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Sheffield, England:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1978. 167 Pages. Reviewed by Phill Christian
identify a primary theme in the books of Moses. It is a brief construct currently in its
second printing with an added preface and afterword. In this book, Clines attempts to
defend his thesis that the Pentateuch has a constant thread that permeates these
pages and that thread is the promise of blessings to the patriarchs. He states that the
theme of the Pentateuch is the partial fulfillmentwhich implies also the partial non-
fulfillmentof the promise to or blessing of the patriarchs. His formula has three
Sheffield in England. His other books include The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew,
Clines argues that the Pentateuch is a unity in its final shape and suggests that
we should look at the text as a whole rather than to what may be behind the text in
the text (atomism) will be avoided in this case and the text will be treated as literature.
A holistic approach, he says, is appropriate to the subject matter. Clines second point
about method is that the study of the origins and development of extant Biblical texts
past.
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Moving into his more literary approach, Clines states that its overall theme
may as well be understood by a person who has never seen a printed Hebrew
Pentateuch. By that, Clines is stating that the theme should be easy enough to
understand by most readers. He begins this section with several definitions. The
plot. Borrowing from W. F. Thrall and A. Hibbard, he says theme is the central or
content, structure, and development of the work, differentiated from similar terms
item from the conceptual equipment of the literary critic, and not necessarily of the
creative artist.
shows that most of the books leave the reader with a sense of movement and of
looking towards the future. Yet, they leave the reader with the sense of a future
possibly in jeopardy. Deuteronomy 34:9 introduces Joshua and the land lying before
the people, yet no assurance that they will occupy that land. In Leviticus and
Numbers there is also movement towards the land. Clines argues that the impetus for
this movement is Gods promises made to the patriarchs. The indicators section of
the book is no more than a few pages with a few scriptural references used to
The next section of the book, formulations and expositions, lists the various
scripture references that describe the blessings made to the patriarchs. Included are
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the promise of descendants, the promise of relationship, and the promise of land.
Here, Clines shows clearly that these promises have indeed been made. He then goes
book by book, starting in Genesis, to describe how each one supports the three-
element theme. Clines then sums up his thesis. He says that in Genesis, it s the
promise of progeny that has predominated, in Exodus and Leviticus the promise of
the relationship of Yahweh and Israel, and in Numbers and Deuteronomy the
see if there might be a hint of the same promises. Along the way he notes several
other sub-themes in Genesis for consideration of fit into his suggested mould. He
But Clines never really settles on a theme for Genesis1-11, merely suggesting that it is
describes in more detail the concept of a promise and the concept of the partial
fulfillment of the promise. Here he describes briefly the function of the Pentateuch
and its intended audience. Clines states that it is generally assumed that the final
product of the Babylonian exile. He then goes on to state that the Pentateuch
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for a moment, Clines says For the Pentateuch especially, it is a divine promise and
Only insofar as scriptural references support it. It is self-evident that the theme he
proposes does, in fact, exist in the Pentateuch. He lists many scripture references to
support statements of promise about seed, relationship, and land, although the
surrounding discussion and analysis is lacking in depth. Clines says very little about
alternative themes. Do the promises exist? Yes. Are they the major theme of the
Pentateuch? It is possible but not certain. Other then the references to specific
scripture there is little to support this theme being better than any others.
But, it is here at the end that Clines does something unusual. He adds an
afterword some twenty years after the writing. And, in this afterword, he essentially
tells the reader that they just may have wasted their time reading it. He says he now
feels a little differently and wants to distance himself somewhat from this book. Then
he adds I stand by most of what I wrote in the book. What seems unusual about
this particular afterword is the author stating that he might have written it differently
if he were writing it today. Clines suggests that he would now take a more political
orientation and focus more on land. He further states that the Pentateuch is and
always was a political document. That statement reflects a rather different orientation
in the Pentateuch that merits reviewing. This reviewer suggests that, in order to do
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that, the reader skips to Chapter four and reads that one paragraph. It is a descriptive
summary of Clines statement of his theme. I would not recommend this book to
depth, and difficult language. Clines is no doubt a gifted scholar and teacher. There
are many writers that have tackled this topic with varying degrees of success. They
covered themes of covenant, themes of grace, and others. When it comes to themes
of the Pentateuch however, there are other books that explore this literary, narrative