Invitation to the Torah: A Guide to Reading, Teaching, and Preaching the Pentateuch

We all love a good story. The Torah, or Pentateuch, is regularly defamed as “law.” Actually, it’s a saga about our search for happiness and how the God of the Bible fits into it. Lacing legal material into narrative punctuated with poetry, the Torah contrasts two provocative personalities named Abraham and Moses. Fascinating and fickle, their adventures portray two visions of approaching God. The Torah was written to render a verdict on who is the best model.
This book demonstrates that Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are a unified narrative, framed as contrasting biographies, proclaiming a coherent message. It surveys each book’s structure and themes to determine its argument and then articulates the Torah’s message for people of all time, its vision of human happiness. It establishes that the Torah is the core of the Jewish and Christian Bibles and shows how the rest of the Bible elaborates its message. Ending with suggestions to help you read it, this book is your invitation to the Torah.

George Van Pelt Campbell is professor of biblical studies and sociology at Grove City College, Pennsylvania. His ThM in Old Testament is from Dallas Theological Seminary, and his PhD in religion and sociology is from the University of Pittsburgh. He is author of Everything You Know Seems Wrong about globalization's impact on culture and religion, and Invitation to the Torah.