The Law
The first five books: the beginning of the world, the family God chose, the rescue from Egypt, and the covenant made at Mount Sinai.
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Card 1 of 6
What are the Torah and the Pentateuch?
Two names for the first five books of the Bible, Genesis to Deuteronomy.
Torah is Hebrew for "instruction" or "law", and Pentateuch is Greek for "five scrolls". Jewish and Christian tradition attributes them to Moses, which is why they are also called the Books of Moses. They are the foundation the rest of the Old Testament is built on, and the prophets constantly call Israel back to them.
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What is the book of Genesis about?
Beginnings: the creation of the world and its fall into ruin (chapters 1-11), then God's promise to Abraham and the story of his family through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph (chapters 12-50).
The first part explains what went wrong with the world: the fall, Cain and Abel, the flood, and the tower of Babel. The second part begins God's answer, a promise that through one man's family all the nations of the earth would be blessed. The book ends with that family, now seventy people, living in Egypt.
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What is the book of Exodus about?
God rescuing Israel from slavery in Egypt through Moses, making a covenant with them at Mount Sinai, and coming to live among them in the tabernacle.
The first half is the escape: the burning bush, the ten plagues, the Passover, and the crossing of the sea. The second half is what the rescue was for: the Ten Commandments, the law, and detailed instructions for the tent where God would dwell. The book ends with God's glory filling the tabernacle.
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What is the book of Leviticus about?
How a holy God can live among an unholy people: the sacrifices, the priests, the rules of clean and unclean, and the yearly Day of Atonement.
Leviticus is where many people give up reading the Bible, but it answers a real question raised at the end of Exodus. With God now living in the camp, how can the people come near him and survive? It is also where "love your neighbour as yourself" comes from, which Jesus called the second greatest commandment.
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What is the book of Numbers about?
Israel's forty years in the wilderness, after the generation that left Egypt refused to enter the promised land.
The name comes from the two censuses of the people it records. The turning point comes in chapters 13 and 14, when twelve spies explore Canaan and ten of them persuade the people it cannot be taken. God sentences that generation to wander until it has died out, and the book ends with their children on the edge of the land.
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What is the book of Deuteronomy about?
Moses's farewell speeches to the new generation, repeating and applying the law just before they enter the promised land.
The name means "second law", because it restates the covenant for people who were children at Sinai. It contains the Shema, "Hear, O Israel", still the central Jewish confession of faith. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy all three times he answers Satan in the wilderness. The book ends with Moses's death on a mountain overlooking the land he never entered.