SOURCE: "The Pentateuch" in The Hebrew Bible and Its Modern Interpreters, edited by Douglas A. Knight and Gene M. Tucker, Fortress Press, 1985, pp. 263-96.

In the essay that follows, Knight examines the literary structure and intentions of the author(s) of the Torah through a critical survey of Pentateuchal scholarship.

It would be difficult to overestimate the role that the Pentateuch has played in the course of biblical scholarship. In all likelihood, these first five books have been subjected to scrutiny more than any other single block of the Bible, with the sole possible exception of the Gospels. It is significant that the Pentateuch has generally served as the staging ground for many if not most of the critical questions and methods that later spread to other areas of the biblical literature. Consider the following examples: Eight centuries ago Ibn Ezra wrote a commentary on the Pentateuch in...