Spiritual Indicatior Pentateuch


	Positive	Negative	Both	Not Sure
Christians	85 Percent	4 Percent	4 Percent	6 Percent
Jews	58 Percent	15 Percent	4 Percent	23 Percent
Muslins	28 Percent	33 Percent	4 Percent	35 Percent
Buddhists	29 Percent	33 Percent	2 Percent	35 Percent
Atheists	14 Percent	61 Percent	4 Percent	22 Percent

This table represents the perspectives on the General Influence of Faith Groups on American Society

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THE PENTATEUCH

The first five books of the Bible--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy--are called by the Jews the Torah, a Hebrew term meaning "law" or "teaching." The translators of the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) called this grouping the Pentateuch, that is, "the fivefold book" (from the Greek penta, "five," and teuchos, "volume").
Traditionally, conservative Jews and Christians have held that Moses was in large measure responsible for the Pentateuch. Both the Old and New Testaments ascribe to Moses the authorship of this body of literature (Josh. 1:7; Dan 9:11-13' Luke 16:29; John 7:19; Acts 26:22; Rom 10:19), and there was general agreement regarding Moses' role until the eighteenth century. In the modern period, however, it has often been asserted that behind the Pentateuch as we now have it are four separate documents (referred to as J, E, D, and P) which stem from a variety of periods in Israel's history and which were pieced together late in the Old Testament era. This theory (known as the "Documentary Hypothesis") arose in part to explain a number of questions about the text of the Pentateuch which are particularly apparent in Genesis These include stories that seem to be virtual duplicates of each other, the use of particular dive names in certain portions of the text, sudden changes in style from one incident to another, and so forth.
It is doubtless the case that the Documentary Hypothesis owed much to naturalistic and evolutionary presuppositions regarding the development of ancient human society. Furthermore, little lasting agreement among scholars has emerged regarding the precise character and extent of the documents and sources which are alleged to lie behind the Pentateuch as we have it. It can now also be shown that many of the features which formerly seemed so strange are typical of other literatures from the ancient period.
While not every problem has been fully explained, there are no compelling reasons to abandon Mosaic authorship. While each book of the Pentateuch is concerned with God's covenantal relationship with His people, each book is, nevertheless, distinct and has its own particular subject matter.
The Pentateuch constitutes the first part of a major sequential biblical narrative extending from Genesis through Deuteronomy. In this first section the accounts of creation and humankind's early history (Gen.1-11) are linked to events in the lives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph (Gen. 12-50). Those stories, in turn, are linked with accounts of Israel's greatest prophet, Moses.
They include conflict with Egypt's pharaoh (Ex. 1-11), the rescue of Israel by God from Egypt (Ex.12-15), Israel's rebellion and forty years of wandering in the wilderness (Ex.16--Num. 21), and their arrival at the entrance to Canaan, the Land of Promise (Num.22--Deut. 34). The first book of the Pentateuch, Genesis, covers the vast period of time from creation to the journey into Egypt. The remaining four books, Exodus-Deuteronomy, cover a period of only about forty years.

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