The Origins of the Pentateuch Made Simple

The term “Pentateuch” means five books. The Jews call it the Torah. It is after all, part of their Holy Scripture. Whatever name you call it, the term refers to the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures, also known as the Old Testament. Those books are named Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Jews have different names for them, calling them by the first word or words of each book in Hebrew, i.e. Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar and Devarim. Together, these five books are the core of the Hebrew Scriptures. The intention here is to explain how these writings came to be.

Imagine, if you will, some ancient tribes of people around 3 or 4 thousand years ago living in the same general area, a place called by different names at various times. Two of those names were Canaan and Palestine. Like many such peoples in other places in the world, they experienced many things in their history. Because these were not sophisticated or educated people, many of the things they witnessed were thought to be the results of the actions of the various gods. Just as some tribes in Africa today have some people, usually elders, who are also the storytellers, telling each new generation the stories of the experiences of their people, and the wonders they have seen, so too did the groups of this ancient people. We can call these people early Israelites.

It is safe to surmise that just like any bit of information that is passed on by word of mouth, that over time, as the story is told over and over, certain changes occur. It is a similar phenomenon to what occurs in the children’s game called “telephone”. Some details may have been forgotten and left out. Others may have been embellished or exaggerated. This is to be expected.

It’s important to know that there wasn’t just one oral source. The early Israelites did not all live in one group, or tribe. As noted earlier, they were scattered in several places in the Palestine region of the Mid-East. Therefore, when some natural event happened, perhaps a large flood, it might have been interpreted as the actions of the gods, and the various tribes might each have their own version of that event.

It’s also important to know that the early Israelites, like other ancient peoples at first believed in several gods. Chief among these gods was one called El. It wasn’t until later in their history that they began to believe in just one god, the one they referred to as the True God. This change came in stages: Their particular god was called YHWH, or Yahweh. This god was one of many who were worshipped by different peoples at the time. Each god had different attribute, such as a rain god, a harvest god, and a mighty warrior god. Over time, as their faith system matured, the Israelites took all the attributes of the other gods and assigned them to YHWH.

The Israelites told and re-told their stories of the deeds of their god and how he interacted with them throughout their history. Finally, after many years, perhaps centuries, the stories came to be written down. Finally, the stories were gathered and grouped together by some early editors, or redactors, and became five books.

For many years, it was assumed that the books were inspired or even dictated by God and actually written by Moses. In fact, the books are often called “The Five Books of Moses”.

But in more modern times, starting in the late 18th century, scholars began hypothesizing a theory of multiple sources for the writings, which were later joined by some ancient editor, or redactor. At first, they thought that there were two written sources, then later, they said there were three. They finally settled on four sources. They are called the Yahwist (or sometimes the Jehovist), the Elohist, the Priestly and the Deuteronomist. This theory came to be called the Documentary Hypothesis, and for many years was accepted as the best theory for how the Torah was written. But this theory has now begun to fall out of favor. There are two other main theories that are championed by scripture scholars: The Supplementary Hypothesis and the Fragmentary Hypothesis.

Two examples of the material coming from different sources can be seen in the Creation Story and the Story of the Great Flood. Both are in Genesis.

The first version of the Creation Story is told in Genesis 1:1 to 2:3. In this version, creation took six days. In the first three days, God created the earth, the sky, the waters upon the earth, dry land, grass, and plants and trees. On the fourth day, the sun and moon were created. On the fifth day, whales, fish and all sea creatures came into being. On the sixth day, God created all the land animals. Finally, on the same day, God created mankind. Here is the text of Genesis 1:27: “God created mankind in his image; in his image god created; male and female he created them.” It seems that in this version, God created them together, not the man first, then the woman.

In the second version of the Creation Story, things were created in a different order, and apparently all in one day. On that day, God created the earth and the heavens, then the plants. At this point, he made man from the dust of the earth. He put the man in the Garden of Eden, and then created the trees, animals and birds. Then God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and God took one of the man’s ribs and made woman. In Genesis, the man and woman are called Adam and Eve. Adam is Hebrew for man, and while Eve can be translated as woman. It can also mean “the lifegiver,” or “the source of life.”

Scripture scholars believe these two versions of The Creation came from two different sources. It’s likely that when those stories were only in the oral form, they originated from different groups or tribes of the early Israelites. Later, they came to be written down, and they were written by authors who wrote from different viewpoints. The scholars call these two authors, or sources as the Priestly and the Yahwist. When the redactor put together the final version of Genesis, he left both versions in the story. Perhaps he was not certain which version was the accurate one.

One more example of two versions of the same event can be found in the story of Noah and the Great Flood. This story is in Genesis, chapters 6 through 8, and the aftermath in chapter 9.

In one of the two versions, Noah is told to bring two of every animal on the earth, male and female; and two of every bird, male and female. In the other version, he was ordered to bring seven pairs, male and female, of every clean animal, and one pair of every unclean animal. He was also told to bring one pair, male and female, of every bird.

In one version, it rained for 40 days and nights, and the flood lasted a year. In the second version, it seems that it lasted 150 days.

As I mentioned earlier, the Documentary Hypothesis was the prevalent explanation among most scripture scholars. Lately, however, support for this hypothesis has been waning in favor of two other theories: The Fragmentary Hypothesis and the Supplementary Hypothesis. The former says that there were many fragments of various lengths, each telling parts of the stories of the Torah, and later were joined into the 5 books we know today. The Supplementary Hypothesis states that there was a central core document, probably from the Elohist, then was supplemented by fragments from other sources. The core document, like the rest of the Torah (except perhaps Deuteronomy, which developed separately) was once a collection of oral tradition stories until they were put in writing.

Whichever theory you subscribe to, whether Moses wrote the Torah, or there were multiple oral sources which came to be written down and then joined together by two or four authors or groups of authors, the Church maintains that Scripture was somehow Divinely inspired; and what came to be passed down both orally and in written form, is what God wanted to be said.