Theme of the Pentateuch

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Theme of the Pentateuch The Pentateuch, also known as the first five books of Moses in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, which consists of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In Judaism, it is called the Torah and is the first part of the Tanakh. Tanakh is an acronym of the first Hebrew letter of each of the Masoretic Text’s: Torah (Teaching), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). Reading through chapter 8 of “Exploring the Old Testament”; Theme of the Pentateuch, all three men having different point of views and opinions on what the ‘theme’ of the Pentateuch really is. Martin Noth a historian believed that the Pentateuch was built around five core themes: ‘Guidance out of Egypt’, ‘Guidance into the Arable Land’, ‘Promise to the Patriarchs’, ‘Guidance in the Wilderness’, and ‘Revelation at Sinai’. “Noth argued, each of these themes involved, how they grew over the course of time, and were then connected together”. (Wenham 146) A theologian named Von Rad was a contemporary of Martin Noth and they often appealed to each other’s work in developing their own ideas. He considered the Yahwist to be less important, believing that the basic framework and major themes of the Pentateuch were in place prior to the major sources. His key publications on the Pentateuch are his form-critical the problem of the Hexateuch, Old Testament Theology and commentaries on Genesis and Deuteronomy. David Clines taught for over 30 years at the University of Sheffield defined the theme of the Pentateuch like Von holding that patriarchal promises which has three descendants, a divine-human relationship and the land. My perception of the main themes within the Pentateuch are the Covenants, the theme of the Promise of Land runs throughout the Pentateuch, Law and the sacrificial system, and the theme of Abundance and fruitfulness. God of the covenant promise,

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