Fortress Press

"As a work of scholarship it is difficult to greet this commentary with anything but enthusiasm. It is certaily the most exhaustive and the very best treatment of these chapters available to us today. One can have little but praise for the breadth of Westermann's scholarship, and for the thoroughness, the clarity, and the fairness with which his discussion is presented. This is a commentary of outstanding usefulness which may be commended without reservation to all serious students of the Old Testament. It will stand as the definitive commentary on Genesis for years to come."
-- John Bright
in Interpretation

"Westermann's commentary has the merit of taking a definite stand in the hermeneutical debate. In the tradition of Gunkel, it takes full advantage of the methods of form criticism and of the phenomenological study of religion. Again and again Westermann opens up dimensions of meaning which are not only relevant for theology but for human existence in the modern world."
-- Bernhard W. Anderson
Journal of Biblical Literature

Preface
Translator's Preface
Introduction to the Story of the Primeval Events: Genesis 1-11

The Creation of the World

The Sons of the Gods and the Giants

The Flood

Blessing and Covenant

Noah and His Sons

The Creation of Man and Woman and the Expulsion from Paradise

Cain and Abel

The Cainites

The Succession of Generations in the Primeval Period

The Table of the Nations

The Tower of Babel

The Genealogy of Shem

The formation and Theological meaning of the Primeval Story

Abbreviations
Index of Hebrew Words
Index of Biblical References
Index of Subjects
Index of Names and Authors