If there’s one thing I like to do after a glass of Pinot Grigio, it’s launch into an elaborate explanation of how Ezra was the world’s greatest editor. He edited the Pentateuch, after all, the first five books of the Bible.

And Ezra, being the savvy editor that he was, knew what he was doing. He took from a number of sources (J, E, P, and D) and combined and culled and ended up pleasing just about everyone. He really knew what he was doing. It’s not a coincidence that Genesis has two stories of how Adam and Eve were created. It’s deliberate.

So it was Wednesday night after a long day and night without sleep in Austin that I thought it would be a particularly good time to explain this to my traveling companion, a former Mormon.

I can only be grateful that she was tolerant.

Speaking of tolerance, more about Ezra and his editing abilities at Religious Tolerance (scroll down). And here’s the first ten chapters of Genesis separated by color.