In this groundbreaking and insightful new commentary, one of the world's leading biblical scholars unveils the unity and continuity of the Torah for the modern reader. Richard Elliott Friedman, the bestselling author of Who Wrote the Bible?, integrates the most recent discoveries in biblical archaeology and research with the fruits of years of experience studying and teaching the Bible to illuminate the straightforward meaning of the text -- "to shed new light on the Torah and, more important, to open windows through which it sheds its light on us."

While other commentaries are generally collections of comments by a number of scholars, this is a unified commentary on the Torah by a single scholar, the most unified by a Jewish scholar in centuries. It includes the original Hebrew text, a new translation, and an authoritative, accessibly written interpretation and analysis of each passage that remains focused on the meaning of the Torah as a whole, showing how its separate books are united into one cohesive, all-encompassing sacred literary masterpiece. This landmark work is destined to take its place as a classic in the libraries of lay readers and scholars alike, as we seek to understand the significance of the scriptural texts for our lives today, and for years to come.

Richard Elliott Friedman is the Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia and the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization at the University of California, San Diego. One of the premier biblical scholars in the country, he received his doctorate at Harvard, was a visiting fellow at Oxford and Cambridge, and was a senior fellow at the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem.

He is the author of The Disappearance of God (published in paperback as The Hidden Face of God), The Hidden Book in the Bible, Commentary on the Torah, The Bible with Sources Revealed, The Exile and Biblical Narrative, and the bestselling Who Wrote the Bible?.

He works in Akkadian, Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Ugaritic, French, and German. He was an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and was president of the Biblical Colloquium West. His books have been translated into Hebrew, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish, and French.

He has been interviewed by CNN's Larry King and on NPR's "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" and "Radio Times" and "Talk of the Nation." Articles and citations of his work have appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Time, Newsweek, and other print media. He was a consultant for the Dreamworks film "The Prince of Egypt," for NBC "The Eternal Light," for A&E "Mysteries of the Bible," and for A&E "Who Wrote the Bible?," for PBS "Nova: The People of the Covenant: The Origins of Ancient Israel and the Emergence of Judaism," for European television's ARTE "The Bible Revealed," and for PBS "The Kingdom of David."

A consultant to universities, journals, encyclopedias, and publishers, he is also the editor of four books on biblical studies and has authored more than fifty articles, reviews, and notes in scholarly and popular publications.