The saga of Jewish civilization over some 4,000 years is no small matter to tackle in a visual presentation. But the Jewish Museum has not flinched from efforts to make the story viewer-friendly.

When the museum reopened in 1993 after extensive renovations, one of its chief presentations was an ambitious permanent exhibition, ''Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey.'' Occupying two floors, it traces Judaism from 1200 B.C.E. to the present with graphics, photographs, maps, texts and objects taken largely from the museum's collection, bolstered by loans.

Over time some parts began to look a little dated. So, to enhance and streamline the exhibition, the museum has embarked on a two-stage reinstallation. The first stage, dealing with the ancient world and the early Diaspora, has opened on the fourth floor. The second stage, which continues the story to the present, is to be completed by next year.

Compressing thousands of years of a civilization into a magazine layout with sound, so to speak, is not the ideal educational approach. But despite cramped quarters, the exhibition effectively displays a sampling of the collection's 28,000 objects while providing a capsule introduction to Judaism. What is now on view, in the first and in part of the second of the exhibition's four major divisions, is a more sophisticated presentation with a less cluttered format and it is easier to follow.

Changes in objects, including additional works from the collection and the use of video monitors to show a spectrum of material not exhibited, provide a more varied arrangement. The galleries and showcases have been redesigned with new lighting and better-placed texts to emphasize the highlights of the story.

Simplified maps, timelines and documentary photomurals strengthen the viewer's sense of where and when. And there is more emphasis on the global nature of the Jewish experience. However, a few objects are replicas or -- as with a case of Torah scrolls from the 18th to 20th century -- later examples of unobtainable earlier objects. Help in exploring the show is provided by random-access audio guides that allow listeners to hear explanations in any order they choose. One section of the exhibition devoted to the Talmud, the ongoing rabbinical interpretations of the Bible, allows visitors to experience the Talmudic method of debating issues through interactive video.

All in all, as the briefest of briefings on Jewish history and culture, this presentation is an improvement. It was organized by two members of the museum staff, Fred Wasserman, director of curatorial administration, and Dr. Susan L. Braunstein, curator of archaeology and Judaica.

To begin, visitors walk through two rooms of introductory material that focus on what has kept Jews together for so long. Four simple stone plinths, each engraved with a biblical quotation, suggest basic explanations: a unifying tradition founded on a covenant with God, the shared ordeal of exile in Egypt, acceptance of a code of laws based on divine revelation, and the promise of the land of Israel.

Then comes ''Forging an Identity: 1200 B.C.E.-640 C.E.,'' the first of the exhibition's four divisions. It covers the transition of Israelites into Jews. The Israelites lived on their own land, were led by kings and priests and worshiped through animal sacrifice. Because of the Diaspora they became Jews, stateless people under foreign rule throughout the ancient world who turned to worship through prayer and Bible study with the guidance of rabbis.

Farming -- the cultivation of olives, wheat, dates, barley, sheep and goats -- occupied most early Israelites. One exhibit, set against a photomural of the green Judean hills, shows primitive implements like hoes, pickaxes, plow points and storage jugs, some dating to 2000 B.C.E.

A nearby display devoted to sacrifices and offerings includes one of the show's highlights: a small but assertive terra-cotta female figurine with hands on hips and ample breasts (600-700 B.C.E.). Some scholars consider her a representation of Asherah, the possible mate of God.

The most interesting artifacts in the exhibition are from the Diaspora, after the Babylonian sacking of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. and the destruction of the Temple built by Solomon some 400 years earlier. These events brought about the exile of the ruling class of Judah, one of the two Israelite nations, and forced many of its citizens into slavery. Scattered to other lands, the Israelites became culturally integrated into their new communities while trying to keep their traditional ways. (Later, liberated by Cyrus, the Persian king who conquered Babylonia in 538 B.C.E., many returned to Israel and rebuilt the Temple.)

A rare object from the Jewish community of Rome established in the second century B.C.E. is the circular bottom of a glass bottle from the fourth century with a Jewish burial inscription in Greek and Hebrew commemorating a mother and a daughter. Also depicting ceremonial objects -- a shofar and a menorah -- the glass was probably set into the wall of a catacomb, the customary form of Jewish burial at the time. That Israelites lived with the gods of their new rulers is seen in several artifacts from Beit Shean, a city in central Israel that accepted Greek rule in the second century B.C.E. and was renamed Scythopolis. One is a huge carved marble toe from a colossal cult statue taken from a temple honoring Dionysius or Astarte, the Phoenician goddesses of fertility. It is displayed with a stone helmet of Castor or Pollux, the sons of Zeus, from the Isis Temple in Samaria (third century B.C.E.).