Have you been thinking of trying out Symposium (SGBI)? Whether you are new or continuing with us, now is your chance to enjoy an 8-week session with other friendly readers.

The book of Genesis is about beginnings — the generations of the heavens and the earth, and of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and their descendants — and it is a good place to start or restart your lifelong learning. 50 chapters can be read in about 10 pages per week. 

Poetic and profound, the text raises existential questions for all readers.

We will aim to read Genesis with the respect we give to all great works of literature, and with the awareness that it is held sacred by many people around the world.

However, we will not approach the text as sacred for the group. Our approach will focus on the Hebrew narrative in English translation, not on traditions, theologies, authorship, or scholarship, or efforts to discredit it, or to subject it to modern values or politics.

By doing so, readers are in a better position not only to evaluate for themselves what is said and what might have been meant by the author(s), but also to consider how one’s own faith tradition might guide one’s understanding.

Any translation may be used. The archons use and recommend the JPS version, which will be provided as a PDF. Robert Alter’s 1996 translation will be consulted too. 

One model for our approach is Leon Kass’s, The Beginning of Wisdom, which you may find helpful as an introduction to “how to read” the Bible and what kinds of questions one might raise about it.

Prior participation in the Back to the Beginnings reading pathway is not required. Registration is limited to 12.