The Return of Ancient Epic: Genesis

Session 7: Genesis, with Ron Hendel

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

—T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding

We close our Ancient Epic series on April 2 with Ron Hendel discussing Genesis.

Reading Genesis involves encountering a lost world. In one sense this world is outdated and must be rejected. But in another sense the clash is productive, exposing rifts in modernity that we are predisposed not to see. The afterlife of Genesis is part of the weave of modern life in both senses—a work of simultaneous resistance and illumination. The stories of the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and Abraham will be our main focus in this discussion.

Ron Hendel is a dear friend to the shop and a founding member of the Clio's Curatorial Board. He organized the entire Ancient Epic series on our behalf and has donated over two thousand books on the ancient near east to Clio's collection. Please join us on April 2nd to thank him, to close out this series, and "to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time"—with a conversation on Genesis. Copies of Robert Alter's translation and commentary on Genesis are available for purchase with your ticket.

Ron Hendel is the Norma and Sam Dabby Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at UC Berkeley. He is the author of many books and articles about the religion, literature, and language of the Bible, including Genesis 1-11: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, How Old is the Hebrew Bible?, and The Book of Genesis: A Biography. He is general editor of The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition.