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The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis
Imagine that you could really understand the Bible...that you could read, analyze, and discuss the book of Genesis not as a compositional mystery, a cultural relic, or a linguistic puzzle palace, or even as religious doctrine, but as a philosophical classic, precisely in the same way that a truth-seeking reader would study Plato or Nietzsche. Imagine that you could be led in your study by one of America's preeminent intellectuals and that he would help you to an understanding of the book that is deeper than you'd ever dreamed possible, that he would reveal line by line, verse by verse the incredible riches of this illuminating text -- one of the very few that actually deserve to be called seminal. Imagine that you could get, from Genesis, the beginning of wisdom. The Beginning of Wisdom is a hugely learned book that, like Genesis itself, falls naturally into two sections. The first shows how the universal history described in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, from creation to the tower of Babel, conveys, in the words of Leon Kass, "a coherent anthropology" -- a general teaching about human nature -- that "rivals anything produced by the great philosophers." Serving also as a mirror for the reader's self-discovery, these stories offer profound insights into the problematic character of human reason, speech, freedom, sexual desire, the love of the beautiful, pride, shame, anger, guilt, and death. Something as seemingly innocuous as the monotonous recounting of the ten generations from Adam to Noah yields a powerful lesson in the way in which humanity encounters its own mortality. In the story of the tower of Babel are deep understandings of the ambiguous power of speech, reason, and the arts; the hazards of unity and aloneness; the meaning of the city and its quest for self-sufficiency; and man's desire for fame, immortality, and apotheosis -- and the disasters these necessarily cause. Against this background of human failure, Part Two of The Beginning of Wisdom explores the struggles to launch a new human way, informed by the special Abrahamic covenant with the divine, that might address the problems and avoid the disasters of humankind's natural propensities. Close, eloquent, and brilliant readings of the lives and educations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's sons reveal eternal wisdom about marriage, parenting, brotherhood, education, justice, political and moral leadership, and of course the ultimate How to live a good life? Connecting the two "parts" is the book's overarching philosophical and pedagogical how understanding the dangers and accepting the limits of human powers can open the door to a superior way of life, not only for a solitary man of virtue but for an entire community -- a life devoted to righteousness and holiness. This extraordinary book finally shows Genesis as a coherent whole, beginning with the creation of the natural world and ending with the creation of a nation that hearkens to the awe-inspiring summons to godliness. A unique and ambitious commentary, a remarkably readable literary exegesis and philosophical companion, The Beginning of Wisdom is one of the most important books in decades on perhaps the most important -- and surely the most frequently read -- book of all time.
720 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
81 people are currently reading
936 people want to read
About the author
Leon R. Kass
32 books58 followers American physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual, best known as proponent of liberal education via the "Great Books," as an opponent of human cloning, life extension and euthanasia, as a critic of certain areas of technological progress and embryo research, and for his controversial tenure as chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2005. Although Kass is often referred to as a bioethicist, he eschews the term and refers to himself as "an old-fashioned humanist.
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August 30, 2007
Kass is an admirer of Mr. Leo Strauss and a former bioethics adviser to Mr. George W. Bush. His reading of Genesis is ponderously long, and it never misses a chance to announce that you and he are embarked on a 'wisdom-seeking' approach to the text. Still interested? Well, page after page Kass and his seminar pals (he doesn't cite much secondary literature, but he does quote his students liberally) generate dozens of straightforward, non-tendentious insights into the text. Ultimately, the wisdom-seeking or Straussian approach seems to amount to two appealing views. First, Genesis is best read as a piece of philosophical anthropology. (That is, as an account of human nature and human institutions, not as revelation, not as redaction, and not -- my own tendency -- as a repository of very gnarly tales.) Second, it sustains a good deal of very close reading.
Here's an example. When the woman (she is not yet Eve) responds to the serpent, she seems to make two interesting mistakes. First, she says that God has forbidden her to eat from the tree "in the middle of the garden." But according to 2:9, it is the tree of life that has been planted there, not necessarily the tree of knowledge (whose location is left ambiguous). This would have seemed to me a quibble were it not that, second, the woman says that God has forbidden her not only to eat from the tree, but to touch it as well. And yet in 2:17, God's interdiction refers to eating alone. Do these observations add up to anything? They do serve to remind us that the woman was not present when God gave the command, and they thereby suggest that the woman may have misunderstood or been misinformed by the man. And this, in a small but not uninteresting way, opens up to us, in advance of the Fall, something like the possibility of language failing us (this is different from the serpent's manipulation) or of people simply failing one another.
