Before Abraham Was: The Unity of Genesis 1-11 [Paperback]

Isaac M. Kikawada (Author), Arthur Quinn (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Pr (March 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898702399
• ISBN-13: 978-0898702392
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,177,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing challenge to the documentary hypothesis., May 5, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Before Abraham Was: The Unity of Genesis 1-11 (Paperback)

This is a short, readable, but intelligent and provocative challenge to the documentary hypothesis, as applied to Genesis 1-11. The documentary hypothesis assumes that the Bible as we have it is the result of four (or more) strands of authorship, designated as J, E, P, and D. This book makes its challenge on the basis of comparisons to a five-part structure evidenced in other ancient epics, and other poetic structures and techniques. This book is particularly fascinating when read alongside Richard Friedman's _Who Wrote the Bible_ which is a popular exposition of the documentary hypothesis.

For example, Freidman's prize example of the documentary hypothesis, based on work by Julius Welhausen, shows that you can slice the Noah story into two separate accounts, written by two different authors, each with an allegedly separate vocabulary and concerns. Kikawada and Quinn look at the same passages, questioning the assumptions behind the documentary approach (showing, for example, other ancient writings that mix different names for diety in the same passages). They also show both large scale and local chiasms (inverted parallel structures) running through the Noah story, showing that the same repetition that documentary scholars see as evidence of multiple authorship, can be seen from another perspective, as evidence of concious artfulness. Reading Friedman and Kikawada and Quinn might also send you scrambling for another look at Thomas Kuhn's _The Structure of Scientific Revolutions_, so that you can consider how one goes about choosing between conflicting paradigms.

All in all, a fine, fascinating, surprisingly provocative work. It should also appeal to those who appreciate Robert Alter's books like _The Art of Biblical Narrative_. It has the same effect of renewing your appreciation for stories that you thought that you knew well.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant defense of scriptural unity., April 8, 2000

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Before Abraham Was: The Unity of Genesis 1-11 (Paperback)

In this fairly short and tightly reasoned book (unfortunately not now in print), Isaac Kikawada and Arthur Quinn argue very convincingly that the "documentary hypothesis" has had its day.

Their thesis: that a hundred-odd years of scholarship inspired by Wellhausen's theory has _itself_ produced the very evidence which proves it false. In order to support this contention, the authors examine the portion of the Bible at which support for the "documentary hypothesis" seems strongest: the story of Noah and the Flood. And true to their aim, they deftly show that the very features of the text which seem to support multiple authorship can, when viewed slightly differently, also be seen as evidence that the text is the work of a single author capable of great brilliance and subtlety.

It is this last point that I think deserves the greatest emphasis. Too often, the stories of the Jewish scriptures are written off as "primitive" or "barbaric," and superficial contradictions or immoralities are taken as evidence of the unsophistication of the text's author(s) and target audience. Recognizing and questioning our hidden assumption here is an essential step toward recognizing the possibility that -- as Kikawada and Quinn put it -- if we think we spot an error in the text, it is more likely we who are at fault.

For consider: since the "documentary hypothesis" requires a "redactor" who was not unduly concerned about obvious "contradictions," why do we rule out the possibility that a _single_ author might have been similarly unconcerned? And if the latter possibility is _not_ ruled out, why do we assume that these apparent "contradictions" are not stylistic contrivances that are intended for a more sophisticated audience than we have thus far considered?

And in that case, might not the very features of the text revealed by proponents of the "documentary hypothesis" be themselves evidence of a deeper unity and design? Why, rather than look for such unity and design, do we assume the "redactor" must have been so stupid as to be unable to recognize difficulties that are obvious to any child (and indeed were discussed in the Talmudic literature at least two millennia ago)?

Kikawada and Quinn have laid waste to the "documentary hypothesis" by accepting what is good in it and showing that it undermines itself. This little book will be of interest to all who wish to defend the integrity of Scripture, and especially to readers of Umberto Cassuto's _The Documentary Hypothesis_ (unfortunately not now in print either).

11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An antidote to the documentary hypothesis., January 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Before Abraham Was: The Unity of Genesis 1-11 (Paperback)

For any student of biblical exegesis who has been fed a diet of documentary hypothesis, and come away with a vague feeling of indigestion and a fear that you will not be able to keep it all down, this book will provide hoped for relief. It is solid food that leaves you feeling full and satisfied and hoping the authors will come back with another course in the near future.

Kikawada and Quinn take the hand grenades that have been tossed into the orthodox foxhole over the last century and lob them back at their owners with devestaing effect.

The authors meet the proponents of the documentary hypothesis on their own ground, tear down their strongholds and proceed to the high ground taking no prisoners.

If you long to read Genesis again with a sense of joy and wonder, this is a book that will refresh your spirit with it's powerful new hypothesis of the eseential unity of the authorship of the Book of the Beginning.