BOOK OF THE BEGINNINGS.

CHAPTER I.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE PENTATEUCH.

"THE PENTATEUCH" is the slightly altered form of the Greek title given to the first five books of the Old Testament (Pentateuchos). According to this title, these books together constitute a "five-fold book"-one work in five parts. We can trace this division of the five-volumed book up to early times.

Josephus, the Jewish historian (A.D. 37-100), knew of it, and so did Philo, the Egyptian-Jewish philosopher, who lived about the time of Christ. This arrangement was observed in the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which was made in Alexandria somewhere prior to the first century before Christ. It is probably as old as the last reëditing of the work, in which these books reached their present form. This was about the middle of the fifth century before our era. The

Pentateuch forms, to this day, one roll or volume in the Jewish manuscripts, being divided only into larger and smaller sections.

This five-volumed work was "The Law," "The Law of Moses."

I.

There is a real internal unity among these books, corresponding to their title and ancient outward form. They are plainly parts of a whole.

They carefully link themselves together in pursuing the story of the Hebrew origins.

The opening paragraph of Exodus glances backward, in a list of the tribes that came down with Jacob into Egypt, and covers the great gap of four hundred years by the words "now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.' Exodus concludes with the dedication of Jehovah's tabernacle, and Leviticus presents its body of legislation as proceeding from this sacred oracle: "And Jehovah called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle." Leviticus ends with the words, "These are the commandments which Jehovah commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai." Numbers takes up the thread thus-" And Jehovah spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle." Its conclusion is-"These are the commandments and the judgments which Jeho

vah commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab, by Jordan, near Jericho." Deuteronomy thus introduces the farewell addresses of Moses: "These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side of Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea."

Taken together these books constitute a history which pictures the creation of the world, the story of primeval man, the migration of the primitive Hebrews into Canaan and subsequently into Egypt, their deliverance from this land of bondage, the revelation of Jehovah through Moses, the organization of the tribes, the establishment of a system of legislation for the people, their nomad life in Arabia, and the reissuing of the law by Moses in his last solemn addresses to the people on the borders of Canaan. The entire work thus gives the origins of Israel, as understood by the Israelites themselves.

There are some indications that the book of Joshua was at one time appended to this work, thus leading the story of the beginnings of the nation down to the settlement of the tribes in Canaan.

Each of the five divisions of this work has, however, its own special character, and forms a unit in itself. Genesis, the book of the generations, the birth-book, covers the origins of the world, of the human family, and of the house of Israel. Exodus, the book of the going out, describes the bondage

of the Hebrews in Egypt, their deliverance by the hand of Moses, the giving of the Law at Sinai, and the origin of the chief religious institutions of Israel. Leviticus, the book of the Levitical legislation, is almost wholly occupied with the laws of the ecclesiastical system of Israel. Numbers, the book of the numberings, covers the period of the wanderings from the time of the setting up of the tabernacle to the occupation of the country east of the Jordan. It contains several returns of the census takings of the people, various groups of legislation, interspersed with historical narrations. This book has less internal unity than any of the other divisions of the Pentateuch. It is a miscellany of material belonging to the Mosaic period, loosely threaded together by the phrase "The Lord spake unto Moses or Aaron," which opens fifty-two paragraphs; and by the simple conjunction “And,” which begins one hundred and eighty of the two hundred and fifty paragraphs in the Bagster Paragraph Bible. Deuteronomy, the second law, records a renewed statement of the Mosaic legislation, as given in a farewell address of Moses to the people, shortly before his death.

Ewald groups these five books into three divisions -Genesis, The Law (Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers), and Deuteronomy.1

The Pentateuch resolves itself thus into an histor

1 See Note I to Chapter I.