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There has been a recent trend to date many non-Priestly texts later than their Priestly counterparts, and this movement has significant synchronic, as well as diachronic, implications. The commentary engages these approaches, along with other recent proposals and methods, in providing a multi-layered reading of the diverse texts and strata of Genesis 1-11. This combination of diachronic and synchronic approaches yields new insights into these evocative and influential narratives at the outset of the Bible.

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There has been a recent trend to date many non-Priestly texts later than their Priestly counterparts, and this movement has significant synchronic, as well as diachronic, implications. The commentary engages these approaches, along with other recent proposals and methods, in providing a multi-layered reading of the diverse texts and strata of Genesis 1-11. This combination of diachronic and synchronic approaches yields new insights into these evocative and influential narratives at the outset of the Bible.

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David M. Carr is Professor of Old Testament at the Union Theological Seminary, New York.

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