It is common in our society to think that for a book of the Bible, whether Genesis or any other, to be practical and relevant, it must give us a course of action. It is more common in the Old Testament for its practical teaching to give us a way of thinking . . . The practical lessons of Genesis offer us a new way of thinking that will inevitably result in life changes.
- Walton, Genesis, NIVAC, 2001, 55
[T]he narrators interests are historical . . . his interests are also inseparably didactic and aesthetic. Unlike a geometry textbook that may aim to be only didactic, Genesis is literature because it communicates doctrine in an artful way; it is ideological art.
- Waltke, Genesis, 2001, 31
