Reading the Bible

Dr. Bill Creasy served on the UCLA English Department faculty for nearly thirty years where he taught his flagship course, The English Bible as Literature. Recognized as among the top two percent of educators in the nation, Dr. Creasy’s verse-by-verse teaching through the entire Bible on Audible.com has garnered tens of thousands of 5-star reviews and he has led his students on over one hundred teaching tours to the Holy Land. You can visit him at his website, logosbiblestudy.com.

'A lucid, learned, and gripping reading of the Bible, showing its echoes and subtle allusions. Dr. Creasy uncovers literary depths that will engage practiced readers and newcomers to Scripture.'

• Preface xxx[In the Preface the reader meets me and learns how I began teaching the Bible as a faculty member of the UCLAEnglish Department; my approach to teaching the Bible; and an introduction to this book and its companion BibleBeat mobile app. In the Preface I strive to create both academic credibility as well as an engaging “voice,” someonethe reader will want to spend time with. The Preface is a personal invitation to join me on a great readingadventure!]IntroductionChapter 1: Four Foundational Principles xxx[In this opening chapter I present the four foundational principles that support my literary reading of Scripture: 1)the Bible is rooted in geography; 2) the Bible emerges from history; 3) in its final finished form, the Bible is aunified literary work; and 4) unlike other classic literary works, the Bible claims to be “the word of God,” a claimthat places unique demands upon the reader.]Chapter 2: Writing the Bible[How did the Bible come to be written? Who wrote it? How was it written? And when? These are excellentquestions, and they deserve thoughtful answers. The answers vary, however, for each book of the Bible has its ownunique textual history, sometimes simple, sometimes complex. In this chapter I explore these questions using thefour gospels to illustrate.]Chapter 3: The Canon of Scripture xxx[In this chapter we move on from writing the Bible to how the books we have in the Bible got there in the first place;that is, to how the canon of Scripture was formed.]The Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures)The Five Books of Moses, or the Torah (Pentateuch)Chapter 4: Reading Genesis xxx[Genesis speaks of beginnings: God’s creation; the beginning of humanity; the beginning of sin; the beginning ofsalvation; and the beginning of our story. It is a literary tour de force that makes all other creation stories pale incomparison. The curtain rises in Genesis with eleven chapters of a genre that I call “mythopoeic literature,” storiesthat probe the fundamental issues of the human condition: Who are we? How did we get here?” Why did we gethere? Why is there evil in the world?After this “prologue,” Genesis unfolds like a triptych with three stories: 1) the Abraham/Isaac story; 2) theIsaac/Jacob story; and 3) the Jacob/Joseph story. At the end of Genesis we find our featured family of 72 people inEgypt with their brother Joseph, who has risen to a position of power, second only to Pharaoh himself. These storiesthat comprise Genesis are among the greatest in all of world literature.]Chapter 5: Reading Exodus xxx[Exodus picks up exactly where Genesis leaves off, but 400 years have flashed by and the 72 people in Jacob’sfamily have increased to a population of over 1 million . . . and they are now slaves, severely oppressed. Against therich background of ancient Egypt, God raises up a liberator, Moses, who will lead his people out of slavery andultimately into the “Promised Land” of Canaan. But there is a long way to go, with many lessons to be learnedalong the way. Once arriving at Mount Sinai in the wilderness, God reaffirms the covenant he made with Abraham,Isaac and Jacob in Genesis, that their descendants, the Israelites, would be God’s chosen people who would play aunique role in human history. God gives his people Ten Commandments, ten principles by which a covenant peoplewill live with an infinitely holy God and with one another. And he gives them the Tabernacle, a physical structure,by which the Israelites gain access to God through the priesthood God establishes with Moses’ brother, Aaron andAaron’s sons.]Chapter 6: Reading Leviticus xxx[Among Christians, Leviticus is probably the most neglected book in the Bible. Most people think of it---if theythink of it at all---as an antiquated collection of laws and rituals for worship that have little relevance today: fewpeople have actually read it; fewer still have studied it. Yet, Leviticus is a thrilling book that lays o