PENa
Formation and Themes
of the Pentateuch
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Torah and Narrative
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The Hebrew Bible identifies the Pentateuch as Torah, traditionally translated "Law," but the prevailing genre of Torah is narrative.
The Hebrew Bible identifies the first five books of the Bible as Torah, which is a Hebrew word that means “teaching” or “instruction.” This label is perhaps best exemplified when Ezra, “a scribe skilled in the Torah of Moses” (Ezra 7:6), read “the book of the Torah of Moses” to the early postexilic community in Jerusalem (Neh 8:1, 14).
Most English translations have rendered the Hebrew word “torah” as “law.” This choice has the unfortunate consequence of inclining most readers to characterize the Pentateuch as legal material. For Christians in particular the word law tends to have negative connotations, especially when juxtaposed with the word grace.
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Nevertheless, even English translations are clear that the prevailing literary genre in the Torah is narrative—more so than law. The principal means by which God “teaches” his people is through narrative. Indeed, much of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible itself is packaged as narrative (Joshua–Esther), as also the New Testament (Matthew–Acts). Yet Christian churches tend to formulate their beliefs in theological doctrine. Denominations construct “a statement of faith”; sermons tend to have a three-point outline; Sunday schools teach a particular lesson or virtue. So, why is narrative retelling Israel’s preferred mode of divine revelation? Before we probe the nature and purpose of biblical narrative, we must first ask, why is narrative the dominant genre in the Hebrew Scriptures, the record of God’s revelation?
Narrating a deity’s encounters with a particular people/nation is certainly not the default mode of ancient Near Eastern religions. Ancient Near Eastern theology can be characterized as “naming the powers.” As most folk supported their lives through farming and shepherding, the key factor necessary for survival but beyond their control was the weather.
The default genres for theology in the ANE were myths and epics, but the OT presents Yahweh primarily through "historical" narrative.
Hence, the god of the skies, whose reign was evident in the rain, tended to be their most popular deity. The gods of the sea, sun, moon, earth, abyss, and grain were among the supporting cast. While their powers were manifest in nature, they were comprehended in anthropomorphic (i.e., human) form and particularly as royal figures. Hence, cult statues or idols facilitated their worship. Their houses or palaces/temples were located at their urban centers, especially their capitals. Their stories took the form of narrative poetry.
First, there were myths, which were stories about the gods (the Baal Myth at Ugarit, the Eridu Genesis and Enuma Elish in Mesopotamia). Second, there were epics, which were stories about the gods’ encounters with kings, priests, and sages primarily (e.g., Kirta and Aqhat at Ugarit, and Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, and Adapa in Mesopotamia). These stories tend to be “larger-than-life” and set in primeval times, not in the course of historical events. Ancient Near Eastern peoples certainly composed historical chronicles and annals, but their purpose was principally to glorify the military victories and building projects of particular kings, not to serve as a canonical text for their religion.
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The oldest accounts in the OT appear to be archaic poems: “the Song of the Sea” (Exod 15:1–18) and “the Song of Deborah” (Judg 5:2–31)—both victory songs, and the “Blessing of Jacob” (Gen 49:2–27) and the “Blessing of Moses” (Deut 33:2–29), among others. As in the ANE, they are poetic and feature Yahweh as the God of the skies (Exod 15:8, 10; Judg 5:4–5; and Deut 33:2, 26; cf. Gen 49:24–25). But their attention is focused on God’s interactions with a people’s events and their historic opponents, not against cosmic forces/gods or on behalf of an elite individual set in primeval times. After Israelite culture shifts from song-singers to scribes, their preferred genre became that of narrative prose. Genesis 12–50 consists of family narratives telling of the encounters between the God of the clan and the ancestors, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Rachel. He speaks, promises, and blesses. In Exodus, Yahweh fights for and liberates his kindred people. According to these accounts, Yahweh came to Israel’s awareness in the social and historical experiences of the social unit of the family and people.
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The ancient Israelites did not look for Yahweh primarily in the cosmic powers in the realm of nature and its seasonal cycles. Yahweh encountered the Israelites through their family stories and national history. Like other ancient Near Easterners, the Israelites were interested in blessing, but it came as one bestowed by their loyal, patron deity. Israel’s purpose for composing historical narrative stems from their theology of Yahweh. They preserve these ancient accounts and continued to tell them because they were viewed as windows into Yahweh’s character and his ways of interacting with his people.
Info Box: Where and how do you expect to encounter God?
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This is a fundamental question of religion. Do you look for the divine in the powers of nature? In (military) victory or success (blessing)? In a dramatic intervention or a dialogical interaction? In ritual and sacrament? In a morality of good and evil? In the rewards and punishments of justice? In a conversion experience? In mysticism? In personal intimacy? The answers to these questions would certainly vary among the social groups represented in ancient Israel: farmers and pastoralists, kings and generals, priests and scribes, historians and prophets, and landowners and peasants. The same variety would be evident among the various denominations within Judaism and Christianity.
Torah as Contemporized Historical Narrative (Deuteronomy)
We can gain further insight into how narratives and laws of the past function as “instruction” for present-day readers by examining cases where earlier narratives and laws are retold for later generations. Synoptic accounts (e.g., the NT Gospels) can bring to light how past traditions are updated and applied to later generations.
Deuteronomy exemplifies how events of the past were "contemporized" so that readers could imaginatively enter into the narratives as participants.
