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Reading Genesis
One of our greatest novelists and thinkers presents a radiant, thrilling interpretation of the book of Genesis.
For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents, by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true.
Both of these approaches preclude an appreciation of its greatness as literature, its rich articulation and exploration of themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture. Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis , which includes the original text, is a powerful consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity. This magisterial book radiates gratitude for the constancy and benevolence of God’s abiding faith in Creation.
For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents, by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true.
Both of these approaches preclude an appreciation of its greatness as literature, its rich articulation and exploration of themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture. Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis , which includes the original text, is a powerful consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity. This magisterial book radiates gratitude for the constancy and benevolence of God’s abiding faith in Creation.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published March 12, 2024
818 people are currently reading
9034 people want to read
About the author
Marilynne Robinson
58 books5,672 followersAmerican novelist and essayist. Across her writing career, Robinson has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the 2016 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. In 2016, Robinson was named in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people. Robinson began teaching at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1991 and retired in the spring of 2016.
Robinson is best known for her novels Housekeeping (1980) and Gilead (2004). Her novels are noted for their thematic depiction of both rural life and faith. The subjects of her essays have spanned numerous topics, including the relationship between religion and science, US history, nuclear pollution, John Calvin, and contemporary American politics.
Robinson is best known for her novels Housekeeping (1980) and Gilead (2004). Her novels are noted for their thematic depiction of both rural life and faith. The subjects of her essays have spanned numerous topics, including the relationship between religion and science, US history, nuclear pollution, John Calvin, and contemporary American politics.
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January 22, 2025
“To refrain, to put aside power is Godlike”
I had two impressions of this book. The first one, after reading 50 pages, was resignation. I thought "This is a work from a master of American letters, with the major works now behind her, and now's the time for a serviceable rumination on a well-worn subject". From the start, it was hard to get my bearings. The structure jumps back and forth in the Genesis chronology and even takes extended detours into Exodus. It felt like a series of free associations that were neither rigorous nor syllogistic.
Then my second impression came about halfway into the book. The disparate elements revealed a masterly woven tapestry of theology, literature, and grace. Robinson writes with a lifelong relationship with scripture behind her which at first felt too casual, but after spending time and pages with her cadence, I could see her marrow-deep understanding. Characters and moments were lifted from Genesis with the lightest touch, as if Robinson has a list of the complete elements on hand like Noah’s manifest. Or like some old party on the family farm, names are conjured as if they're just in the other room.
Robinson spends little time on The Garden of Eden and even less on Noah. The lion’s share is on the lives of the three patriarchs. This makes sense, it's the most human part of Genesis. Robinson’s focus is almost strictly human, and God's relation to that crooked timber. Robinson notes this shift in Genesis from the abstract to the concrete:
“The book of Genesis begins with the emergence of Being in a burst of light and ends with the death and burial of a bitter, homesick old man”
In many ways, this could be read as turn-key on the themes of her Gilead tetralogy. The trials of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac could just as well take place in Robinson’s mid-century Iowa town. And there are echoes in style that suggest her blurring between Gilead and Hebron is very much intentional.
Through comparison, Robinson draws clean lines between Genesis and other ancient literature. She correctly identifies the alien power of The Bible. It isn’t in the giving of answers to the problem of evil, but by complexifying it that the Bible's permanent relevance lies. Providence in the Bible, unlike fate in the Greek mind (an unmovable terminus point that man reaches despite his best efforts) is the paradoxical meeting ground between necessity and accident. In Robinson’s theology, God allows us to be free, to fail, and to stumble. In those free articulations, the workings of our destiny are slowly unveiled. We are free to choose our choice. Or, we’re free to choose, because we have no choice. As Robinson puts it beautifully:
“Let us say that God lets human beings be human beings and that His will is accomplished through or despite them but is never dependent on them. The remarkable realism of the Bible, the voices it captures, the characterization it achieves, are products of an interest in the human that has no parallel in ancient literature. The Lord stands back, so to speak. The text does not blur the unlikeness of the mortal and the divine by giving us demigods. Its great interest is in the children of Adam, who are in every way a mystery”
It’s the idea of standing back that’s the throughline for Robinson and the singular genius insight of her entire literary project. Before creation, God was everything and to make room for us, he had to limit himself. In kind, the great moments of Grace, the spiritual high points of Abraham, Jacob, and Issac is when they yield. God, the unmoved mover, the first cause, the creator of heaven and earth, limited himself so that we could be free. To imitate God is to imitate this paradoxical act. To command control is to let go. The drive of Providence doesn't rely on one man’s choices or any of our choices. Its workings are mysterious and woven into the fabric of time.
We are fated to do great things by living our humble lives. To fall in love, to betray, to reconcile. To yield to the great wind that was first blown into our lungs and now carries us along. Despite the overbearing tragedy of life, we refrain with hope and love, and it is there we find God.
I had two impressions of this book. The first one, after reading 50 pages, was resignation. I thought "This is a work from a master of American letters, with the major works now behind her, and now's the time for a serviceable rumination on a well-worn subject". From the start, it was hard to get my bearings. The structure jumps back and forth in the Genesis chronology and even takes extended detours into Exodus. It felt like a series of free associations that were neither rigorous nor syllogistic.
Then my second impression came about halfway into the book. The disparate elements revealed a masterly woven tapestry of theology, literature, and grace. Robinson writes with a lifelong relationship with scripture behind her which at first felt too casual, but after spending time and pages with her cadence, I could see her marrow-deep understanding. Characters and moments were lifted from Genesis with the lightest touch, as if Robinson has a list of the complete elements on hand like Noah’s manifest. Or like some old party on the family farm, names are conjured as if they're just in the other room.
Robinson spends little time on The Garden of Eden and even less on Noah. The lion’s share is on the lives of the three patriarchs. This makes sense, it's the most human part of Genesis. Robinson’s focus is almost strictly human, and God's relation to that crooked timber. Robinson notes this shift in Genesis from the abstract to the concrete:
“The book of Genesis begins with the emergence of Being in a burst of light and ends with the death and burial of a bitter, homesick old man”
In many ways, this could be read as turn-key on the themes of her Gilead tetralogy. The trials of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac could just as well take place in Robinson’s mid-century Iowa town. And there are echoes in style that suggest her blurring between Gilead and Hebron is very much intentional.
