This study presents the Pentateuch in both a wider Biblical context and in a more specific close reading of the five initial books of Scripture. The differing approaches to exploring and understanding these books through time is considered, with special emphasis on the changing approaches of the last two centuries, both in terms of the historical-critical approach and the more literary analysis of structuralism. These diachronic and synchronic approaches are synthesized in the canonical method which looks at the books in the wider and more specific context of the formation of the biblical canon and the relationship of these books to one another. There is an investigation into the aspects of these fundamental texts that still render them challenging and helpful for anyone searching for enlightenment and the path of faith.