GENESIS 1–11

A Christian daily devotional centers on the first book of the Bible.

In this 365-day devotional, Snider concentrates on the first 11 chapters of Genesis. He breaks them down into one small bit for each day of the year, with readings also grouped six at a time to be perused over the course of a week. The author includes with these passages his own readings and glosses worked out over the decades he’s been studying and writing about the famous Bible stories, which include the tale of Adam and Eve and the Serpent, the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the account of Cain and Abel, Noah’s Flood, and so on. Snider examines each of these chapters line by line and verse by verse in minute detail, exploring single words, obscure terms, and broader narrative themes. Although each day’s reflection begins with its own quote and uncredited artwork, the fact that some of those larger themes develop from one week to the next means that the book should be read in chronological sequence, not by days picked at random. Throughout his calendar, the author is a happy, energetic guide, often pausing to give his Christian readers affirming thoughts about “the manifold wisdom of the Creator God.” Unfortunately, Snider’s enthusiasm often leads him into standard creationist fundamentalism and science that some of his readers may find disconcerting. Putting aside the author’s belief that “sheep with human hearts” are some kind of “human-animal chimera” or that God has ordained that husbands “rule over” their wives, his various pronouncements on science are debatable. “The fossil evidence alone,” he writes, “demonstrates that life exploded into existence on earth, instead of slowly evolving.” “There is no evidence whatsoever,” he asserts, “either from paleontology or genetics that whales or great sea monsters could have developed from land animals.” These creationist beliefs will dilute the book’s heartfelt message for some readers.

A passionate but often scientifically questionable study of the book of Genesis.