I'll admit, I'm not quite through the whole book yet, but since I got this copy through the Early Reviewers program, I want to make sure I fulfill my obligations. That said, I'm over halfway through and so have a good feel for the book. It definitely started kind of slow for me and was reminiscent of books from my college days, but once he got into going through the sections of Genesis giving the two different perspectives, it really got interesting. It's extremely thorough and detailed, even giving the Jewish words/meanings which is always very helpful in understanding things in context. No one knows for sure who the 'human' author was or whether there was more than one, but this is a really interesting take on trying to understand the seeming conflicting versions of these chapters. Also, regardless of whether you go along with the 2 author take, it's a worthwhile read to get much deeper into these stories that we all seem to think we know so well, but generally gloss over because we figure we learned it all in Sunday School. I've been learning quite a lot in reading through this and appreciate how thorough the author was in putting this together. Recommended for anyone wanting to get a deeper understanding of Genesis.
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interesting but not entirely convincing

The content as far as I got is scholarly and mildly interesting even to an atheist like me.

OK that is that dealt with and now for the main part of this review: the publishers Gefen Publishing House should be ashamed to call themselves publishers, they have done their author here no favours at all and I would recommend he find a house worthy of his work. They sent me aPDF which I carefully told them I would not review as I only read epubs on my Kobo PDFs being too eyestraining. They sent me an epub and frankly it is a mess. I persevered. I read near 89 pages and I would like to see the publisher put so much effort into a book of any description. Now this is a scholarly work and is littered with footnotes and references but the epub version spatters the footnotes throughout the main text and cannot even manage to use superscript to indicate them.

I gave upon this today and went to look at the pdf version which is very nicely laid out with different colours and footnotes handled well so why is the epub such a mess? I you as a publisher want to ditribute your book electronically you have to put in the effort to lay them out properly. Treating readers and reviewers this way is insulting ( )

I received this volume via LibraryThing's Early Reviews. This is a scholarly and well-researched book, “In the Beginnings: Discovering the Two Worldviews Hidden within Genesis 1-11” that is written in a very readable style. It covers the first 11 chapters of Genesis highlighting the two worldviews presented, both in series and parallel, noting the differences. These worldviews correspond to different proposed sources of authorship (P and J, along with an additional role of a redactor). The author delves into the original Hebrew (which I do not speak or read), and current English translation . Discussions based on the Hebrew text, rather than just the English translation area fascinating and makes one want to delve into the language and its history.

This is the 2nd volume I have received from Gefen PublishIng, both of which have been fascinating reads.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to delve into the Old Testament/Torah. ( )

Review of eBook

This extensive commentary on the first chapters of Genesis urges the reader to carefully consider, compare, and analyze the two creation accounts presented within these chapters. Since the ultimate goal of Biblical commentary is a greater understanding of the scriptures, readers will find the author has supported the discussion with extensive references.

Each chapter provides analysis, comprehensive discussion, and a summary, providing the reader with both information and context for the comparisons the author discusses. Readers will find this thorough examination of the first chapters of Genesis to be both thought-provoking and insightful.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Readers program and am leaving this review voluntarily. ( )