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What is the "Pentateuch"?
Greek word for "five books"
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What is "Torah"?
Hebrew word for "Law" or "divine teaching"
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Content of Genesis
- "primeval history," from creation to Abraham
- the stories of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), and his twelve sons, especially Joseph
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Content of Exodus ("going out")
- God freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through the leadership of Moses
- acceptance of a covenant with God
- closes with instructions for building the Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting and the Ark of the Covenant
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Content of Leviticus
- focuses on Israel's official worship
- contains laws and commandments God gave to his newly sanctified people, as their part in the covenant
- regulates sacrifices, feasts, the priesthood (Levitical), ritual obligations
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Content of Numbers
- concentrates on the holy army of Israel, including its numberial strength and its march through the desert
- adds more laws and regulations
- continues the story of Israel's wanderings in the desert, including a 40-year punishment for rebellion against God and Moses
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Content of Deuteronomy ("recapitulation of the Law" or "second Law")
Moses' "farewell speech" - portrayed as a speech summarizing the meaning of the exodus and Israel's time in the desert on the verge of entrance into the Promised Land
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Narrative outline of the Pentateuch
- Primeval history or human origins
- Patriarchs
- The exodus, through which God saves his people
- Establishment of the covenant and Israel's way of life
- Journey to the Promised Land
- Moses' farewell speech
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Whom did St. Jerome believe to be the author of the Pentateuch?
Ezra, who wrote the Pentateuch based of the notes handed down from Moses
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Who proposed the Documentary Hypothesis?
Julius Wellhausen (1878)
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Definition of Documentary Hypothesis
a theory which postulates that the Pentateuch was composed by the amalgamation of sections and sub-sections derived from four independent source-documents, J [Yahwist], E [Elohist], P [Priestly], and D [Deuteronomist]
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