It is difficult to write a review for this book because I found it simply unremarkable. Collins presents an exegesis of Genesis 1-4 that sees Genesis 1:1-2:3 as "exalted prose" and from Genesis 2:4 on as narrative prose. For his exegesis, he uses a method that he calls the discourse-oriented literary approach, also referred to as discourse analysis. This approach was cursorily defined in the text, but because it depended on the particular form of Hebrew words, it was impossible for one untrained in ancient Hebrew, like myself, to assess the validity of this method. Thus, the exegetical method that he uses lends itself to only experts in Hebrew. But apart from the method, the book had the feel that the targeted reader was simply Biblically literate. So I wonder whom the audience was that Collins intended. Despite this significant drawback, I enjoyed much of his commentary, particularly his sections outlining the "reverberations" of the text in later Scripture. The later chapters of the book, which deal with Chapters 1-4 as a whole, are the real strength of this book. They discuss the current debates over interpretation, what can be meant by the historicity of these chapters, and the impact of these chapters on the larger narrative of Scripture.
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