The Pentateuch is the name given to the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The word means five scrolls.
Israel called this portion the Torah, the Law of Moses, the book of the Law.
Jesus read it as Scripture that speaks of Him, and He said that if they believed Moses they would believe Him.
These five books are one work in five movements.
- Genesis opens with creation, fall, flood, and the fathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
- Exodus tells of bondage, the Name revealed, the plagues, the sea, Sinai, and the tabernacle.
- Leviticus sets the holy nearness of God in sacrifice, priesthood, and appointed times.
- Numbers walks the camp through wilderness, rebellion, and mercy.
- Deuteronomy is Moses’ last preaching on the plains of Moab: hear, O Israel; love the Lord; choose life.
Together they give origin, covenant, law, worship, and hope of a prophet like Moses and a seed who would crush the serpent. Later Scripture calls this the Law.
- The prophets stand on it.
- The Psalms delight in it.
- Ezra reads it.
- Jesus quotes it against the tempter and on the road to Emmaus.
- The apostles preach from it.
The Pentateuch is not a primitive preface.
It is the foundation of the Bible’s story
and the first witness that
the God who made the world is the God who redeems a people.
- Pentateuch is five books that form one Torah.
- Moses is the human author the rest of Scripture names; God is the speaker.
- Law here is instruction and covenant, not only a list of bans.
- The story runs from garden to the edge of the land, and stops short of Joshua on purpose.
- Christ said Moses wrote of Him. The five books are Christian Scripture, not a discarded ladder.
- Shadows of priest, lamb, and feast are real, and the substance belongs to Christ.
- To lose Genesis is to lose the rest; to keep Deuteronomy is to keep the call to love God with all the heart.
- Genesis – Beginnings: creation, promise, the fathers.
- Exodus – Redemption and dwelling: out of Egypt, into covenant, the tent of meeting.
- Leviticus – Holiness: offerings, priests, clean and unclean, appointed times.
- Numbers – Wilderness: census, unbelief, wandering, a new generation.
- Deuteronomy – Covenant renewed: sermons of Moses, blessings and curses, choose life.
- One Law – Read in the synagogue as the book of Moses.
- Witness to Christ – From the seed of the woman to the prophet like Moses.
- Luke 24:27, 44 – “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself… ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’”
- John 5:46-47 – “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
- Deuteronomy 31:24-26 – “When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, ‘Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.’”
- Joshua 1:8 – “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.”
- Nehemiah 8:1, 8 – The people told Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses; they read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly.
- Matthew 4:4, 7, 10 – Jesus answered the devil from Deuteronomy: “It is written.”
- Matthew 22:37-40 – The great commandment from Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19; on these two hang all the Law and the Prophets.
- Deuteronomy 18:15 – “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.”
- Acts 3:22 – Peter preaches that prophet like Moses.
- Romans 10:5-8 – Moses writes about the righteousness of the law; the word is near you.
- Galatians 3:24 – “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”
- Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
- Genesis 3:15 – Enmity between the serpent and the woman’s seed.
- Genesis 12:3 – In Abraham all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
- Exodus 19:4-6 – I bore you on eagles’ wings; you shall be to me a kingdom of priests.
- Leviticus 19:2 – “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”
- Numbers 14:18-19 – The Lord slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love; Moses pleads for pardon.
- Deuteronomy 6:4-5 – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
- 2 Timothy 3:15-16 – The sacred writings are able to make you wise for salvation; all Scripture is breathed out by God.
- Hebrews 10:1 – The law has a shadow of the good things to come.
Beginning with Moses, He interpreted the things concerning Himself.
Five scrolls. One Law. Creation to the edge of the land.
If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; he wrote of Me.
Meditate on this Book of the Law. Hear, O Israel. Love the Lord your God.
The law was a guardian until Christ came. The substance belongs to Him.
Do not treat the Pentateuch as a closed museum. It is still the first word of the story that ends with the Lamb.
In the beginning, God. At the end of Deuteronomy, choose life. In Christ, both stand.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.