Addressed to Jewish and Christian readers alike, this important text book surveys past and current research into the problems of the Pentateuch and speculates on what direction it is likely to take in the future.

Despite the great interest in literary criticism of the Bible, Professor Blenkinsopp argues that in texts like those contained in the Pentateuch, it alone is not enough, and that whatever the problems of historical criticism and documentary hypotheses, the insights that they provide cannot be ignored. At the same time it is possible at the end of the twentieth century to see the degree to which rationalism, Romanticism, Hegelianism and other trends influenced exegesis of the Pentateuch and prompted certain conclusions about the religious history of early Judaism. After describing past scholarship the book considers the basic features of the Pentateuch, its structure and chronology and then examines the sweep of its narrative from human origins and the story of the ancestors in Genesis to the progress of Israel from Egypt to Canaan via the exodus and the lawgiving on Sinai. Concluding reflections relate the Pentateuch to the Deuteronomistic History which follows.