In this highly regarded textbook, now issued in a second edition, David Clines shows how the Pentateuch, though composed of a rich array of diverse materials, can still be read as a unity. It has a single theme: the fulfilment of the threefold promise to the ancestors-of land, of descendants and of a relationship with God. As the pentateuch proceeds, each of these promises comes in turn to the fore, though none of them ever finds complete fulfilment. The literary approach to the Pentateuch can be integrated successfully with the more traditional source criticism: and there are fruitful theological possibilities also in reading the Pentateuch as a unified story. For this second edition, the author has written a concluding chapter, suggesting how The Theme of the Pentateuch should be read in today's changing intellectual climate.
