Description: For centuries, the Garden of Eden story has been a cornerstone for the Christian doctrine of "the Fall" and "original sin." In recent years, many scholars have disputed this understanding of Genesis 3 because it has no words for sin, transgression, disobedience, or punishment. Instead, it is about how the human condition came about.
Brief description:
Mark S. Smith is Skirball Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at New York University and author of many books. He was the 2010â "11 President of the Catholic Biblical Association of America.
Review Quotes:
This disarmingly honest, thoughtful, and gracefully written book addresses questions that regularly occur to readers of the biblical narratives in Genesis 111, but particularly in chapters 2, 3, 4, and 6. Their queries concern the nature of evil, the Fall, original sin, Satan, guilt, innocence, the implications of being human, and the wrongness of human curiosity. Depending on the individual readers, the questions may be considered of general interest or of personal concern. When examining specific questions and their implications, Mark S. Smith draws from knowledge and insights in the works of ancient and premodern theologians and biblical commentators typically found on traditional Christian and Jewish bookshelves as well as from research found on the bookshelves of twenty-first-century historians and language experts, all specialists in different aspects of ancient Israels culture and the contemporaneous civilizations of the pre-Christian, Ancient Near East. The book reads quickly. It is an action adventure for the restless mind that has a satisfactory but open-ended conclusion. For those interested in how Smith pulls this off, he provides a large section of Endnotes containing references and side-bar discussions. Ziony Zevit, Distinguished Professor of Biblical Literature and Northwest Semitic Languages and Literature, American Jewish University, Los Angeles