Reference: Hexateuch
Hastings
The first five books of the OT were known in Jewish circles as 'the five-fifths of the Law.' Christian scholars as early as Tertullian and Origen adopted the name Pentateuch, corresponding to their Jewish title, as a convenient designation of these books. 'The Law' was regarded as a unique and authoritative exposition of all individual and social conduct within Israel: a wide gulf seemed to divide it from the Book of Joshua, which inaugurated the series of historical books known as 'the Latter Prophets.' As a matter of fact, this division is wholly artificial. The five books of the Law are primarily intended to present the reader not with a codification of the legal system, but with some account of the antiquities and origins of Israel, as regards their religious worship, their political position, and their social arrangements. From this standpoint, nothing could be more arbitrary than to treat the Book of Joshua as the beginning of an entirely new series: 'its contents, and, still more, its literary structure, show that it is intimately connected with the Pentateuch, and describes the final stage in the history of the Origines of the Hebrew nation' (Driver, LOT [Note: OT Introd. to the Literature of the Old Testament.] 103). Critics have accordingly invented the name Hexateuch to emphasize this unity; and the name has now become universally accepted as an appropriate description of the first six volumes of the OT. In this article we propose to consider (I.) the composition, (II.) the criticism, and (III.) the characteristics of the Hexateuch.
I. Composition of the Hexateuch.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
This is the account of when Jehovah (YHWH) God created the heavens and the earth. No shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth. No plant of the field had yet sprung up, for Jehovah God had not sent rain on the earth. There was no man to work the ground. read more. Mist came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Jehovah God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living being. Now Jehovah God planted a garden in the east, in Eden. He put the man he had formed there. Jehovah God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. From there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first river is the Pishon. It winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris. It runs along the east side of Asshur. The fourth river is the Euphrates. Jehovah God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Jehovah God commanded the man: You are free to eat from any tree in the garden. But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When you eat of it you will surely die. Jehovah God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Then Jehovah God formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to let him name them. Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But no suitable helper was found for Adam. Jehovah God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then Jehovah made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man. He brought her to the man. The man said: This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called 'Woman.' This is because she was taken out of Man. This is the reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. They will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
But I will establish my covenant with you. You will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. Bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
Bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. read more. Take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them. Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.
Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate. Also take seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.
Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great (oak) tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
Now these were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the children of Israel:
and wandering through the fields, when a man asked: What are you looking for? Joseph answered: I am looking for my brothers who are watching the sheep. Can you tell me where they are? read more. They are not here anymore, the man replied. I heard them say they were going to Dothan. Joseph soon found his brothers in Dothan. Before he arrived, they saw him coming and made plans to kill him. They said to one another: Look, here comes the hero of those dreams! Let us kill him and throw him into a water pit. We can say that some wild animal ate him. Then we will see what happens to those dreams.
Jehovah said to Moses: Pharaoh is being stubborn. He will not let my people go.
Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh. Yet Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart. He did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.
After the fight Jehovah said to Moses: Write an account of this victory and read it to Joshua. I want the Amalekites to be forgotten forever.
Moses wrote down all Jehovah's words. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He erected twelve sacred stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.
He took the book of the covenant, in which Jehovah's commandments were written, and read it aloud to the people. They said: We will obey Jehovah. We will do everything that he has commanded.
Moses was a very humble (meek) man. He was more humble than anyone else on earth.
Enter the land Jehovah your God gives you. Possess it and live in it. You will say: I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,
Moses finished writing all the words of this Law in a book.
Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face (intimately),
Joshua wrote these commands in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up under the oak tree in Jehovah's sanctuary.