Iconic Stories of Genesis

The two creation stories, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel story, Abraham “venturing forth,” the Binding of Isaac, and the Joseph story are among the most iconic stories in all of world literature. Learn not only to appreciate each of them in their magnificence, but also to discern the unity in their message, taken as components of a single Book. The Joseph story, without the Yehudah and Tamar story, is as incomplete as is the Binding of Isaac without the “venturing forth” narrative. As literary critic Robert Alter insists, whether a reader is secular, agnostic or religious, the literary lens brings out more of what the Bible has always offered to its readers, and perhaps new contemporary meanings as well.