Note: 5 plays The "Pentateuch" of the title is a sequence of five independent but interrelated plays, always published together and sometimes considered one: In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden), The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day, The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170, Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000, and As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920. Shaw originally wrote a typically Shavian preface to the work, titled The Infidel Half Century and arranged in 49 separately titled sections (manual count). The preface as well as five plays may be considered integral to the work. The plays and the preface were revised in 1944, when Shaw also added a postscript titled After Twentyfive Years, for a new edition published by Oxford in 1946 as The World's Classics #500, on the occasion of his 90th birthday.