Exploring the Old Testament : A Guide to the Pentateuch

by Wenham, Gordon J.

• ISBN13: 9780830825516
• ISBN10: 0830825517
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780830825417
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Intervarsity Pr
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

The Pentateuch, or Torah, is the charter document of Israel's covenant faith, the foundation of Scripture and the key to understanding the biblical story. The themes that are first struck in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy resonate throughout the Bible. To understand the message of the Pentateuch is essential to interpreting what follows.No serious student of the Bible can shortcut a mastery of these "five books of Moses." Yet many introductions to the Pentateuch are uninviting and tend to obscure the vast mural of the Pentateuch with the scaffolding of scholarship.Gordon Wenham has devoted much of his scholarly career to understanding the Pentateuch, and in this volume he reliably guides students through the corridors of the text, pointing out its features and explaining its difficulties. The result is a clear overview of the Pentateuch as we have it.But Wenham also helps us comprehend the historical and textual questions modern scholarship has posed and the answers it has proposed. And where historical evidence supports or illumines the text, this too is skillfully blended into the discussion.Wenhams's textbook is up to date, balanced, clearly organized and reliable. And it brims with helpful classroom features: discussion ideas and questions, suggestions for research and debate, essay topic lists and recommended further reading. Here is a critically informed, textually sensitive and theologically illuminating introduction to the Pentateuch. It offers the instruction of a premier evangelical Pentateuchal scholar in the interactive and reader-friendlly format that is the hallmark of the Exploring the Bible Series.

Author Biography

Gordon J. Wenham is professor of Old Testament at the University of Gloucestershire, England

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Key to Panels	viii
Preface	xi
Acknowledgements	xii
Introduction	xiii
Abbreviations	xv
1 What Is the Pentateuch? Basic Features	1	(8)
Name	1	(1)
Genre	2	(1)
Biography of Moses	2	(1)
National History	3	(1)
Torah or Law	4	(1)
Why Five Books?	5	(1)
When Did the Pentateuch Become Part of the Bible?	6	(1)
Further Reading	7	(2)
2 Genesis 1-11	9	(27)
Ancient Near Eastern Parallels to Genesis 1-11	9	(6)
Genesis' Transformation of Oriental Origin Stories	15	(3)
The Organization of Genesis 1-11	18	(15)
The New Testament Use of Genesis 1-11	33	(1)
Further Reading	34	(2)
3 Genesis 12-50 35 The Genre of Genesis 12-50	36	(21)
11:27-25:11: The Story of Abraham	37	(8)
25:12-18: Genealogy of Ishmael	45	(1)
25:19-35:29: The Story of Jacob and Esau	45	(6)
36:1-37:1: Genealogy of Esau	51	(1)
37:2-50:26: The Story of Joseph and His Brothers	51	(4)
The New Testament Use of Genesis 12-50	55	(1)
Further Reading	56	(1)
4 Exodus	57	(24)
Structure	58	(1)
Slavery in Egypt and Liberation	58	(9)
The Law-giving	67	(7)
The Tabernacle	74	(5)
The New Testament and the Book of Exodus	79	(1)
Further Reading	79	(2)
5 Leviticus	81	(22)
Structure	81	(1)
The Problems of Reading Leviticus	82	(2)
Visualization	82	(1)
Significance	83	(1)
Interpretation	84	(1)
1:1-7:38: Laws on Sacrifice	84	(5)
8:1-10:20: Institution of the Priesthood	89	(2)
11:1-16:34: Uncleanness and Its Treatment	91	(4)
17:1-27:34: Prescriptions for Practical Holiness	95	(4)
The New Testament and Leviticus	99	(1)
Further Reading	100	(3)
6 Numbers	103	(20)
Structure	103	(2)
The Contents of Numbers	105	(16)
Numbers and the New Testament	121	(1)
Further Reading	121	(2)
7 Deuteronomy	123	(22)
Structure	125	(17)
Deuteronomy and the New Testament	142	(1)
Further Reading	143	(2)
8 Theme of the Pentateuch	145	(14)
Martin Noth on the Themes of the Pentateuch	145	(2)
Gerhard von Rad and the Pentateuch	147	(3)
David Clines on the Theme of the Pentateuch	150	(3)
Reassessment	153	(4)
Further Reading	157	(2)
9 Composition of the Pentateuch	159	(28)
The Traditional Ascription of the Pentateuch to Moses	159	(1)
The Documentary Hypothesis	160	(5)
The Identification of the Sources	165	(6)
Twentieth-century Adjustments to the Documentary Hypothesis	171	(1)
The Collapse of the Consensus since 1975	172	(1)
The Trend towards Unitary Readings	173	(3)
The Dating of the Sources	176	(7)
Further Reading	183	(4)
10 Rhetoric of the Pentateuch	187	(10)
Guarded Optimism - a Twelfth-century Setting	188	(1)
Celebration and Protest - a Tenth-century Setting	189	(2)
Reassurance to the Dispirited - a Seventh-century setting	191	(2)
Hope in Difficult Times - A Fifth-century Setting	193	(2)
Further Reading	195	(2)
11 Epilogue	197	(2)
Glossary	199	(4)
Index	203