The Old Testament and the Pentateuch: Origins and Structure

Introduction to the Pentateuch and Torah

The Pentateuch is the Greek word for the first five books of Moses, which also constitute the Torah. These five books make up the legal and ethical religious texts of Judaism. The Torah is written on a parchment scroll and referred to as the book of Torah, or Sefer Torah in Hebrew (McDermott, 2002). A specially trained scribe writes the Torah in a traditional manner governed by strict formalized requirements.

The founding religious document of Judaism consists of three main parts and, in its totality, is referred to as the Tanakh. The Torah is the first of the three parts of the Tanakh (McDermott, 2002). The Torah has five books, the Hebrew names of which are the incipits — the first few words in the initial verses of each book — also known as beginning phrases in Rabbinic usage (McDermott, 2002). In English, the five books are named according to their predominant themes. They are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Christians refer to the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy as the Old Testament, which are sourced from the writings of ancient Israel. In contemporary usage, these writings are called the Hebrew Bible (McDermott, 2002). Different Christian denominations accept different sets of these books as the Old Testament. Protestants hold that there are only 39 books in the Old Testament, while a larger number of books are recognized by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches.

The Pentateuch tells how God selected the people of Israel as his chosen people, gives the history of the Israelites, and provides poetic text and wisdom about good and evil, as well as the writings of the biblical prophets (McDermott, 2002). The perspectives that Jews and Christians hold with regard to the Pentateuch differ considerably because of the Messianic basis of Christianity. To Christians, the Old Testament prepared the way for the New Testament.

Origin of the Text Across Religious Traditions

The Old Testament or Pentateuch is considered to be the word of God as revealed to Moses. It is also accepted in Islam as a holy book; however, Muslims believe it was modified after Moses died ("Al-Araf," 2011). Muslims believe that the original text was corrupted by Ezra and Jewish scribes around 400 BCE, when the Tanakh was reconstructed ("Al-Araf," 2011). The basis for this claim is that the text was lost to the Jewish people and not followed for many generations — as attested in the books of Samuel I and II, Kings I and II, and Ezekiel, among others ("Al-Araf," 2011).

The Qur'an holds that Moses outlined the religious guidelines revealed to the Children of Israel by God. The Qur'an reads: "It is He Who has sent down the Book (the Qur'an) to you with truth, confirming what came before it. And He sent down the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)" [3.1] ("Al-Araf," 2011). Although Muslims do not revere the Jewish version of the Torah, the Qur'an refers to it respectfully, and Muslims believe — as a fundamental tenet of Islam — that Moses was a prophet ("Al-Araf," 2011).

According to rabbinic tradition, the Torah was given to Moses in 1312 BCE on Mount Sinai. An alternate date sometimes cited for the revelation of the Torah is 1233 BCE (McDermott, 2002). According to Jewish mysticism — the most significant text of which is the Zohar — the Torah came into being before the creation of the world and served as the blueprint for Creation. Contemporary biblical scholars, however, argue that the books of the Pentateuch were brought to their present form during the fifth century BCE, in what is known as the Persian period. Joseph Blenkinsopp of the University of Notre Dame wrote:

"Here and there in the Pentateuch Moses is said to have written certain things … But nowhere is it affirmed that the Pentateuch was authored by Moses … One would therefore think that what calls for an explanation is not why most people stopped believing in the dogma of Mosaic authorship, but rather why anyone believed it in the first place" (Blenkinsopp, 1992, p. 1).

Rabbinic tradition holds that the Torah was dictated by God to Moses, except for the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, which describe Moses' death. The majority of contemporary scholars take the view that the Pentateuch had no single author, having been composed over the course of many centuries.

Construction of the Text and the Documentary Hypothesis

During the nineteenth century, a theory emerged suggesting that the five books of the Pentateuch were created by combining four complete but independent and parallel sources by perhaps four different editors — referred to as redactors (Blenkinsopp, 1992). This theory, known as the documentary hypothesis or Wellhausen hypothesis, placed the construction of the combined text at around 450 BCE (Blenkinsopp, 1992). During the 1970s, the popularity of the documentary hypothesis began to decline, and several variations of the theory emerged (Surburg, 1979).

The documentary hypothesis uses an approach called source criticism to determine the original source from which a redactor drew in order to create the final text (Blenkinsopp, 1992). Getting closer to the source of an event or original trigger for a text increases both its credibility and the accuracy of the historical account it provides (Surburg, 1979). This approach is not unlike that of a forensic scientist or the backward-mapping process used by a policy analyst. Commonly, the books of the Pentateuch quote or refer to earlier sources that a historian can attempt to identify and associate with a specific date or period (Blenkinsopp, 1992). The particular way a text is written — through vocabulary, writing style, repetition, and phraseology — can also indicate changes that point to a specific source, such as a genealogical record, that was likely accessed by the biblical author or redactor (Blenkinsopp, 1992). Making these connections helps to bridge gaps that otherwise undermine the historical reliability of the documents.

The work of Julius Wellhausen contributed greater order to the documentary theory. Wellhausen organized the four sources chronologically — referring to them as JEDP — and argued that a trend toward increased priestly power and influence was evident in Israel's religious history (Blenkinsopp, 1992). The four independent sources are the Jahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source (Blenkinsopp, 1992). Wellhausen's chronological ordering of these sources is as follows:

The Yahwist source (J) is assumed to date from circa 950 BCE in the southern Kingdom of Judah. The Elohist source (E) is attributed to circa 850 BCE in the northern Kingdom of Israel. The Deuteronomist (D) is associated with religious reform in Jerusalem around 600 BCE. The Priestly source (P) — authored by the Kohens — is linked to the Babylonian exile around 500 BCE. The redactors, working in the sequence JE, JED, and finally JEDP, produced the final form of the Torah around 450 BCE (Blenkinsopp, 1992).

By the end of the twentieth century, this model had been challenged, but its insights and terminology became the framework for more modern theories of Pentateuchal origins (Blenkinsopp, 1992). Dominant theories today hold that the combination of books, fragments of text, and supplements by various authors and editors happened gradually through a process of slow accumulation (Surburg, 1979). Recent theories also place the origin of the Pentateuch in the fifth century BCE, during the time of Judah under the Persian empire (Surburg, 1979).

Conclusion

The final form of the Torah is assumed to have been achieved during the Persian period, and the books that followed — from Joshua to Kings — were revised to chronicle the history of ancient Israel and Judah (Strack & Stemberger, 1992). As new writings were created, they reinterpreted earlier works — the Book of Chronicles is a good example — or they were entirely original compositions, such as Ben Sira, Enoch I, Judith, Tobit, and Maccabees (Strack & Stemberger, 1992). These new works contained many references to the Hebrew Bible, which gave rise to the concept of authoritative writings — in essence, a defined corpus of scripture (Strack & Stemberger, 1992).

References

Al-Araf (The Heights), Translations of the Qur'an, Surah 7. 206 Total verses. Revealed at Makka. Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement, University of Southern California.

Blenkinsopp, J. (1992). The Pentateuch: An introduction to the first five books of the Bible. Anchor Bible Reference Library. New York, NY: Doubleday.

McDermott, J. J. (2002). Reading the Pentateuch: A historical introduction. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.

Surburg, R. F. (1979). Wellhausenism evaluated after a century of influence. Concordia Theological Quarterly, 43(2), 78–79.

Strack, H. L., & Stemberger, G. (1992). Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (M. Bockmuehl, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. (Original work published 1945).