stantially, it would seem, the same volume. In 2 Chron. xxxiv, 30 it is styled " the book of the Covenant," and so also in 2 Kings xxiii, 2, 21, while in 2 Kings xxii, 8 Hilkiah says, I have found "the book of the Law." Still earlier, in the reign of Jehoshaphat, we find a " book of the Law of Jehovah" in use (2 Chron. xvii, 9). This was probably the earliest designation, for a "book of the Law" is mentioned in Deuteronomy (xxxi, 26), though it is questionable whether the name as there used refers to the whole Pentateuch or only to Deuter- onomy. The modern Jews usually call the whole by the name of Torah (IT^IPl), i.e. "the Law," or Tordih Mosheh (fT^^ J^'!'"^); " the Law of Moses." The rab- binical title is rnipin "^^rr^in tlt^'rn, " the five fifths of the Law." In the preface to the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, it is called " the Law," which is also a usual name for it in the New Testament (Matt, xii, 5 ; xxii, 36, 40 ; Luke x, 26 ; John viii, 5, 17). Sometimes the name of Moses stands briefly for the whole work ascribed to him (Luke xxiv, 27). Finally, the whole Old Testament is sometimes called a potioj-i parte, " the Law" (Matt, v, 18; Luke xvi, 17; John vii, 49; x, 34; xii, 34). In John xv, 25; Rom. iii, 19, words from the Psalms, and in 1 Cor. xiv, 21, from Isaiah, are quoted as words of the La;v. See Law.
II. P?-esent Form. — The division of the whole work into five parts has by some writers been supposed to be original. Others (as Leusden, Hiivernick, and Len- gerke), with more probability, think that the division was made by the Greek translators. For the titles of the several books are not of Hebrew, but of Greek or- igin. The Hebrew names are merel}' taken from the first words of each book, and in the first instance only designated particular sections and not whole books. The MSS. of the Pentateuch form a single roll or volume, and are divided not into books, but into the larger and smaller sections called Parshiyoth and Sedarim. Be- sides this, the Jews distribute all the laws in the Pen- tateuch under the two heads of aflirmative and negative precepts. Of the former they reckon 248 ; because, ac- cording to the anatomy of the rabbins, so manj' are the parts of the human body; of the latter they make 365, which is the number of daj-s in the year, and also the number of veins in the human bodj-. Accordingly the Jews are bound to the observance of 613 precepts; and in order that these precepts may be perpetually kept in mind, they are wont to carry a piece of cloth foursquare, at the four corners of which they have fringes consisting of eight threads apiece, fastened in five knots. These fringes are called H'^Ci'^^, a word which in numbers denotes 600 : add to this the eight threads and the five knots, and we get the 613 precepts. The five knots denote the five books of Moses. (See Bab. Talmud. Maccoth, sect. 3 ; IMaimon. Pref. to Jad Ilachazakah ; Leusden, Philol. p. 33.) Both Philo (de A braham. ad init.) and Josejjhus (c. Apion. i, 8) recog- nise the division now current. Vaihinger supposes that the symbolical meaning of the number five led to its adoption ; for ten is the symbol of completion or per- fection, as we see in the ten commandments (and so in Genesis we have ten "generations"), and therefore five is a number which, as it were, confesses imperfection and prophesies compaction. The Law is not perfect without the Prophets, for the Prophets are in a special sense the bearers of the Promise; and it is the Promise which completes the La\v. Tliis is questionable. There can bo no doubt, however, that this division of the Pen- tateuch influenced the arrangement of the Psalter in five books. The same may be said of the five Mcgil- loth of the Hagiographa (Canticles, Ruth, Lamenta- tions, Ecclesiastes. and Esther), wliich in many Hebrew Bibles are placed immediately after the Pentateuch. In some Jewish writers, however, there are found state- ments indicating that the Pentateuch was formerly di- vided into seven portions (comp. Jarchi, ad Proverb, ix.
PENTATEUCH
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PENTATEUCH
1 ; ibique Brcithaupt). In the Jewish canon the Pen- tateuch is kept somewhat distinct from the other sacred books of tlie Old Testament, because, considered with reference to its contents, it is the book of books of the ancient covenant. It is the basis of tlie rehgion of the Old Testament, and of the whole theocratical life. See Old Testament.
For the several names and contents of the five books we refer to the articles on each book, where questions affecting their integrity and genuineness separately are also discussed.
III. Unity of the Pentateuch 1. This is evinced in
its general scope and contents. With a view to this point, we need only briefly observe here that this work, beginning with the record of creation and the historj' of the primitive world, passes on to deal more especially with the early history of the Jewish family. It gives at length the personal history of the three great fathers of the family; it then describes how the family grew into a nation in Egypt, tells us of its oppression and de- liverance, of its forty years' wandering in the wilder- ness, of the giving of the law, with all its enactments both civil and religious, of the construction of the tab- ernacle, of the numbering of the people, of the rights and duties of the priesthood, as well as of many impor- tant events which befell them before their entrance into the Land of Canaan, and finally concludes with Moses's last discourses and his death. The unity of the work in its existing form is now generally recognised. It is not a mere collection of loose fragments carelessly put together at different times, but bears evident traces of design and purpose in its composition. Even those who discover different authors in the earlier books, and who deny that Deuteronomy was written by iSIoses, are still of opinion that the work in its present form is a con- nected whole, and was at least reduced to its present shape by a single reviser or editor (see Ewald, Geschichte, i, 175; Stiihelin, Kritixrhe Unters. p. 1).