Resources: Old Testament Studies

The Pentateuch as Narrative focuses on the narrative and literary continuity of the Pentateuch as a whole rather than individual books. It seeks to disclose how the original Jewish readers may have viewed this multivolume work of Moses. Its central thesis is that the Pentateuch was written from the perspective of one who had lived under the Law of the Covenant established at Mount Sinai and had seen its failure to produce genuine trust in the Lord God of Israel. In this context, the Pentateuch pointed the reader forward to the hope of the New Covenant, based on divine faithfulness. Throughout the commentary Dr. Sailhamer pays close attention to and interacts with a wide range of classical and contemporary literature on the Pentateuch, written by Jews, Catholics and Protestants.

This second edition integrates and interacts with recent developments in Old Testament scholarship. It is thoroughly evangelical in its perspective, emphasizes "special introduction," the study of individual books, interacts in an irenic spirit with the historical-critical method, features points of research history and representative scholars rather than an exhaustive treatment of past scholarship, deals with the meaning of each book, not in isolation but in a canonical context, and probes the meaning of each book in the setting of its culture. This intermediate introduction includes callouts, charts, and graphs, and is written with an eye on understanding the nature of Old Testament historiography, and three key issues: historical background, literary analysis, and theological message.

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