin shows how determinative kingship ideology was for the formation of the traditions in Genesis. He also suggests that the best description of the genre of Genesis is "torah," that is, "normative religious writing," or a "Jewish national epic" (p. 91). Part 1 concludes with Michaela Bauks, "Rhetorical Features and Characteristics: The Literary Function of Genealogies, Itineraries, and Other Etiologies in the Book of Genesis" (pp. 99–118). [End Page 363] Part 2 ("Social World of Genesis") begins with Alice Mandell's chapter, "Genesis and Its Ancient Literary Analogues" (pp. 121–47), which gives an overview of the various methodologies and approaches in comparing Genesis to the literature and culture of other ancient Near Eastern societies. Because she provides an overview of the comparative method, her treatment is actually wider than the title might suggest. Next is John H. Walton's "Genesis and the Conceptual World of the Ancient Near East" (pp. 148–67). In setting Genesis in the context of ancient Near Eastern understandings of creation and humanity, views of the divine world, and stories about ancestors, Walton cautions that scholars should not overly emphasize either similarities or differences. In "Family, Clan, and Tribe in the Book of Genesis" (pp. 168–87), Naomi A. Steinberg applies kinship studies from the field of anthropology to understand the values and networks of family relationships that are pictured in Genesis, recognizing that these may represent ideals instead of actual practice. Complementing Steinberg's chapter is Sarah Shectman's essay, "Women's Status and Feminist Readings of Genesis" (pp. 188–208). Noting that women play a larger role in Genesis than in most other books of the Hebrew Bible, she surveys the critical role these figures play in the narrative, particularly in terms of relational power, as well as how this has been productive of feminist interpretations of many of the Genesis stories. Part 3 ("Themes and Literary Motifs of Genesis") opens with Brent A. Strawn's "From Imago to Imagines: The Image(s) of God in Genesis" (pp. 211–35). Strawn shows that "the image of God" is not a...