Introduction to the Pentateuch

Historical Background

Primary sources:
Secondary sources: Kaiser and Wegner; Merrill; Bright

Reading the Bible as history (prehistory in the case of Genesis 1-11) requires attention both critical history of the text (questions regarding author, recipients, origin, date, and occasion answered with both internal and external evidence) and the descriptive history in the text (not polemic, but illustrating the political, geographical, and cultural world of the text).

Critical history of the text

Our questions concern the Pentateuch as a whole. The historical-critical consensus (cf. “Critical Method Sheet”) …

Traditionally, Moses, the major human character of four of the books, creates (by recording, writing, authoring, selecting, composing) the majority of the Pentateuch. Compare the toledots of Genesis 1-11. In its nearly completed form, the recipients are the second generation of those sons, delivered forty years earlier from Egypt. Witnesses of the deaths of a first generation, Moses gathers them on the plains of Moab.

Date of the exodus.

Occasion. Give attention to both internal and external evidence. Give thought to the .

Descriptive history in the text

Our priority is on the floating chronology within the world of the Pentateuch.

Political

The question of time: political affairs, government institutions, and military events; cf. timeline.

Geographical

The question of place: topography, climate, and other environmental questions; cf. map.

Cultural

The question of being: intellectual, religious, social, economic, demographic, technological development, etc.

NOTE: Get to the account! Work to weave the background and foreground material into the body of the survey.

The sustained national and Mosaic focus of Exodus through Deuteronomy, the vast majority of the Pentateuch, has been carefully grounded in the prehistorical and historical background represented by the canonical Universal Protohistory of Genesis 1-11 and the Patriarchal History of Genesis 12-50.

Like a funnel … narrowing and sharpening … who they have been chosen to serve … already demonstrated themselves to be all-too ready to show disdain … missing the significance.

The creation prologue of Gen 1-2 highlights the calling of humankind and sharing with God in a seventh day of rest.

The Adamic narrative … the nature of the fall and insight into the problem of sin

The significance of the lines of the sons of Seth and the sons of men

The parallels to creation in the Noahic narratives.

The nations

The promises to Abraham, reiterated to Isaac and Jacob

Resources:

ToDO: ncBc. 2007. “Bible Study Approach.” BcResources.net. November 28, 2007. https://bcresources.net/1100000-hrm-bible-std-appr-how-bcrx/. (ncBc 2007)

Merrill 1991, 8. The Bible affirms (e.g., Ex. 17:14; 24:4; Num. 33:1-2; Deut. 31:9; Josh. 1:8; 2 Kings 21:8) that the Pentateuch was the creation of Moses, the great Exodus liberator, who communicated to his fellow Israelites the revelation of God concerning Himself and His purposes for His recently redeemed people. This took place on the plains of Moab, forty years after the Exodus, on the eve of Israel’s conquest of Canaan and establishment as a national entity in fulfillment of the promises to the patriarchal ancestors. Though there no doubt had been an unbroken oral (and perhaps written) tradition about their origins, history, and purpose, it was not until Moses gathered these traditions and integrated them into the corpus now known as the Torah that a comprehensive and authoritative synthesis emerged. The significance of the Exodus and of the Sinaitic Covenant in light of the ancient patriarchal promises became clear. Beyond this, the role of Israel against the backdrop of creation and the whole world of nations took on meaning. In short, the setting of the Pentateuch was theological as much as it was geographical and historical. It became the written expression of God’s will for Israel in terms of His larger purposes in creation and redemption.