The Book of the Torah

The first five books of the Bible contain many of its most famous stories, populated by vivid characters altogether human in their triumphs and failings—and an equally complicated deity. Many works of Western art and literature appeal to these stories, from Michelangelo's painting of Adam and Eve to a novel like William Faulkner's Go Down, Moses. The three great Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are rooted here. So is much of Western political theory and constitutional ...