The Pentateuch

The “Pentateuch,” literally the “five books,” is the Greek name for what the ancient Hebrews called the “Torah” (or “Law”).The Hebrew word, however, more properly means “instruction,” because the Pentateuch contains the legal, doctrinal, and ritual basis upon which Hebrew covenantal life was established. The five-book division of the Pentateuch is somewhat artificial, since the work is better understood as a unified, literary whole. The Pentateuch is a five-volume book, a five-part miniseries that tells a story. It narrates the story of creation, the fall of humanity, and God’s response to the human predicament in the form of both judgment and deliverance. The unifying theme of God’s story is his promise to restore humanity by means of covenant relationship. He makes a series of covenants or treaties, first with Noah, then with Abraham and his descendants, and ultimately with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai after their exodus from Egypt under Moses’s leadership. The Pentateuch artfully blends historical reporting and theological interpretation, using a diversity of literary genres, including prose narrative, lofty poetry, and legal treatise.

Genesis (“origin”) deals with creation, primeval human history, and the patriarchal period of Israelite life, ending with the twelve tribes living in Egypt. Exodus tells how, by God’s power, these tribes were delivered from enslavement and welded into a covenant nation during a four-decade wilderness experience. Leviticus contains the detailed prescriptions for sacrificial worship, along with regulations for community living. Numbers deals with events at the beginning and end of the wilderness period to provide a representative description of the entire desert sojourn. Deuteronomy is a covenant-renewal document that furnishes a detailed description of what the Sinai covenant meant for the Israelites.

Handwritten Torah scroll from the 1740s on display at the Ramhal Synagogue, Acre, Israel

Together, the five books show God as the sole Creator and Sustainer of the universe. The Torah teaches that humanity was created to worship God and have fellowship with him. In particular it describes how the Hebrews were chosen from all the nations to witness to God’s existence and power in the world. Their way of life was to reflect his high moral and spiritual qualities, and they were commanded specifically to behave as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. In a superstitious pagan world they were to be examples of obedience and faithfulness to the one true God’s revealed will for humankind. If they behaved in this way they would be blessed richly, but if not they would experience divine judgment.

The Pentateuch forms the historical, religious, and theological basis for the entire course of Hebrew history. Its legal and moral implications undergirded the instruction of the Hebrew wisdom tradition and laid the foundation for all prophetic teachings, which included the promise of a redeeming Messiah. In his ministry Jesus fulfilled all that the Law and the Prophets had spoken concerning him, and the new covenant that he instituted in his death, burial, and resurrection became the basis of all Christian faith.