The relevance of literary and anthropological insights for interpreting the Bible is featured in this innovative study. Naomi Steinberg analyzes the diverse family stories of Genesis 12-50 in light of cross-cultural data on kinship and inheritance. She contends that the primary function of marriage arrangements in Genesis was not to form social and political alliances but to establish the Israelite line of descent

"Steinberg's treatment of women's roles in the ancestral stories represents a breakthrough in her analysis a the family systems and economic motives that shape strategies of action. With firm, and unequalet, cons of the relevant cross-cultural data, she assesses the biblical accounts from the perspective of both nam and social actors, challenging historical reconstructions and literary analyses that impose modern we views of marriage and family on the ancient texts."