Genesis to Deuteronomy · Book · Featured Study
The Torah
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy make up the Torah, the first of the three parts of the Hebrew Bible.
The Torah runs as one account from creation to the covenant, the exodus, the law and the border of the promised land, across 187 chapters.
- Date
- the time of Moses on the traditional reading; the centuries after him on the documentary reading (proposed)
- Written by
- Moses, on the traditional reading, Joshua, for the last eight verses, on the Talmud's reading
- Occasion
- Israel received the law at Sinai and heard it again in the plains of Moab before it crossed the Jordan.
- Edition
- The Hebrew text, read in English in the Berean Standard Bible
Gustave Doré, Artaxerxes Grants Freedom to the Jews, 1866. Public domain.
Summary
Israel kept the five books of Moses as one Book of the Law, handed down from Moses to Joshua and, after the exile, to Ezra the scribe.
- The Hebrew word torah means direction, instruction or law.
- Moses ordered the law read to all Israel every seventh year at the Feast of Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 31:10 to 11).
- The Talmud counts 613 commandments in the five books, and the synagogue reads the books in 54 weekly portions.
- Jesus said Moses wrote about him, and after the resurrection he explained himself beginning with Moses (John 5:46; Luke 24:27).
Genesis to Deuteronomy
Each book takes up the account where the one before it ends, from Eden to the plains of Moab.
Genesis holds 50 of the 187 chapters, and Leviticus holds the fewest, 27.
| Book | Chapters | Movement | What it holds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis | 50 | Creation | Eden to Egypt: the world made, the fall, the flood, and one family chosen to carry the promise (Genesis 12:1 to 3). |
| Exodus | 40 | Covenant | A people enslaved, redeemed through the sea, and bound to the LORD at Sinai, then given a tabernacle to house Him among them. |
| Leviticus | 27 | Worship and holiness | The sanctuary furnished: sacrifice, priesthood, and holiness so a holy God can dwell beside an unholy people (Leviticus 16). |
| Numbers | 36 | The wilderness | Two censuses bracket forty years of wilderness failure and discipline between Sinai and the plains of Moab. |
| Deuteronomy | 34 | The borderland | Moses renews the covenant on the edge of the land he will not enter, and the Torah ends at his grave (Deuteronomy 34). |
Jewish tradition names the whole the Chumash, “the five,” and the rabbis called the books “the five-fifths of the law.” The Greek name Pentateuch implies a law divided into five parts. It is first found about AD 150 to 175, in the Letter to Flora by the Valentinian teacher Ptolemy.
Law Woven Into the Story
The statutes stand at Sinai, inside the account of Israel's march from Egypt to Moab.
The books begin as a rescue story of a family created, fallen, chosen, enslaved and delivered (Genesis 12:1 to 3; Exodus 6:6 to 7). At Sinai the story pauses for the statutes of Exodus and Leviticus, and in the land of Moab, east of the Jordan, Moses explains the law again in the addresses of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 1:5).
In Exodus the statutes begin at chapter 20, and the golden calf in chapters 32 to 34 breaks them with narrative.
| Chapters | What stands there |
|---|---|
| Exodus 1 to 19 | Narrative: the slavery in Egypt, the exodus and the march to Sinai. |
| Exodus 20 to 24 | Statutes: the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant, read to the people and sealed with blood. |
| Exodus 25 to 31 | Statutes: the pattern of the tabernacle and its priesthood. |
| Exodus 32 to 34 | Narrative: the golden calf and the covenant renewed. |
| Exodus 35 to 40 | The tabernacle built as the LORD commanded, and the glory filling it. |
| Leviticus 1 to 27 | Statutes throughout: offerings, priesthood, clean and unclean, the Day of Atonement and the holiness code. |
The narrative sets the stage, telling who this God is and what He has done, and the law furnishes the house Israel will live in.
Numbers sets its laws among the wilderness narrative. Genesis is narrative with few commands, among them circumcision (Genesis 17:10).
Moses writes and reads the covenant at Sinai2 verses
And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. Early the next morning he got up and built an altar at the base of the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.Moses puts the words of the LORD in writing before the covenant is sealed at Sinai.
