The important debate over the nature and even the existence of Elohist (or E) material in the Pentateuch continues unresolved. In this original work, Coote seeks to "bring E back from near extinction" by demonstrating E's literary integrity, its religious complexity, and its support of Israel's revolution against the house of David led by Jeroboam I.

"I have great regard for Coote's scholarship. I think he knows as much as anyone about the internal working of power politics in ancient Israel, and about how that is to be discerned in the text."

- Walter Brueggemann

Columbia Theological Seminary

"Coote's book will force the Elohist question into the light and set a clear agenda for dealing with the basic issues in the study of E."

-P. Kyle McCarter Johns Hopkins University