This volume takes a very different approach to biblical narrative, law, and society. In many ways, it is a treatise on comparative mythology, on comparative legal practice and attitudes. The author, Daniel Friedmann, is very forthcoming, saying that he does not intend “to tackle the immensity of scholarly literature in the field.” Instead, his intent is to “infer from the biblical stories the legal and moral concepts they reflect and the system of laws underlying them, which seems not to conform with many of the laws of the Pentateuch” (vii). There are only a few references to modern scholarship (all in footnotes—no bibliography of works cited); most of Friedmann's discussion is bolstered by references to Rashi, Maimonides, the Talmud, and other rabbinical commentaries. There is no attempt to interact with modern critical approaches to biblical interpretation, and there is no regard for current discussions of “maximalist” or “minimalist” dating and editing of the text.