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”The people answer the reading of the Book of the Covenant with a promise to obey, before the blood is sprinkled on them.
The Shema, at the heart of the fifth book, gathers the whole into a single confession.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.Jesus quotes these verses when a scribe asks him which commandment is the most important (Mark 12:28 to 30).
“Such too was the teaching of the law: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord,’ that is, unchangeable, always abiding in unity of power, always the same and not altered by any accession or diminution. Therefore Moses called him one.”
Ambrose of Milan · On the Holy Spirit 3.14.105 · on Deuteronomy 6:4Patristic
How Israel Read and Kept the Torah
Deuteronomy, Joshua, Ezra and Nehemiah record the written law given, kept and read aloud.
So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel. Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law. Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”Moses hands the written law to the priests and elders and orders a public reading for men, women, children and foreigners alike.
When Moses had finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you.The written law is given a fixed place in Israel's worship, under the care of the Levites.
This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.The book Moses finished in Deuteronomy 31 becomes the rule of his successor in the very next book.
For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.Ezra's purpose in going up to Jerusalem leads to the public reading of Nehemiah 8.
So they read from the Book of the Law of God, explaining it and giving insight, so that the people could understand what was being read.The reading moves the people to weep, and the next day's study of the Law leads them to dwell in booths at the feast of the seventh month (Nehemiah 8:9 and 8:14).
“Let those that read and preach the word learn also to deliver themselves distinctly, as those who understand what they say and are affected with it themselves, and who desire that those they speak to may understand it, retain it, and be affected with it likewise. It is a snare for a man to devour that which is holy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Nehemiah 8:8Puritan
The Talmud on Nehemiah 8:81 paragraph
The Babylonian Talmud (Nedarim 37b) takes the verse phrase by phrase and finds in it the reading of the text, its Aramaic translation and its division into verses.
The king's reading at the assembly1 paragraph
The Mishnah (Sotah 7:8) describes how the command of Deuteronomy 31 was kept in the days of the Second Temple. After the Sabbatical Year, at the Feast of Tabernacles, the king sat on a wooden platform in the Temple court and read Deuteronomy from its first verse.
Joshua 1:8, Ezra 7:10, Nehemiah 8:8, Matthew Henry
Torah Means Instruction
Brown, Driver and Briggs (1906) give torah the senses of direction, instruction and law.
The uses of torah in the lexicon1 paragraph
The lexicon lists torah for a mother's and a father's teaching in Proverbs, for the teaching of the prophets and the priests, and for the laws given through Moses.
Each row gives a word in Hebrew script, its spelling in English letters and its sense.
| Hebrew | Word | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| תּוֹרָה | torah | instruction or teaching, from yarah, to point or direct, a hand pointing the way |
| יָרָה | yarah | to throw, point, direct: the verbal root beneath torah |
| בְּרִית | berith | covenant: the bond cut at Sinai and renewed on the plains of Moab |
The Torah in the Synagogue
Judaism counts the commandments of the Torah and divides its text for reading through the year.
Genesis has the most weekly portions, 12, and Leviticus and Numbers have the fewest, 10 each.
| Book | Portions | First portion | Last portion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis | 12 | Bereshit | Vayechi |
| Exodus | 11 | Shemot | Pekudei |
| Leviticus | 10 | Vayikra | Bechukotai |
| Numbers | 10 | Bamidbar | Masei |
| Deuteronomy | 11 | Devarim | V'Zot HaBerachah |
The Talmud (Megillah 29b) records that the people of the land of Israel completed the reading of the Torah in three years and not in one.
Rabbi Simlai taught in the Talmud (Makkot 23b) that 613 commandments were stated to Moses, 365 prohibitions for the days of the solar year and 248 positive commands for the limbs of the body.
For Moses has been proclaimed in every city from ancient times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”The weekly reading of the Torah was already an old custom when James spoke at the council in Jerusalem.
How Jesus and the Apostles Read the Torah
Jesus, Peter and Paul cite the five books as a unit and call them Moses or the Law of Moses.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.Jesus states how he stands toward the Torah at the start of his teaching on the Law in the Sermon on the Mount.
