Explaining their sources and the nature of their composition, Reinhard Kratz provides an introduction to the narrative books of the Old Testament (Genesis to Nehemiah). He seeks to do this as far as possible without presupposing any hypotheses and on the basis of a few undisputed basic assumptions: a distinction between Priestly and non-Priestly text in the Pentateuch, the special position of Deuteronomy, a Deuteronomistic revision of Joshua-2 Kings, and the literary use of the books of Samuel and Kings by Chronicles. Any further distinctions are based on observations of the text which are...