PREFACE

The ideas for this book have been floating unformed or partially formed in various manuscripts, since about 1979 when Stanley and Jane Johnson, Dori Penny, Karen Haworth, and I jokingly placed “Genesis” on a triskelion, the somewhat inscrutable version of Greimas’s “semiotic square” introduced in Lévi-Strauss’s essay “Do Dual Organizations Exist.” What began in jest quickly came around to more serious pursuit. I had already begun to work closely with John Gammie, my mentor in biblical studies at the University of Tulsa. His patience and colleagueship from 1977 through 1981 offered one of the most rewarding periods of learning I have experienced. Out of that endeavor came the initial drafts which underpin the present chapters of this book.

The transformations of this text have been many. First, much of the material was originally written in the form of papers. Their integration, including rewriting of published material, has been a slow process, further hampered by my other academic commitments. The manuscript in its present form was created by rewriting and expansion to meet criticisms by my colleagues of a somewhat shorter version finished in 1985. To Arthur Doerr, James Dyehouse, and Mary Rogers, as well as to Thomas Sebeok and readers at Indiana University, I must express a deep debt of gratitude. Their encouragement and criticisms gave me the primary direction of 1988, the year I was finally able to return to the project intensively. This opportunity was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar, “Biblical Law in Historical Perspective,” offered by David Daube and Calum Carmichael at the University of California, Berkeley. Finally, critical reading of my submission manuscript by Robert A. Oden, Jr., was particularly helpful in guiding my final textual revisions.

My experience in the seminar on biblical law, in addition to providing time for writing and research, was filled with new and challenging perspectives on the text offered in the lectures of Professors Daube and Carmichael. The key benefit of the seminar as a whole for this book has been expansion of my reference to Torah materials outside Genesis, especially the legal materials of Exodus and Deuteronomy. I believe this was an absolutely essential ingredient to enable the fullest appreciation of the social constructs in Genesis, and for the methodological escape from a purely internal structural analysis of the text. In this effort, I am also indebted to all of the other seminar participants, especially John Kampen, Shirley Castelnuovo, Ronald Knox, Pavle Batinic, Jacqueline Boley, Anne Griffiths, and Debra Zeifman. Special thanks is deserved by Calum Carmichael for his critical comments on the manuscripts and his help with many provisional readings of scripture.

Earlier comments by colleagues on particular issues of analysis must also be cited here. Michael Carroll provided some of the most challenging criticism of my initial papers on Genesis and greatly supported my impetus toward this book-length work. A similar role was played by John Gammie, Daniel Patte, and John Deely, each of whom provided substantive and theoretical bases for elements of analysis. Gary Shank and the brothers at St. Meinrad Archabbey, Indiana, contributed to this work through their comments and bibliographic sharing during a trip to the St. Meinrad community in 1984. Thomas Eggebean, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, stimulated my interest in developing a reasonably “popular” discussion of kinship interests in Genesis; in the end, this book only partially satisfies that aim, but I hope it will meet the interests and needs of at least some lay readers.

Finally, I want to thank several colleagues and students in Pensacola and Tulsa for their intellectual and practical supports toward this work. Robert Armstrong, Jay Knaack, Sam Matthews, and Bruce Dunn have all contributed greatly to my development of philosophical and technical perspective toward text analysis. Mary Rogers has been a constant source of both criticism and support and, above all, academic example. R. E. Lee, Ron Evans, and the many other members of University Toastmasters in Pensacola have also helped me give more popular direction to my ideas and their expressions. Students in seminars at Tulsa and the University of West Florida have also provided criticism and the context for exploration of hypotheses about the text. A special note of thanks goes to several of these students: Joe Dees, Ray Dupree, Tyrone Ealum, Dorothy Gaston, Diane Hudson, Patricia Jackson, Peter Kennedy, Declan Patterson, Gary Raney, Lynn Snyder, and Louise Walsh. Also in Pensacola, Karen Haworth and Debra Joy worked on text preparation for the various drafts leading toward this manuscript. Karen also prepared all of the final illustrations appearing in the book. The final manuscript was prepared by Cherry Starkweather at the Office of Grants and Contracts at the University of West Florida. I must also recognize again the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar program, the University of California at Berkeley, and especially The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library of the Graduate Theological Union for resource supports. To my fellow residents at International House during the summer of 1988, too, I extend thanks for the environment for work and social communion they created.