Creation, Un-creation, Re-creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1-11

by Joseph Blenkinsopp

Publisher:

T&T Clark

, 2011

Overview

Joseph Blenkinsopp provides a new commentary on Genesis 1–11, the so-called “primeval history” in which the account of creation is given. Blenkinsopp argues that, from a biblical point of view, creation cannot be restricted to a single event, nor to two versions of an event, as depicted in Genesis 1–3. Rather, it must take in the whole period of creation arranged in the sequence of creation, uncreation, and recreation as see in Genesis 1–11.

Through the course of the commentary, presented in continuous discussion rather than in a rigid verse-by-verse form, Blenkinsopp takes into account premodern interpretations of the texts, especially in the Jewish interpretative tradition, as well as modern, historical-critical interpretations. While Blenkinsopp takes into account reconstructions of the text’s sources, he analyzes its canonical form, enabling him to focus upon the literary structure and theological message of this section of Scripture as a whole.

Contents

Top Highlights

“It is important to note that what is common to all these myths of origins is the belief that humanity appears on the scene as an episode in a narrative already in progress, one which they do not own, which they do not control and in which they are involuntarily involved.” (Page 15)

“The steep decline in longevity as we move from the archaic to the ‘historical’ period is also one of several indications that Genesis 1–11 was conceived as a distinct composition with its own structural and thematic integrity.” (Page 2)

“In short, it should be obvious by now that questions about cosmology, palaeo-anthropology and related matters belong not to the Bible but to the relevant sciences.” (Page 11)

“Read and interpreted together, Genesis 1:1–2:4 and Isaiah 40–48 provide the essential core of a biblical theology of creation.” (Page 24)

“Only when all this is in place does God create humanity, male and female, and the means to sustain them. The author wishes to exhibit in this way the possibility of order by sanctifying human existence along the temporal axis (the liturgical calendar) which is inseparable from the spatial axis (the cosmos as temple), as time is inseparable from physical extension. On this view, human beings are created and sustained for the worship of God, and the world is created as a cosmic temple in which that worship takes place, a theme for which parallels can be found in Mesopotamian myth.” (Page 21)

Product Details

• Title: Creation, Un-Creation, Re-Creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1–11
• Author: Joseph Blenkinsopp
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Print Publication Date: 2011
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 232
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. O.T. Genesis 1-11 › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Creation
• ISBNs: 9780567591012, 9780567372871, 0567591018, 0567372871
• Resource ID: LLS:CREATION
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:30:34Z

About Joseph Blenkinsopp

Joseph Blenkinsopp is John A. O’Brien Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He is also the author of Opening the Sealed Book: Interpretations of the Book of Isaiah in Late Antiquity, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching Ezekiel, and Treasures Old and New: Essays in the Theology of the Pentateuch.