Remembering Eden: The Reception History of Genesis 3: 22-24 - Hardcover

Lanfer, Peter Thacher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199926743 ISBN 13: 9780199926749

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2012

Synopsis

There are few texts as central to the mythology of Jewish and Christian literature as the Garden of Eden story of Genesis 2-3 and its attendant motifs. Yet the direct citation of this text within the biblical corpus is surprisingly rare. Even more conspicuous is the infrequent reference to creation, or to the archetypal first human pair. Though Early Jewish and Christian interpretations of Genesis 2-3 are numerous, there have been few analyses of the impact of the Eden account beyond the biblical canon. The few analyses that exist, moreover, often omit any discussion of Gen. 3: 22-24 dismissing this text as a late addition and therefore irrelevant. In Remembering Eden, Peter Thacher Lanfer argues that textual additions, interpretations, and translations are often the products of ideological and historically rooted decisions.

About this title

Review:

An intellectual tour-de-force that ranges from the palace reliefs of 18th-century BCE Mari to the rabbinical literature of the 2nd century CE in order to explicate the interpretive history of the Garden of Eden's tree of life and associated motifs. Along the way, we learn of the nature of immortality, the pitfalls of wisdom, and hopes of a future paradise. A veritable feast of scholarly erudition from an exciting young scholar! (Susan Ackerman, Preston H. Kelsey Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College)

About the Author:

Lecturer in Hebrew Bible and religions of the Ancient Near East at University of California Los Angeles; Lecturer in Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Christianity at Dartmouth College.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0199926743
• ISBN 13: 9780199926749
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 268