Through comparison, Robinson draws clean lines between Genesis and other ancient literature. She correctly identifies the alien power of The Bible. It isn’t in the giving of answers to the problem of evil, but by complexifying it that the Bible's permanent relevance lies. Providence in the Bible, unlike fate in the Greek mind (an unmovable terminus point that man reaches despite his best efforts) is the paradoxical meeting ground between necessity and accident. In Robinson’s theology, God allows us to be free, to fail, and to stumble. In those free articulations, the workings of our destiny are slowly unveiled. We are free to choose our choice. Or, we’re free to choose, because we have no choice. As Robinson puts it beautifully:
“Let us say that God lets human beings be human beings and that His will is accomplished through or despite them but is never dependent on them. The remarkable realism of the Bible, the voices it captures, the characterization it achieves, are products of an interest in the human that has no parallel in ancient literature. The Lord stands back, so to speak. The text does not blur the unlikeness of the mortal and the divine by giving us demigods. Its great interest is in the children of Adam, who are in every way a mystery”
It’s the idea of standing back that’s the throughline for Robinson and the singular genius insight of her entire literary project. Before creation, God was everything and to make room for us, he had to limit himself. In kind, the great moments of Grace, the spiritual high points of Abraham, Jacob, and Issac is when they yield. God, the unmoved mover, the first cause, the creator of heaven and earth, limited himself so that we could be free. To imitate God is to imitate this paradoxical act. To command control is to let go. The drive of Providence doesn't rely on one man’s choices or any of our choices. Its workings are mysterious and woven into the fabric of time.
We are fated to do great things by living our humble lives. To fall in love, to betray, to reconcile. To yield to the great wind that was first blown into our lungs and now carries us along. Despite the overbearing tragedy of life, we refrain with hope and love, and it is there we find God.
November 10, 2023
This is an excellent meditation on the foundational stories of Genesis. It is gentle and thoughtful, unapologetically Christian yet wholly persuasive to a nonbeliever. Robinson is not interested in a narrowly minded scholarly dissection of Scripture in (established) source-critical terms; what she cares about is stories—so familiar that we no longer pause over what they mean, especially when it comes to God’s relationship with humankind. One highlight among many for me was her incisive analysis of the stories, such as the Flood, that have long been viewed by scholars as adaptations of the Babylonian or other Near Eastern sources (e.g., Gilgamesh). Robinson does not dispute the obvious parallels, but she explains, with authority and persuasion, that the Hebrew stories arrived at fundamentally different conclusions, from the moral, theological, and philosophical points of view.
— thanks to Farrar, Strauss and Giroux for an ARC via NetGalley
— thanks to Farrar, Strauss and Giroux for an ARC via NetGalley
January 12, 2024
In Genesis the recurring sin is grievous harm to one’s brother.
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
I have loved Marilynne Robinson’s novels and have read Gilead three times (twice for book clubs). When my husband was in seminary–fifty years ago–I audited a half dozen classes in theology and Biblical studies. I thought I was up to tackling Reading Genesis.
I remember co-teaching a Sunday evening bible study for junior high teens. I remember my husband explaining that the Bible is full of imperfect people who do bad things but are used by God for the good. And I found this message in Robinson’s exploration.
Robinson argues that the Judeo-Christian tradition was remarkably different from the Babylonian and Egyptian. And she shows that the messages of the stories in Genesis shows a providential history of mercy instead of justice, of using the bad for the good, and demonstrating that the humanity is failable and yet God can use them for righteousness. The covenant, she states, “is not contingent upon human virtue,” for God can work through fallible beings. Thank goodness, because the people in Genesis are certainly not virtuous.
Robinson calls it the “economics of grace,” God forgiving our debts. Even when we don’t forgive our debtors, although it is what we are called to do, along with doing justice and loving mercy.
The Book of Genesis is framed by two stories of remarkable forgiveness, of Cain by the Lord, and of his ten brothers by Joseph.
from Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
This is not an easy book to read. Its message is not for everyone. Robinson prefers the term providential history to predetermination but her Calvinist faith is central to her exploration. It is a book that needs studying and discussion to fully integrate its message.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
I have loved Marilynne Robinson’s novels and have read Gilead three times (twice for book clubs). When my husband was in seminary–fifty years ago–I audited a half dozen classes in theology and Biblical studies. I thought I was up to tackling Reading Genesis.
I remember co-teaching a Sunday evening bible study for junior high teens. I remember my husband explaining that the Bible is full of imperfect people who do bad things but are used by God for the good. And I found this message in Robinson’s exploration.
Robinson argues that the Judeo-Christian tradition was remarkably different from the Babylonian and Egyptian. And she shows that the messages of the stories in Genesis shows a providential history of mercy instead of justice, of using the bad for the good, and demonstrating that the humanity is failable and yet God can use them for righteousness. The covenant, she states, “is not contingent upon human virtue,” for God can work through fallible beings. Thank goodness, because the people in Genesis are certainly not virtuous.
Robinson calls it the “economics of grace,” God forgiving our debts. Even when we don’t forgive our debtors, although it is what we are called to do, along with doing justice and loving mercy.
The Book of Genesis is framed by two stories of remarkable forgiveness, of Cain by the Lord, and of his ten brothers by Joseph.
from Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
This is not an easy book to read. Its message is not for everyone. Robinson prefers the term providential history to predetermination but her Calvinist faith is central to her exploration. It is a book that needs studying and discussion to fully integrate its message.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
March 23, 2024
No, she doesn't treat the Bible as a work of fiction. Check out her interview on it on the secular Ezra Klein Show podcast. She radiates a high view of Scripture and its Author that even he seems to find compelling.
But it IS interesting to have a novelist look at the book of Genesis up close. She points out patterns. She suggests motives. She continually marvels that God is confident enough in His work to maintain an interest in these often distressing humans and to believe that He will get glory from them.