With these points in mind, moreover, it is interesting to reconsider the decision to eat from the tree: "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate" (3:6). For one, the woman's claims are again at variance with what the reader knows about the garden. She "sees" that the tree is good for food. But 2:9 seems to distinguish the trees of life and knowledge from those that are "pleasant to sight and good for food" rather than to include them in their number. But second, and more importantly, Kass notices that the woman has determined in advance of moving to eat from the tree that the tree is good. (Good for food.) It is in fact her own ability to recognize goodness simply on the basis of the visual evidence (presumably, she is comparing this tree to others which it resembles and which are themselves good for food), and thus not the serpent's ambiguous claims, that justify her decision to eat. And the thing Kass observes here -- and, who knows, I am sure he is not the first, but Jack Miles certainly missed it, and so did my Sunday School teacher -- is that the whole point of eating from the tree was to gain knowledge of good and bad. In claiming to know that the tree is good before she has learned what goodness is, the woman is thus committing a profound sort of error. And Kass seems right to say that the error is her implicit assumption that her use of reason -- observing, comparing, sorting, classing -- is a reliable path to truth. One might go on to say that her attempt to reason herself into the very pursuit of reasoning, into the knowledge of good and evil, shows us something profound about the risks of foundationalism in philosophy or (a related case) of the difficulties we run into when we try to give ourselves reasons to be rational. But that would take us pretty far out of Eden.
Here's an example. When the woman (she is not yet Eve) responds to the serpent, she seems to make two interesting mistakes. First, she says that God has forbidden her to eat from the tree "in the middle of the garden." But according to 2:9, it is the tree of life that has been planted there, not necessarily the tree of knowledge (whose location is left ambiguous). This would have seemed to me a quibble were it not that, second, the woman says that God has forbidden her not only to eat from the tree, but to touch it as well. And yet in 2:17, God's interdiction refers to eating alone. Do these observations add up to anything? They do serve to remind us that the woman was not present when God gave the command, and they thereby suggest that the woman may have misunderstood or been misinformed by the man. And this, in a small but not uninteresting way, opens up to us, in advance of the Fall, something like the possibility of language failing us (this is different from the serpent's manipulation) or of people simply failing one another.
With these points in mind, moreover, it is interesting to reconsider the decision to eat from the tree: "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate" (3:6). For one, the woman's claims are again at variance with what the reader knows about the garden. She "sees" that the tree is good for food. But 2:9 seems to distinguish the trees of life and knowledge from those that are "pleasant to sight and good for food" rather than to include them in their number. But second, and more importantly, Kass notices that the woman has determined in advance of moving to eat from the tree that the tree is good. (Good for food.) It is in fact her own ability to recognize goodness simply on the basis of the visual evidence (presumably, she is comparing this tree to others which it resembles and which are themselves good for food), and thus not the serpent's ambiguous claims, that justify her decision to eat. And the thing Kass observes here -- and, who knows, I am sure he is not the first, but Jack Miles certainly missed it, and so did my Sunday School teacher -- is that the whole point of eating from the tree was to gain knowledge of good and bad. In claiming to know that the tree is good before she has learned what goodness is, the woman is thus committing a profound sort of error. And Kass seems right to say that the error is her implicit assumption that her use of reason -- observing, comparing, sorting, classing -- is a reliable path to truth. One might go on to say that her attempt to reason herself into the very pursuit of reasoning, into the knowledge of good and evil, shows us something profound about the risks of foundationalism in philosophy or (a related case) of the difficulties we run into when we try to give ourselves reasons to be rational. But that would take us pretty far out of Eden.
June 25, 2010
A lion of a book! I have read Genesis numerous times and I learned things and gained insights from Kass that I have never had. I understand now like I never did before why Jews have retained their faith these thousands of years. The Jews understand that God's promise must be passed on to the next generation. As a Christian, I have never understood that. This is an important book.
July 14, 2023
An imaginative, downright pyrotechnic reading of Genesis. There are times when you can tell Kass’s feat aren’t on the ground, like his reading that Abraham was actually delaying fatherhood out of ambivalence with fatherhood. But even in his most sideways readings, he still finds ways to uncover depths of wisdom buried in this enigmatic text
In Kass’s Genesis, we see the story of YHWH’s repeated attempts to meet Man and Man’s attempts to meet his destiny. First YHWH’s ties to act in universal history, even starting over more than once. But slowly over time and experience, YHWH winnows down his instruction to one man, who will pass it down to one family, who will pass it down to one nation which will be a model for all the earth. Rather than being a universal teacher, YHWH relies on Abraham to transmit what he has learned to his children, and in a way, YHWH relying on the transmission between generations, they choose to act in faith in man, that man will succeed in this universal mission.
