Exploring the Old Testament: A Guide to the Pentateuch

Currents in Theology and Mission, June, 2005

Exploring the Old Testament. A Guide to the Pentateuch. By Gordon J. Wenham (InterVarsity, $25). In this undergraduate textbook W. offers an illuminating guide to the structure, meaning, and composition history of the first five books of the Bible. Maps, figures, tables, and a glossary make for an appealing and digestible layout, and "Digging deeper" and "What do you think?" panels allow readers to make up their minds about controversial issues.

He fairly lists the strengths of and the challenges to the documentary hypothesis and winds up by giving interpretations of the Pentateuch if its setting was in the twelfth, tenth, seventh, or fifth centuries B.C.E. At times I wanted the author to decide among the alternatives he describes, but, given the purpose of the book, his may be a wise decision. RWK