If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me.Jesus names Moses as a writer who wrote about him, so belief in Moses leads to belief in him.
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.On the road to Emmaus the risen Jesus starts his explanation of himself from the books of Moses.
Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”Jesus names the Law of Moses first of the three parts of the Scriptures that speak of him.
For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He tells you.Peter preaches Christ in the temple from a promise in Deuteronomy and names Moses as its speaker.
So they set a day to meet with Paul, and many people came to the place he was staying. He expounded to them from morning to evening, testifying about the kingdom of God and persuading them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets.Paul in Rome argues from the same two parts of Scripture that Jesus opened on the road to Emmaus.
“In this discourse the Lord shows that the law was necessary to make ready the way and the ministry of the prophets to prepare people for faith in this marvelous act, so that when the resurrection really took place, those who were troubled at its greatness might remember what was said of old and be induced to believe. He brings forward, therefore, Moses and the prophets, interpreting their hidden meaning and making plain to the worthy what to the unworthy was obscure.”
Cyril of Alexandria · Commentary on Luke, Chapter 24 · on Luke 24:27Patristic
Luke 24:27, Luke 24:44, Acts 3:22, Acts 28:23, Cyril of Alexandria
Who Wrote the Five Books
Jewish and Christian tradition and critical scholarship give different answers to the question.
The page Who Wrote the Pentateuch sets out every reading with its holders.
Substantial Mosaic authorship: the traditional readingThe Talmud and Josephus · Tier A
Scripture attributes the core to Moses, who wrote down all the words of the LORD (Exodus 24:4) and delivered the law to the priests (Deuteronomy 31:9 and 24). The New Testament repeatedly cites the book of Moses as his (Mark 12:26, John 5:46 to 47 and Luke 24:44). The closing account of his death (Deuteronomy 34) is traditionally credited to Joshua as a final colophon, as the Talmud records (Bava Batra 15a).
The Talmud (Bava Batra 14b) says that Moses wrote his own book, and Josephus (Against Apion 1.8) counts five books that belong to Moses, holding his laws and the history of mankind to his death.
The Documentary HypothesisCritical scholarship · Tier A
Julius Wellhausen's classic form (Prolegomena to the History of Israel, 1878) reads the Pentateuch as four woven sources, J, E, D, and P, compiled centuries after Moses. It cites alternating divine names, paired accounts of single events, and variation across the legal codes.
Books to Read Next
Josephus, the Brown, Driver and Briggs lexicon and Wellhausen can each be read free online.
Against Apion
Flavius Josephus, tr. William Whiston · 1737
Book 1, section 8, lists the twenty-two books the Jews held as divine in three groups: five of Moses, thirteen of the prophets and four of hymns and precepts.
Read it at Project GutenbergA Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs · 1906
It is the standard lexicon of biblical Hebrew in English, built on the lexicon of William Gesenius as Edward Robinson translated it.
Read it at the Internet ArchiveProlegomena to the History of Israel
Julius Wellhausen · 1885
It is the classic statement of the documentary reading, first published in German in 1878 and here in its English translation.
Read it at Project GutenbergThe Law Given Through Moses
The Torah teaches who the LORD is and how His people are to live before Him.
Every reader of the five books is asked to read them for the Christ they point to.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.This verse names Moses as the one through whom the Law was given, in the same sentence as Jesus Christ.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1906), the entry tôrâ under the root yārâ.
- James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), H3384 and H8451.
- Catholic Encyclopedia, Pentateuch, the paragraphs on the name.
- Flavius Josephus, Against Apion 1.8, tr. William Whiston (1737)
- Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b to 15a, William Davidson edition.
- Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b, William Davidson edition.
- Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 29b, William Davidson edition.
- Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 37b, William Davidson edition.
- Mishnah Sotah 7:8, William Davidson edition.
- Mishnah Avot 1:1, tr. Joshua Kulp (Mishnah Yomit)
- Sefaria, the index of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Parasha structure.
- Julius Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (Edinburgh, 1885), the preface.
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