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PENTATEUCH

The first five books (Gk. pénta teúchos) of the Bible, the Torah (Heb. “law, instruction”). In antiquity these books were ascribed to Mosaic authorship (e.g., 4QMMT C.10; Josephus Ag. Ap. 1.39; Luke 24:44), hence the traditional designation, Five Books of Moses. The content of these books comprises the history of the world from creation to the dispersal of nations (Gen. 1–11), and the history of Israel from Abraham to the death of Moses (Gen. 12–Deut. 34). The extended crescendo of the work is the covenant between Yahweh and Israel at Mt. Sinai/Horeb, which comprises Exod. 19–Num. 10 and which is recapitulated in Deut. 4–26. The largest part of the Pentateuch consists of the stipulations of the covenant.

The modern study of the Pentateuch has concentrated on the history of its literary composition, with increasing attention in recent years to methods of comprehending its final form. The textual transmission of the Pentateuch has also seen increasing attention due to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This article will explore the dominant scholarly models in the study of the Pentateuch, while cautioning the reader that other models have been proposed, but which have not been shown to accommodate the data as comprehensively.

Textual Transmission

The study of the Dead Sea Scrolls fragments of pentateuchal books indicates that the traditional Hebrew text (MT) is a faithful reproduction of one of the text-types in circulation in the Hasmonean and Herodian period. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek LXX appear to belong to two other text-types, though all three text-types are closely related and descend from a single textual ancestor. It is unclear whether other text-types existed and the extent to which mixing among text-types has affected the surviving texts.

Although all pentateuchal texts descend from a common ancestor, there is evidence that some sections were inserted, revised, or expanded after the three major text-types separated. The most extensive revision, amounting to a new edition, occurs in the account of the construction of the tabernacle in Exod. 35–40. The LXX contains a shorter text of this account, in which numerous items occur in a different sequence than the account in the Masoretic (and Samaritan) Text. It has been cogently argued that the LXX preserves an earlier stage of this text, which was subsequently revised and expanded in the edition preserved in the Masoretic and Samaritan texts. One important implication of this case of textual expansion is that the type of literary activity attributed to the sources and editors of the Pentateuch is detectable in some instances in the textual history of the Pentateuch. This result substantiates to some extent the methods by which scholars have explored the literary history of the Pentateuch.

Literary Sources

The Pentateuch is composed of a number of different literary sources that have been combined in a series of redactions. The primary literary sources are identified as J (Yahwist), E (Elohist), P (Priestly source), and D (Deuteronomist). The series of redactions by which these sources were combined are referred to as R^JE, R^JEP, and R^JEPD. While it is difficult to set absolute dates on the compositions and redactions, it is possible within reasonable bounds to determine relative dates, as several of the sources appear to be directly influenced by their predecessors. The clearest case of literary dependency is the reliance of D on R^JE, as D quotes from and expands upon this work in many instances, both in legal and narrative sections. Hence D, composed in the main by the late 7th century b.c.e. (the era of Josiah), provides a terminus ad quem for the date of J, E, and R^JE. It is possible that the “book of the Torah” that Ezra reads to the public in Neh. 8 is the Pentateuch in final or near-final form (ca. 458).

The use of literary sources in the composition of the Pentateuch is explicit in Num. 21:14-15, where a verse is quoted from the “Scroll of Yahweh’s Wars,” and in Gen. 5:1, which refers to the “Scroll of Adam’s Genealogy.” Other than these instances the presence of diverse sources must be inferred by internal criteria, including the following:

1. Doublets. There are roughly 25 occasions in the pentateuchal narrative when a story is told in two or more versions (e.g., Gen. 12:10-20; 20:1-18; cf. 26:6-11). Often these versions contradict each other in details. There are more than 50 occasions where a law is given in two or more versions, where one often expands or revises the other (e.g., Lev. 11:1-47; Num. 14:3-20).

2. Terminology. Different sections of the Pentateuch have consistently different terminology for certain names, places, and ordinary items of vocabulary. The different sets of terminology consistently correspond to the different sets of doublets.

3. Narrative continuity. Sections isolated by the correspondences of doublets and terminology often connect with each other to create a more coherent narrative continuity than that possessed by the composite text. For example, the details of the Flood narrative in Gen. 6–9 are more intelligible when read as two parallel versions of the Flood (J and P). The rebellion of Dathan, Abiram, and Korah in Num. 16 is more intelligible when separated into its constituent stories (Dathan and Abiram is J; Korah is P; note that Deut. 11:6 knows only the J version). God’s revelations of the name Yahweh to Moses in Exod. 3 (E) and 6:2-8 (P) are intelligible when separated from each other and from the J source, where Enosh is the first to call on the name of Yahweh (Gen. 4:26). There are numerous such instances.

4. Theology. Different sources of the Pentateuch, each marked by distinctive doublets, terminology, and narrative continuity, have different theologies. Concepts of God, the relationship between God and humans, and issues of free will and ethical ideals differ considerably among the pentateuchal sources. Whereas J’s God is fallible and sometimes changes his mind, as in the Flood story (compare Gen. 6:5-8 with 8:21), and his human characters have free will (e.g., Gen. 3:6), E’s and P’s God is the author of human events in which humans are often the unwitting actors (for E, Gen. 20:6; 45:5-8; for P, Exod. 7:3). In P God’s numinous presence in the tabernacle is the culmination of creation and the mediator between humans and God (Exod. 29:42-46; 40:33-34; cf. Gen. 2:1-3), whereas in D it is God’s word and the tablets of his law that mediate between human and divine (Deut. 5:22-33; 10:1-5). In many respects the various sources are arguing among themselves on crucial issues of religious theory and practice.

Unity and Diversity

The series of redactions of the pentateuchal sources created a composite text that possesses a unique character. Each of the versions of sacred history, when combined together, takes on a new character as commentary, development, and counterpoint to the other versions. Thus God’s compassionate nature in J, emphasized in his title “Yahweh, a compassionate and merciful God” (Exod. 34:6), provides a counterbalance to the juristic quality of God in P. The corporeality of J’s God walking about in the garden (Gen. 3:8) or eating with Abraham (18:8) is balanced by the invisibility of God in D (Deut. 4:12-15). The virtue of absolute obedience to God in E (Gen. 22) is balanced by the virtue of personal ethical commitment, even where it may conflict with God, in J (18:23-32). Human free will, with its inherent responsibilities and consequences, dominant in J and D, is counterbalanced by God’s providential predestination in E (Gen. 45:5-8; 50:20) and by the divinely ordained periodicity of time, measured by covenants, in P. A wide range of possibilities for living are encompassed by this complex work, enabling in no small measure the ability of the Pentateuch to respond to the religious needs of the faithful over the last two millennia and more. In a very tangible sense the Pentateuch, as a unified diversity, creates a nearly unlimited potential for meaningful interpretation.

Bibliography. J. Blenkinsopp, The Pentateuch (New York, 1992); S. R. Driver, An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, 6th ed. (Edinburgh, 1897); T. E. Fretheim, The Pentateuch (Nashville, 1996); R. E. Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (New York, 1987).

Ronald S. Hendel

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PENTATEUCH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)