Summary of Sandra L. Richter's The Epic of Eden

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The most important distinction between us and them is culture. We must step back and allow the voices of the biblical writers to be heard in the tone in which they were originally spoken.

#2 The second tendency I have come to call canonizing culture is the unspoken and usually unconscious presupposition that the norms of my culture are superior to those of someone else’s. Every culture must ultimately respond to the gospel’s critique.

#3 The Bible reveals God through a specific human culture. God did not choose to reveal himself in any single culture, but in several incarnations of the same culture. We should not be about the business of canonizing the culture of ancient Israel, but we must understand it in order to understand the intent of the biblical authors.

#4 The term redemption is culturally conditioned. It comes from the New Testament, but it originally came from the Old Testament. It was used to describe the laws and social customs of the ancient tribal society of which the Hebrews were a part.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Aug 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350017007

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Insights on Sandra L. Richter's The Epic of Eden

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The most important distinction between us and them is culture. We must step back and allow the voices of the biblical writers to be heard in the tone in which they were originally spoken.

#2

The second tendency I have come to call canonizing culture is the unspoken and usually unconscious presupposition that the norms of my culture are superior to those of someone else’s. Every culture must ultimately respond to the gospel’s critique.

#3

The Bible reveals God through a specific human culture. God did not choose to reveal himself in any single culture, but in several incarnations of the same culture. We should not be about the business of canonizing the culture of ancient Israel, but we must understand it in order to understand the intent of the biblical authors.

#4

The term redemption is culturally conditioned. It comes from the New Testament, but it originally came from the Old Testament. It was used to describe the laws and social customs of the ancient tribal society of which the Hebrews were a part.

#5

The Israeli society was very different from the Western society in terms of culture, economy, and government. In Israel, the family was central, and it was best understood through three categories: patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal.

#6

The Israelite society was patriarchal, and the first of these terms refers to the centrality of the oldest living male member of the family to the structure of the larger society. In this society, when a man married, he remained in the family unit, but when a woman married, she joined the bêt ʾāb of her new husband.

#7

The patriarch of the family was responsible for the entire family, and he could decide who lived and who died, who was sold into slavery and who was retained within the family unit. When the patriarch died, or when the bêt ʾāb became too large to sustain itself, the family would split into new households, each headed by the oldest living male family member.

#8

The genealogies