How to Read Genesis - Tremper Longman III

Recently I have begun a personal study of Genesis and started by reading Longman's book mentioned above as an introduction to the major themes and structures of the book to better understand it. A few thoughts:

1. This is a fantastic introduction to Genesis and I highly recommend it. It's easy to read and understand and is very short (180 pgs.)

2. The book of Genesis itself is fascinating. From the "story-like history" style, to heartbreaking stories (Fall, Flood, some of Joseph), to what seems totally absurd (Judah and Tamar), but mostly to God's persevering mercy for his people, it is almost overwhelming.

3. I've also realized how much more of the Bible you can understand when you understand Genesis. In fact, I am begining to think it is impossible to understand the New Testament at ALL without a knowledge of the OT. To go even further, it would be difficult to understand what Jesus did without an understanding of the OT or more specficially Genesis. Christological themes run throughout such as Gen. 3:15 called The Protoevangelium (I'll let you read about that on your own), the seed of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3), Mechizedek (Gen. 14:17-20), and the story of Joseph (What you intended to harm me, God intended for good). The richness of the Genesis story is fantastic.

Many Christians focus on all the wrong things in Genesis such as "how long did creation take?" "where did the serpent come from?" "how did Noah get the animals on the boat?" If God would have wanted us to have known or the author would have found those details even slightly important, (H)he probably would have told us. But he didn't and so it's mindboggling to see people using the Genesis account to argue against modern scientific findings (that are shaky, no doubt). But Genesis is not a scientific argument, it's a historical narrative and should be read as such!
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