Preface xxx
[In the Preface the reader meets me and learns how I began teaching the Bible as a faculty member of the UCLA
English Department; my approach to teaching the Bible; and an introduction to this book and its companion Bible
Beat mobile app. In the Preface I strive to create both academic credibility as well as an engaging “voice,” someone
the reader will want to spend time with. The Preface is a personal invitation to join me on a great reading
adventure!]

Introduction

Chapter 1: Four Foundational Principles xxx
[In this opening chapter I present the four foundational principles that support my literary reading of Scripture: 1)
the Bible is rooted in geography; 2) the Bible emerges from history; 3) in its final finished form, the Bible is a
unified literary work; and 4) unlike other classic literary works, the Bible claims to be “the word of God,” a claim
that places unique demands upon the reader.]
Chapter 2: Writing the Bible
[How did the Bible come to be written? Who wrote it? How was it written? And when? These are excellent
questions, and they deserve thoughtful answers. The answers vary, however, for each book of the Bible has its own
unique textual history, sometimes simple, sometimes complex. In this chapter I explore these questions using the
four gospels to illustrate.]

Chapter 3: The Canon of Scripture xxx
[In this chapter we move on from writing the Bible to how the books we have in the Bible got there in the first place;
that is, to how the canon of Scripture was formed.]

The Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures)

The Five Books of Moses, or the Torah (Pentateuch)
Chapter 4: Reading Genesis xxx
[Genesis speaks of beginnings: God’s creation; the beginning of humanity; the beginning of sin; the beginning of
salvation; and the beginning of our story. It is a literary tour de force that makes all other creation stories pale in
comparison. The curtain rises in Genesis with eleven chapters of a genre that I call “mythopoeic literature,” stories
that probe the fundamental issues of the human condition: Who are we? How did we get here?” Why did we get
here? Why is there evil in the world?
After this “prologue,” Genesis unfolds like a triptych with three stories: 1) the Abraham/Isaac story; 2) the
Isaac/Jacob story; and 3) the Jacob/Joseph story. At the end of Genesis we find our featured family of 72 people in
Egypt with their brother Joseph, who has risen to a position of power, second only to Pharaoh himself. These stories
that comprise Genesis are among the greatest in all of world literature.]
Chapter 5: Reading Exodus xxx
[Exodus picks up exactly where Genesis leaves off, but 400 years have flashed by and the 72 people in Jacob’s
family have increased to a population of over 1 million . . . and they are now slaves, severely oppressed. Against the
rich background of ancient Egypt, God raises up a liberator, Moses, who will lead his people out of slavery and
ultimately into the “Promised Land” of Canaan. But there is a long way to go, with many lessons to be learned
along the way. Once arriving at Mount Sinai in the wilderness, God reaffirms the covenant he made with Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob in Genesis, that their descendants, the Israelites, would be God’s chosen people who would play a
unique role in human history. God gives his people Ten Commandments, ten principles by which a covenant people
will live with an infinitely holy God and with one another. And he gives them the Tabernacle, a physical structure,
by which the Israelites gain access to God through the priesthood God establishes with Moses’ brother, Aaron and
Aaron’s sons.]

Chapter 6: Reading Leviticus xxx
[Among Christians, Leviticus is probably the most neglected book in the Bible. Most people think of it---if they
think of it at all---as an antiquated collection of laws and rituals for worship that have little relevance today: few
people have actually read it; fewer still have studied it. Yet, Leviticus is a thrilling book that lays o