I’ve seen reviews dinging Kass because a large number of his citations are from his own students (he taught Genesis for decades at U Chicago). While I think he always wisely uses Robert Alter’s translations and analysis as a guardrail, I think inoculating the decades of student notes into this commentary is the core of this book’s charm.
Reading this book, we are part of a long, long discussion on one of our ancient books. The deep love is matched by the closeness of the reading here. As a reader, I felt privy to a community acting out that same transmission that made heroes of the patriarchs. Readings that were theme and variation, Sic et non. It makes me want to take the plunge into the text with others and find what wisdom bubbles up.
In Kass’s Genesis, we see the story of YHWH’s repeated attempts to meet Man and Man’s attempts to meet his destiny. First YHWH’s ties to act in universal history, even starting over more than once. But slowly over time and experience, YHWH winnows down his instruction to one man, who will pass it down to one family, who will pass it down to one nation which will be a model for all the earth. Rather than being a universal teacher, YHWH relies on Abraham to transmit what he has learned to his children, and in a way, YHWH relying on the transmission between generations, they choose to act in faith in man, that man will succeed in this universal mission.
I’ve seen reviews dinging Kass because a large number of his citations are from his own students (he taught Genesis for decades at U Chicago). While I think he always wisely uses Robert Alter’s translations and analysis as a guardrail, I think inoculating the decades of student notes into this commentary is the core of this book’s charm.
Reading this book, we are part of a long, long discussion on one of our ancient books. The deep love is matched by the closeness of the reading here. As a reader, I felt privy to a community acting out that same transmission that made heroes of the patriarchs. Readings that were theme and variation, Sic et non. It makes me want to take the plunge into the text with others and find what wisdom bubbles up.
March 8, 2011
All my life I have heard wise old men say things like, "I've been studying the Bible all my life, and it seems like every year I learn how little I know." I didn't feel like that. I felt like my Bible study was taking me somewhere. I felt like I was making progress, like the day couldn't be too far off that I would really know the Bible inside and out.
Then I read The Beginning of Wisdom and I understood what all those wise old men were talking about. I have known the Genesis stories all my life -- I can't remember learning them, because I can't remember not knowing them. But I realized, reading this book in my late 30s, that I had no idea what those stories are about.
I had often heard the Bible compared to mythology, and I misunderstood that term. I thought of popular writing that lists "myths" and "facts" of exercise or healthy eating or whatever, in which "myth" means "mistake," or "widely held belief that is demonstrably false." I thought that was what people meant when they called the Bible mythological -- that it isn't true.
Early on, Kass says of Genesis, "These stories are so powerful, not because they tell us what happened, but because they tell us what always happens." And that one sentence opened my eyes. Now I know for sure I will never get to the bottom of the Bible. There will always be more for me to learn.
Then I read The Beginning of Wisdom and I understood what all those wise old men were talking about. I have known the Genesis stories all my life -- I can't remember learning them, because I can't remember not knowing them. But I realized, reading this book in my late 30s, that I had no idea what those stories are about.
I had often heard the Bible compared to mythology, and I misunderstood that term. I thought of popular writing that lists "myths" and "facts" of exercise or healthy eating or whatever, in which "myth" means "mistake," or "widely held belief that is demonstrably false." I thought that was what people meant when they called the Bible mythological -- that it isn't true.
Early on, Kass says of Genesis, "These stories are so powerful, not because they tell us what happened, but because they tell us what always happens." And that one sentence opened my eyes. Now I know for sure I will never get to the bottom of the Bible. There will always be more for me to learn.
September 29, 2012
Quite simply, the best commentary on Genesis ever, and among the five most important books I have read. Kass develops the implications of a biblical world view, avoids both fundamentalism and theological liberalism and lays the groundwork for understanding how to read scripture whether or not one considers himself a believer. I love, love, love this book.
