Front-cover -- Contents -- Tables and Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- 1. Introduction -- Purpose -- Thesis -- 2. History of Interpretation -- Pre-Critical Approach -- Jewish Interpretation -- Jerome -- Nicholas of Lyra (c. 1270-1349) -- John Calvin -- Johannes Coccejus -- Matthew Poole's Synopsis Criticorum -- Critical Approaches -- Challenges to Critical Approaches -- Of Priests or Prophets? -- A Prophetic Redaction of the Pentateuch -- Literary or Final Form Approaches -- 3. Recent Studies -- Thomas Keiser -- André Sousan -- Johnson Teng Kok Lim -- C. John Collins -- Genesis 1-3, the Pentate uch,and the History of Israel -- John Sailhamer -- Conclusion -- 4 Methodology -- Introduction to the Text-Centered Approach -- Text-Centered Approach -- What It Is Not -- What It Is -- Compositional Analysis -- 5. A Text-Centered Analysis of Genesis 1-3, Part 1 -- Relationship of the "Two" Creation Accounts -- The Land in Genesis 1-3 -- "Earth" or "Promised Land" in Genesis 1? -- Prototypical Parting of the "Exilic" Waters -- Prototypical Preparation of the Promised Land -- Prototypical Mandate to Conquer the Land -- The Sinai Covenant in Genesis 1-3 -- Prototypical Sinai Covenant -- 6. A Text-Centered Analysis of Genesis 1-3, Part 2 -- Seduction and Exile in Genesis 1-3 -- Prototypical Canaanite -- Prototypical Failure at Sinai and Subsequent Exile -- Pentateuchal Bookends : Failure and Hope -- Inclusion of Failure in the Pentateuch -- Inclusion of Hope in the Pentateuch (Jacob and Moses) -- 7. Genesis 1-3: An Introduction to the Tanakh? -- Canonical Seams and the Intention of Chronicles -- Canonical Seams -- Chronicles and the Hebrew Canon -- The Conquering King in Genesis 1-3 and the Seams of the Tanakh -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Back-cover.