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The Vitality of Genesis
Genesis, because it is the
foundational text of the Scriptures which have been held
sacred by Christians and Jews, is a book we "always" seem to
have known. But this new English version with literary
commentary by Robert Alter makes it vividly clear that we
have not known Genesis sufficiently—in the subtlety of its
stylistic spectrum; the variety of its narrative modes; the
mimetic sharpness of its dialogues; and the complexity with
which it treats individual psychology, morality, and relations
with God.
Genesis is an essential book for believers and
non-believers alike because it is the most powerful early
attempt in the Western tradition to propose through narrative
a coherent explanation of the natural world and the human
role within it—the nature of culture, nation, family, and
history itself. These Hebrew tales, first given literary
formulation nearly a millennium before the Christian era
(perhaps two centuries before Homer), are not naive fables
but, as the attention to the details of the text in Robert
Alter's commentary suggests, subtly shaped narratives that
reflect a sophisticated effort to grapple with the abiding
root questions of human existence.
The book represents these urgent issues in two large panels,
fitted neatly together and full of interechoing details yet
distinct in style and perspective. First, the Primeval History
(Chapters 1 through 11) offers an account of the origins of
the world and of all living creatures, of Adam and Eve and
the first transgression, of the banishment from Eden, of the
evolution of culture with both its constructive and
destructive practices, and of the beginnings of linguistic and
ethnic division. Then, moving to a more familiar human scene,
the Patriarchal Tales (Chapter 12 to the end) provide an
unparalleled portrait of ancient domestic life in all the
abrasive energies of sibling rivalry, sexual jealousy, and
hunger for status, power, and wealth, under the sign of a
divine promise of national grandeur that seems continually in
doubt. In this more spacious section of the book, there is
room for pungent realism, irony, and satire as well as for
moments of mystery: the all-too-human imperfection, moral
floundering, and learning of the characters address the lives
of readers today as much as three thousand years ago. Taken
together, the two large units of Genesis, swinging from
creation to family and nation, make it one of those rare books
we simply cannot afford to stop reading, and that we need to
learn to read well.
Discussion
Questions
1. Modern scholarship has often drawn attention to the
apparent contradictions betwen two different accounts of
creation, the first concluding in the middle of verse 4 of
Chapter 2, the second beginning from that point and running
to the end of Chapter 3. Consider how these two accounts
differ in form and content. Why did the ancient editors
choose to put together these two stories, and these two ways
of telling the story?
2. Biblical storytelling, as the Commentary repeatedly shows,
often places great weight on the repetition of certain key
words. In the early chapters of Genesis, three such terms are
soil, blood, and pain. (The story of Cain and Abel powerfully
joins the first two.) What do you make of the prominence of
these terms in this opening section of Genesis? In what ways
might the large implications of these terms continue to bear
on our own historical predicament?
3. As this new translation makes clear, the first nine chapters
of Genesis have numerous poetic fragments inserted in the
prose narrative. What purpose, or purposes, are served by
these switches from prose to poetry?
4. To modern readers, the story of the Tower of Babel reads
like a fable and surely has no historical validity. What
serious resonance might it have as an account of primordial
division in humankind? Why the Babylonian setting? What
bearing does it have on the representation of history and
culture in the later chapters of Genesis?
5. Approximate repetition of episodes is an essential part of
the biblical method of storytelling. Compare the two following
recurrent stories: the sister-wife in a southern land
(Chapters 12, 20, and 26) and the encounter of the future
bride at a well in a foreign land (Chapters 24 and 29). In
each case, how are the details of the version in question
shaped to meet the needs of the immediate narrative context,
or to express the character of its hero or heroine?
6. Polygamy is assumed in the Patriarchal Tales as a given
social institution. What light do the stories of Sarah and
Hagar, Rachel and Leah, cast on the institution? Where do
issues of social standing intersect the representation of
polygamy? Consider in particular how the co-wives speak to
each other in the dialogues.
7. As in Homer, hospitality in Genesis is conceived as a
central rite of civilization. How does Lot's hospitality
(Chapter 19) differ in style and detail from Abraham's
(Chapter 18), and why? How does the attempted gang-rape by
the men of Sodom place their whole society beyond the pale of
civilization?
8. In the sequenced stories of the birth of Isaac and the
near-death in the wilderness of Ishmael (Chapter 21), to be
followed by the near-death of Isaac in the wilderness,
"laughter" is highlighted first and then "crying" is
highlighted. What do you make of this juxtaposition in regard
to what is conveyed about the characters and their destinies?
