The Pentateuch Introduction

Section 1: Titles, divisions, contents

The first sections details the outline of the Pentateuch, or in Hebrew, the torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis, a history of the ancestors; Exodus, the “deliverance from Egypt”; Leviticus, a legislative (as opposed to narrative) account; Numbers, the early desert stories; and Deuteronomy, Moses and religious laws, each come together in this part of the Bible to constitute “The Five Fifths of the Law” to Jewish people.

Section 2: How the Pentateuch came to be Written

Section two of the introduction explains the sourcing of the Pentateuch: Yahwistic (J), eventually combines with Elohistic (E), to make (JE); a Deuteronomic source, then (JED); and the Priestly source, resulting in (JEDP). The section then breaks down each component into its specifics, and finally ends with an explanation of the “uncertainty” of this history and how the Pentateuch became known as the “Law of Moses” for its titular man’s key role in Jewish history and tradition.

Section 3: Relation of the narratives to history

This section discusses the particular balance we must strike when reading and seeking to understand the Pentateuch: it is fact with a specific nature, mythological yet historical. It, too, underscores the significance of the historical perspective to the Jewish people, Israel and the Israelites.

Section 4: The Laws

Called “The Law,” the Pentateuch contains several codes of conduct outlining the acceptable and the unacceptable in all aspects of life as an observant/practicing person. From the Decalogues’ moral rules, to the Code of the Covenant’s social concerns, the Deuteronomic Code’s literary history, to the dietary laws of Leviticus, there are an array of values and regulations, some of which are heavily culturally influenced, in the Pentateuch.

Section 5: Religious significance

God’s decision to make the descendants of Abraham not only a nation, but his nation (p.15) lies at the core of the strong relationship between Israel and the Pentateuch. Yet then the New Testament brings Christ, who perfects the Law, who acts out the central events prefigured in the Old Testament. It is the stories and lessons from the Pentateuch that prepare and inform study into all the events that come after it.