"Survival is an important theme in Genesis. Banished from Eden, human beings had to struggle to remain physically, morally, and spiritually intact. Most of us get damaged at some point along the way. Genesis is true to life here. It shows us no paragons. Even the great patriarchs of Israel have feet of clay. Moments of grace and inspiration in their lives are frequently followed by episodes which show these men to be as flawed, negligent, self-indulgent, apathetic, and egotistical as any of us lesser mortals. Genesis does not provide us with people who have achieved virtue. Its stories are nothing like the lives of the saints that I was given to read as a child, which depicted these men and women as impossibly and depressingly flawless. The biblical authors do not seem to think that that kind of moral perfection is possible. Instead, they show us individuals struggling, like Jacob, for insight and the state which they call blessing.

"From the first, Genesis teaches that a blessed life is possible for all creatures; we can all find our correct element and thrive therein. But Genesis also shows that it is more difficult for human beings than for other creatures to remain in the place allotted to them. We are conflicted and torn, tempted by the evil inclination, which is the source of some of our more brilliant cultural achievements as well as of our greatest crimes. Adam and Eve wanted knowledge. Like many religious people, they tried to attain privileged information. But the inescapable message of Genesis is that blessing and enlightenment are not achieved by acquiring facts and believing doctrines. Genesis gives us, as we have seen, no coherent theology but seems to frustrate our desire for clarity at every turn. Instead, knowledge means self-knowledge and an understanding of the mystery of our own being. We also have to recognize the sacred mystery of our fellow men and women. To seal ourselves off from others, like Noah in the Ark, can only lead to disintegration and abuse. The most memorable moments of blessing and revelation come from dynamic encounters with others, such as when Abraham rushed out to greet the strangers at Mamre and met his God, or when Jacob wrestled with God and found that he had been struggling with his brother and with his own self.

"If Genesis does not allow us to make assumptions about God, it also refuses to let us imagine that we can fully comprehend one another. The patriarchs constantly surprise and even shock us; right up to the end, we are in the dark about the true feelings of Joseph and his brothers. Other human beings remain as opaque and mysterious as God — indeed, they can reveal to us the essential mystery and otherness of the sacred. Genesis traces God's gradual disappearance from the human scene. By the end, God no longer speaks or intervenes directly, and human beings can achieve the integration and wholeness for which they long only by coming to terms with their own natures, their own crimes, grief, and resentment. We have to make peace with the past, as best we can. It is a struggle in which we may never fully succeed, but only if it is undertaken can we become a source of blessing to the world and to others.”