She's working on the book of Exodus now. I can't wait.
But it IS interesting to have a novelist look at the book of Genesis up close. She points out patterns. She suggests motives. She continually marvels that God is confident enough in His work to maintain an interest in these often distressing humans and to believe that He will get glory from them.
She's working on the book of Exodus now. I can't wait.
February 27, 2024
This feels a bit like an instance of "everybody loved it but me," but, as far as I'm concerned, Marilynne Robinson's Reading Genesis was a total miss. I found it pretentious and dismissive of scholarship in ways that left me with a strong sense of confirmation bias. So, if you already align ideologically with Robinson's erudite Calvinism, you will no doubt feel smug and intelligent when you read this book. If that's you, then great. Honestly, I'd be more than pleased to see the right readers get connected to this book. If you're a critical reader who has picked up this title as part of an investigation of scripture, you might be disappointed. You might even end up outraged. Reading Genesis essentially preaches to the choir, begins with a conclusion, and attempts to fortify deeply held beliefs with sophisticated prose rather than evidence. What's more, it never really says anything new, instead re-presenting close readings and established interpretations with needlessly elevated vocabulary.
In a nutshell: this book was the wrong book for me, but I can see why it might be the right book for others.
[I received an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. All poor opinions are my own.]
In a nutshell: this book was the wrong book for me, but I can see why it might be the right book for others.
[I received an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. All poor opinions are my own.]
July 19, 2025
I wish I could have experienced this as a weekly seminar led by Ms. Robinson. Notebooks. Sources. Greek- and Hebrew-to English dictionaries. I HAVE QUESTIONS.
Then again, this is not meant to be a scholarly treatise. It's a storyteller's guide to one of literature's most essential, enduring, and vital collections of narratives about the human condition: Genesis. Genesis is not just the foundation of the Abrahamic faiths—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—it is the heart of our shared literary heritage. Marilynne Robinson flips the tapestry over to examine the weave and knots of the threads that comprise this seminal text.
This is a challenging read; there were passages I had to read multiple times to untangle Robinson's words and smooth them into meaning. But she never condescends to her reader and by sticking with her, I eventually caught up and soaked up the grace of her insights.
Fans of history, theology, interpretive literature, and of course of Marilynne Robinson herself, will appreciate this deep dive into a formative work of literature and theology.
Then again, this is not meant to be a scholarly treatise. It's a storyteller's guide to one of literature's most essential, enduring, and vital collections of narratives about the human condition: Genesis. Genesis is not just the foundation of the Abrahamic faiths—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—it is the heart of our shared literary heritage. Marilynne Robinson flips the tapestry over to examine the weave and knots of the threads that comprise this seminal text.
The remarkable realism of the Bible, the voices it captures, the characterization it achieves, are products of an interest in the human that has no parallel in ancient literature. The Lord stands back, so to speak. The text does not blur the unlikeness of the mortal and the divine by giving us demigods. Its great interest is in the children of Adam, who are in every way a mystery, and the singular object of God’s loyalty, which is another mystery.For me, the rich reward of Reading Genesis was an exploration of the book's many celebrated—and not a few infamous—characters, all deeply and notably flawed. From Adam to Esau, to Hagar, Rebekah, Sarah, Abraham, and Josep—just to name a few—Robinson explores their love and betrayals, petty jealousies, fervent longings, their wanderings and visions, and ties their stories back to redemption through faith and God's constant devotion to His creation.
Let us say that God lets human beings be human beings, and that His will is accomplished through or despite them but is never dependent on them.Robinson writes without guile or apology, acknowledging the cultural influences on the Genesis narrative—including the Babylonian Enuma Elisha and the Epic of Gilgamesh—without compromising her devotion to the singularity of the text.
This is a challenging read; there were passages I had to read multiple times to untangle Robinson's words and smooth them into meaning. But she never condescends to her reader and by sticking with her, I eventually caught up and soaked up the grace of her insights.
Fans of history, theology, interpretive literature, and of course of Marilynne Robinson herself, will appreciate this deep dive into a formative work of literature and theology.
March 24, 2024
I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:10-12, New International Version
Marilynne Robinson's Gilead trilogy remains one of the pinnacles of the treatment of Christianity in modern literary fiction. In Reading Genesis she turns her attention to non-fictional theology and sets out her stall wonderfully on page 1:
The Bible is a theodicy, a meditation on the problem of evil. This being true, it must take account of things as they are. It must acknowledge in a meaningful way the darkest aspects of the reality we experience, and it must reconcile them with the goodness of God and of Being itself against which this darkness stands out so sharply. This is to say that the Bible is a work of theology, not simply a primary text upon which theology is based. I will suggest that in the early chapters of Genesis God's perfect Creation passes through a series of changes, declensions that permit the anomaly of a flawed and alienated creature at the center of it all, ourselves, still sacred, still beloved of God. To say that the narrative takes us through these declensions—the Fall and the loss of Eden, then the Flood and the laws that allow the killing of animals and of homicides, then the disruption of human unity at Babel—is not to say that they happened or that they didn't happen, but that their sequence is an articulation of a complex statement about reality. The magnificent account of the onset of Being and the creation by God of His image in humankind is undiminished in all that follows despite the movement away from the world of God's first intention—modified as this state-ment must be by the faith that He has a greater, embracing intention that cannot fail. Within the final mystery of God's purpose there are the parables of prophets and sages. History and experience are themselves parables awaiting their prophets.
