Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read
The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563

The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Public domain.

A movement of the canon · the Old Testament

The Torah

Five books from Genesis to Deuteronomy, given to Moses by tradition and dated from the 15th to the 13th century BC, that tell the story from creation to the plains of Moab.

What is the Torah?

Summary

The Torah is the first five books of the Bible, the books of the Law, and they tell how God made the world, chose one family and formed a nation to live with him.

  • Genesis tells of creation, the flood and the fathers of Israel, and it ends with Jacob's family living in Egypt.
  • Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers tell how God brought Israel out of slavery, made his covenant with them at Sinai and led them through the wilderness for forty years.
  • Deuteronomy gives Moses' last words to the new generation before they cross the Jordan into the land.
  • In Luke 24:44 Jesus names the Law of Moses with the Prophets and the Psalms as the Scriptures written about him.

The Torah stands first in the Bible, and the rest of Scripture builds on it. The Hebrew word torah means instruction or law, and these books hold both: the story of how God made a people for himself and the laws he gave them. Later books call them the Book of the Law and the Law of Moses. Their Greek name, the Pentateuch, means a work in five scrolls.

The books mix story, law, poetry and lists. Genesis is mostly narrative, Leviticus is almost all law, and Exodus and Numbers move between the two, with census lists and camp orders set inside the account of the march. Poems stand at the turning points: Jacob's blessing of his sons in Genesis 49, the song at the sea in Exodus 15, Balaam's oracles in Numbers 23 and 24, and the song and the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 and 33.

Nearly a third of the Torah's chapters stand at one mountain. Israel camps at Sinai in Exodus 19 and does not leave until Numbers 10, and everything between is given there: the Ten Commandments, the laws of the covenant, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the offerings and the call to be holy. The covenant made there, with its blessings and curses in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, is the standard by which the later books judge Israel.

Moses stands at the center of four of the five books. He is born in Exodus 2 and dies in Deuteronomy 34. The LORD tells him to write in Exodus 17:14 and Numbers 33:2, and the books record that he wrote in Exodus 24:4 and Deuteronomy 31:9 and 24.

The promises of these books run through the rest of the Bible. The promise God gives Abraham in Genesis 12 reaches to the last pages of Scripture. The exodus becomes the rescue the prophets look back to and the pattern for the new exodus they foresee. The tabernacle, the priesthood and the sacrifices are the patterns the letter to the Hebrews reads as fulfilled in Christ.

When were the five books written, and when do their events fall?

Tradition gives the books to Moses, so the date argued for the exodus sets both the time of their writing and the time of their story.

The 5 books on one line of years

A bar is the century or the span of centuries a book is dated to.
Year BC

  1. Moses, by tradition

    1. Genesis15th to 13th century BC

    2. Exodus15th or 13th century BC

    3. Leviticus15th to 13th century BC

    4. Numbers15th to 13th century BC

    5. Deuteronomy15th to 13th century BC

Each book stands on one scale of years at the date this site's authorship table gives. Four of the books are dated across three centuries, and Exodus is drawn as two bars because the table gives the 15th or the 13th century, the centuries of the early and the late date of the exodus.

The eras of the story on the two dates of the exodus

A bar is a span of years, and its soft ends mark uncertain ends.A dot is one year, the year the early date gives the exodus.
Year BC

  1. Israel in Egypt, Genesis 46 to Exodus 12

    1. On the early date430 years, up to the exodus

    2. On the late date430 years, ending in the 13th century BC

  2. The exodus, Exodus 12 to 14

    1. On the early dateabout 1446 BC, by the count of 1 Kings 6:1

    2. On the late datein the 13th century BC, by the store cities of Exodus 1:11

  3. Sinai, the wilderness and Moab, Exodus 15 to Deuteronomy 34

    1. On the early date40 years, from the exodus to Moab

    2. On the late date40 years, beginning in the 13th century BC

Scripture counts 430 years in Egypt at Exodus 12:40 and 40 years in the wilderness at Numbers 14:33 and 34, and each era is drawn from those counts on the two dates of the exodus the Exodus dossier sets out. The early date is a single year. The late date is given as a century, so each bar on that row runs across every year the era could cover. Genesis 1 to 45, from creation to Jacob's descent into Egypt, stands before the line, because this site gives no year for creation or for the fathers.

The 5 books of the Torah, in canon order

Each entry tells what happens in the book from its first chapter to its last and lists the feature pages that open on it.

The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1613. Public domain.

Book 1 of 5 on the shelf

Genesis

Moses, by tradition 15th to 13th century BC 50 chapters

Genesis opens with God creating the heavens and the earth in six days and resting on the seventh. He makes man and woman in his image and sets them in Eden. They disobey him, and the curse falls with a promise that the woman's offspring will crush the serpent. Sin spreads from Cain's murder of Abel to a world filled with violence. God sends the flood, saves Noah's family in the ark and scatters the nations at Babel.

From chapter 12 the book follows one family. God calls Abram to Canaan and promises him a land, a great nation and a blessing for all the families of the earth. The promise passes to Isaac and then to Jacob, whom God renames Israel. Jacob's son Joseph is sold into Egypt by his brothers and rises to rule there. The book ends with the family in Egypt and Joseph asking that his bones be carried to the promised land.

