This is a book which will keep Bible scholars engrossed for a long time as there is much to absorb and work through. However, it will also satisfy anyone who loves to see the divine hand behind the compilation of the Hebrew Scriptures, for this is a treatise on how the story of Adam is also a prefiguring of the story of Israel as a whole.

Author, aims and thesis

The subtitle indicates the author’s belief that the opening chapters can be interpreted as a strategic literary introduction to the rest of the Bible, intentionally foreshadowing Israel’s failure to keep the Sinai covenant and their subsequent exile from the Promised Land. The parallels soon become apparent as Postell highlights numerous links which he claims are intentional and which also explain many of the otherwise perplexing features of the Eden story.

Seth Postell (author of ‘Reading Moses, Seeing Jesus’) is well qualified to undertake this task. He is a Jewish believer and lecturer in Biblical Studies at the Israel College of the Bible in Netanya, Israel. He builds upon existing evidence to substantiate his approach, quoting many other scholarly sources and providing ample footnotes. But he also provides fresh insights of his own while remaining within the conservative mainstream.

This is a treatise on how the story of Adam is also a prefiguring of the story of Israel as a whole.

The Introduction sets out his aims and thesis, as stated above, and this is followed by a brief history of the interpretation of Genesis 1-3, starting with early Jewish sources as well as later Christian writers such as Jerome and Calvin.

New interpretative paradigms

After this comes a look at the critical approach which led to the so-called Documentary Hypothesis of four sources for the Pentateuch (named as J, P, E and D). This idea of a complex multi-sourced composition of the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures has held sway in scholarly circles for a long time, but Postell believes that challenges to this approach are slowly gaining ground, leading to new interpretative paradigms which allow for a unity such as he is suggesting, and which mean that Genesis 1-3 can indeed be seen as a valid introduction to the whole Torah.

The next chapter – Recent Studies – is a bit technical but one section of interest features some of the work of Tvi Erlich, an Israeli scholar, whose comparisons and textual links between the story of the Garden of Eden and that of Israel at Mount Sinai are set out in a useful table form to highlight both the similarities and differences between these two passages of scripture.

The heart of Postell’s book, and the bulk of it, occupying half the overall number of pages, is his ‘Text Centred Analysis’ of Genesis 1-3.

Text Centred Analysis

The heart of Postell’s book, and the bulk of it, occupying half the overall number of pages, is his ‘Text Centred Analysis’ of Genesis 1-3. Here we find the primary purpose of the book and what may well be the most worthwhile for the lay reader. This analysis spreads across two chapters and is full of fascinating detail, if a little repetitive in places.

For Postell, applying a text-centred compositional analysis of Genesis 1-3 enables us to discern the function of these chapters within the Torah and indeed with the Tanakh as a whole. This is where Postell’s insistence on a coherent and cohesive unity is important, as it is only in the final product, rather than in the compositional process, that such ideas become apparent and make sense.

However, just before all this comes another chapter that should not be overlooked. Called Methodology, Postell sets out what a text-centred approach means, giving us important insights into what is to come in the next two chapters. He firstly tells us what a text-centred approach is not, before explaining what it does involve.

The author reassures us that such a methodology is not ahistorical (meaning it does not deny historical references), nor does it try to find meaning outside of the text or within the subjectivity of the reading experience. Rather it assumes “author intentionality”, a key phrase often used, which means we can trust the original author, or authors, to have placed what they want to convey firmly in the words and literary structures which they have chosen to employ. Postell concludes this section with a discussion of various types of intertextuality, but that may again be getting a little too technical for some.

"Author intentionality”, a key phrase often used, means we can trust the original author, or authors, to have placed what they want to convey firmly in the words and literary structures which they have chosen to employ.

Rounding off

After the two main chapters already mentioned above, comes a conclusion, or summary chapter, which not only rounds off the whole thesis, but adds some new thoughts as well. Is Genesis 1-3 not only an introduction to the Torah but to the whole of the Old Testament? Some fascinating links are discussed in order to show that this may well be the case.

As expected in a book of this type there is a large bibliography and two full indices, one of Scripture, the other of subjects and names.

This splendid scholarly book will not be for everyone, but it will certainly feed the minds of those who delight in exploring the greater depths of Scripture, especially regarding the final form of the texts we now have.

Adam as Israel (204pp) is published by Pickwick Publications, and is on offer from Book Depository for £16.69