The verse from Ecclesiastes above is key to her thesis, that Genesis (in contrast to Babylonian and similar creation mythology) has God placing humanity at the centre of creation and His divine mission, a mission in which we both play a central part and yet find hard, in our mortal lifetimes, to divine, in the other sense of that word (e.g. Robinson refers to the fulfilment of "promises that will work themselves out over millenia"):
We are being told a story different from epic or fable, and different from conventional history. The mind of the text hovers over a very long span of time, during which an absolutely singular providence works itself out through and among human beings who are fallible in various ways and degrees and who can have no understanding of the part their lives will play in the long course of sacred history.
and one where we find it hard to understand how our human agency interacts with God's will :
The old Christian theologies spoke of felix culpa, the fortunate fall. This is in effect another name for human agency, responsibility, even freedom. If we could do only those things God wills, we would not be truly free, though to discern the will of God and act on it is freedom. Our human nature as fallen and our human nature as divine have a dynamic, asymptotic relation with each other, meeting at infinity, perhaps. In any case, the centrality of humankind in the creation myth of Genesis is from the beginning an immeasurable elevation of status, made meaningful in the fact of our interacting with God even at the level of sacred history. This is unique to the Bible and central to both Testaments.
When compared to her novels, the book is not without its issues. Robinson's erudite and scholarly prose style at time crosses into the opaque, which is more of an issue in non-fiction, where precise
meaning is key, than in fiction (using the traditional King James version of the Bible doesn't help here). And the book would benefit from some structure and sign-posting.
And her account shares one of the common frustrating aspects of its own non-novelistic genre - at times in dialogue with other scholars (although here general rather than specific) rather than with the reader.
But her vocation as a novelist enables her to make some interesting points about language and style. In particular - and it contrast to these general other scholars she seems to be writing to - she regards Genesis as an account that coheres strongly as a whole. That it ostensibly contains two different creation narratives supports rather than contradicts that coherence, and similarly the deliberate repurposing of other traditions of the flood is something she sees as very deliberate, as Genesis then better draws attention to the differences in the story, particularly the nature of God and His interaction with humanity.
I assume that the text as a whole developed with a full awareness of the text as it existed to that point and of the traditions, thoughts, and events that might be assimilable to it. Scripture grew from this basis for centuries, continuously reflecting on itself, seeing ongoing history as meaningful or revelatory just as the lives of the patriarchs and the great exodus had been.
She also comments on how our perception of God in the English speaking world - particularly the perception that he is a wrathful and vengeful diety - can be shaped by word choices. Here the use of the KJV makes sense, since this has condition our understanding of the Bible in England and it's former colonies. Although her commentary here roams wider than in Genesis and includes the New Testament. E.g. she observes that the Latin route of 'vengeance' is 'vindicare' which has a meaning of vindicate (e.g. allows the possibility of redemption, which we see in the story of Cain) and that 'wrath' is an Anglo-Saxon word which therefore can not have been in the mind of the original authors.
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Genesis 50: 19-20, New International Version
Ecclesiastes 3:10-12, New International Version
Marilynne Robinson's Gilead trilogy remains one of the pinnacles of the treatment of Christianity in modern literary fiction. In Reading Genesis she turns her attention to non-fictional theology and sets out her stall wonderfully on page 1:
The Bible is a theodicy, a meditation on the problem of evil. This being true, it must take account of things as they are. It must acknowledge in a meaningful way the darkest aspects of the reality we experience, and it must reconcile them with the goodness of God and of Being itself against which this darkness stands out so sharply. This is to say that the Bible is a work of theology, not simply a primary text upon which theology is based. I will suggest that in the early chapters of Genesis God's perfect Creation passes through a series of changes, declensions that permit the anomaly of a flawed and alienated creature at the center of it all, ourselves, still sacred, still beloved of God. To say that the narrative takes us through these declensions—the Fall and the loss of Eden, then the Flood and the laws that allow the killing of animals and of homicides, then the disruption of human unity at Babel—is not to say that they happened or that they didn't happen, but that their sequence is an articulation of a complex statement about reality. The magnificent account of the onset of Being and the creation by God of His image in humankind is undiminished in all that follows despite the movement away from the world of God's first intention—modified as this state-ment must be by the faith that He has a greater, embracing intention that cannot fail. Within the final mystery of God's purpose there are the parables of prophets and sages. History and experience are themselves parables awaiting their prophets.
The verse from Ecclesiastes above is key to her thesis, that Genesis (in contrast to Babylonian and similar creation mythology) has God placing humanity at the centre of creation and His divine mission, a mission in which we both play a central part and yet find hard, in our mortal lifetimes, to divine, in the other sense of that word (e.g. Robinson refers to the fulfilment of "promises that will work themselves out over millenia"):
We are being told a story different from epic or fable, and different from conventional history. The mind of the text hovers over a very long span of time, during which an absolutely singular providence works itself out through and among human beings who are fallible in various ways and degrees and who can have no understanding of the part their lives will play in the long course of sacred history.
and one where we find it hard to understand how our human agency interacts with God's will :
The old Christian theologies spoke of felix culpa, the fortunate fall. This is in effect another name for human agency, responsibility, even freedom. If we could do only those things God wills, we would not be truly free, though to discern the will of God and act on it is freedom. Our human nature as fallen and our human nature as divine have a dynamic, asymptotic relation with each other, meeting at infinity, perhaps. In any case, the centrality of humankind in the creation myth of Genesis is from the beginning an immeasurable elevation of status, made meaningful in the fact of our interacting with God even at the level of sacred history. This is unique to the Bible and central to both Testaments.
When compared to her novels, the book is not without its issues. Robinson's erudite and scholarly prose style at time crosses into the opaque, which is more of an issue in non-fiction, where precise
meaning is key, than in fiction (using the traditional King James version of the Bible doesn't help here). And the book would benefit from some structure and sign-posting.
And her account shares one of the common frustrating aspects of its own non-novelistic genre - at times in dialogue with other scholars (although here general rather than specific) rather than with the reader.
But her vocation as a novelist enables her to make some interesting points about language and style. In particular - and it contrast to these general other scholars she seems to be writing to - she regards Genesis as an account that coheres strongly as a whole. That it ostensibly contains two different creation narratives supports rather than contradicts that coherence, and similarly the deliberate repurposing of other traditions of the flood is something she sees as very deliberate, as Genesis then better draws attention to the differences in the story, particularly the nature of God and His interaction with humanity.
I assume that the text as a whole developed with a full awareness of the text as it existed to that point and of the traditions, thoughts, and events that might be assimilable to it. Scripture grew from this basis for centuries, continuously reflecting on itself, seeing ongoing history as meaningful or revelatory just as the lives of the patriarchs and the great exodus had been.
