One of my interests is in understanding the structure of the book of Genesis as a whole. Understanding the structure, genre, and authorship of a literary work is informative, even critical, in its interpretation. And interpreting Genesis correctly is one of the great challenges of all time. Today I posted a Resource (see side bar) titled Structure of the Book of Genesis. This resource includes links to previous posts on relevant topics, but mainly features a more detailed and annotated table breaking down the Book of Genesis into its many parts and identifying their literary purpose.
The result of this analysis reveals the ten major sections of Genesis and gives insight into the authorship of each and the way in which each section relates to the others.
The core argument that this structural analysis supports is that the several accounts in Genesis are compiled from documents written by the historical people who experienced them. Genesis is true history written by the people who lived through it. I think this gives us, as Christians, great confidence that God meant these histories for our benefit and that we should read them knowing that they reveal truth about God's character, God's purposes, and God's promises.
Please feel free to post comments or respond via agesofjoy @ gmail.com.
