This work is a mine of varied exegetical and philological details.
Besides definite works of this kind, there was also being formed during this period a large body of exegetical and legal material, for the most part orally transmitted, which only received its literary form much later.
Basilides wrote an exegetical work in twenty-four books on "his" gospel, but which this was is not known.
His family had been distinguished for piety and exegetical skill, but though he was known in the Jewish community by commentaries on certain books of the Bible, he never seems to have accepted any rabbinical post.
Gersonides was also the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch and other exegetical and scientific works.