She also comments on how our perception of God in the English speaking world - particularly the perception that he is a wrathful and vengeful diety - can be shaped by word choices. Here the use of the KJV makes sense, since this has condition our understanding of the Bible in England and it's former colonies. Although her commentary here roams wider than in Genesis and includes the New Testament. E.g. she observes that the Latin route of 'vengeance' is 'vindicare' which has a meaning of vindicate (e.g. allows the possibility of redemption, which we see in the story of Cain) and that 'wrath' is an Anglo-Saxon word which therefore can not have been in the mind of the original authors.
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Genesis 50: 19-20, New International Version
September 4, 2024
“The book of Genesis begins with the emergence of Being in a burst of light and ends with the death and burial of a bitter, homesick old man. If there is any truth to modern physics, this brings us to the present moment. Disgruntled and bewildered, knowing that we derive from an inconceivably powerful and brilliant first moment, we are at a loss to find anything of it in ourselves. God loved Jacob and was loyal to him, no less for the fact that Jacob felt the days of his life, providential as they were, as deep hardship.”
A beautiful, serious reflection on Genesis from the perspective of an accomplished novelist, amateur historian, and earnest Christian. The audience for this book is very specific, and it helped that I fit it precisely: a person of Christian faith who is not a theologian, who loves literature, and who is already very familiar with Genesis. I was not, however, familiar with the beauty of the KJV, which Robinson draws out with her characteristically profound and somber prose. Still, without some of these identifying traits, this book would be perhaps difficult to dive into and appreciate. Robinson writes as if you, like her, have a lifetime of companionship with Scripture, and she does not take the time to set the stage or explain too much. Instead, she is carried away by the beauty of God’s providence and by the genius of the text. It is a lovely and moving book and one that comforted and encouraged me in different ways, but I pull back from it with the recognition that it is for a discrete subset of readers. If you find yourself in that camp, I warmly recommend it.
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May 24, 2025A few weeks ago I read Understanding Genesis by the Jewish Bible expert Nahum Sarna, a commendable little book, but already 60 years old. And so I opted for one of the most recent commentaries on Genesis, by the American writer Marilynne Robinson, whose heavily loaded novels (especially the Gilead series) I read with increasing enthusiasm. Much of what Robinson writes was similar to Sarna, and that is not surprising: I guess there are only a limited amount of views on old texts like this one possible. But Robinson writes in her typical very condensed writing and reasoning style, which automatically makes this a much richer book, with many valuable insights.
But a few things bothered me. For instance, that she systematically quotes passages and references from the New Testament to illustrate and explain the texts of the Old Testament; as a historian I have a hard time with that. But also the lack of structure in Robinson’s argument is disturbing and even discouraging: at times this seems more like a rather loose collection of reflections and explanations, where certain aspects are seriously explored, others not at all. And finally, Robinson completely ignores the discussion about the redaction history of the Bible stories and their historical value. Bothersome, because it is precisely from this redaction history that it can be concluded how constructed and multi-tracked the Bible texts are, including Genesis. In her introduction she refers to this briefly, and then claims that despite this complex redaction history there still is a great deal of coherence and homogeneity in the Old Testament: “I take it that in the course of their development the Scriptures were pondered very deeply by those who composed and emended them, and that this created a profound coherency, stabilizing difficult concepts or teachings to the point that earlier and later passages can be seen as elucidating one another”. Now, I don’t understand that. It is precisely those contributions by so many anonymous writers (scribes), from different times, with different backgrounds, inspirations and intentions, that make the coherence of the Old Testament writings not so great at all. And that’s no problem: it is precisely that diversity that seems to me to be the richness of those texts. It is a pity that Robinson, like many others, so stubbornly sticks to the one track, and the one truth, narrowing rather than enriching. Too bad.
But a few things bothered me. For instance, that she systematically quotes passages and references from the New Testament to illustrate and explain the texts of the Old Testament; as a historian I have a hard time with that. But also the lack of structure in Robinson’s argument is disturbing and even discouraging: at times this seems more like a rather loose collection of reflections and explanations, where certain aspects are seriously explored, others not at all. And finally, Robinson completely ignores the discussion about the redaction history of the Bible stories and their historical value. Bothersome, because it is precisely from this redaction history that it can be concluded how constructed and multi-tracked the Bible texts are, including Genesis. In her introduction she refers to this briefly, and then claims that despite this complex redaction history there still is a great deal of coherence and homogeneity in the Old Testament: “I take it that in the course of their development the Scriptures were pondered very deeply by those who composed and emended them, and that this created a profound coherency, stabilizing difficult concepts or teachings to the point that earlier and later passages can be seen as elucidating one another”. Now, I don’t understand that. It is precisely those contributions by so many anonymous writers (scribes), from different times, with different backgrounds, inspirations and intentions, that make the coherence of the Old Testament writings not so great at all. And that’s no problem: it is precisely that diversity that seems to me to be the richness of those texts. It is a pity that Robinson, like many others, so stubbornly sticks to the one track, and the one truth, narrowing rather than enriching. Too bad.
February 18, 2024
I'm not religious but I have an interest in theology. This book is a great primer for someone like myself who isn't intimately familiar with Genesis. I also suspect this would be rewarding for readers who are more familiar than I am but looking for some kind of explication. The digital advance copy that I read did not include the actual biblical text alongside Robinson's commentary, which made following the 'plotline' (for lack of a better word) sometimes confusing, because she doesn't seem to always move linearly(?). FSG's website claims the book will include the full King James version of Genesis, so I imagine readers of physical copies will have an easier time with this than I did. The biggest takeaways for me were Robinson's insistence on the point that through Genesis, vengeance, when expected, is not taken, and her note that these stories are unusually focused on the lives and follies of individual humans (the text's inclusion of so many domestic squabbles, and so many terrible decisions on the part of its ostensible heroes, is, as Robinson says, remarkable). A really enjoyable read.
September 20, 2024
I loved this book.
