Encountering Old Testament Notes

Biblical References to the Penta-teuch [Five-Scrolls]

Chapter 3

Book of the Law of Moses

2 Kings 14:6 “But he did not put to death the children of the murderers, according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, where the Lord commanded, “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. But each one shall die for his own sin.”

Book of the Law

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. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

The Law

Luke 16:16 ““The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.”

We should not necessarily view the Pentateuch as five separate books. Perhaps the limited size of ancient scrolls necessitated the division into the five-book format

The Pentateuch spans history from the beginning of time up to, but not including, Israel’s conquest of the promised land

Excluding for the moment Genesis 1–11, the story is basically one of a family that grew, by God’s grace, into his people…God saves them from slavery during the story before it ends with the death of Moses and the final preparations for the conquest of the land.

Hebrew designation for the Pentateuch is Torah…we normally translate this word as “Law” but it means much more.

The Word torah comes from the word that means “to teach” and is better understood as “instruction”…this is fitting because these first five books contain instructions for life…establishing the historical and theological foundations for the rest of the Bible and teaching us to live faithfully.

It is the story of Gods people the nation of Israel…it explains where the nation came from, how God saved it from extinction and Israel’s struggles in its relationship with God.

The Pentateuch has important/true info, intends to strengthen our faith, was meant to encourage the Israelites to believe and trust in the faithful God of their ancestors and w/o presenting a complete history of Israel, it traces the actions of God and Israel in history.

Pentateuch/Torah: opens with a book of beginnings [Genesis] coming from the Greek word meaning “origins”

The first 11 chapters describe the beginnings of teh universe, humanity, sin and punishment w/ the opening chapters being crucial for understanding the rest of the Bible b/c they revealed God’s nature, the role of His created universe and the position holds in that universe.

Gensis 1-11 presents a problem: God evaluated his created universe as good [acceptable to him at every phase] but humanity ruined what he had accomplished.

The consequences of Gen 3 were immediately obvious and became progressively worse. After humanity rejected others attempts to stop eveil God chose one man and His family as the solution.

Gen 12-50 stories Abraham and his familys journey of faith. The text doesn’t attempt to hide shortcomings, but the point of Gen 12-50 is that these people believed God and he used their faith as the beginning of the solution to the sin problem in the world.

Genesis tells of the beginnings of the world and Gods people, describing the beginning of everything except God who has no beginning

At the conclusion of the Book, God has miraculoisly delivered his people from a famine, and they were living peacefully in Egypt…

Years later the Egyptians would oppress