Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
” This title is derived from “pente”, five, and “teucos”) which, meaning originally “vessel” “instrument,” etc., came In Alexandrine Greek to mean “book” hence the fivefold book. ” (2 Chronicles 25:4; 35:12; Ezra 6:13; Nehemiah 13:1) This was beyond all reasonable doubt our existing Pentateuch. The book which was discovered the temple in the reign of Josiah, and which is entitled, (2 Chronicles 34:14) “a book of the law of Jehovah by the hand of Moses,” was substantially, it would seem the same volume, though it may afterward have undergone some revision by Ezra. e.
” The division of the whole work into five parts was probably made by the Greek translators; for the titles of the several books are not of Hebrew but of Greek origin. The Hebrew names are merely taken from the first words of each book, and in the first instance only designated particular sections and not whole books. The MSS. of the Pentateuch form a single roll or volume, and are divided not into books but into the larger and smaller sections called Parshiyoth and Sedarim . The five books of the Pentateuch form a consecutive whole.
The work, beginning with the record of creation end the history of the primitive world, passes on to deal more especially with the early history of the Jewish family, and finally concludes with Moses’ last discourses and his death. Till the middle of the last century it was the general opinion of both Jews and Christians that the whole of the Pentateuch was written by Moses, with the exception of a few manifestly later additions,—such as the, 34th chapter of Deuteronomy, which gives the account of Moses death.
The attempt to call in question the popular belief was made by Astruc, doctor and professor of medicine in the Royal College at Paris, and court physician to Louis XIV. He had observed that throughout the book of Genesis, and as far as the 6th chapter of Exodus, traces were to be found of two original documents, each characterized by a distinct use of the names of God; the one by the name Elohim, and the other by the name Jehovah. [God] Besides these two principal documents, he supposed Moses to have made use of ten others in the composition of the earlier part of his work.
The path traced by Astruc has been followed by numerous German writers; but the various hypotheses which have been formed upon the subject cannot be presented in this work. It is sufficient here to state that there is evidence satisfactory that the main bulk of the Pentateuch, at any rate, was written by Moses, though the probably availed himself of existing documents in the composition of the earlier part of the work.
Some detached portions would appear to be of later origin; and when we remember how entirely, during some periods of Jewish history, the law seems to have been forgotten, and again how necessary it would be after the seventy years of exile to explain some of its archaisms, and to add here and there short notes to make it more intelligible to the people, nothing can be more natural than to suppose that such later additions were made by Ezra and Nehemiah.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
, the books of Moses. T. As also the names of the separate books - Genesis, Exodus, etc. - are of Greek origin, referring to the contents of the books, and as, in the Jewish manuscripts, these books form only one roll or volume, it has been conjectured that the division itself is due to the Greek translators. " Ezr 7:6; "the book of the law of Moses," Neh 8:1; "the book of Moses," Ezr 6:18; Neh 13:1; 2 Chr 25:4; 2 Chr 35:12; or simply "the law," Matt 12:5; Luke 10:26; John 8:5, 2 Sam 21:17.
Among the Jews the several books are designated by their initial letters - Bereshith ("in the beginning"), Shemoth ("names"), etc.; among the Christians, with reference to their subject-matter - Genesis giving the primitive history, as a preparation for the theocracy, from the Creation to the death of Jacob; Exodus, the foundation of the theocracy, by the legislation from Mount Sinai; Leviticus, the inner organization of the theocracy by the ceremonial laws on the Levitieal worship; Numbers, the actual establishment of the theocracy by the march through the wilderness and the conquest of Canaan; and Deuteronomy, the final and comprehensive recapitulation of Mosaic legislation.
The whole is one compact and complete representation of the Hebrew theocracy, the first and the last books having a more universal character, the three intermediate ones a more specifically Jewish character, Exodus giving the prophetic, Leviticus the priestly, and Numbers the kingly, aspect of the theocracy. With respect to the authorship of this work, various circumstances have during the last two centuries caused some doubt whether it can legitimately be ascribed to Moses. Moses is always spoken of in the third person, and in the last passages of Deuteronomy his death and burial are related.
Names of places occur, though we know that they did not come into use until after the conquest of Canaan - such as "Dan," Gen 14:14; Deut 34:1; comp. " Gen 13:18; Gen 23:2; comp. Josh 14:15; Judg 1:10. The names of the Lord, "Jehovah" and "Elohim," alternate in such a way as to indicate a double authorship, and alleged differences in style and language and repetitions seem to point the same way.
On these grounds a school of modern critical scholars contends that the Pentateuch, at least, in its present shape, was not written by Moses, or by any single author, but is a compilation of much later date and from very different sources. However ingenious many of the arguments against the Mosaic authorship may be, the collected evidence in its favor is nevertheless overwhelming. The unity of the composition, as set forth above, is so strong that no attempt at breaking it has ever succeeded, and the book itself, directly and indirectly, bears testimony to its essential Mosaic origin.
In Deut 31:9-12, Deut 31:24-26 we are told that Moses wrote "this law," and when he was done with it he placed it in the hands of the Levites, to be kept in the ark of the covenant and to be read to the people every seventh year on the feast of the tabernacles. "This law" may mean Deuteronomy alone, and not the whole Pentateuch; but other passages refer in exactly the same manner to other parts of the work. He wrote, by divine command, the book of the covenant and the ten commandments, Ex 24:3-7; Ex 17:14, and also the camping-stations of the Israelites in the wilderness. Num 33:2 ff.
The presumption is that he wrote the rest, unless there are convincing arguments to the contrary (as in the account of his death at the close of Deuteronomy, which is evidently added by a later hand). The Mosaic authorship of the great body of the Pentateuch is sustained by uninterrupted and unanimous tradition of the Jewish Synagogue and the Christian Church, and by the internal evidence of the work itself. Moses was, of all men, best qualified to write it. He had the best preparation, he knew all about the events in which he figured so prominently.
The book contains so many and so close references to Egypt - the land, the people, and the civilization - that its author must not only have lived for a long time in Egypt, but also have received the benefit of a thorough Egyptian education and partaken in Egyptian life from a superior position; see, for instance, the references to irrigation, Deut 11:10; to war, Deut 20:5; to mining, Deut 8:9; to criminal punishment, Deut 25:2, etc. Next, the narrative of the passage through the desert gives so correct and so fresh a description of the event that it could never have been made by any one who had not taken part in that long trial, and hardly by any other than by him who was the leader.
The language, also, and the theology (especially the eschatology) of the Pentateuch are archaic, and antedate the compositions of the Davidic, and still more of the post-Exilian, period. There is no man in the whole subsequent history of Israel, as far as we know, who could at all account for the peculiarities of the Pentateuch near so well as the great lawgiver, who is the central figure of the book.
Ezra, for instance, to whom some ultra-critics assign the authorship, never was in Egypt nor in the wilderness, and lived in the reproductive period of reconstruction or restoration of the theocracy founded by Jehovah through Moses centuries before. Thus from various sides we are led to feel not only that Moses has written the Pentateuch, but also that he was the only one who could have written it; and the objections have so much the less power, as a Mosaic authorship by no means excludes either the use of earlier documents or the addition of later notes.
For further details see the special articles on the separate books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.