Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives. By Peter C. Bouteneff. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2008. xv + 240 pp. $22.99 paper.

摘要

This superb study of early Christian interpretations of Genesis 1–3 fills a majorngap in the literature. It traces several themes from the Hebrew Bible and the NewnTestament through the second-century Christian apologists, Irenaeus and Origen,nto the fourth-century Cappadocians. Bouteneff uses the first three crucial chaptersnof the Bible as a case study, enabling him to trace the origins and growth of earlynChristian methods of interpretation. He shows that Genesis 1–3 was largelynignored in the Hebrew Bible, though Jewish inter-testamental writers focusednon them, providing several different interpretations of Adam and paradise. Innthe New Testament, especially Paul’s letters, Adam appears as a contrast tonJesus Christ, who inaugurated the new humanity. Beginning in the NewnTestament itself, early Christians used typology and allegory to make connections between Old Testament figures and events on the one hand andnChrist on the other, to show him as the center of history. Early Christianninterpreters and theologians, following the lead of the New Testament,ndeveloped these methods extensively. Yet, they also took literal meaningsnseriously. Their biblical interpretations generally emphasized moral paraenesisnand Christology. A counterexample, the second-century apologist Theophilusnof Antioch rejected typological exegesis and never mentioned Christ. Bouteneffnsees these two absences are closely connected (73).