How should Israel's waiting for her land shape our reading of the Pentateuch, and how should this shape the hope of the church today? Waiting for the Land is the first book-length exploration of these questions, and treats the Pentateuch as a coherent and progressive story. Book jacket.
When Jean Louis Ska's Introduzione alla lettura del Pentateuco was first published in Italy, it was quickly hailed as the most attractive and usable introduction to the Pentateuch to appear in modern times. Because of its strengths, it was soon translated into French. The English translation published by Eisenbrauns has been completely reviewed and updated (including the bibliography) by Ska. Among the book's many strengths are its close attention to the ways in which modern cultural history has affected Pentateuchal interpretation, attention to providing the kinds of examples that are helpful to students, presentation of a good balance between the history of interpretation and the data of the text, and the clarity of Ska's writing. For both students and scholars, many consider this book the best contemporary introduction to the Pentateuch.
Persuaded of the singular vision of the Pentateuch, Old Testament professor John Sailhamer searches out clues left by the author and the later editor of the Pentateuch that will disclose the meaning of this great work. By paying particular attention to the poetic seams in the text, he rediscovers a message that surprisingly brings us to the threshold of the New Testament gospel.
Rolf Rendtorff is interested above all in the process by which the Pentateuch reached the form in which it now lies before us. He concludes that the classic Documentary Hypothesis has been tried in the fire and found wanting, and traces briefly the scholarly path that led him to this conclusion. His approach has been met with strong disagreement, cautious agreement, and, in some quarters, relief and readiness to look for other ways than that of the documentary hypothesis to explain the formation of the Pentateuch. It is certain, however, that scholars of the Pentateuch cannot ignore Rendtorff's important volume.
This textbook focuses primarily on the content and structure of the Pentateuch. The process which produced the Pentateuch and the long record of its use within Judaism and Christianity are intricate and fascinating stories, but it is the final forms of these five books to which we have the most reliable access. Discussions of historical and theological issues are included when they serve to illustrate the content and structure of the text. After an opening chapter, which introduces the major issues in the study of the Pentateuch, including a summary of the history of scholarship, a full chapter engages each of the five books. Attention to literary shape, texture, and artistry are at the forefront of the discussion, while historical and theological discussions are included where they are most informative. The book also includes many lists of textual data in each chapter. Most of these provide a view of features, which serve to connect and draw together the diverse literature of the Pentateuch. They are intended to serve as starting points for active textual research in a classroom setting. The material in this book is classroom tested and was even developed during successive opportunities to teach courses in the Pentateuch. - Publisher.
In this introduction to the first five books of the Old Testament, Victor Hamilton moves chapter by chapter--rather than verse by verse--through the Pentateuch, examining the content, structure, and theology. Each chapter deals with a major thematic unit of the Pentateuch, and Hamilton provides useful commentary on overarching themes and connections between Old Testament texts. This second edition has been substantially revised and updated. The first edition sold over sixty thousand copies.
This popular textbook regards the Pentateuch as a literary whole, with a single theme that binds it together. The overarching theme is the partial fulfilment of the promises to the patriarchs. Though the method of the book is holistic, the origin and growth of the theme is also explored using the methods of traditional source analysis. An important chapter explores the theological function of the Pentateuch both in the community for which the Pentateuch was first composed and in our own time. For this second, enlarged edition, the author has written an Epilogue reassessing the theme of the Pentateuch from a more current postmodern perspective.
Here are indispensable tools for the student of Pentateuchal source analysis: --The complete NRSV text of the Priestly document, the Yahwist narrative, the Elohist texts, and non-source texts of the Pentateuch as identified by Martin Noth --Introductions that review the history of source-oriented research and the current debate over the origin and growth of the Pentateuch --Annotations that help with the understanding of source-critical decisions --Studies of three composite texts that exemplify the nature of the problem and possible approaches to a solution.
The first five books of the Hebrew Bible spark discussions that last for centuries. From the creation stories in Genesis through the delineation of the law in Deuteronomy, these five books - the Pentateuch - contain deep troves of historical and spiritual treasures. In The Bible's Foundation: An Introduction to the Pentateuch, Charles Aaron Jr. looks at each book through several perspectives: ancient near-Eastern background, literary analysis, structure, important theological concepts, and compositional history. The Bible's Foundation: An Introduction to the Pentateuch accounts the academic significance of each book and the issues of faith that have marked these books as important, sacred texts. Each chapter summarizes the content of an individual book, provides careful analysis for selected representative passages, and discusses in a critical way the faith issues raised from the text.