Complementarity and Rupture—Genesis 2:4–11:32

Abstract

AS THE GENESIS narrative unfolds, things become more complicated, both literarily and humanly. The literary complication is that readers must attend to the interactions among multiple plot lines and strands of tradition, discerning patterns that stretch across multiple chapters. The human complication is that the first large-scale pattern that emerges entails widespread rupture, instigated by humans, of the initial harmony in God’s creation....