Blue Cord

Review

Rating: 7

Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch by Jean-Louis Ska is a translation of the French version, which itself is a translation of the Italian original.

At first, I was a little puzzled by the title. After all, what else can you do with the Pentateuch except read it? Would we expect a book on Introduction to Cooking the Pentateuch or Introduction to Throwing the Pentateuch? Reading is what we do with it. Obviously, Introduction to Living the Pentateuch might make sense as well. As it turns out, however, Introduction to the Development of the Pentateuch would be a better title.

Although the book’s title suggests that it is a general introduction to the Pentateuch, it focuses primarily on how the Pentateuch reached the form that we now possess. As such, it really is two books in one. The first half of the book would serve well as an introductory text. Questions of content and structure are covered (chaps.1-2), as well as some of the problems that lead to the development of source critical theories (chaps.3-5). The second half of the book, though, moves into a more detailed discussion of the history of Pentateuchal research (chap.6) and the current state of the question (chap.7), including Ska’s own ideas (chaps.8-10).

Because of this divide, I am not sure that the book would serve as an introductory text. The first part is basic enough, although I would like to see some more detail there. The second half, however, is more on the level of an intermediate work. There are some sections with which I can see a beginning student having a great amoung of difficulty. He moves beyond introductory ideas to a fairly complete overview of the current state of the field. Due to the lack of consensus in the field, this section is complex.

But if one approaches the book as a resource for more advanced work, the second half of the book is a wonderful read. Ska presents a good overview of the current state of the field. But beyond a simple survey, he also engages in a critique of these ideas. The numberous notes and bibliography will be useful to those interested in getting up to speed in the field, while those of us who follow this discipline will find some new insights. His chapter entitled “Reference Points for Reading the Pentateuch” is especially helpful. He also ends by discussing the two most recent ideas of the Pentateuch as official, sanctioned Persian law and the Pentateuch as a document produced by those centered on the temple in Post-exilic Yehud. He finds the second hypothesis to be more convicing, while offering some helpful critiques of the first.

Unfortunately, the blurbs on the back of the book are not that helpful when it comes to deciding whether to buy the book. One of them, for instance, speaks of Ska’s balancing of diachronic and synchronic readings, something that Ska hardly does. While he does briefly speak of synchronic readings, he is mainly focused on the diachronic aspects (which is fine with me, since I prefer diachronic readings as well). Other blurbs point to the fact that Ska provides a survey of European scholarship on the Pentateuch, and this is certainly the case. Ska, however, is conversant with both European and North American scholarship, and is not confined to one particular school.

Overall, it will be a helpful book for those in the field, although I am not sure that it would serve well as an introductory text, at least not for an undergraduate class. Those in the field will find it quite accessible and repleate with copious notes.