Why is the writer drawn to play, here and elsewhere, with
multiple meanings of the verb "to laugh"—from disbelief
and mockery to joy to sexual dalliance?
9. In a set of narratives that are proverbially "patriarchal,"
women play a large and sometimes remarkably active role (most
strikingly, Rebekah and Tamar). There is surely no neat key
to this seeming contradiction, but what explanation would you
suggest? Are these forceful, enterprising women in keeping
with or contradictory to the accounts of the creation of man
and woman in Chapters 1 and 2?
10. The first dialogue assigned to a character, Robert Alter
has proposed, has a particularly sharp characterizing effect
in biblical narrative. How does this work in the first
dialogue between Jacob and Esau (25:27-30)? Over the many
years of narrated time after this early moment, does either
of the twins move beyond the image of himself presented in his
first speech, and if so, how and why?
11. In the story of the stealing of the blessing by Jacob
(Chapter 27), what sense of the nature of truthfulness and
lying is conveyed through the articulations of the dialogue?
Does the story suggest any moral judgment of Jacob's actions,
or Rebekah's, either in this episode or later? What do you
make of the fact that the patriarch who gives the very name
to the people of Israel is portrayed as seizing his "election"
through deceit?
12. The tale of Jacob's wrestling through the night with a
mysterious stranger (32:22-33) is one of the most haunting
and enigmatic stories in the Bible. What are the sources of
its power, and why does the narrator leave so much unexplained?
What do you make of its placement just before Jacob's
encounter with his brother Esau after twenty years? Why do you
think this was deemed an appropriate story to account for the
national name "Israel"?
13. Chapters 38 and 39 give us in immediate sequence a story
of sexual incontinence (Judah and Tamar) and sexual restraint
(Joseph and Potiphar's wife). How do the two episodes interact,
and what light do they throw on the larger, unfolding story
of Joseph and his brothers? Sexual appetite, licit and illicit,
is frequently represented in Genesis, but as a rule the
narrator makes no explicit moral judgments about it. What
attitude, or attitudes, about sexuality can be inferred from
this broad range of stories?
14. Dreams, and the interpretation of dreams, punctuate the
Joseph story from its beginning until his achievement of
greatness. Why does this make sense in regard to both the
themes of the story and its particular historical setting?
How do the dreams in the Joseph story differ from those in the
earlier sections of Genesis in regard to both the character of
the dream and its narrative function?
15. The two visits of the brothers to Egypt, with the arrest
of all the brothers, the detention of Simeon, and the later
detention of Benjamin, form an elaborately staged sequence,
with Joseph as stagemaster. What is going on morally and
psychologically, both among the brothers and within Joseph?
Can you reconcile Joseph's cat-and-mouse cruelty with his
repeated tears, the rush of feeling he experiences when he
reveals himself to his brothers?
16. Jacob plays a central role in four scenes in Egypt: his
reunion with Joseph (46:28-30), his court appearance before
Pharaoh (47:7-10), his deathbed blessing of Joseph's two sons
(Chapter 48), and his poetic testament to his twelve sons
(Chapter 49). What resonances does each of these scenes have
with the previous representations of the character of Jacob
and his role as father and forefather?
An
Suggested Further Reading
- Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative
- Robert Alter and Frank Kermode, editors, The Literary Guide to the Bible
- Gabriel Josipovici, The Book of God
- Thomas Mann, Joseph and His Brothers
- Joel Rosenberg, King and Kin: Political Allegory in the Hebrew Bible
- Meir Sternberg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative
- Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Genesis: The Beginning of Desire
Praise for
Genesis
"Genesis remains our best single collection of perennial
stories. Alter translates them glowingly, without slickness
or archness. His running commentary illuminates the true
language of life in both Hebrew and English."—Roger
Shattuck
"Here is Genesis in all its power and presence, thanks to
Robert Alter's masterly translation, which reconciles the
ancient and the modern in remarkable ways. For Alter offers
us an English prose as gravely cadenced as that of the King
James Bible, and yet as fresh, precise and strong as the best
contemporary narrative can be. As one
experiences—simultaneously in effect—Alter's arresting
Introduction, his probing commentary, and his memorable
version of the Hebrew text itself, one is struck, again and
again, by the eternal spirit of renewal which drives our
founding book. Only through such a total re-creation can we
celebrate Creation in full measure. Here is the Genesis for
our generation and beyond. An occasion for praise, and
perennial gratitude as well."—Robert Fagles,
Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature,
Princeton University and award-winning translator of
The Iliad
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