The Sons of the Gods and the Daughters of Men: An Afro-Asiatic Interpretation of Genesis 1-11

Modupe Oduyoye knows the rules of biblical criticism set down by the scholars of Europe and North America and he draws upon them to good effect. Yet when he chooses to read the Hebrew Bible through the eyes of African creation myth and with the tongue of the Hamitic language group the effect is extraordinary. Without attempting to solve the complex riddle of all that Jerusalem of old had to do with Ethiopia and East Africa Oduyoye persuasively shows that the exquisite sensitivity of African religion to the realm of the spirit is a living witness to a biblical consciousness much richer and more pluralistic than we had realized. We ignore to our impoverishment and even our peril Oduyoye believes this biblical sense of human participation in the divine vitality and of spiritual kinship among the creatures. --W. Sibley Towner Professor of Biblical Interpretation Union Theological Seminary Modupe Oduyoye presents a fascinating study in the area of biblical interpretation in drawing upon biblical and West African languages. This is a work that ought to stimulate thought and make African theologians more receptive to the call to take a fresh look at the Bible against the background of African life and thought. --Kwesi A. Dickson Professor of Old Testament Studies Director of the Institute of African Studies University of Ghana There is much in Modupe Oduyoyes book that is explosive of our Western biblical theological ethnocentricity. This book is another heralding of the West African school which will have our skills but use them according to ground rules they are working out a school that will take its place with the Mexican the Tamil and many others. As the tide recedes from the West it is good to hear the surge and thunder of the African shore. --Noel A. King Professor of History and Comparative Religion University of California at Santa Cruz Modupe Oduyoye is a Nigerian exegete and philologist. He was William Paton Fellow at the Selly Oak Colleges Birmingham 1981-82. He presently serves as the Literature Secretary of the Christian Council of Nigeria and as Manager of the Daystar Press in Ibadan.