This volume collects thirteen essays by David M. Carr which join the study of the formation of the Pentateuch with research on other topics, from material history to animal studies. It begins with a detailed history of the last half-century of scholarship on the formation of the Pentateuch along with more general essays on the rationale for such study and on other methodological issues in Pentateuchal research. Two subsequent sections collect essays on intertextuality and on the material history of the five-scroll Pentateuchal collection. The volume concludes with essays linking such research with other areas, e.g. the question of the 'author' in literary studies and questions about relations between humans and other animals in animal studies. Each chapter is prefaced with an introduction providing background on the context and problems addressed in the essay.

Born 1961; 1983 MTS Emory; 1988 PhD Claremont Graduate University; 1988-99 Williams Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Methodist Theological School in Ohio; is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York.