In this episode of The Bible for Normal People Podcast, Pete and Jared talk about the themes in their newly upgraded book: Genesis for Normal People! They give us a taste of the multifaceted nature of Genesis as they explore the following questions:
- How have science and archeology influenced how we read Genesis?
- What do we assume when we say the Bible makes historical claims?
- What are the different creation accounts in Genesis trying to tell us?
- What are some of the underlying themes of Genesis?
- How do the themes of Genesis help us understand when the text was written?
- How is Genesis connected to Proverbs?
- How does the God character change throughout Genesis?
- What are some themes of the Joseph story?
- What’s the deal with all the younger brothers in the Bible?
- What does the Bible teach us about lying and trickery?
- How does privilege affect the questions we ask about the Bible?
- How does Genesis mirror a political map of a later time?
- How does the ancient worldview differ from ours today?
- Why was Genesis written?
- How do the contents of Genesis shape how we read the rest of the Bible?
Tweetables
Pithy, shareable, less-than-280-character statements from Pete and Jared you can share.
- “A careful reading of the Bible is a beautiful thing; it can also be a rather deconstructing thing at times.” @peteenns
- “If we read the Bible closely, it impacts how we think of scripture in general” @jbyas
- “Modern, western assumptions are not eternally correct and protected from all criticism.” @peteenns
- A real critical approach means you are critical of yourself as well when you read it. That doesn’t hamstring you, it actually frees you to explore the text and to engage people of the past who have engaged it as well.” @peteenns
- “A close reading [of the Bible] is prophetic in the sense that it criticizes our own assumptions and ideologies that we’ve brought to it” @jbyas
- “The past is always written about for the sake of present… there’s some connection to helping us understand who we are today.” @peteenns
- “Why are these themes here, what are they trying to say?” @jbyas
- “When you write about the past you’re trying to say something about your present.” @peteenns
