If biblical theology were a dinner guest, you might expect it to arrive in a three-piece suit, sport a full beard, and speak with a Dutch accent. Whether we’re thinking about Geerhardus Vos’s seminal Biblical Theology or the still-growing set of gray-covered volumes in the New Studies in Biblical Theology series, biblical theology often seems very formal. Biblical theology rocked my world as a seminary student. But most books on it are more suitable for careful study by scholars and pastors than for casual reading by church members. When Alex Duke, a pastor and host of the Bible Talk podcast, wrote From Eden to Egypt: A Guided Tour of Genesis, he put the cookies on the bottom shelf. He offers a biblical theology more likely to wear a flowered shirt and cargo shorts at a cookout than formal attire at a multicourse dinner. The result is a biblically faithful, theologically rigorous, and entertaining book. Duke’s goal was to write “a book about Genesis for normal people” (6). He wants to show readers that biblical theology isn’t the exclusive domain of nerds and that “the Bible can be understood and enjoyed in detail by ordinary people” (2). Though Duke admits he’s “just barely scratched the surface of Moses’ masterpiece,” this “guided tour” helps make sense of one of the storylines of one of the most important books of the Bible (10). Biblical Theology Rising It’s a good thing biblical theology is on the rise. I grew up hearing a few Bible stories on repeat in Sunday school. So I believed that David killed Goliath, Elijah called down fire at Mount Carmel, and the paralytic had good friends to lower him through the roof so Jesus could heal him. I also believed the main goal of those stories was to show me how to be a better person rather than to see God’s mysterious ways of working throughout history. It’s a good thing that biblical theology is on the rise. Though I knew those stories were true, I didn’t have any sense of how those fit into Scripture’s metanarrative. It wasn’t until I read Albert Wolters’s Creation Regained that I really understood the big picture. My children are more fortunate, given recent trends in biblical theology. They’ve grown up having The Jesus Storybook Bible read to them (sometimes by David Suchet). They’ve sung along with Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God as he connects Christ’s incarnation to the whole of God’s history. They’ve sat in a Sunday school class where I’ve used Andrew Wilson’s God of All Things to show how typology works. As a result, when I put Tom Schreiner’s The King in His Beauty onto their high school syllabus, they’re challenged but not lost. But it can be hard to make the leap from some of the simpler resources into the complex scholarship Stephen Dempster displays in Dominion and Dynasty. For adults and teens who haven’t grown up talking about intertextuality and typology at the dinner table, From Eden to Egypt is a perfect entry point into the wonder of biblical theology. Understanding Esau The first epigraph in the book is a quote from the dark comedy Fargo. At that point, the reader knows the book is either going to be a triumphant success or a frivolous failure. But Duke manages to pull it off. He intersperses pop culture references amid his explanations of the first book of the Bible in ways that tend to make the story more concrete. Though I’ve generally (and perhaps snobbishly) avoided contemporary country music, when Duke opens his discussions on the conflict between Jacob and Esau with lyrics from Tim McGraw and Brad Paisley songs it brings Esau to life. Far from being frivolous, these ordinary, modern lyrics remind readers that Jacob and Esau were real people like us and that the drama of their lives is a lot like our own experiences. Suddenly, Esau goes from being an abstract character, who was so obviously stupid to give away a fortune for a bowl of soup, to being a real person much like people I know, whose lives ends up being pretty comfortable apart from God. As Duke observes, “Sometimes, we think the worst thing that can happen to someone is that they rebel and run from the Lord and make a bunch of messes that they have to clean up later in life” (170). That’s what Esau does, and that’s where we often leave the hairy hunter. But by the end of his story in Genesis, Esau has his life back on track, materially speaking. He reconciles with the brother he’d threatened to kill. And, despite having lost his father’s inheritance and blessing, Esau is so wealthy that he refuses the lavish gifts Jacob offers to appease him. Yet Duke reminds us, The worst thing isn’t rebellion against the Lord and chaos in this life. It’s apathy for the Lord and peace and prosperity in the less important parts of this life. That’s basically the story of Esau. (171) This sort of analysis brings Esau from the background of Jacob’s story, moving him from a 2D sketch to a 3D rendering. In a flash, Moses’s inclusion of the genealogy of Esau in Genesis 36 makes a lot more sense. He doesn’t have main-character vibes, but Esau provides us with a main-character lesson. Lively Story I’ve read Genesis dozens of times. I’ve studied it and taught it. From Eden to Egypt brought the text to life in ways I hadn’t experienced before. Though Duke’s study is far from exhaustive, it has the potential to be transformative. The Bible is sufficiently clear that the average person can read it with great benefit. Yet God gave the church teachers to help us understand it better (Rom. 12:6–7). Duke teaches a broad audience through this book. He doesn’t have main-character vibes, but Esau provides us with a main-character lesson. I’m hopeful when I see the ongoing stream of biblical theology pouring from academic presses. But I’m even more encouraged by books like this one that do the hard work of arranging the glorious symphony of biblical theology into a tune that anyone can sing. I look forward to the future books by Duke and others that take this everyman approach to biblical theology. Meanwhile, From Eden to Egypt belongs on every pastor’s shelf and in the homes of faithful Christians who want to understand Genesis better.