Paper Summary:

This paper examines how in "The Theme of the Pentateuch" David J. A. Clines views the final version of the Pentateuch as a whole and attempts to identify the theme that unifies the very different books, drawn from several sources and compiled over a great span of time, as a single and singular literary work. It analyzes how this theme, as Clines sees it, is "the partial fulfillment -- which implies also the partial non-fulfillment -- of the promise to or blessing of the patriarchs" and how the promise is the divine initiative in the midst of human affairs which affirms God's intentions in regard to humanity. It evaluates how there are also three elements to the promise -- posterity, divine-human relationship and land which play greater or lesser roles in the various books of the Pentateuch. It looks at how Clines demonstrates the exposition of the theme in the five books and offers explanations of its functions in historical and theological terms.

From the Paper:

"Despite its "defensive" tone Clines' argument for adding a "holistic" approach to the prevailing "atomism" and "geneticism" of biblical studies is well made. He essentially argues that while both the concern with the minutiae of historical detail and the vexing problem of sources are absolutely essential to biblical scholarship they should not preclude the literary approach in which the Bible, or its parts, are viewed as examples of coherent, systematic wholes. This is, of course, a circular argument to some extent. In other words, one must proceed from the assumption that the work is a whole in order to determine its theme and, having discerned what the theme is, this confirms that the work is a whole."

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