Pentateuch

pen'ta-tuk, a name used to designate the first five books of the Old Testament, namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They are also called the Five Books of Moses. Modern criticism is of the opinion, however, that they were not written by a single author, but are a combination of various manuscripts, in part duplicating each other. New interest has been aroused in the authorship of the Pentateuch by the discovery at Susa in 1902 of the code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, who reigned about 2250 B. C. The code was unearthed by French explorers. It is written in cuneiform characters on tablets of clay. The resemblance between this code and the laws of Moses as embodied in the Pentateuch is remarkable. In substance many laws are identical, the chief difference being that the penalties described by the Mosaic law are milder. The natural inference is that the author of the Pentateuch was familiar with the code of Hammurabi, but that he lived in a milder age. Modern scholars familiar with the subject testify also that the literary style and moral tone of the Pentateuch are superior. See Bible