In the Beginning: A Conversation on the Book of Genesis

by Allison Kohn

This is a conversation on the book of Genesis, not as though it was a science book, nor is it a history book. As I say in the preface, I like to think of it as an introduction to who Yahweh is.
As we study the book of Genesis we will not impose any modern issues on the text. We will be studying from the point of view of the ones it was first written to and from; therefore, we will have to have some understanding of how the ancients saw their world and where the information for the book came from. We know that Moses wrote it, but where did Moses get his information?
Moses was an educated man. He would have had the writings from the entire known world to study and compare. It is possible that he had access to records brought to Egypt by his ancestors. Perhaps Abraham brought them from Ur. Or, God could have dictated them to Moses. That; however, will not be our focus as we study this book of beginnings.
In the beginning Yahweh created the heavens and the earth and the Word – that Word that later became flesh and dwelt among us – was with Yahweh – and he was Yahweh. Yahweh is the third person of the verb heyah “To Be”. Whether in the first or third person the word expresses our God as THE (one and only) Self-existent One responsible for all existence including his own –the great I AM.
“All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.”1

ebook

Published December 15, 2015

About the author

I was born in 1938 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. My grandmother was the first white child to enter the valley and I heard stories about pioneering from the time I was laying in my basenette. That was the beginning of my love of history and telling stories. When I discovered the power of the written word, I used it, not only for writing serious pieces for for expressing my views on politics and religion, but to tell parables - interesting stories to demonstrate helpful truths.
I published devotions on line for about three years and numerous newspaper articles through the years. I also published some of my novels on line a few years ago, but now it is time to get my writing out to a broader public.

Reviews

[Marcus Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first experience of reading a book that contained numerous footnotes on Kindle. Maybe there is an art to it, but I don't know it; suppose it is a limitation of the kindle system.
In any case, this book was easy to read and is well written, for even though it contains a lot of information, it is still basically a devotional book.
The book of Genesis is a hot potato, and opinions concerning just about every aspect of it are diverse, and hotly debated. Allison Kohn does not allow herself to get bogged down with all that. After explaining her opinion about the purpose of the text, she remains true to that throughout the book, thereby avoiding confusing the reader. She also includes a fair bit of information about the Jewish writings concerning Genesis, which is another thing that makes this book unusual. As the subtitle indicates, this book is a conversation, not a lecture.