Topic for January
The Pentateuch: The Fab Five
Fact, Fiction, or Faith?
 Pentateuch means “five books’ or “five scrolls”
 The Hebrew word for the first five books of the Old Testament is “Torah” which means “law” or “teaching”
 The first five books of the bible are sometimes called the Books of Moses.
It was thought that Moses wrote the whole Pentateuch, but this is not true and scripture scholars have attributed the Pentateuch to more than one author
 The Pentateuch is the first five books of the bible: Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
 Genesis opens with the two stories of creation, the beginnings of human society, and the stories of the Patriarchs.
 Exodus tells the story of how God delivers Israel from slavery and calls
Moses to lead them and present God’s covenant to them.
 Leviticus contains the laws and commandments that God gave to his newly sanctified people.
 Numbers adds many more laws and regulations about the twelve tribes and their organization as a holy people on the march.
 Deuteronomy is a later book containing a reflective speech of Moses about the meaning of the Exodus event and reaffirms the importance of the covenant law as a guide fro Israel’s life in the promised land.
 The Pentateuch covers the oldest period of Israel’s history
 The whole Pentateuch looks forward to possession of the promised land
~ from Reading the Old Testament, An Introduction, by Lawrence Boadt

—God brought all things into being, making us in
God’s image.
—we have the freedom to turn away from God, but God’s mercy is greater than our sin.
—God calls us into relationship and binds us together
—God’s saving actions deliver us from all that enslaves us.
—God continually calls us to new places, accompanying us as we move through each day of our lives.
—In order to be in right relationship with God we must follow God’s law.
—Envisioned in the Pentateuch as the
Promised Land, God leads us to a dwelling place God has prepared for us.