PENTATEUCH (Gr. fivefold book), a name given by Greek translators to the five books ascribed to Moses, which are in Hebrew called collectively Torah (law), by way of eminence, or Cfmnisha Chumshe Torah (five-fifths of the Torah). Law is also the general name by which the work or portions of it are referred to and quoted (the words •• of Moses " or " of the Lord " being added occasionally) both in the Old and New men t.
The division into five portions (further divided into 50, 40, 27, 36, 34 chapters, or 12, It 1C), 10. 11 parshioth or Sidras respectively, by the Masoretes) is, if not original, at all events of a very remote date, and certainly anterior to the Septuagint. Genesis, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, the first, third, and fifth books, form clearly defined and internally complete parts of the work as a whole, and thus, also, fix the limits of the intermediate second (Exodus) and the commencement of the concluding fifth (Deuter onomy). The chief aim of the Pentateuch being. to give a description of the origin and history of the Hebrew people up to the conquest of Canaan, together with the theocracy founded among them, the center is formed by the person of Moses himself, the regen erator and lawgiver of the nation. Genesis, beginning with the history of the creation and antediluvian genealogy from Adam to Noah, in rapid outlines, sketches the propaga tion of the various tribes that descended from the one man who was saved in the deluge, but dwells with special emphasis upon . Slim, from whom sprang, in the tenth genera tion, Abraham, the progenitor of the " people of the covenant." The salient events in the lives of his descendants, the patriarchs, are minutely described; and a fitting close is found in the benediction of Jacob, who, as it were, reinaugurates and confirms all his twelve sons in the covenant made between Abraham and God. Exodus, treating of .the liberation of the people from Egypt; their wanderings in the desert; the promulgation of the law, by which they became emphatically the " holy nation " and the " people of the Lord ;" and the erection of a visible sanctuary—may be regarded as the nucleus of the work; while Leviticus, the following book, fittingly enters into the details of the legis lation and the mode of worship; especially the prescriptions concerning sacrifices, festi vals, ceremonial purity, and the duties of the priests, with but little of history. The historical thread is taken up again in Numbers, the fourth book, winch, also, side by side with the relation of the events between the Sinaitic period and the beginning of the fortieth year after the Exodus, contains many laws explanatory of, or complementary to, those of the former books, together with such as new circumstances had called into existence. A brief recapitulation of the preceding portions; Moses's most impressive and reiterated exhortations to keep that law, which was now completed and solemnly transmitted to the Levites; and the death of the legislator himself—form the chief con tents of the fifth book, or Deuteronomy. Thns, the theocratic plan of the work is car ried through from beginning to end, coming out more prominently in the three inter mediate books, but never lost sight of entirely. Nothing is dwelt or even touched upon save that which in some way illustrates either the relation of God to the people, or of the people to God; the political, civil, and domestic laws themselves, being enumerated only as bearing upon the main aim and object of the work.
The special books being treated separately under their respective heads, we have here only to consider some questions relating to the work as it whole, and principally that of its authorship and history, as far as these points have not been touched upon already under GENESIS. Tradition, as embodied in the earliest historical records, mentions Moses as the writer of the complete Pentateuch, such as it is before us: with the excep tion' of a few verses, describing the last moments of the law-giver, etc., which were ascribed to Joshua. This tradition has for ninny a long century been almost universally
adhered to.. Not that there have not at different periods suspicions been *raised respect ing this "authenticity." The pseudo-Clementines, for instance, assumed that the law, orally delivered by Moses to the elders, had, before and after its being committed to writing, undergone innumerable changes, nay, corruptions; among these the too per sonal and human conceptions of God, and the unworthy traits recorded of the patriarchs. Jerome expresses himself in a somewhat doubtful manner on the relation of Ezra as the " redactor," or rather " restorer," of the Pentateuch. Aben Ezra boldly calls several passages later interpolations, and speaks of others still more poignantly as a ssod, or a " mystery," i.e., as containing difficulties not to be cleared away in consonance with the common belief, which he, however, was too pious wantonly to disturb. Other voices, vaguely lifted up by more or less competent scholars. remained unheard: It was not until long after the reformation, at the dawn of the exegetical and critical modern age, that the question whether this codex was the work of one man, or .even of one age, and what share, if any, Moses had in its composition, began to be discussed seriously and on scien tific grounds. Hobbes held that the Pentateuch was rather a work on, than by Moses. Spinoza came to the conclusion that it was to Ezra that we were indebted for the book in its present shape and that it embodies certain genuine portions, collected at a late period, together with a vast amount of later material, added at various periods subse quent to the time of the supposed author. Vitringa, Le Clerc (Clericus), Rich. Simon, and others, followed, resuming and enlarging the discussion chiefly respecting the diffi culties which presented themselves in the accounts of the creation, and the like, con tained in Genesis. The next, and indeed the most important step—because the one which at once removed the question from the field of hazy and timid speculations to that scientific basis upon which it still rests, was taken by Astruc, who, from the marked difference of the divine names used in Genesis and the beginning of Exodus—noticed in the TAJ.MUD and the FATIIERS OF THE Crtuucrt—came to the conclusion that these hooks had been worked up from different original documents, which he called Jehovistic and Elohistic respectively. See article GENESIS, where the development of this speculation is described. At the present stage of the investigation, the view very generally adopted. is the "complementary theory," which assumes, with certainty, two or more authors Jehovists and Elohists—for the whole of the first four books, at least; the fifth being by some (Delitzsch, Schulz, Kurz, etc.) still ascribed chiefly to Moses's own hand. Only a small apologetic school, of which liengstenberg long was spokesman, still upholds the entire integrity and authenticity of the work, pronouncing Noses its sole author. The con temporary discussions on these points, which, up to within a very recent period, were chiefly confined to Germany, have now -also found their way into England. The impulse to the controversy in this country was principally given by Dr. Davidson, the "essayists and reviewers," and bishop Colenso, all of whom, on the basis of these Ger man investigations, raised seine new points. Innumerable replies, by more or less com petent champions, have been issued; but as yet, so far from either of the combatants having declared themselves convinced by the arguments from the other side, the contro versy elicits new publications uninterruptedly. • While endeavoring to trace, in the briefest of outlines, some of the chief objections raised against the Mosaic authorship, and the replies given thereunto, we must remind the reader that ours is only the task of epitomizers, as it were, and that the very nature of our task precludes us from giving any opinion whatsoever about the superior force of the arguments on either side.