The Bible is a unique and unparalleled Christian heritage for it is God's communication to humankind. Within recent times biblical scholarship has made available entirely new dimensions of understanding the biblical texts and as a result the relevance of biblical teaching to the modern world has kept pace with the development of humankind itself. However, like any scientific discipline, biblical scholarship demands interpretation for the non-specialist and particularly for those whose professional duty it is to proclaim the word of God to his people. It is precisely for those ministers of the Word, priests and religious educators, that this book has been written. Its purpose is pastoral rather than scholarly.