ABSTRACT
The authors of the Pentateuch set their scene with a dark backdrop rippling and opening slowly to reveal a splendid ceremonial panorama against which the story of the people can unfold. They are writing for a people shattered by exile, who have no cause to believe in their own greatness, and so, to create a setting and origin for the growth of the nation of Israel, they go on to present, first, legends of the heroes and patriarchs of old, such as Cain and Noah ( Chapters 4–11), and then tales of the people’s ancestry, the ordinary nomad family of Abraham and Sarah (pp. 69, 75). In that everyday setting, the writers establish the core biblical theme of God’s Covenant with his people, which, in a few colourful generations, will bring them to their greatness, as their children and grandchildren, Isaac, Jacob, the reformed trickster, renamed Israel, and his twelve children, grow to a substantial tribe (pp. 77–88). In a time of drought and famine the famous story of Joseph takes them down to enter the great civilisation of Egypt (Gen 37–48), and Genesis leaves them there. In Exodus, the story changes from folk-memories of a tribe of herds-men to an epic poem of a people of destiny, and their great leader, Moses.