As already noted, the book of Deuteronomy, as its name implies, is a second (deutero-) telling of the law (nomion, cf. Deut 17:18). Deuteronomy retells and reinterprets some of the laws found in the book of Exodus (e.g., the Tenth Commandment and the Hebrew slave laws). The three Mosaic sermons that comprise the book of Deuteronomy also re-enact Yahweh’s “cutting” the covenant with subsequent generations.
Yahweh our God cut with us a covenant at Horeb. Not with our ancestors did Yahweh cut this covenant, but with us, those of us here today, all of us who are alive. Face to face Yahweh spoke with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire (I was standing between Yahweh and you at that time to declare to you Yahweh’s word, for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain), saying … (Deut 5:2–5)
Although this sermon is clearly addressed to second-generation Israel, whose parents were the actual witnesses of the Sinai/Horeb covenant but perished in the wilderness, Moses addresses them as though they were the actual participants in the covenant ceremony. By so doing, each generation who hears/reads the book of Deuteronomy is encouraged to imagine themselves as actual participants at the Sinai covenant ceremony, face-to-face with Yahweh as it were. In effect, the book of Deuteronomy is contemporized history, where a later generation is imaginatively made contemporary to an earlier generation who actually witnessed and participated in events with Yahweh.
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Immediately after the pronouncement of the covenant blessings and curses (Deut 28:1–68), which conclude the actual covenant document from Horeb (Deut 5:1-28:68), Yahweh curiously commands Moses to cut another covenant “in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he cut with them at Horeb” (Deut 29:1).
You are standing today, all of you, before Yahweh your God … so you may enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God and into his oath that Yahweh your God is cutting with you today, in order that he may establish you today as his people and that he may be your God as he spoke to you and as for to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Not with you yourselves alone am I cutting this covenant and this oath, but with him standing here with us today before Yahweh our God and with him who is not here with us today (Deut 29:10–15).
Again, Moses speaks to his audience imaginatively as though they themselves had witnessed Yahweh’s deeds in Egypt (“you have seen … before your eyes,” Deut 29:2), even though they are explicitly second-generation Israel living after the “forty years in the wilderness” (Deut 29:5). But this Moab covenant deliberately goes one step beyond the Horeb covenant: it includes anyone who is not part of this Deuteronomic audience. The “today” contemporary with the Moab covenant becomes merged with the “today” of every subsequent generation.
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This imaginative contemporization of history is particularly evident in the ritual offering of the firstfruits of the farmers harvest (Deut 26:1–3), where the “them” and “us” distinction is blurred. Here the worshiper—any worshiper of any generation—is to imagine himself or herself as an actual participant in the events of the exodus generation and the subsequent settlement generation.
When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.” You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. (Deut 26:4–10, NRSV)
While Deuteronomy is the book most explicitly identified as torah/teaching (Deut 1:5; 4:44; 17:18; 31:9–11, 24–26), the entire Pentateuch is later identified as “the Torah of Moses” (Ezra 7:6; Neh 8:1, 14). The Pentateuch tells history not for its own sake, to record or document the past, but to provide religious and theological “instruction” for succeeding generations in the believing communities. Thus, in the Ancestral Narratives (Gen 12–50) we, as the implied readers, are meant to walk in the footsteps of our forebears, Abraham and Sarah. In Exodus 1–18 we suffer in Egypt and celebrate God’s liberation. In Exodus 19–40 we stand at Sinai before God. In Deuteronomy we hear Moses’ sermons and reenact the covenant.
Info Box: Deuteronomic Distinctives and the Deuteronomistic History
Simply put, the book of Deuteronomy is about:
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One God
One Sanctuary
One Covenant
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Framed as a covenant/treaty document, it stipulates the vassal’s exclusive loyalty to its overlord, that is, Israel’s loyalty to Yahweh their God. Hence, any devotion to other gods and their idols is considered treason. The one God is symbolized in the single sanctuary and altar, thus eliminating the possibility of “high places.” Peculiar to Deuteronomistic literature is the identification of the temple as the dwelling place for Yahweh’s “name” (Deut 12:11; 1 Kgs 8:20, 27). As the Sovereign over an empire, he places his name there, but his principal residence is not in the vassal’s territory. Rather, Yahweh’s “habitation” is in “the heavens/skies” (Deut 26:15; cf. 4:36, 39; 33:26). The essential components of the covenant/treaty are the stipulations imposed on the vassal, followed by the blessings and curses. The outcome will be determined by the vassal’s choice to comply or not comply (see esp. Deut 30:15, 19).
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Because the historical books that follow Deuteronomy reflect its distinctive terminology and theology, these books can be described as the "Deuteronomistic History": Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, and 1-2 Kings. These historical books contain tests of whether or not Israel will obey and enjoy the blessings or disobey and suffer the curses. At the end of the book of Joshua the controversial altar constructed by the Transjordan tribes is strikingly reinterpreted, not as an altar for sacrifices, but simply as a “witness” between the Transjordan and Cisjordan tribes (Josh 22:26–28, 34). The book of Judges is set up as Yahweh’s “test” to see if they will walk in his way or not, while living among the Canaanite people groups (Judg 2:21–3:6). The review of each of the kings of Israel and Judah in 1–2 Kings includes a “report card.” Whether they pass by “doing what was right” or fail by “doing what was evil” is largely determined by their support or lack thereof for the central sanctuary in Jerusalem.