It’s not a critical commentary.
It’s not devotional guide.
It is a profound appreciation of Genesis as a literary masterpiece and the launching point for the world’s greatest religious narrative(s). Robinson’s views do come forward, but she makes no attempt to explain or proselytize precise doctrinal points.
Many faith-focused books tell you what to think about Scripture- this book invites you to consider why we should think about the Bible at all and why Genesis matters as a foundational text for understanding humanity’s deep need for story and deep longing for God.
This is big picture thinking at its best, and Robinson is in her wheelhouse with this book. Engaging and hopeful despite the often dark material brought out in the Bible’s book of beginnings.
Five stars all the way 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
It’s not a critical commentary.
It’s not devotional guide.
It is a profound appreciation of Genesis as a literary masterpiece and the launching point for the world’s greatest religious narrative(s). Robinson’s views do come forward, but she makes no attempt to explain or proselytize precise doctrinal points.
Many faith-focused books tell you what to think about Scripture- this book invites you to consider why we should think about the Bible at all and why Genesis matters as a foundational text for understanding humanity’s deep need for story and deep longing for God.
This is big picture thinking at its best, and Robinson is in her wheelhouse with this book. Engaging and hopeful despite the often dark material brought out in the Bible’s book of beginnings.
Five stars all the way 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
April 7, 2025
An enjoyable exploration of Genesis as a literary masterpiece.
I was compelled by Robinson's approach to essentially grant all the premises of higher criticism, but then say: "so what? it doesn't change the fact that the beauty of this book alone demonstrates the existence of God!"
Robinson approaches Genesis primarily as an author (which as one of the greatest American writers, she is more than qualified to do), and secondarily as a Calvinist theologian. Thus her insights into Genesis's literary motifs and her argument that the book is in some senses a treatise on Providence, human action, and a relenting God, were quite enlightening. Even more strikingly, they were enjoyable to read!
Robinson does not pretend to be a biblical scholar, and she writes without the constraint of entering into that field's debates.
But there were a few points where I kind of wish she had consulted some. In particular her treatment of Noah would have been enriched in its exploration of literary themes had she abided with a bit more orthodox scholarship. As an example of this, she posits that Ham did not really sin against his father and that Noah was just drunkenly lashing out. While she is right to note that this is the first time a human being has been directly cursed, her labeling of it as an emotional overreaction of Noah's does not even address how the rest of the Law uses the term "uncovering." Now, this isn't a big deal, but this and a few other instances like it caused me to wistfully imagine how much greater this book could have been had Marilynne Robinson been a part of a slightly more conservative tradition.
That said, Robinson is probably now my favorite Congregationalist theologian.
I was compelled by Robinson's approach to essentially grant all the premises of higher criticism, but then say: "so what? it doesn't change the fact that the beauty of this book alone demonstrates the existence of God!"
Robinson approaches Genesis primarily as an author (which as one of the greatest American writers, she is more than qualified to do), and secondarily as a Calvinist theologian. Thus her insights into Genesis's literary motifs and her argument that the book is in some senses a treatise on Providence, human action, and a relenting God, were quite enlightening. Even more strikingly, they were enjoyable to read!
Robinson does not pretend to be a biblical scholar, and she writes without the constraint of entering into that field's debates.
But there were a few points where I kind of wish she had consulted some. In particular her treatment of Noah would have been enriched in its exploration of literary themes had she abided with a bit more orthodox scholarship. As an example of this, she posits that Ham did not really sin against his father and that Noah was just drunkenly lashing out. While she is right to note that this is the first time a human being has been directly cursed, her labeling of it as an emotional overreaction of Noah's does not even address how the rest of the Law uses the term "uncovering." Now, this isn't a big deal, but this and a few other instances like it caused me to wistfully imagine how much greater this book could have been had Marilynne Robinson been a part of a slightly more conservative tradition.
That said, Robinson is probably now my favorite Congregationalist theologian.
April 20, 2025
3.5. I enjoyed this book, though I didn’t agree with everything. Robinson approaches Genesis like it’s a great work of literature, and I think she insightfully points out its crucial themes—fatherhood, brother rivalries, and, most importantly, the sovereignty of God. I do think she has a beautiful way of writing about God’s incredible care for, and interest in, humanity. She also shows very poignantly how God intervenes to break up cycles of revenge in Genesis.
As an academic and a liberal Christian, however, she calls into question its authorship, its historicity, and the way it condemns certain sins (especially in Sodom and Gomorrah). Her argument is that endless debates about whether the events of Genesis really happen don’t really accomplish anything because the meaning of the book doesn’t change and we can’t really know. On the one hand I think she has a point—is everything in Genesis historical fact or is it at times literary flourish that engages with the ANE culture around it? I’m not exactly sure, but I do think that Robinson doesn’t land close enough to orthodoxy for me to be comfortable with her viewpoint.
Still good though.
As an academic and a liberal Christian, however, she calls into question its authorship, its historicity, and the way it condemns certain sins (especially in Sodom and Gomorrah). Her argument is that endless debates about whether the events of Genesis really happen don’t really accomplish anything because the meaning of the book doesn’t change and we can’t really know. On the one hand I think she has a point—is everything in Genesis historical fact or is it at times literary flourish that engages with the ANE culture around it? I’m not exactly sure, but I do think that Robinson doesn’t land close enough to orthodoxy for me to be comfortable with her viewpoint.
Still good though.
April 22, 2024
I found it fascinating to read this literary analysis of the book of Genesis by a scholar trained in the art of reading and analyzing (not to mention writing!) great works of literature. She comes at it from the perspective of a professed Christian, and her views may rankle those who view the OT as a collection of nonsensical myths, but also those who regard it as a perfectly trustworthy historical account. She sees great merit and richness in Genesis as a work of literature, and holds to the notion of scripture as sacred if not infallible. As such the insights she provides are often remarkable and thought-provoking.
