Book excerpt: Narratives in Genesis 1-11 have been misunderstood in many ways, but they especially have been used to oppress women and African Americans and to present a God of wrath and judgment. This commentary seeks to explain the real message behind those narratives, which is one that speaks of human dignity and equality, that affirms monotheism, that criticizes kings and tyrants, that declares our oneness with the animal realm and nature, and that proclaims a powerful message of divine grace with a deity personally involved in the human world. Humor may also be found in some of these stories. These biblical passages can be best explicated by close reading as well as by knowledge of comparable stories from the ancient Near East and from the classical world, and finally by knowledge of the concomitant social and political values connected with those other myths and narratives.