Kass, Leon R. "The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis", The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Seeking Wisdom

Amos Lassen

I have been told that those seeking wisdom should start that search in the beginning--with the book of Genesis but to do so within its own context. Some claim that the search for knowledge without G-d is why Eve failed in the Garden of Eden. According to Kass the fall of Adam and Eve was not a fall at all but a rise to humanity. I am not sure I agree because to do so might invalidate the many lessons that are to be learned in the first book of the Old Testament.
Kass undertakes many themes in this book and among them are our relationship to G-d, to our families, to our community, to the environment as well as looking at what the basis is of a life well lived. We live in an age that knowledge increases very, very quickly and we have the means for our own self-destruction. What we lack is basic wisdom, a way to know how to go about acquiring wisdom.
For Biblical exegesis this book is at the top and its strength is that the author looked at all translations and is able to point some of the subtle distinctions in language which indeed can alter a text. He gives competing and intelligent interpretations and he manages to unlock the meaning of some of the scriptures but the problematic ones remain just as problematic.
There is a great deal of information here and Kass presents it in a lucid way. He follows the storylines in a chronological and coherent way and he looks at every verse in a way that provides a greater understanding. He searches for a way of looking at the Bible with no agenda and with no bias but to seek wisdom and truth. Kass says that we should read Genesis skeptically and with faith and thoughtful encouragement and let the text speak for itself. It is thoughtful encouragement that takes us to wisdom. If we do this, we see the Bible for what it really is and the characters for who they really are. There are no superheroes and no demi-gods with infallibility but real people who made both bad and good judgments. Kass gives us a wonderful way to read the book of Genesis and reading his book shows us that all of us can attain wisdom.

Kass, Leon R. "The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis", The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Seeking Wisdom

Amos Lassen

I have been told that those seeking wisdom should start that search in the beginning--with the book of Genesis but to do so within its own context. Some claim that the search for knowledge without G-d is why Eve failed in the Garden of Eden. According to Kass the fall of Adam and Eve was not a fall at all but a rise to humanity. I am not sure I agree because to do so might invalidate the many lessons that are to be learned in the first book of the Old Testament.
Kass undertakes many themes in this book and among them are our relationship to G-d, to our families, to our community, to the environment as well as looking at what the basis is of a life well lived. We live in an age that knowledge increases very, very quickly and we have the means for our own self-destruction. What we lack is basic wisdom, a way to know how to go about acquiring wisdom.
For Biblical exegesis this book is at the top and its strength is that the author looked at all translations and is able to point some of the subtle distinctions in language which indeed can alter a text. He gives competing and intelligent interpretations and he manages to unlock the meaning of some of the scriptures but the problematic ones remain just as problematic.
There is a great deal of information here and Kass presents it in a lucid way. He follows the storylines in a chronological and coherent way and he looks at every verse in a way that provides a greater understanding. He searches for a way of looking at the Bible with no agenda and with no bias but to seek wisdom and truth. Kass says that we should read Genesis skeptically and with faith and thoughtful encouragement and let the text speak for itself. It is thoughtful encouragement that takes us to wisdom. If we do this, we see the Bible for what it really is and the characters for who they really are. There are no superheroes and no demi-gods with infallibility but real people who made both bad and good judgments. Kass gives us a wonderful way to read the book of Genesis and reading his book shows us that all of us can attain wisdom.

In his instructive introduction to this work Kass surveys some of the ways in which the Bible is now read. He talks about the philological and linguistic critics who search to find historicize the work through noting its variant readings. He speaks of the literary approaches which aim to reveal its stylistic and artistic power. He speaks of the various Post- Modern approaches, and the politically correct ones which seek to indict the Bible for Marxist, feminist, ecological reasons. He speaks of the literal fundamenlist religious readings which force the Bible into straightjacket closed worlds of meaning.
As opposed to this he offers a philosophical and moral approach, one in which the Bible is read, and in this case specifically 'Genesis' for its understanding of the eternal verities of the human situation. As he notes the ancient Greeks came to seek understanding of the world from 'wonder' at things as they are, and as they are not. The ancient Hebrew of the Bible were instead moved by awe and reverence of God and their search for wisdom which could guide them to living righteous lives.
What Kass does in this book is take these foundation- stories of the Biblical tradition, stories of Adam and Eve in the Garden, of Cain and Abel, of the Biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, of Joseph and his brothers and read them not in a simplistic one-dimensional way but rather in a complicated questioning and sophisticated way. The Wisdom to be gotten here from this book is not that which is directly and simply imposed and commanded, but rather which comes out of inquiry and dialogue out of a non- dogmatic search for understanding.
Thus this work invites the reader not to be a rubber- stamp but to be a thinker- along- with it. It is written with great respect for the reader and the wisdom which comes out of respect of the reader's intelligence, rationality and freedom.
Reading the book will do , I believe for most readers, what all of Leon Kass's writing does for me , enhance our sense of our human dignity and value.

As the author points out, most books on the Bible come from either of two points of view: 1) historical, how did the book come about? or 2) from a particular religious tradition.

The problem with the historical approach is that it tends to debunk the contents and rarely offers much insight into the contents.

The problem with the latter is that, although a religious tradition can enrich our understanding of the text, it can narrow our vision. The text comes to serve the agenda of the particular tradition.

Neither approach treats this extraordinarily rich text with the respect that it deserves. Kass offers a philosophical, deep reading of Genesis that is engrossing and very readable.

This is one of the most interesting books that I have ever read.