March 15, 2025
This was so beautiful. Prosaically Marilynne Robinson is just so far ahead of almost any other living writer these days I can think of. Lots of powerful insights and good food for thought that I’ll continue to think over and contemplate for some time. Some parts of the book resonated with me more than others though, and there were certain readings that I just didn’t get much out of (or disagreed with) - but fully willing to accept that’s due to my own failings rather than Marilynne’s. I love her! <3
June 23, 2025
I love Marilynne Robinson and it was a pleasure to read her thoughts on Genesis. It's hard to categorize this book -- it's part commentary, part literary analysis, and part reflection on how these things fit into the larger themes of the Bible, particularly God's sovereignty and God's grace. She spends lots of time pointing out the humanness of the characters, particularly the patriarchs, and commenting on what the choice to show these very flawed characters says about our God and our faith. She's comfortable dwelling in mystery and hard questions, and points out that Genesis is also comfortable in these spaces.
May 3, 2024
Really insightful reading of Genesis, always aware of the surprise of grace, astounded by God’s care for humans, and convicted of His hand in the most ordinary and mundane— all things working eventually, mysteriously, but undeniably toward Redemption. So good.
March 23, 2024
Robinson is one of our greatest thinkers and each paragraph is dense with meaning, analysis, and new ways to look at a very old book. Her thesis on God’s exceptional interest in humanity, as demonstrated by the families in Genesis, and the way she describes the narrative arc of sacred history over centuries has now shaped my theology. The way she analyzed Cain & Abel changes EVERYTHING.
After spending over a year digging into Genesis around my kitchen table with a few friends, reading this book has made me want to do it all over again! It’s also not lost on me that this book was published the day before our last session on Genesis. What a parting gift!
After spending over a year digging into Genesis around my kitchen table with a few friends, reading this book has made me want to do it all over again! It’s also not lost on me that this book was published the day before our last session on Genesis. What a parting gift!
July 23, 2024
Robinson meditates on Genesis with one eye on ANE literature and one eye on the rest of the cannon … and her thoughts are refreshing. I especially appreciated her themes of God’s providence played out in the lives of ordinary people, God’s mercy tempering judgment, and the ancient Hebrews’ unique faith expressed through familiar stories.
May 20, 2025
A truly enjoyable and very often gorgeous read, and marked by the typical oddities that accompany such things. Robinson's literary reading is characteristically illuminating, if sometimes hermeneutically a bit wonky, and I found that even our points of disagreement still stand as reasons for further cogitation. Fundamentally, she writes in defense of (in praise of?) providence, arguing that the Genesis story "should function as a theological proof that the earthly and the providential are separate things in theory only" when "[i]n fact, neither can be distinguished from the other or exist apart from the other." Relatedly, she is also enamored of Genesis' obsession with all that constitutes humanity -- mankind in all its fallen grit and its promised glory -- and in this way the she and the book seem to mirror the outlook of the Creator, Himself.
"Genesis can hardly be said to end... The whole great literature of Scripture, unfolding over centuries, will proceed on the terms established in this book. So Genesis is carried forward, in the law, in the psalms, in the prophets, itself a spectacular burst of light without an antecedent but with a universe of consequences."
"Genesis can hardly be said to end... The whole great literature of Scripture, unfolding over centuries, will proceed on the terms established in this book. So Genesis is carried forward, in the law, in the psalms, in the prophets, itself a spectacular burst of light without an antecedent but with a universe of consequences."
April 25, 2025
100000% gorgeous and mind blowing. What is man that God is mindful of him. I could read this book everyday for the rest of my life and find some new completely wonderful attribute of God to marvel at. Brilliant.
March 7, 2024
This book has forever changed the way I'll read Genesis. I took many, many notes on Robinson's ideas and there is too much to go into here, so I'll just mention two of her major themes.
First, I guess Robinson is tired of hearing intellectuals dismiss Genesis as nothing more than a rehash of the myths of the Hebrews' neighboring civilizations. So, she focuses on the differences and what those tells us about God. OK - the Epic of Gilgamesh also has a flood story, but how is the Bible's account different? What does it tell us about God's concern for humans and the disasters we face? Other stories receive a similar treatment.
Then, Robinson really tackles the idea of the God of the Hebrew Bible being vengeful. She shows how the Genesis stories show over and over that God is forgiving and how beautiful it is when humans forgive each other. God also fails to punish and curse humans in many situations where it would seem He would be completely justified in doing so.
I've read and loved Marilynne Robinson's novels but I have to say this was even better.
First, I guess Robinson is tired of hearing intellectuals dismiss Genesis as nothing more than a rehash of the myths of the Hebrews' neighboring civilizations. So, she focuses on the differences and what those tells us about God. OK - the Epic of Gilgamesh also has a flood story, but how is the Bible's account different? What does it tell us about God's concern for humans and the disasters we face? Other stories receive a similar treatment.
Then, Robinson really tackles the idea of the God of the Hebrew Bible being vengeful. She shows how the Genesis stories show over and over that God is forgiving and how beautiful it is when humans forgive each other. God also fails to punish and curse humans in many situations where it would seem He would be completely justified in doing so.
I've read and loved Marilynne Robinson's novels but I have to say this was even better.
August 18, 2025
Beautifully written meditations and reflections on the book of Genesis by my favourite author. She's not writing for a Christian audience; she helps us to see Genesis as one of the most influential books in Western society in ways I'd not spotted before.
The only difficulty for those not familiar with the text is that she doesn't reference where she is very frequently, moving pretty freely from story to story and sometimes doubling back on herself. This adds lots to it, but it would make it tricky for anyone reading who wasn't already deeply familiar with the stories of Genesis. The best reading experience for someone like that would be to read Genesis, writing your own questions as you go, and then read Robinson's thoughts.
I love her insight, I love her writing. Give it a go.
The only difficulty for those not familiar with the text is that she doesn't reference where she is very frequently, moving pretty freely from story to story and sometimes doubling back on herself. This adds lots to it, but it would make it tricky for anyone reading who wasn't already deeply familiar with the stories of Genesis. The best reading experience for someone like that would be to read Genesis, writing your own questions as you go, and then read Robinson's thoughts.
I love her insight, I love her writing. Give it a go.
