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Sample questions and answers:
CWR: Are there common misunderstandings or misrepresentations about Genesis that you address?
Steve Ray: Two main misunderstandings in particular. First, that Genesis is just a myth and is really not relevant to our modern world. We have moved, we are told, beyond the need for a “fairy tale”. Or we hear that God does not exist and Genesis consists of irrelevant stories of others’ religious experiences that have no importance now that science has moved us beyond needing such myths. This all is addressed in the first chapters of my book.
The second is that the Old Testament is not necessary now that we have the New Testament; and, furthermore, Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament is hard to understand, and is like slogging through a historical swamp. I think that anyone who reads my book on Genesis will realize the beauty of the words and the rich, exciting storyline, which is explained in a very personal and easy-to-understand way. It reads like a novel and is easily accessible and thrilling to the scholar and first-timer alike. I have had people say they were engrossed in the story and simply couldn’t put it down.
CWR: How did filming and producing your Footsteps of God series help or inform you on this project?
Steve Ray: One aspect of understanding a book like Genesis is to immerse yourself in the context of the writing. You have to suspend your modern mentality, so to speak, and enter the culture and world of the document. Language, lifestyle, Middle Eastern culture, and worldview are all necessary to enter the fulness of the book.
In filming the Footprints of God series over the last 25 years, we have visited all the sites mentioned in Genesis. We spent a week filming the beginning of Abraham’s life in Iraq. I climbed up the ziggurat pyramid where Abraham and family “served other gods” (Josh 24:2). People know almost nothing of Abraham’s early life in Ur before God called him. Walking through this land and in Haran in Turkey help me bring color and texture to the story. I have waded through the Jabbak River, where Jacob wrestled with God, and have entered the Dome of the Rock Shrine on Temple Mount to see and show the rock where Abraham offered his son Isaac.
Spending time in Bedouin camps, leading flocks of sheep, and milking goats help me to fill in the dots and thus help the reader enter into the real world of the Patriarchs and their way of life, all of which is important to understand the rich intricacies of the story.