Which among the following is not a book of the torah

Anchor Bible Reference Library. New York: Doubleday, An influential introduction that reviews the history of modern interpretation, evaluates the present literary shape of the Pentateuch, summarizes the central literary features of the larger sections of the Pentateuch, and concludes with the identification of two bodies of literature in the formation of the Pentateuch: the Deuteronomic Canon and the Priestly History.

Campbell, Antony F. Sources of the Pentateuch: Texts, Introductions, Annotations. Minneapolis: Fortress, An introduction to source criticism is followed by the distribution of the Pentateuchal text into the Priestly, Yahwistic, and Elohistic sources.

Knight, Douglas A. Edited by Douglas A. Knight and Gene M. Tucker, — Philadelphia: Fortress, A concise introduction to the history of modern interpretation and the main literary features of the Pentateuch.

Levin, Christoph. Translated by Margaret Kohl. A concise synopsis of recent trends in Pentateuchal research to locate the primary formation of the literature to the exilic and postexilic periods.

Mann, Thomas W. Even more strikingly, perhaps, we are told twice that the flood covered the earth: " And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters " followed by " And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. If it isn't concrete evidence that there was more than one writer, it's still an impressively smoking gun. Meet the writers: The Yahwist, the Elohist, priests, and the Deuteronomist.

Ultimately the German scholars, led by Julius Wellhausen, came up with "the Documentary Hypothesis," postulating that the Pentateuch was compiled from of four earlier books long lost in time, which were merged by an editor dubbed the Redactor. The scholars gave each of these four books or writers a name: the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Priestly writers, and the Deuteronomist. The Yahwist was characterized by using the Tetragrammaton "Yahweh" as the name of God.

The Elohist writers, who called God "Elohim", were Israelite priests. The Priestly writers were evidently temple priests Judeans serving in Solomon's Temple and their decedents, who dwelled on rite and sacrifice, and evidently engaged in battles over their status as well.

And last but not least, "the Deuteronomist" is called so because he wrote Deuteronomy. Incidentally, the first account of creation was evidently written by a Priestly source, the second by a Yahwist. Scholars bitterly disagree over who wrote what and which texts are truly ancient and which were added later, as certainly much of the biblical sources surely consist of layers of additions and were not completely written by one single person.

The Elohist texts, the oldest in the bible. Israel and Judah were related Iron Age kingdoms whose residents practiced a sort of early Judaism, which was still a far cry from the rigid monotheistic religion we know today.

Archaeology tells us that the Kingdom of Israel was the greater regional power, while Judah was a backwater vassal kingdom. Following Israel's subjection, many of the Israelite elite moved to the Judean capital - Jerusalem.

These Israelite refugees brought their sacred texts with them: the Elohist texts, which are probably the oldest in the Torah. These texts were probably written by court scribes in Semairah, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel, or by priests in one of the kingdom's important cultic sites such as Shilo.

The Elohist source focuses on locations in the Kingdom of Israel and on the Israelite heroes Moses and Jacob, whom the Israelites saw as their ancestors. It is not known whether the ancient Judeans also thought Moses and Jacob were their forefathers, but after the "Israelization" of Judah, they probably "adopted" their patriarchy too.

With this influx of culture coming in from the Kingdom of Israel, the Judean priestly cast had to come up with their own narrative about Judah with its own mythical leaders and traditions. It is the information Jews need to practise fully the commandments in the written law. It was codified in the 2nd Century C.

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The Torah Last updated This article examines The Torah - what it is, how it is used and how it is constructed. On this page Find out more Page options Print this page. What is the Torah? How is the Torah used? How is a Torah scroll constructed? Oral law Alongside the written law Jews believe God also told Moses the spoken or oral law.

What is the earliest evidence we have for the fivefold division of the Torah? The 2 nd century B. Nevertheless, it does not specify the number five. Several decades later, Josephus, who died in C. Ironically, the first reference to the Pentateuch of Moses is in a letter denying that he wrote it! Another early indication of the five-part division of the Torah is the five-part structure of other biblical works such as Psalms, whose five-part structure is best explained as mimicking the Torah.

This five-fold division is especially clear in Psalms, since each of the five sections ends with a liturgical doxology 41, 72, 89, , , with similar formulations of praise for God. The rabbis of the Roman period interpreted the five-part arrangement as corresponding to that of the Torah, as is evident from Midrash Tehillim, also known, as Midrash Shocher Tov :.

The book of Proverbs can be divided into five parts based on its superscripts. The Mishnaic tractate Avot had five sections in its original core. Cohen, a pulpit rabbi and Bible scholar, finds five-fold elements in additional biblical books. The book of Job has speeches by five persons in addition to God. Thus we see that the Torah was divided into five books already in Second Temple times, and that other books copied this division.

But what is the reason for this division? Some have suggested that the technology available to the ancients made a full-length Torah scroll impossible, with Genesis the longest book of the Torah representative of maximum scroll length.

Emanuel Tov writes that the maximum length of scrolls for the period of the Qumran scribes is unclear. He lists seven scrolls found in the Judean Desert which seem to combine two or more books of the Torah, but admits that the joins between these pairs of books have not been preserved, so the inclusion of two or more books on one scroll is only hypothetical. Others have suggested that having the Torah on several scrolls was more convenient for reading and reference than assigning it to one long scroll.

If scroll length was the rationale for the division, then we would expect that the five units would be of similar length, which is not the case. Such an explanation better accounts for the dissimilar lengths of the books, as well as for other stylistic features of the books that we will explore shortly. But why this division in particular? An obvious starting point for the division of the Torah into books is the uniqueness of both Genesis and Deuteronomy. Genesis offers a pre-history of the people of Israel, starting with a universalist outlook, but then narrowly focuses on the family and clan which constitute the ancestors of Israel.

Scholars have long emphasized its unique origin and style as compared to the other four books. Thus, the reasons for the division of Genesis and Deuteronomy from the other books are apparent, but why three books from Exodus to Numbers?

Admittedly, their literary integrity should not be overstated as the books have significant thematic overlap. All three books have cultic themes and laws, and all three books take place, at least partially, in the Sinai Wilderness. Nevertheless, within this literary continuity, demarcations suggest that these three central books constitute three quasi-independent works with introductions and conclusions.

The book of Exodus opens with the story of the next generation after the death of Joseph, when Israel grows from a family into a people, and ends with the building of the Tabernacle, ready for the initiation of cultic worship. The book of Leviticus offers rules for the Sanctuary cult just established.

Dennis Olson remarks that,. Leviticus 26 has its own conclusion for the book as a whole:. The narratives in Numbers are assigned to various sites, with Numbers localized in the Wilderness of Sinai, and Numbers through chapter 20 situated in several locations in the Wilderness of Paran, the Wilderness of Zin, and Kadesh, among other sites. Other thematic divisions are also possible. Thus, we still are left with the question of why this division?

Is it possible that the Redactor specifically wanted to have five books? If so, why? While one may argue that formal chapter and verse divisions are both later innovations whether rabbinic or medieval , divisions into sedarim and parashot reflect more ancient ways of differentiating the various subject divisions in the text, and according to both, Leviticus 19 starts a new subsection.