Joseph Blenkinsopp’s book The Pentateuch: An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible (i.e. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) provides an important contribution to the study of the Christian and Hebrew bibles. Walter Houston, in his commentary on the Pentateuch, highlights the fact that “Blenkinsopp… argues for understanding it as a historical work.” The reason that Blenkinsopp argues for this approach is that it helps “both Christian and Jewish readers… find… clues to their own identity.” Blenkinsopp’s book, according to the biblical scholar Jean Ska, is divided into seven chapters that explore four main aspects of the five books of Moses: “(1) the origins (Genesis 1-11), (2) the Patriarchs (Genesis 11:27-50), (3) the passage from Egypt to Canaan, and (4) ‘Sinai, Covenant and Law.’” This paper will begin by examining some of the historical scholarship that has taken place from the twelfth to the twentieth century. Then, this essay will briefly explore the four sections identified by Ska. Finally, this paper will conclude with a terse look at the Pentateuch’s final redaction, and an evaluation of Blenkinsopp’s book. Historical scholarship of the Pentateuch has yielded several interesting insights which scholars have used to further their understanding of its development. Blenkinsopp begins his…show more content… (pg. 216-217) The book of the second law, as Deuteronomy is sometimes called, is best “understood as an exposition, expansion, and, at certain points (e.g., the altar law), correction of the covenant law book delivered at Horeb.” Another important contribution that Deuteronomy made to post-exilic Judean society was “to resolve conflicting claims of authority in the religious (and therefore also the political) sphere[—by putting it in the hands of the
