The world of the Bible and the people who wrote it comes alive in this fascinating work by one of our foremost Bible scholars. In an analysis that the reads as compellingly as a detective story, Richard Elliot Friedman focuses on the central books of the Old Testament Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and makes a persuasive argument for the identities of their four different authors. Drawing upon the most recent archaeological discoveries, Friedman presents a vivid picture of the world of the Bible as he examines where and when these writers lived, the politics and history embedded in their stories, and their relationship to the events they describe and to one another.