April 7, 2013
I'd recommend this to anyone like me who can't stand reading the Bible but knows there's much to be extrapolated from it. The author walks a delicate line between piety and godlessness, tries to wrestle your preconceptions from you, then digs for wisdom in the stories. Since the Bible seems to me just a choppy, awkward string of cliches, I wanted someone intelligent to do the analyzing for me -- this is that. If anything, it's too detailed... interestingly, 666 pages worth. I like his view that the Christian/Hebrew God is essentially opposed to cities because not only are they a hotbed of exploitation and lasciviousness, they also tend to make humans feel self-sufficient thus in no need of the divine. My favorite insights are those related to the Hebrew language, though. For instance the first letter of the Bible starts with a letter looking something like [ -- possibly to imply that wondering what's above or what came before Creation is forbidden. So many gems like that. Quite a few are in the footnotes, though, so I recommend reading all of them.
January 3, 2025
A profound and pious interpretation of Genesis as a political anthropology.
November 25, 2018
The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis
Leon R Kass 11.18
Prof. Kass takes a Philosophic” approach to reading Genesis - one that is wisdom seeking to assume the text has something to tell us about “the nature and being of things.” While different from the basis of Greek knowledge, wonder, the Bible starts its seeking from the position of awe and reverence.]
P. Kass’s view strikes a middle ground between standard interpretations which are either
- Fundamentalist -
- Liberal religious - the stories tend to elaborate our already preconceived notions of justice
- Scientific - the Bible is studied like an artifact with nothing to teach us apart from illuminating the time and place of those who wrote it.
All of the above 3 approaches have their merit - even the fundamentalists close reading can bear much information about the author’s intent even if one doesn’t believe in god. Yet, Kass takes the work seriously, assuming the authors synthesized a long tradition of those seeking the core of human nature and the relations between man and women, brothers, husbands and wives, and families. And how those entities interact with the world as a whole in a way that protects the individual, the tribe, and others.
Krass takes a story by story approach. His analysis and close reading of each of the major sections of Genesis provide much wisdom, and I expect to return to them whenever I’m in search of new knowledge. The book can delve too much into the trees, oven spending pages simply summarizing the text. I would have preferred that Krass has pulled back his perspective more often to relate the individual stories to the Genesis project as a whole. As I see that whole, Genais moves from the cosmic disorder to focus first on the individual, then cities in general with universal laws, then family relations, and finally setting the table for the Bible’s ultimate settling point - detailed laws based on universal principles, but applied to a particular group (Exodus).
Leon R Kass 11.18
Prof. Kass takes a Philosophic” approach to reading Genesis - one that is wisdom seeking to assume the text has something to tell us about “the nature and being of things.” While different from the basis of Greek knowledge, wonder, the Bible starts its seeking from the position of awe and reverence.]
P. Kass’s view strikes a middle ground between standard interpretations which are either
- Fundamentalist -
- Liberal religious - the stories tend to elaborate our already preconceived notions of justice
- Scientific - the Bible is studied like an artifact with nothing to teach us apart from illuminating the time and place of those who wrote it.
All of the above 3 approaches have their merit - even the fundamentalists close reading can bear much information about the author’s intent even if one doesn’t believe in god. Yet, Kass takes the work seriously, assuming the authors synthesized a long tradition of those seeking the core of human nature and the relations between man and women, brothers, husbands and wives, and families. And how those entities interact with the world as a whole in a way that protects the individual, the tribe, and others.
Krass takes a story by story approach. His analysis and close reading of each of the major sections of Genesis provide much wisdom, and I expect to return to them whenever I’m in search of new knowledge. The book can delve too much into the trees, oven spending pages simply summarizing the text. I would have preferred that Krass has pulled back his perspective more often to relate the individual stories to the Genesis project as a whole. As I see that whole, Genais moves from the cosmic disorder to focus first on the individual, then cities in general with universal laws, then family relations, and finally setting the table for the Bible’s ultimate settling point - detailed laws based on universal principles, but applied to a particular group (Exodus).
March 26, 2012
An important book. Dr Kass is one of the brightest thinkers of our time....a very wise man.
March 6, 2013
I just finished it and all I can say is wow
December 6, 2020
This is an extremely close reading of Genesis(perhaps even closer than Rashi and other Talmudists)
I find the insights absolutely fascinating and wonder whether the original editor(s) intended these relationships to be revealed. Is it their Wisdom or is it that of Kass? I remain troubled by the attempt to “fill-in-the-blanks” approach by Kass in order to extract the wisdom that the Bible provides versus the recognition that this wisdom doesn’t have to be justified by such a close reading of the Bible. There are other ways to account for the inconsistencies ( multiple editors, sloppiness, pure errors) instead of laying these down as foundations for the wisdom as the Core Truths in the Bible.
