It is a pleasure to welcome the appearance in English of a work of deep theological relevance. Dr von Rad's commentary was published in the German Protestant series, Das Alte Testament Deutsch, nearly a decade ago. Now that it is available in English, it is to be hoped that it will be widely read. If so, the result can only be a growth in our understanding of the developing relationship between man and his creator, who has revealed himself in scripture as the Lord of history. Let us be clear that this commentary on Genesis is not primarily aimed at the expert philologist or literary critic. Von Rad accepts the classical documentary theory in general, and he devotes a minimum of space in this book to discussing the sources of particular passages. In this he is at the other extrerne to Martin Noth in his commentary on Exodus in the same Series (scheduled to appear in English also in the Old Testament library), which is devoted very largely to source criticism.