I am not sure that the serpent’s shed­ding his skin hints at immor­tal­i­ty, as the author sug­gests, or that his guile hints at immoral­i­ty, but I am cer­tain that Marc Klein’s col­lec­tion of essays on the Book of Gen­e­sis deserves to be read and con­sid­ered seri­ous­ly. 

Rang­ing from the cre­ation and the Gar­den of Eden to Noah and the flood, con­tin­u­ing through the patri­archs to Joseph, and cul­mi­nat­ing with a glimpse at the cross­ing of the Sea of Reeds (enti­tled: ​“The Last Cre­ation”), the author, although a neu­ro­sci­en­tist by pro­fes­sion, offers numer­ous insights into lit­er­ary and lin­guis­tic coin­ci­dences and cor­re­spon­dences in — pri­mar­i­ly — the first book of the Torah. 

While I would decline to offer an opin­ion in the author’s pro­fes­sion­al field of neu­ro­science, such is not the case with Torah study; it requires no advanced degrees, only integri­ty and a ded­i­ca­tion to truth. Both abound in this stim­u­lat­ing book, along with a keen sense of lan­guage and a feel for lit­er­a­ture that are more com­mon among Bible scholars.