"TORAH" literally means law or teaching, and is used to refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible; it is also sometimes called the Pentateuch (pronounced: PEN-tah-tuke, rhymes with [sorry] "puke"), from the Greek word for "five scrolls." Traditionally, Jews and Christians believed that all five books were written by Moses (even the parts that recounted his death); modern scholars believe it was compiled from various sources over time (see the Documentary Hypothesis Chart).
The Torah recounts the story of humanity from the creation of the universe through the early deeds (and misdeeds) of all humans, and then narrows down to become the story of the family of Abraham, with whom God made a covenant ("pact" or "contract"); Abraham's descendants through his grandson Jacob (also known as Israel) ended up as slaves in Egypt, from where they were freed through God's servant Moses. The Torah ends with the descendants of Israel (Israelites) receiving the entire Law of their covenant with God, and about to enter into the land that God promised them. The story is continued in the books of the Former Prophets.
Genesis 1-17, 37-50: From Creation to the Covenant
Genesis can be divided into a "prehistory" (Gen 1-9) and the "ancestral history" (Gen 12-50).
Prehistory
Genesis 1-4: Creation and the First Humans
The Torah begins with the creation of the universe, told from two perspectives: Gen 1-2:4 is a systematic cosmogony ( = creation account), detailing the creation of all elements and creatures in six days at the command of a majestic God, who rests on the seventh day; Gen 2:5-25 is a more "hands on" account of creation, particularly the creation of Human ( = Adam) and his helper, Woman. Human and Woman listen to the Serpent, eat the forbidden fruit, and are cast out of Paradise. They have two sons (Cain and Abel); the older kills the younger, leaves them, and marries and has children. Adam and Eve have a third son, Seth who has a son and worship of the LORD begins.
Points of interest
• God is called God, LORD (a translation of the proper name YHWH), and LORD God in various chapters
• "Adam" literally means "human"; "Woman" does not receive her name until after she and Adam eat the forbidden fruit
• In Hebrew the verb "to know" can mean "to have sex with" (as it does in these chapters)
Questions to consider
• Do the two creation accounts (Gen 1 and Gen 2) agree with each other? Why would there be two accounts?
• Did the Serpent lie to Human and Woman? (Compare what he says with what actually happens.)
• How do you interpret Gen 3:8 ("They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the Garden")?
• Where do Cain's and Seth's wives come from? (Does Gen 5:5 help answer that?)
Genesis 5: Genealogy
The first of many genealogies in Genesis, recounting the spread of humanity.
Point of interest
• Methuselah (Gen 5:25-27) is the oldest character in the Bible; life-spans grow shorter in the course of the Bible
Questions to Consider
• How could you interpret Gen 5:24?
• Do you think this genealogy is an attempt to account for all humans in the world? What other purpose could it serve?
Genesis 6-9: Noah and the Flood
Divine beings have children with human women, creating an age of heroes. But evil grows among humans and the LORD decides to destroy all humanity. Noah is commanded to build an ark (a large boat) to house his family (wife, sons, their wives, and children) and some of every living creature. After the flood LORD makes a pact (a covenant) never to destroy humanity again, as long as humanity follows certain rules. The rainbow is a sign of the covenant. Noah invents wine, gets drunk, and curses the son and grandson who uncovered his nakedness.
Points of interest
• Flood stories exist in many ancient near eastern and Mediterranean mythologies (e.g., the flood story in Gilgamesh)
• Noah's three sons were considered the ancestors of all nations: Japheth = Eurasia; Ham = Africa; Shem = Middle East
• The rainbow story may be an example of an etiology (a story that explains the origin of something)
Questions to consider
• What do you make of the story of the "sons of God"? What are the possible explanations?
• Compare Gen 6:19-22 with Gen 7:1-3: How many of each animal did Noah put on the ark?
Genesis 10: Genealogy
The descent of all nations from the survivors of the Flood.
Genesis 11: Tower of Babel
All of humanity, in one place speaking one language, tries to build a giant tower. The LORD confuses their language and scattered them across the earth. More genealogies are given, ending with Abram in Haran (Mesopotamia).
Points of interest
• "Babel" here is said to come from the Hebrew word balal, to confuse; it is also probably supposed to invoke Babylon, the great city of Mesopotamia; likewise, the plain of Shinar may represent Sumer, the oldest known civilization in Mesopotamia
• Many ancient Sumerian and Babylonian cities had enormous towers or pyramids, called ziggurats.
• This story may also be an etiology, an explanation for the origin of many languages.
Questions to consider
• Why did the people want to build a Tower, and why did God destroy it? (The traditional answer is that the people were trying to conquer heaven, and God punished them: Is this what the text says?)
• Why would the genealogy of the nations (Gen 10) come before the etiology of many nations (Gen 11)?
