The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition, and Interpretation

Top Highlights

“I propose that the big idea of the Pentateuch is ‘the importance of living by faith.’” (Page 22)

“What’s wrong with this picture? It identifies the giving of the law with the writing of the Pentateuch. It overlooks that the Pentateuch itself was not written to teach Israel the law. The Pentateuch was addressed to a people living under the law (Deut 30:1–2; Ezra 7:6–10) and failing at every oppportunity (Neh 9:33). The Pentateuch looks beyond the law of God to his grace. The purpose of the Pentateuch is to teach its readers about faith and hope in the new covenant (Deut 30:6).” (Page 26)

“My focus throughout this book is not what the laws meant to ancient Israel at Sinai. Instead, I am asking what the inspired written message of the Pentateuch means to us today, and what the law in the Pentateuch has to do with that.” (Page 13)

“Where could Hannah have gotten a hope in a coming king? Their only explanation is to suppose that a later scribe has rewritten Hannah’s praise hymn to make it conform to the messianic beliefs of the later prophets. They have failed to see, however, that Hannah or one of the later ‘prophetic authors’ could have read the Pentateuch or been aware of the prophetic hope in the poems of the Pentateuch. If understood as an echo of the poetry in the Pentateuch, Hannah’s words make sense.” (Page 16)

“Here is the principle I will follow: the best (most valid) big idea is the one that explains the most and the most important parts of the Pentateuch.” (Page 152)