Kass suggests that God of the Bible was not so much a Creator, World-Ruler, or Lawgiver than as an Educator. “That which education is to the individual, Revelation is to the Race,” he wrote in observing that the transition from the book of Genesis, in which God cultivates each of the patriarchs one by one, to the book of Exodus, in which he makes a covenant with an entire nation, reflects a “new impulse” in the biblical narrative. For when God “neither could, nor would, reveal Himself any more to each individual man, He chose an individual People for His special education.” Nor was the education of the Israelites an end in itself. Rather, in selecting them to be his pupils, God was “bringing up in them the future Teachers of the human race.”
The Bible, however, is not just about the education of a people. It is also about the education of God. Indeed, it is precisely when it comes to God’s education that the Bible is at its most tragic.
Jacob, who starts off as a trickster, now seems to be the propellant towards setting the nation of Israel on its path to becoming a distinct people. The people and Jacob himself are supposed to have some moral compass (but it’s hard to see what that is with the obvious flouting of the Noahide Laws). By example, Jacob enjoins his family from the dangers of being Egyptianized and sets in their consciousness the need to return to the Promised Land, at least to be buried there.
This is a monumental work.
I find the insights absolutely fascinating and wonder whether the original editor(s) intended these relationships to be revealed. Is it their Wisdom or is it that of Kass? I remain troubled by the attempt to “fill-in-the-blanks” approach by Kass in order to extract the wisdom that the Bible provides versus the recognition that this wisdom doesn’t have to be justified by such a close reading of the Bible. There are other ways to account for the inconsistencies ( multiple editors, sloppiness, pure errors) instead of laying these down as foundations for the wisdom as the Core Truths in the Bible.
Kass suggests that God of the Bible was not so much a Creator, World-Ruler, or Lawgiver than as an Educator. “That which education is to the individual, Revelation is to the Race,” he wrote in observing that the transition from the book of Genesis, in which God cultivates each of the patriarchs one by one, to the book of Exodus, in which he makes a covenant with an entire nation, reflects a “new impulse” in the biblical narrative. For when God “neither could, nor would, reveal Himself any more to each individual man, He chose an individual People for His special education.” Nor was the education of the Israelites an end in itself. Rather, in selecting them to be his pupils, God was “bringing up in them the future Teachers of the human race.”
The Bible, however, is not just about the education of a people. It is also about the education of God. Indeed, it is precisely when it comes to God’s education that the Bible is at its most tragic.
Jacob, who starts off as a trickster, now seems to be the propellant towards setting the nation of Israel on its path to becoming a distinct people. The people and Jacob himself are supposed to have some moral compass (but it’s hard to see what that is with the obvious flouting of the Noahide Laws). By example, Jacob enjoins his family from the dangers of being Egyptianized and sets in their consciousness the need to return to the Promised Land, at least to be buried there.
This is a monumental work.
March 7, 2021
This is an interesting premise, I am not particularly religious but have a fascination with all religions. Usually, I learn about the bible in a historical context, what do the oldest texts say, what are the discrepancies, etc. This book took a different approach that I appreciate.
All that said the writing didn't click with me. I often found myself glossing over paragraphs immediately like I hadn't read the words but also had no desire to go back. Many nights I had to push through to read another chapter. I also am one who loves to read footnotes but found that it broke up the text worse than usual and didn't provide enough value to justify how much worse of a reading experience it made it.
Another point of contention was just some of the takeaways and arguments I felt were lackluster. I didn't agree with the premise and Kass never provided enough to sway me. It did cause some internal monologue at times on why I interpret the text differently which can be said to be a success for the intended wisdom/philosophical reading.
I do have a better understanding and appreciation for the Book of Genesis after reading this book though. And many of the gripes I have will not be shared with another reader. To me, if the blurb on the back explaining the book's premise intrigues you give it a shot because this is one of those books that is a 2* for me but I can easily envision being a 4* or 5* for the right reader.
All that said the writing didn't click with me. I often found myself glossing over paragraphs immediately like I hadn't read the words but also had no desire to go back. Many nights I had to push through to read another chapter. I also am one who loves to read footnotes but found that it broke up the text worse than usual and didn't provide enough value to justify how much worse of a reading experience it made it.
Another point of contention was just some of the takeaways and arguments I felt were lackluster. I didn't agree with the premise and Kass never provided enough to sway me. It did cause some internal monologue at times on why I interpret the text differently which can be said to be a success for the intended wisdom/philosophical reading.
I do have a better understanding and appreciation for the Book of Genesis after reading this book though. And many of the gripes I have will not be shared with another reader. To me, if the blurb on the back explaining the book's premise intrigues you give it a shot because this is one of those books that is a 2* for me but I can easily envision being a 4* or 5* for the right reader.
