Energion.com Reader's Guide - Pentateuch or Torah

When I ask Christian audiences if they've read the Bible through, people usually ask for exceptions--they claim to have read most of the Bible. What have they left out? The genealogies and the material about the temple, temple services and laws, especially ceremonial and purity laws. But the Torah is the foundation of the Jewish faith, and provides many concepts central to the Christian faith as well. This guide will point you to resources that will help you understand this foundational portion of the scriptures.

From Amazon.com: Genesis is Volume I in the Anchor Bible series of new book-by-book translations of the Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha.  Ephraim Avigdor Speiser was University Professor and Chairman of the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Using authoritative evidence from archaeology, linguistics, and comparative religion, the author presents some startling conclusions about the first book of the Bible.  He proves, for example, that the famous opening phrase, "In the beginning," is not true to the meaning of the first word, that the designation "Torah" for the Pentateuch is a misnomer, that the best-known stories of Genesis are grounded in pagan mythology.  Speiser is an iconoclast in the tradition of Abraham; he exposes the false in order to help achieve truth.  As he says in his introduction, he "is not motivated by mere pedantry...but by the hope that each new insight may bring us that much closer to the secret of the Bible's universal and enduring appeal."

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From Amazon.com: Leviticus served as the liturgical handbook of the Levitical Priesthood of the Israelites. From a professor of Religion and the Bible at the University of California at Berkeley comes a comprehensive commentary on Leviticus, now available with a new translation that is sure to set the standard for years to come.

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From Amazon.com: Jacob Milgrom, a rabbi and Bible scholar, has devoted the bulk of his career to examining the laws of the Torah. His incisive commentary on Leviticus, which began with Leviticus 1-16, continues in this last volume of three. It provides an authoritative and comprehensive explanation of ethical values concealed in Israel's rituals. Although at first glance Leviticus seems far removed from the modern-day world, Milgrom's thoughtful and provocative comments and notes reveal its enduring relevance to contemporary society.

Leviticus 23-27 brings us to the climactic end of the book and its revolutionary innovations, among which are the evolution of the festival calendar with its emphasis on folk traditions, and the jubilee, the priestly answer to the socio-economic problems of their time.
With English translations that convey the nuance and power of the original Hebrew, this trilogy will take its place alongside the best of the Anchor Bible Commentaries.

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JPS Torah Commentary Series

This JPS series provides some of the best information on the Torah or Pentateuch for either Christians or Jews. There are many good Christian commentaries, but getting the fundamental Jewish view is essential to understanding the meaning of Torah.