Genesis is concerned to account for the origin of things and wrestles with the existence of evil, the existence of idolatry and suffering in a world that's created by a good god.

创世纪》被认为解释了万物的来源,试图解决罪恶的存在，盲目崇拜的存在以及这个受苦的世界,这是一个善良的神创造的。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

We're going to consider first of all the view of the gods, The view of humans and the view of the world: three distinct categories.

首先我们来考虑对神的看法，对人类及世界的看法：,三种截然不同的类别。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

Nature also is not divine. It's demythologized, de-divinized, If that's a word; the created world is not divine, It is not the physical manifestation of various deities, an earth god, a water god and so on.

自然是没有神性的，它是没有神话色彩也没有神性的，如果可以这样说的话，被创造出来的世界并不神圣，它并不是众神实体的显形，是一个土地神或者水神或者诸如此类。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

We're going to read these stories with an eye to Israel's adaptation of Near Eastern motifs and themes to sort of monotheize those motifs and themes and express a new conception of God and the world and humankind.

我们将阅读这些故事，并关注,以色列是怎样把一神论从近东时期的宗教主题中分离出来,并创造出一个关于神、世界和人类的崭新观点的。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

So in sum, Kaufman's argument is this: Israel conceived of the divine in an entirely new way. Israel's God differed from the pagan gods in his essential nature. The pagan gods were natural gods.

总而言之，考夫曼的观点就是：以色列从一种全新的角度,构想了神的世界，以色列的上帝与异教的众神,在本质上完全不同，异教的众神是自然的神。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

So gods have power only insofar as they are connected with that primordial world "stuff," a technical term that I use throughout this lecture! That means that magic is possible in such a system.

因此，众神只有在和这个原始世界的“物质“,有联系时，才会有神力，整堂课上我都会用到,“物质“这个词，这就意味着奇幻的事有可能发生。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

What that means, Kaufman asserts, is that in pagan religion there's very often a fluid boundary between the divine, the human, and the natural worlds. They blur into one another because they all emerge ultimately from the same primordial world stuff.

考夫曼认为，在异教概念里,神族、人类和自然世界的划分标准通常是不固定的，三者之间互相影响，因为从根本上来说,它们都是从同一个世界本源上发展而来。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

So, the Garden of Eden story communicates what Kaufman would identify as a basic idea of the monotheistic worldview: That evil isn't a metaphysical reality, it's a moral reality.

因此，伊甸园的故事里传达了Kaufman所说的,基本的一神论世界观：,邪恶并不是形而上学的存在，而是道德的现实。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选