Umberto (Moshe David) Cassuto, a twentieth-century Italian historian, rabbi, and scholar, wrote a popular Hebrew commentary on the Bible, as well as more detailed commentaries on the book of Genesis and part of the book of Exodus. His commentary is marked by an assumption that in order to understand the Bible, one must understand the ancient Near Eastern cultural context in which it was composed. As such, he incorporates archeological findings, his understanding of ancient Semitic languages, and literary tools into his analysis of biblical verses.