After serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) he completed a Bachelor's degree in the Talmud Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

For his graduate work he switched to the Bible Department and completed his PhD in 1988 under the supervision of Moshe Greenberg, with a dissertation on the relationship between the Pentateuchal Priestly source and the Holiness code.

[4] He also finds evidence of this belief in the Dead Sea Scrolls, although his interpretation of the partially preserved Self-Glorification hymn upon which his theory relies is not universally accepted.

According to the subtitle the purpose of the book is to crack the genetic code of the Hebrew Bible, or more specifically to address questions regarding the genesis of the Jewish people, the root of its belief system, and how its laws and traditions originated.

The first group is the Hyksos, who were originally Canaanite slaves who then assimilated into the Egyptian population and ruled the country for 100 years beginning in 1638 BCE.

The myth of Abraham and his journey to Canaan originated, according to Knohl, with a group that immigrated from Mitanni following the fall of this kingdom at the hands of Shalmaneser I.

[8] According to Papyrus Harris I and the Elephantine Stele, Irsu was a Shasu who took power in Egypt with the support of "Asiatics" (people from the Levant) after the death of Queen Twosret; after coming to power, Irsu and his supporters disrupted Egyptian rituals, "treating the gods like the people" and halting offerings to the Egyptian deities.

They were eventually defeated and expelled by the new Pharaoh Setnakhte and, while fleeing, they abandoned large quantities of gold and silver they had stolen from the temples.

It was originally thought that Irsu was Chancellor Bay, a prominent Asiatic officer who rose to power during the reign of Pharaoh Seti II and later attempted to usurped the throne; however, an IFAO Ostracon no.

1864 found at Deir el-Medina in 2000 states that Bay was executed during the reign of Pharaoh Siptah, well before Irsu's action, thus ruling out such identification.