You might want to even take notes. When you have finished reading, come back to the study. Anytime you want to access the biblical text again, simply scroll to this place and click on the Icon. When Will Durant had finished writing a multi-volume history of human civilization, he was asked to comment on what he had learned about human beings as a result of his lifetime of study. His comment was simple.
Humans have an infinite capacity to make problems for themselves.
Though no one was around at the time of creation and there was no way to write what happened, the creation narratives as they were passed down through the oral tradition and finally written down two to three thousand years ago carry this same message. Humans cycle from joy to despair and back to joy over and over again in their lives. Sometimes the cycle begins because we make bad choices as it did for Adam and Eve when they ate of the tree of knowledge. Sometimes it begins when others make bad choices, as it did for Adam and Eve when their sons became competitive and finally violent. Sometimes things beyond control cause the plunge from joy to despair in this case the harshness of tilling the land and of giving birth.