Did kings Saul, David and Solomon exist, who was the author of the Pentateuch and what events described in the Old Testament actually took place? In tackling the most difficult mysteries of biblical scholarship, Russian scholar Andrei Desnitsky asks the question: is it legitimate to consider scripture as a historical source? Can we reconstruct the biblical past using the scientific method, and to what extent are any of our reconstructions determined by subjective expectations? The author correlates the problems of archaeological data and written sources, tracing the relationship between myth and history, the origins of ancient Israel and the formation of its statehood. This is a fascinatingly presented qualified scientific work, allowing the reader to take a fresh look at the stories of one of the most important books in human history.