January 27, 2025
Scholarly but very readable, this book is thought-provoking and full of fresh ideas. This is a philosophical take on Genesis more than a theological, which at its best provides a cogent reflection on the limitations of man and the slow education of the patriarchs to grasp a truer vision of their humanity. In his attempt to look at the book with fresh eyes, sometimes Kass wanders far from the text, weaving theories that are sometimes interesting and sometimes infuriating. His take on Joseph is deeply uncharitable, portraying him as a self-serving, naive son who was ambivalent about the Hebrew God and threatened the stability of the patriarchal tradition. Perhaps the traditional Christian view of Joseph could be brought down a notch or two, but I found this a bit much, particularly because there’s just plain bad exegesis. (Where does the text suggest that Joseph was to blame for the incident with Potiphar’s wife, or that he viewed himself as god and only appealed to the Hebrew God for political purposes?)
All told, an engaging read, although it starts stronger than it finishes. For Christians, only read if you’re prepared for some head-scratching moments. The writing itself is strong, which perhaps stood out more starkly since I read it at the same time as Peterson’s “We Who Wrestle with God,” which analyzes the same stories but is rambling and wordy in comparison.
All told, an engaging read, although it starts stronger than it finishes. For Christians, only read if you’re prepared for some head-scratching moments. The writing itself is strong, which perhaps stood out more starkly since I read it at the same time as Peterson’s “We Who Wrestle with God,” which analyzes the same stories but is rambling and wordy in comparison.
August 31, 2025
I really tried to finish this book, but I think its ambition was a little too much for me. It aims to convey the philosophical description that Genesis gives of human life, showing the follies of relying only on human reason and self sufficiency in living a good life. The solution, as to be expected from a book on Genesis, is that the way of God provides an out from the suffering caused by an over-reliance on the very things that make us human.
Some sections seemed to use the Genesis text to reflect back on me some of the struggles and worries of a young man, and others seemed to be touching on pressures and expectations that I've yet to face. As such, the sections on ambition, marriage, and love were especially interesting to me, but the analysis of politics and the right version of fatherhood were a little too abstract. I'm sure that in the future I'll pick up this book and return to sections that once bored me and find insights that inspire me once again, but until then this book will have to remain closed.
Some sections seemed to use the Genesis text to reflect back on me some of the struggles and worries of a young man, and others seemed to be touching on pressures and expectations that I've yet to face. As such, the sections on ambition, marriage, and love were especially interesting to me, but the analysis of politics and the right version of fatherhood were a little too abstract. I'm sure that in the future I'll pick up this book and return to sections that once bored me and find insights that inspire me once again, but until then this book will have to remain closed.
December 11, 2020
This is a magnificent reading of the book of Genesis. As Ben Bag-Bag said about the Torah: "turn it over and over, for everything is contained within it." The book of Genesis is unsurpassed in revealing human nature, and how that nature plays out in fundamental relationships. Both are highly sobering, but there is reason for hope, which, as the late Rabbi Lord Sacks would often say, is a very Jewish approach to life.
Leon Kass's comprehensive explication of Genesis is superlative in its larger perspective on the 'project' involved in the book, and in the consistent close readings of passages and juxtapositions.
For traditional readers (like myself), this work only adds to the depth present in classical commentaries (which include Hasidic and contemporary readings) and offers some startling perspectives, which are nothing short of thrilling. What a great gift!
Leon Kass's comprehensive explication of Genesis is superlative in its larger perspective on the 'project' involved in the book, and in the consistent close readings of passages and juxtapositions.
For traditional readers (like myself), this work only adds to the depth present in classical commentaries (which include Hasidic and contemporary readings) and offers some startling perspectives, which are nothing short of thrilling. What a great gift!
July 26, 2023
Preliminary opinion after 100 pages: lots of fascinating insights but also some selective and irritating dysbalance in his treatment of the text. Whereas the girdle to cover the first sinners’ shame gets extensive coverage as a symbol for a first piece of human art and beautification, with the needles used in its production as a “symbol of man’s path to opposition with nature” compared to the non-violent method of weaving, the animal skins God used to replace the fig leaves is hardly given a thought. But of course, I have observed, not for the first time, that the sacrificial system of the Torah is the moment where Jewish authors tend to become pretty tight-lipped. The Christian interpretation there is an earthquake. Kass also is frequently too verbose or repetitive for my taste and not that fluid to read. But still, looking forward to read on.
