Finding the Big Idea in the Penteteuch

"How do we find the big idea of the Pentateuch? The answer to that question is simple: we read it. As we read the Pentateuch, we begin to formulate in our minds a sense of what it is about. Once we begin to get a sense of what the Pentateuch is about, we can test our ideas against what we actually find in the Pentateuch. Does our understanding of the Pentateuch's big idea fit with what we find in the text itself? As one reads the Pentateuch, these are the kinds of questions one should ask: Am I forcing my ideas on the Pentateuch? Does my understanding of the big idea need some adjustments? Is my understanding totally wrong and in of need being replaced?"

John Sailhamer, The Meaning of the Pentateuch:Revelation, Composition and Interpretation (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2009), 20.