The Pentateuch is the Greek name given to the five books commonly called the “five books of Moses.” This title is derived from “pente”,five, and “teucos”) which, meaning originally “vessel” “instrument,” etc., came In Alexandrine Greek to mean “book” hence the fivefold book. In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah it was called “the law of Moses,” ( Ezra 7:6 ) or “the book of the law of Moses,” ( Nehemiah 8:1 ) or simply “the book of Moses.” ( 2 Chronicles 25:4 ; 35:12 ; Ezra 6:13 ; Nehemiah 13:1 ) This was beyond all reasonable doubt our existing Pentateuch.
The book which was discovered the temple in the reign of Josiah, and which is entitled, ( 2 Chronicles 34:14 ) “a book of the law of Jehovah by the hand of Moses,” was substantially, it would seem the same volume, though it may afterward have undergone some revision by Ezra.
The present Jews usually called the whole by the name of Torah , i.e. “the Law,” or Torath Mosheh “the Law of Moses.”
The division of the whole work into five parts was probably made by the Greek translators; for the titles of the several books are not of Hebrew but of Greek origin. The Hebrew names are merely 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 .
The five books of the Pentateuch form a consecutive whole. The work, beginning with the record of creation end the history of the primitive world, passes on to deal more especially with the early history of the Jewish family, and finally concludes with Moses last discourses and his death. Till the middle of the last century it was the general opinion of both Jews and Christians that the whole of the Pentateuch was written by Moses, with the exception of a few manifestly later additions,–such as the, 34th chapter of Deuteronomy, which gives the account of Moses death.