Pentateuch, << PEHN tuh took, >> consists of the first five books of the Bible. They are, in order of occurrence, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The term Pentateuch comes from two Greek words that mean five books or five scrolls. According to tradition, the books were written by the Israelite leader Moses based on revelations from God. The Pentateuch is often called the Five Books of Moses or the Torah (Law) of Moses.
The Pentateuch presents a continuous story from the Creation to the death of Moses and the preparation of the Israelites to enter Canaan. The story is told in three sections, sometimes called the prehistory or primeval history, the protohistory, and the history. The prehistory (Genesis 1-11) deals with the universal themes of the Creation and the beginning of human existence on earth. The protohistory (Genesis 12-50) presents the stories of several ancestors of the Israelites, notably Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. The historical portion, beginning with Exodus, describes the early history of Israel as a nation. The conclusion in Deuteronomy is presented as Moses’s final address to his people and a kind of historical summary of the Pentateuch.
The Pentateuch is the oldest part of the Bible, though scholars do not know the precise date of composition. The earliest materials may precede its final form by more than 1,000 years. Modern archaeological discoveries suggest that some of the oldest stories in Genesis may date back to the 2000’s B.C.
