I wrote this book for several groups of people, who will want to read it in rather different ways. My audience, I hope, will include scholars of the Hebrew Bible; historians of religion; specialists in various areas of Jewish thought, including especially scholars of Jewish mysticism; Jewish and Christian theologians; scholars of comparative literature who are interested in the biblical foundations of the Western literary tradition; clergy and religious educators who have a particular interest in scripture; and, in the case of the first chapter, Assyriologists, Ugaritologists, and classicists. Further, I know from frequent teaching outside the university that a happy few laypeople engage in Bible study that is at once intellectually rigorous and religiously sensitive, and this band of readers, too, may find this book worthwhile.

Because these audiences come to this book from diverse backgrounds, I try not to assume that my readers possess a great deal of knowledge in any particular subject. An idea that requires no explanation for an Assyriologist needs to be unpacked for a theologian; a concept that is well known to a biblicist may be completely novel to a student of Lurianic kabbalah. Therefore, I gloss what to some will be familiar terms, and I spend a few extra sentences introducing a topic here and there. I trust that specialists will not be bothered if they find themselves having to skim through a few passages to get to the interesting stuff a page later.