Ancestral History
Genesis 12-17: Abraham
The LORD tells Abram to leave his home and settle in Canaan (pronounced: KAY-nen). He goes with his wife, Sarai, and nephew, Lot. Abram and Sarai go to Egypt during a famine, where Abram passes Sarai off as his sister and the king of Egypt (Pharaoh) is punished by God for taking Sarai as his wife. Abram and Lot become wealthy in Canaan and divide their flocks. Lot is captured in a local war, and Abram rescues him and is honored by Melchizedek the king of Salem. Abram and the LORD make a covenant. Sarai offers her handmaid, Hagar, to Abram because Sarai is barren; Hagar bears Ishmael. Abram and God make a covenant (again): Abram and Sarai change their names to Abraham and Sarah; Abraham promises all his male descendants will be circumcised; God promises a son (Isaac) to Abraham, descendants for his other son Ishmael.
Points of interest
• Many ancient near eastern customs--circumcision, rituals to bind covenants, taking concubines--are recorded in Abraham's story.
• The origin of the term "Hebrew" (which Abraham is called) is unknown; it may or may not be related to the term Hapiru
• The story of Abram passing off Sarai as his sister to Pharaoh is repeated in Gen 20 with King Abimelech and again in Gen 26, when Abraham's son Isaac passes off his wife Rebecca as his wife to (the same?) King Abimelech
• Arabs consider themselves the descendants of Ishmael and Abraham, and Muslims consider Abraham one of the prophets of their faith
Questions to consider
• Does Abram/Abraham ever give a reason for his obedience to God/The LORD? (Consider Gen 22, which we are not reading for class: the story of Abraham's near sacrifice of his son Isaac)
• Why would the stories of female jealousy (Sarai and Hagar) be included?
• Do women in general seem to be a part of the covenant?
Genesis 37-50: The story of Jacob's family
Meanwhile (in the parts of Genesis we are not reading).... Gen 18-37 tells about the birth of Isaac, his marriage to Rebecca, and his twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob tricks his brother into selling his inheritance and tricks his father into giving him Esau's blessing. Jacob marries two sisters (Rachel and Leah) and has twelve sons and a daughter before being reconciled with his brother Esau and settling in Canaan.
And to continue... Jacob (also known as Israel, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham) settled with his wives, sons, daughter, and flocks in Canaan. The favorite son, Joseph, has dreams that his eleven brothers will serve him; they fake his death and sell him into slavery. Jacob's son Judah is tricked by his widowed daughter-in-law Tamar into performing his family duty and fathering her children. Joseph serves a master in Egypt, but is framed by his mistress and thrown into jail. There he gains the attention of Pharaoh as an interpreter of dreams and becomes second-in-command of Egypt during a famine. His brothers come down to Egypt because of the famine, and he tricks them before revealing that he is their brother. All of Jacob's family moves to Egypt and settles in the land of Goshen. Jacob blesses all of his sons, and dies in Egypt; Joseph forgives his brothers and dies.
Point of interest
• Gen 41:50 was expanded in antiquity into a mystical story of Joseph and his wife Aseneth
Questions to consider
• The "ancestral history" (Gen 12-50) is full of family intrigues: husbands, wives, concubines, daughters-in-law, sex, violence, betrayal reunion. They make for gripping drama, but how could they be interpreted as "sacred scriptures"?
• Does God make good on his covenant to Abraham? Is God very active in the story of Joseph?
• Which characters in the "story of Jacob's family" would you identify with?
• How do the cosmic twists and turns of the "prehistory" connect to the more intimate family dynamics of the ancestral history?
Exodus 1-23: From Slavery to the (new) Covenant
The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are made up of narratives (of both epic and personal scope, like Genesis) and legal materials (cultic regulations and social laws), all framed within the life of Moses.
Exodus 1-4: Slavery and Moses' call
Jacob's descendants (called Hebrews and Israelites) in Goshen end up as slaves to Pharaoh (Egypt's king; pronounced FARE-oh). Moses is raised in Pharaoh's house but flees after murdering an Egyptian. He ends up as a shepherd in Midian and gets married. God "remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" and appoints Moses to free the Israelites from slavery with his brother Aaron's help.
Exodus 5-15: Ten Plagues and Exodus
Moses appeals to Pharaoh to let the Israelites go temporarily to worship in the desert and brings down ten plagues when Pharaoh refuses. When the LORD killed all of Egypt's firstborn (humans and animals) Pharaoh let the Israelites go to worship. The LORD commands a weeklong memorial festival of unleavened bread. Pharaoh's army is killed in pursuit of the Israelites, drowned in the Sea of Reeds Moses had parted. Moses and the Israelites celebrate.
Exodus 16-18: Troubles in the desert
The Israelites complain of hunger and thirst, and God provides miraculous food and water. The Israelites defeat Amalek in battle. Moses appoints elders to settle disputes.
Exodus 19-23: The New Covenant
Three months out of Egypt the Israelites arrive at Sinai. Moses goes up on the mountain and receives the new covenant: the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), and the covenant regulations (Exodus 21-23) concerning family relations, slavery, criminal law, civil law, property law, and cultic rules (sabbath and festivals).
