SOURCE: "Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy" in A Complete Literary Guide to the "Bible," edited by Leland Ryken and Tremper Longman III, Zondervan Publishing House, 1993, pp. 121-36.

In the essay that follows, Baroody and Gentrup examine the literary structure of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy in order to establish the complex interrelationship between their narrative elements and the presentation of Torah as law.

The life of Moses, from his birth and early years in the opening of Exodus to his death and legacy at the close of Deuteronomy, provides the narrative frame for most of the Pentateuch. As distinguished from Genesis, which encompasses a human history of at least four thousand years, these four monumental books, after the first two chapters of Exodus, span a period of only forty years, from Moses' calling at age 80 until his death at age 120.

A marvelous collection of narrative and law is...