May 30, 2017
What happened when the Humanities professor Leon Kass, raised in a secular Jewish home, returned to his ancestral roots and took a look back at the wisdom found in the first book of The Bible? The result is nothing short of a spectacular, insightful, and groundbreaking reading of Genesis for all its mystifying wisdom and its insights into the human condition. This is an exegesis to rival the best that the great Abrahamic traditions have to offer: it has an open-mindedness and a willingness to question established tradition to discover new insight but also a pious attentiveness to give the text its chance to shine. No one will leave with their view of Genesis unchanged. Highest recommendation possible.
January 20, 2020
This is a great book about a Great Book.
It helps reveal layers I had never considered and likely never would have. It eschews over-reliance on extra-textual sources, even while skillfully weaving commentators and historical proofs into its author’s own text-first reading.
I’m grateful for the work and for the recommendation to read it. So, in the tradition of wholeheartedness Kass documents and advances, I’ll play my own role in the everlasting work of transmission, in part by beseeching you, dear reader, to pick up a copy and read this yourself. The wisdom-seeking reading will amply repay your investment.
It helps reveal layers I had never considered and likely never would have. It eschews over-reliance on extra-textual sources, even while skillfully weaving commentators and historical proofs into its author’s own text-first reading.
I’m grateful for the work and for the recommendation to read it. So, in the tradition of wholeheartedness Kass documents and advances, I’ll play my own role in the everlasting work of transmission, in part by beseeching you, dear reader, to pick up a copy and read this yourself. The wisdom-seeking reading will amply repay your investment.
January 21, 2025
Written by a philosophy professor and medical doctor (who served on George W. Bush's bioethics committee), this book is a philosophical meditation on the book of Genesis. I appreciated the author's perspective, although at times I found it hard to understand his larger point. He looks at each story in "Genesis" in great detail, and some are more interesting than others. I also thought he promoted a very traditional ideal of relationships between men and women, something that I remember growing up, but that seem to have fallen out of favor more recently. Still, it is an interesting perspective on an important subject.
November 2, 2025
I've spent nearly a year and a half with this book (among others) and have found it to be a very rich source of wisdom from the biblical book of Genesis. Those who read Genesis primarily as an historical account will find a deep well of understanding in the ways of God with human beings made in God's own image. Leon Kass presents the Genesis story as one full of lessons aimed at spiritual formation of persons through successive generations to restore humankind to God's creative intent. This is a fascinating and highly profitable read for anyone interested biblical studies.
July 29, 2019
I read through his remarks on Gen. 1-11. Purposefully, he reads Genesis from a philosophically perspective and not from a covenant community. He makes intriguing insights; however, I'm not sure one can read Genesis well from outside the community. Is not Scripture to be read with the eye of faith?
May 16, 2021
Kass argues that the crisis in modern thought, as well as our personal and public need for wisdom, commends a serious examination of the Bible. The Beginning of Wisdom lies in awe-fear-and-reverence for the Lord which can be found in Genesis. While Genesis alone does not answer all the questions we may have it is the best place to start.
December 22, 2023
While I didn’t agree with all of Kass’ arguments or methods of hermeneutics, this book was a delightful and thought-provoking look at Genesis. Written in poetic prose, the book reads like a love letter to the first book of the Bible and handles sensitive topics (such as gender roles) with wisdom and clarity that I often find lacking in people’s approaches. I highly recommend this book.
June 6, 2024
Thought provoking, spiritually eye opening and broadens the beginnings of this book of the Old Testament. A book I have read more than once and the depth of it is always new. Highly recommended for believer, Jew or non believer. A little bit of reading goes a long way to absorb.
May 5, 2019
Solid Biblical research and good philosophy on how to live with Wisdom. Kass knocked this one out of the park!
August 18, 2020
I liked every bit of this. Interesting read, I did read it slowly only a little bit at time. Any more and I would not have understood it. It is a book t ponder over. Not for the faint of heart.
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April 17, 2022Read for sermon prep on Genesis 1-5 during Epiphany, Lent, and Holy Week 2022. Big picture theological reflections that enhance exegetical work
May 30, 2023
A brilliant work. It's a philosophical tour-de-force.
December 7, 2015
I was unaware of Kass' biography until writing this review. It is the most interesting of the commentators.
Kass' work is the work of one man who thinks he's quite smart, trying to decipher and interpret myth for a modern reader. He is trying to find what themes in Genesis endure throughout the story of mankind. "These stories are so powerful, not because they tell us what happened, but because they tell us what always happens."
