Moses according to tradition, like Genesis, but remember oral tradition for much longer than it was written down.

Who did they write it for?

Israelites as they entered the Promised Land - telling them the story of the home that God created for them and how he released them from slavery - but also their injustice toward God and their faithlessness to him.

When was it written?

Around 1400 BC

What are the big themes?

God has a plan, even if it’s not one we understand.

God requires holiness, being set apart and being different from others.

God completes his promises, even if in ways that we don’t expect.

What is the biggest challenge?

God destroys as part of his plan just as he heals and protects.

God hardens hearts, and that challenges our ideas of his mercy.

History tells us Moses - oral history rather than written history.

Who did they write it for?

The Israelites as they moved into the Promised Land, telling the story of where they came from and what God had created for them. Also included in the Jewish Torah and the Muslim Qur’an.

When was it written?

Around 1400 BC.

What are the big themes?

Creation is good, and God wants to return to that perfection.

God wants to find partners, people who will love the world and work with him to restore it.

Faith is just as crucial as in the New Testament, and Jesus is pointed to in stories like Abraham and Isaac, and Joseph.

What is the biggest challenge?

Some of the brutality of the era means that God’s people wrestles with keeping to God’s partnership.

What is literally and what is literalistically true.