Introduction to the Pentateuch

What is the Pentateuch?

The Pentateuch, the Law, the Books of Moses, the Torah – these are all names for the first five books of the Bible. Genesis through Deuteronomy introduce us to God, His creation, His people, their sin, and His redemptive plan.

Genesis serves as the prologue to the whole Bible, to God’s complete story.

Exodus through Deuteronomy follow the people God set apart for Himself as they grow as a people and show us their covenantal relationship (“Covenantal Structure” 2021).

1. The Law
   1. Genesis — prologue
   2. Exodus-Deuteronomy — covenant books

   (“Pentateuch Authorship and Date” 2021)

   More about the Covenant Books

   The covenant books – Exodus through Deuteronomy – follow the life and teachings of the covenant mediator, Moses, from his birth through his death (“Pentateuch Authorship and Date” 2021). The covenant set up in the Pentateuch is the covenant of works. People sinned, and in order to continue to be in relationship with a perfect God, they had to do works — follow the Law of God and make sacrifices. These books show us what the covenant is — what God promises His people and what the expectations of them are in return. This is a precursor, a shadow of God’s perfect plan of the covenant He established through Jesus which comes to fruition in the New Testament – the covenant of grace. We see the same structure found in the covenant books again in the Gospels as each Gospel account follows the Mediator of the new covenant, Jesus, from His birth through His death and onto His resurrection and shows His life and teachings. (“Covenantal Structure” 2021)

   Who Wrote the Pentateuch and When?

   Though there are those who argue that the Pentateuch was written by multiple people over hundreds of years, the best evidence points to Moses as the author of the Pentateuch. And the most compelling evidence is that seen in the Biblical text itself. All throughout the Old and New Testaments, these books are referred to as the books of Moses and tell us that “Moses wrote” these different things. (“Pentateuch Authorship and Date” 2021)

   The obvious exception to this is the account in Deuteronomy of Moses’s death. This, many believe, was written by Joshua.

   Documentary Hypothesis for Authorship

   The Documentary Hypothesis says that there are several different documents that were put together to create the current books that we call the Pentateuch. The idea is that there were several main texts, labeled as JEDP, that were stitched together along with potentially many others over hundreds of years.

   • J – Jahwehist (Yahwehist) source, refers to God as Yahweh
   • E – Elohist source, refers to God as Elohim
   • D – Deuteronomy, not discovered as the Bible says but written to tell what the people needed to know
   • P – Priestly, includes information important to the priests like genealogies, sacrifices, and laws

   What those who support this idea put site as evidence is that 1) God is referred to by different names, 2) several of the stories are told twice, 3) some peoples are referred to by two different names (ex. Ishmaelites vs. Midianites), and 4) that at some points the theology seems to refer to one true God and at others one main God among many others and at some points it seems to require worship in one place and at others worship is acceptable at multiple places.

   As for dates for this idea, the earliest source, J, is thought to have been written in the 10th century BC, the E source around the 9th century BC, the D source in the 6th BC and the P source during the exilic or post-exilic period.

   Problems with this belief are that there is no evidence to support this and that the issues that are brought up come from a western mindset and do not take into account conventions of Hebrew literature.

   It seems people needed to come up with an alternative to the idea that Moses wrote the Pentateuch because they simply could not believe that Moses could have written so precisely the things that would later come to pass. We, of course, know that God is the author of not only the Bible but all of history. In Isaiah 40-54 God tells Israel that He will tell His people what He will do before He does it, then He will do it, and then He will explain what He did – word, event, word – and this is what He has done here. In Deuteronomy God, through Moses, told the people exactly what He would bring about.

   (“Pentateuch Authorship and Date” 2021)

   Evidence from the Biblical Text for Mosaic Authorship

   Evidence from the Old Testament:

   • Exodus 17:14, 24:4, 34: 27, 34:28
   • Deuteronomy 29:20-21, 31
   • Joshua 8:31-32
   • Ezra 6:18
   • Nehemiah 13:1
   • 2 Chronicles 25:4, 35

   Evidence from the New Testament:

   • Mark 12:26
   • Luke 20:28
   • John 1:17, 1:45, 5:46
   • Romans 10:5

   (“Pentateuch Authorship and Date” 2021)

   As far as when, the best evidence comes from a combination of dates found in other books of the Bible as well as the historical documentation of the reign of the Egyptian pharaohs. This places the Exodus at 1446 BC. This would mean that Moses wrote these five books between the time of the Exodus in 1446 BC and his death forty years later. (“Pentateuch Authorship and Date” 2021)

   Evidence for Early/Traditional date of 1446BC

   I Kings 6:1 says that the Exodus occurred 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. We know that Solomon ascended to the throne in 970BC, which would put the Exodus at 1446BC.

   According to Judges 11:26, Israel had occupied the land of Canaan for 300 years before Jephthah served as judged which was around 1100BC, which would put the arrival in Canaan after the 40 years of wandering in the desert after the exodus around 1400BC.

   We also know that Moses fled to Midian and lived there for 40 years before returning and leading the Israelites out of Egypt and that he was gone during for that period because the same pharaoh was ruling during all that time. There were only two pharaohs who ruled for 40 or more years – Thutmose III who ruled from 1504-1450BC and Ramses II who ruled from 1290-1224BC.

   By putting all of these pieces together, it seems very likely that 1446BC is a good estimate for when the Israelites left Egypt and, therefore, when Moses would have begun writing the Pentateuch.

   There are those who prefer at date of 1250 BC. They argue that the dates in I Kings and Judges are symbolic or an exaggeration and that Moses’s 40 years in Midian were not a literal 40 years. They ague that since there is only one historical record from another people group of the Israelites being in Canaan before 1250 BC, that that is more likely when they would have arrived.

   (“Pentateuch Authorship and Date” 2021)