Like the Robert Alter translation below (which Kass often cites approvingly), it is essentially one man's take on Genesis. Kass is attempting to cast a "philosophical light" on the text by reading it in a historical-critical fashion but either ignores or misses major points that others point out, or reaches very far for certain conclusions that he stretches any credulity. He stretches too far to fit the text ino his modern, Western philosophy. He misses the forest because of the trees. At some points, he includes items his students have "discovered" in papers they wrote for him, which would seem as insightful as someone telling you what the weather was like if you never bothered to look outside yourself.
Still, there is some value in a book like this. Kass is attempting to explore the philosophies underlying the Scripture. What do Genesis 3 and 34 teach us about the relationship between the sexes? What does the commentary from the descendents of Cain to the fall of Babel tell us about civilization and cities? How might this text have influenced later Jews and Greeks and their later philosophies? While Ross and Brueggemann mention or cite some of the more critical works on Genesis, Kass actually explores their ideas. He gives some interesting information about Akkadian and Babylonian works in the first 10 chapters, for example. But, like the Brueggemann work he gets carried away in his own thoughts. Read other commentaries on Genesis to see what Kass misses, you'll wonder how he could write so much yet miss the obvious.
2 stars.
Kass' work is the work of one man who thinks he's quite smart, trying to decipher and interpret myth for a modern reader. He is trying to find what themes in Genesis endure throughout the story of mankind. "These stories are so powerful, not because they tell us what happened, but because they tell us what always happens."
Like the Robert Alter translation below (which Kass often cites approvingly), it is essentially one man's take on Genesis. Kass is attempting to cast a "philosophical light" on the text by reading it in a historical-critical fashion but either ignores or misses major points that others point out, or reaches very far for certain conclusions that he stretches any credulity. He stretches too far to fit the text ino his modern, Western philosophy. He misses the forest because of the trees. At some points, he includes items his students have "discovered" in papers they wrote for him, which would seem as insightful as someone telling you what the weather was like if you never bothered to look outside yourself.
Still, there is some value in a book like this. Kass is attempting to explore the philosophies underlying the Scripture. What do Genesis 3 and 34 teach us about the relationship between the sexes? What does the commentary from the descendents of Cain to the fall of Babel tell us about civilization and cities? How might this text have influenced later Jews and Greeks and their later philosophies? While Ross and Brueggemann mention or cite some of the more critical works on Genesis, Kass actually explores their ideas. He gives some interesting information about Akkadian and Babylonian works in the first 10 chapters, for example. But, like the Brueggemann work he gets carried away in his own thoughts. Read other commentaries on Genesis to see what Kass misses, you'll wonder how he could write so much yet miss the obvious.
2 stars.
October 13, 2014
Kass' approach to Genesis is loving but not fundamentalist: he is not particularly interested in whether Genesis is literally true, but in what it can teach us about how to live wisely and how to build a social order based (in Kass's words) "on awe and reverence- for wives and mothers, for husbands and fathers, and for the divine."
A couple of examples of Kass's style:
*Why does Gen. 1 make the seemingly absurd suggestion that plants were created before the sun? Kass asks us to look at the Torah's broader agenda, by noting that "In keeping with its rejection of the belief in cosmic gods, Genesis deprecates the importance of the primary visible being in the world of our common visible experience: the sun." In other words, the Torah is putting the sun in the middle of the order of creation to tell us that the sun not only isn't a god,, but is just part of creation.
*Why does God destroy humanity through a flood? Kass notes that in describing the pre-Flood generation, the Torah uses the term "heroes" and Nephilim (which can mean "the fellers" as well as "the fallen.") Kass suggests that perhaps these men were like the Trojan War "heroes" of Greek mythology, felling each other with war and similar forms of "heroic" violence.
A couple of examples of Kass's style:
*Why does Gen. 1 make the seemingly absurd suggestion that plants were created before the sun? Kass asks us to look at the Torah's broader agenda, by noting that "In keeping with its rejection of the belief in cosmic gods, Genesis deprecates the importance of the primary visible being in the world of our common visible experience: the sun." In other words, the Torah is putting the sun in the middle of the order of creation to tell us that the sun not only isn't a god,, but is just part of creation.
*Why does God destroy humanity through a flood? Kass notes that in describing the pre-Flood generation, the Torah uses the term "heroes" and Nephilim (which can mean "the fellers" as well as "the fallen.") Kass suggests that perhaps these men were like the Trojan War "heroes" of Greek mythology, felling each other with war and similar forms of "heroic" violence.
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