Points of interest
• Historians sometimes use the opening chapters of Exodus ("a king came who did not know them") to date the period of Joseph to the reign of foreign kings of Egypt
• Despite cinematic versions of the Exodus story, the Bible never says that Moses thought he was an Egyptian
• Although a Hebrew etymology is given for "Moses," it was a common Egyptian name
• Moses' father-in-law is called Reuel in Exod 2 and Jethro in Exod 3 (and Hobab in Num 10)
• Mount Sinai in present-day Egypt was not pinpointed at the location of the covenant until thousands of years after Moses
Questions to consider
• Several times in Exod 5-15, the LORD tells Moses that he has "hardened Pharaoh's heart": how do you interpret this? Was God making sure Pharaoh would not release the Israelites, and so bring down plagues on his house? Why not just "soften his heart"?
• Moses has a staff that turns to snakes, changes water into blood, and performs other miracles: Does anything in the story distinguish Moses' "miracles" from magic?
• The various types of regulations are mixed together in Exodus 19-23--laws about murder, slavery, theft, as well as rules about how to approach God, make sacrifices, and perform religious rituals. What is the significance of the Torah mixing all of these rules together like this?
Leviticus 11-15: Purity, Impurity, and the Israelite Body
Meanwhile (in the rest of Exodus and beginning of Leviticus, which we are not reading).... The rest of Exodus recounted the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle (tent for worshipping God), appointing of priests (Aaron as high priest), the false worship of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32), and the renewal of the covenant; the first chapters of Leviticus discuss the types of sacrificial offerings to be made by the priests.
A series of purity regulations: all of Israelite life (according to the covenant with Moses) was to be regulated by dividing the pure from the impure (sometimes translated "clean" and "unclean"). The communal body of Israel must be pure (so that individuals, like lepers, must be purified or expelled from the communal body) and the individual bodies of Israelites must be pure: so "unclean foods" cannot be eaten, impurities from bodily discharges or other regular and irregular fluids (menstruation, childbirth) must be purified and regulated. Every inch of the Israelite's body and every moment of life is subject to these rules of purity.
Point of Interest
• The name Leviticus comes from Levites or Levi, the descendants of one son of Jacob set aside as the ritual experts for all of the Israelites; one family of Levites, the descendants of Moses' brother Aaron, are further set aside as priests (Hebrew: Kohanim)
• Despite later attempts to correlate the food regulations with dietary hygiene (e.g., pigs are forbidden because uncooked pork causes diseases), the only justification for dietary laws is the covenant with the LORD; many of the animals listed as clean or unclean in Lev 11 are unknown
• The Hebrew term tzaracat, usually translated as "leprosy," is not the modern ailment Hansen's Disease; it refers, apparently, to a cluster of different diseases that disrupt the health and continuity of the skin
• Dietary and medical laws are included in the code of priestly conduct, so that monitoring matters of purity and impurity is the job of the priestly families
• Impurity is sometimes "contagious" in this system (see Lev 15), sometimes contained
Questions to consider
• Are there any dietary or medical customs in your experience that are comparable to the regulations in Lev 11-15?
• Women are "unclean" for twice as long if they give birth to a girl than to a boy: does this suggest that women are "more unclean" than men in this system?
Deuteronomy 5-6: The Ten Commandments (Again) and the Shema
Meanwhile.... The rest of Leviticus contains regulations for maintaining religious, social, and personal "purity" or "holiness" and further instruction on priestly offerings; the sacred calendar of festivals and "jubilees" (festival years); and a section on making vows. Numbers first continues the regulations of Leviticus: a census of the Israelites, regulations concerning priests, Levites (the tribal class of assistant priests), purity/impurity. Numbers then continues the narrative of Exodus: the complaints of the Israelites against Moses, reconnaissance of the land of Canaan (the Israelites' destination), encounters with hostile peoples, and the planned apportionment and boundaries of the Land of Israel.
Deuteronomy literally means "second Law": it is a repetition of the legal aspects of the covenant contained in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, comprising mainly three long speeches of farewell from Moses outside of the promised land. Deut 5 is the repetition of the Decalogue (Ten Commandments); Deut 6 contains the Shema ("Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone"), the monotheistic confession of faith that has remained central to Judaism since antiquity.
Point of interest
• The name "Shema" for this monotheistic prayer comes from the first word of Deut 6:4, "Shemac," which means Hear; most of Deut 6 is included at the heart of Jewish liturgies
Deuteronomy 33-34: Moses' Farewell to Israel
This is the last blessing of Moses to the Israelites, and the account of his death. Deut 33 is likely a later composition about the Twelve Tribes of Israel (compare it with Jacob's deathbed speech in Gen 49). The LORD then shows Moses the land promised to Abraham's descendants, and Moses dies at the age of 120. Joshua, son of Nun, is Moses' successor as leader of the people of Israel.
Points of Interest
• Later tradition held that God buried Moses himself (in a secret place), so that the Torah begins and ends with God's acts of kindness: providing clothes for Adam and Eve and burying Moses
• When later tradition believed that Moses himself wrote the Torah, it was claimed that this last chapter was revealed to him in a prophecy, so that he could write about his own death