The Classic Commentaries and Studies on the Pentateuch presents an impressive balance of perspectives from the history of biblical scholarship on the Five Books of Moses. With contributing voices from Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the contributors here provide an international taste of scholarship on the Pentateuch from a wide variety of perspectives. Some are fully entrenched in the higher criticism and analyses of the literary sources of the Pentateuch books, while others emphasize the traditional unity of the Pentateuch and the historic position of its authorship by Moses. Together these dueling perspectives give readings the opportunity to consider the evidence, historical, archaeological, and textual, and decide for themselves the nature and structure of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers of Deuteronomy.

Critical remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures represents one of the earliest critical commentaries on the Pentateuch. Attempting a scientific and empirically grounded historical method, Geddes places an emphasis in his commentary on what can be explicitly confirmed and tested. He represents a critical voice in the history of research that called for a reanalysis of the structure of the Pentateuch.