Open the book pageRead Genesis 1

Feature pages on Genesis31

Studies4

People and groups2

Places1

Symbols2

Doctrines12

Show the next 6 titles

Books of the Bible1

Passages and psalms1

Stories6

Debates2

The Israelites Leaving Egypt, David Roberts, 1829. Public domain.

Book 2 of 5 on the shelf

Exodus

Moses, by tradition 15th or 13th century BC 40 chapters

Generations after Joseph, a new king who did not know him enslaves the Israelites and orders their baby boys killed. Moses is hidden in the Nile, raised in Pharaoh's household, and flees to Midian after killing an Egyptian. At the burning bush God reveals his name and sends Moses back to demand that Pharaoh release his people. Pharaoh refuses, and ten plagues fall on Egypt. On the night of the first Passover the firstborn of Egypt die and Israel leaves, and God parts the sea and drowns Pharaoh's army.

In the wilderness God gives manna and water from the rock. At Sinai he gives the Ten Commandments and the laws of the covenant, and the people promise to keep them. While Moses is on the mountain, they worship a golden calf. Moses pleads for them and the covenant is renewed. The book ends with the tabernacle built and the glory of the LORD filling it.

Open the book pageRead Exodus 1

Feature pages on Exodus14

Studies2

Places1

Symbols2

Doctrines7

Show the next 1 title

Books of the Bible1

Stories1

The Scapegoat, William Holman Hunt, 1854. Public domain.

Book 3 of 5 on the shelf

Leviticus

Moses, by tradition 15th to 13th century BC 27 chapters

Leviticus opens where Exodus ends, with the LORD calling to Moses from the tent of meeting, and the whole book is spoken at Sinai. Chapters 1 to 7 set out five offerings: the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering. In chapters 8 to 10 Aaron and his sons are ordained, and fire from the LORD consumes Nadab and Abihu for offering unauthorized fire.

Chapters 11 to 15 teach what is clean and unclean in food, childbirth, skin disease and bodily discharges. Chapter 16 sets out the Day of Atonement, when the high priest enters the Most Holy Place once a year to make atonement for the people. Chapters 17 to 27 call Israel to be holy because the LORD is holy, in worship, family and justice, and they set the yearly feasts, the Sabbath year and the Jubilee. The book closes with blessings, curses and the law of vows.

Open the book pageRead Leviticus 1

Feature pages on Leviticus6

Studies1

Places1

Symbols1

Doctrines3

The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620. Public domain.

Book 4 of 5 on the shelf

Numbers

Moses, by tradition 15th to 13th century BC 36 chapters

Numbers opens at Sinai in the second year after the exodus with a census of the fighting men, and the tribes are set in order around the tabernacle. In chapter 10 Israel sets out for Canaan behind the cloud, and the march soon turns to complaint. At Kadesh twelve spies return, and ten of them say the land cannot be taken. The people refuse to go in, and God sentences them to wander forty years until that generation has died.

Korah leads a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and the ground opens beneath the rebels. Miriam dies, Moses strikes the rock and is barred from the land, and Aaron dies on Mount Hor. Balak of Moab hires Balaam to curse Israel, and Balaam blesses them instead. On the plains of Moab a second census counts the new generation and Joshua is commissioned. The last chapters set the borders of the land and the cities of the Levites.

Open the book pageRead Numbers 1

Feature pages on Numbers10

Studies1

Places2

Symbols1

Doctrines4

Stories2

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.

Book 5 of 5 on the shelf

Deuteronomy

Moses, by tradition 15th to 13th century BC 34 chapters

Deuteronomy is Moses' farewell, spoken in the land of Moab in the fortieth year, as Israel waits to cross the Jordan. In his first address he looks back over the years since Horeb, the refusal at Kadesh and the victories over Sihon and Og. In the second he repeats the Ten Commandments to the generation that will enter the land and gives them the Shema, the call to love the LORD with all their heart, soul and strength.

Chapters 12 to 26 set out the laws for life in the land: one place of worship, the feasts, judges and kings, prophets, war and the care of the poor. Moses then sets blessing and curse before the people and calls them to choose life. He commissions Joshua, writes down the law and teaches them a song as a witness. He blesses the tribes, climbs Mount Nebo to see the land, and dies there, and the LORD buries him in Moab.

Open the book pageRead Deuteronomy 1

Feature pages on Deuteronomy9

Places1

Symbols1

Doctrines6

Books of the Bible1

The pages these books open on

Sources for this page

The author and the date of each book come from this site's authorship table. The two dates of the exodus come from the Exodus dossier, and the eras on the second figure are counted from the 430 years in Egypt that Scripture gives at Exodus 12:40 and the 40 years in the wilderness it gives at Numbers 14:33 and 34. The verses the page names are cited by reference to the Berean Standard Bible. The storylines are written from the dossier of each book on the shelf and from the chapter summaries this site publishes for each chapter. The paintings, in the order the page shows them, are The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563; The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1613; The Israelites Leaving Egypt, David Roberts, 1829; The Scapegoat, William Holman Hunt, 1854; The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620; Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Every one of them is in the public domain.