This fine monograph offers the most comprehensive and detailed treatment to date of the history of interpretation in antiquity of Genesis xv.14 and Exodus iii.21–2; xi.2–3; and xii.35–6. The first part of the book (about half) is devoted to ‘pre-rabbinic interpretations’ of the despoliation motive (pp. 19–146): the Septuagint, Jubilees, Artapanus, Ezekiel the Tragedian, the Wisdom of Solomon, Philo (Life of Moses; Who is the heir) and Josephus. Although Allen finds little evidence that anti-Jewish writers were acquainted with the biblical material, he is able to show that a Jewish author like Artapanus (who tries to shift the blame onto the Arabians) reacted to an ‘awareness’ of the despoliation motive in Gentile polemics (pp. 56–7, 137). Jubilees 48.18 and Wisdom of Solomon 10.17 put forward the ‘just wage argument’: the spoils of the Egyptians compensated for long years of unjust servitude. Philo's contribution is crucial: On the one hand he elaborated the ‘just wage argument’ (Life of Moses 140–2): Allen's subtle analysis tries to show that the Alexandrian implicitly draws on Stoic notions by arguing that the despoliation of the Egyptians was justified because their enslavement of the Jews as ‘well-born freemen’ constituted an offence against natural justice (pp. 94–105). On the other hand Philo inaugurated the tradition of the allegorisation of the despoliation motive: in Who is the heir 271–4, glossing Genesis xv.4, he interprets the ‘stock’ as the fruits of an enkyklios paideia which the soul that had been enslaved by the passions carries off on its return to its heavenly home (pp. 107–17). Josephus, in accordance with some rabbinic sources, saw the spoils as gifts for departing friends (Antiquities ii.314). In this way some Egyptians tried to accelerate their friends' departure, others showed their neighbourly closeness to them. A second, rather brief, part deals with a ‘midrashic pondering’ of the despoliation motive (pp. 149–77): Allen here divides the rabbinical material into (1) texts which reflect on the moral problem of plundering; (2) texts which downplay the problem (for example, by a rehearsal of the ‘just wage’ or ‘gifts for departing friends’ arguments); (3) texts which emphasise various positive features of the story (for example by pointing to the positive result of the plunder); and (4) texts which pass over the moral problem. The third and final part is devoted to patristic exegesis (pp. 181–272). Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen and Augustine are reviewed in some detail; a short section surveying Clement of Alexandria, Ambrose of Milan, Gregory of Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephrem and Theodoret is added (pp. 261–72). Prepared by the analysis of Jewish exegesis in the first two parts the reader here encounters variations of familiar lines of argument: Irenaeus (Against heresies 4.30–1) defended the theft against Marcionite or Gnostic criticism. He emphasised the justness of the Jewish claims against the Egyptians who owed their wealth to Joseph and yet treated the Jews unjustly by enslaving them. Moreover, for Irenaeus the story has to be read in light of the divine economy; it prefigures ‘the right of the church to make use of material goods for spiritual ends’ (p. 192). Tertullian rejected Marcionite censure of the god of the Old Testament. Imagining a court room procedure in which the Egyptians charge the Hebrews with theft, he challenged Marcion to arbitrate between the two contending parties: surely, the case of the Hebrews must prevail. The booty is only a modest compensation for the hard labour of 600,000 men through many years; moreover, the Hebrews could claim damages for having been reduced to unjust slavery (Against Marcion 2.20.1–3). Allen cites Philonic and Rabbinic (GenR 61.7 and bSanh 91a) parallels to Tertullian's arguments (pp. 201–8). Origen, in his letter to Gregory, proposed a suggestive parallel: Christians who draw on Greek philosophy, geometry and astronomy for biblical exegesis are compared to the children of Israel who employed the silver and gold vessels and the clothing of their Egyptian neighbours for the construction and adornment of the tabernacle. Allen argues that although Augustine was somehow acquainted with Origen's exegesis (p. 258), he transformed it significantly: whereas Origen reluctantly and not without anxious undertones conceded the limited usefulness of Greek philosophy for scriptural exegesis, Augustine (On Christian doctrine ii.60–1) boldly claimed pagan learning as legitimate Christian possession. Not all Allen's interpretations command equal assent: for example, he seems to misconstrue Tertullian's argument in Against Marcion ii.28.1–2: the Marcionite god is not ‘more of a thief, stealing man away from his Owner and Maker’ (trans. Evans) because ‘the gnostic God was guilty of greater fraud for he robs men of their Lord and Maker’ (p. 196) but because Marcion had argued that his supreme God offers salvation to the creatures of another god, the creator and irate and punishing judge revealed in the Old Testament. Tertullian here denounces Marcion's altruistic god as a divine robber. However, Allen not only succeeds in lucidly presenting his rich and fascinating material but also in locating it in its various cultural and intellectual contexts. This is history of biblical exegesis as it should be.