January 31, 2024
This will be one of the most important works on Christianity in years to come. It is already the most compelling book I've read on the topic in the last 15 years if not longer. Robinson's attention, deep reading of scripture, and the scope of the perspective of the Divine are invaluable to the believer and skeptic alike.
May 31, 2025
I love Marilynne Robinson's writing. Whether it's literary fiction or a study of the book of Genesis, Robinson is exceptionally readable and thoughtful.
My husband and I took our time Reading Genesis and used it as a Bible Study.
Thanks #NetGalley @fsgbooks (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) for an electronic eARC of #ReadingGenesis upon my request. All opinions are my own.
My husband and I took our time Reading Genesis and used it as a Bible Study.
Thanks #NetGalley @fsgbooks (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) for an electronic eARC of #ReadingGenesis upon my request. All opinions are my own.
January 31, 2025
A stirring meditation on the book of Genesis. Marilynne Robinson did a masterful job at making me consider the book of Genesis as a whole, not merely as disparate parts, and she weaved it all together in this beautiful, stirring, almost journal-like prose. She made me look at these familiar stories in an entirely new light! I wish she'd done meditations on every book of the Bible.
July 15, 2024
In one fell swoop my confidence or, a harsher condemnation perhaps, my interest in the documentary hypothesis is evaporated. I aspire to love Scripture and humanity, and to love them together, as much as Robinson does.
April 7, 2024
A beautiful work of scholarship and theology by one of the best to ever do it.
Want to read
May 8, 2024DNF, Shelf of Shame
Great distress here.
I was so excited. I bought a new hardback. I'm poor, and I did it.
I can't. We totally believe the same things. I love her fiction. This is freakin' impossible, not fun, and I'm quitting.
My brain power is limited . . .
Great distress here.
I was so excited. I bought a new hardback. I'm poor, and I did it.
I can't. We totally believe the same things. I love her fiction. This is freakin' impossible, not fun, and I'm quitting.
My brain power is limited . . .
April 30, 2024
I've been studying this with a small group online, as we follow the biblical chapters. I prefer Robert Alter's translation and commentary as they're free of a Christian interpretation. However, Robinson uses, and appends, the KJV. I wasn't raised on this but the plainspoken New American Bible which became the standard in a post-Vatican II Church. She's coming from a Calvinist background, but without the shadow of predestination. She examined the first book of the bible in optimistic terms. She perceives its message as demonstrating God's holding back of his wrath more often than letting it loose. She grants humans agency, and admits that the narrative, in keeping in the flaws of its protagonists, reflects the determination of its Hebrew writers to put down all the messy details. Rather than the cynical Babylonian attitude, which she discusses at length early on, the Jewish covenant challenges men and women to take responsibility. Rather than exist as playthings of the deities, Genesis maps out, if with detours, erasures, and blanks, a path by which people work life out.
Tracking this journey, she often digresses, circles back, and jumps ahead towards Jesus and the Christian view, at least that of mainstream Protestants today. She expects you know the text. It's not a chapter summary, but a paraphrase she offers. She veers rather than drives straight through the order we read Genesis today. Seems odd, but approaching this from the redactors' perspective, this enables us to survey the less-than-clear sections, the glimpses of myth, and the suppositions which may have been clearer in the middle of the first milennium BCE. Or maybe not. We'll never know for sure the editorial process entirely.
I did find some of her explication too optimistic in terms of everything will work out fine in the end. She finds God to be more forgiving, and less vindictive, than I expect some in her audience will. However, she's taking pains to stress the love within the actions of the Creator, and she respects the dignity in his creations.
I think she runs past some potentially rich episodes, as with the repetition of the wife-disguised-as sister dodge the Patriarchs try to pull off, the episodes with Tamar, Dinah, and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, among others. But she sets her mind to tackling the big players more than supporting cast. She sticks only to Scripture, so there's no enrichment from midrash. She dutifully compiles her findings, but there's neither documentation nor endnotes as to where she researched her investigation. Unless she's pulling off her one-woman engagement with Genesis, unaided. Which might fit her DIY Protestant mindset.
For me, I marked up many passages on my Kindle. She can be erudite, eloquent, and enlightened. But I didn't find an iota of levity in her style. She comes across as dogged, formidable, and focused. Which keeps her on task, but without much of the character which might be germane to her fictional work, and while the diligence is apparent, I wish she'd have lightened the tone now and then. She's more of a scholar-critic here, but without the novelist's dynamism and variety.
Tracking this journey, she often digresses, circles back, and jumps ahead towards Jesus and the Christian view, at least that of mainstream Protestants today. She expects you know the text. It's not a chapter summary, but a paraphrase she offers. She veers rather than drives straight through the order we read Genesis today. Seems odd, but approaching this from the redactors' perspective, this enables us to survey the less-than-clear sections, the glimpses of myth, and the suppositions which may have been clearer in the middle of the first milennium BCE. Or maybe not. We'll never know for sure the editorial process entirely.
I did find some of her explication too optimistic in terms of everything will work out fine in the end. She finds God to be more forgiving, and less vindictive, than I expect some in her audience will. However, she's taking pains to stress the love within the actions of the Creator, and she respects the dignity in his creations.
I think she runs past some potentially rich episodes, as with the repetition of the wife-disguised-as sister dodge the Patriarchs try to pull off, the episodes with Tamar, Dinah, and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, among others. But she sets her mind to tackling the big players more than supporting cast. She sticks only to Scripture, so there's no enrichment from midrash. She dutifully compiles her findings, but there's neither documentation nor endnotes as to where she researched her investigation. Unless she's pulling off her one-woman engagement with Genesis, unaided. Which might fit her DIY Protestant mindset.
For me, I marked up many passages on my Kindle. She can be erudite, eloquent, and enlightened. But I didn't find an iota of levity in her style. She comes across as dogged, formidable, and focused. Which keeps her on task, but without much of the character which might be germane to her fictional work, and while the diligence is apparent, I wish she'd have lightened the tone now and then. She's more of a scholar-critic here, but without the novelist's dynamism and variety.
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