The Meaning of the Pentateuch by John H. Sailhamer

The Meaning of the Pentateuch

Revelation, Composition and Interpretation

John H. Sailhamer

InterVarsity Press · Print & ebook · October 15, 2009

Biblical Foundations Book Award The Pentateuch is the foundation for understanding the Old Testament and the Bible as a whole.

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Who it’s for
A close-reading case for letting the Pentateuch’s own text lead.
Genres
Pentateuch Commentary, Exegesis & Hermeneutics, Old Testament Interpretation
Published
InterVarsity Press, October 15, 2009

About this book

Biblical Foundations Book Award The Pentateuch is the foundation for understanding the Old Testament and the Bible as a whole. Yet through the centuries it has been probed and dissected, weighed and examined, its text peeled back for its underlying history, its discourse analyzed and its words weighed. Could there be any stone in Sinai yet unturned?Surprisingly, there is.

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From a career of study, John Sailhamer sums up his perspective on the Pentateuch by first settling the hermeneutical question of where we should set our attention. Rather than focus on the history behind the text, Sailhamer is convinced that it is the text itself that should be our primary focus. Along the way he demonstrates that this was in fact the focus of many interpreters in the precritical era.Persuaded of the singular vision of the Pentateuch, Sailhamer searches out clues left by the author and the later editor of the Pentateuch that will disclose the meaning of this great work. By paying particular attention to the poetic seams in the text, he rediscovers a message that surprisingly brings us to the threshold of the New Testament gospel.

Reading the Text

A close-reading case for letting the Pentateuch’s own text lead.

Come here for

  • A shift from historical background to the text itself
  • Close attention to poetic seams and the Pentateuch’s larger vision

Expect

  • A focused argument about how to interpret the text
  • A reading that traces the Pentateuch’s message toward the New Testament gospel

Where it sits

Pentateuch Commentary56%
Exegesis & Hermeneutics43%
Old Testament Interpretation34%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Old Testament Interpretation
  • Exegesis & Hermeneutics
  • Pentateuch Studies
Authors
John H. Sailhamer
Publisher
InterVarsity Press
Published
October 15, 2009
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Old Testament Interpretation