Page 4 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

(Heb. 1:1-2) through the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 1:10-11). They did
not speak by their own wills, but by the Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21).

Inspiration implies accuracy in all parts of the Old Testament.
The New Testament considers Adam and Eve as real people
(Matt. 19:4-5; 1 Tim. 2:13-14). The same can be said of the
flood (Matt. 24:38-39) and the murder of Abel (Luke 11:51).
This is the material Jesus used to instruct the disciples after his
death. “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to
suffer these things and enter his glory?’ And beginning with
Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was
said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27;
cf. 24:44-47). The Old Testament, including the Pentateuch, is Fig. 1: Oldest Torah scroll, c. 1200
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especially about God bringing his Messiah to earth.

The author of the Pentateuch was Moses. He is frequently commanded by God to write down
instructions (Exod. 17:14; 24:4; 34:27; Num. 33:1-2). He “wrote down this law and gave it to the priests”
(Deut. 31:9, 26). Joshua made a copy of “the law of Moses” (Josh. 8:31-32). David, on his death-bed,
charged Solomon to follow God’s laws “as written in the Law of Moses (1 Kings 2:3). Other references
include: 2 Kings 21:8; Ezra 6:18; Neh. 13:1; Dan. 9:11-13; Mal. 4:4. Jesus referred to Moses as the writer
of the law (Matt. 19:8; John 5:46-47; 7:19). Similar references can be found in Acts. 3:22 and Rom. 10:5.

The Pentateuch was written sometime around 1445 B.C. at the time of the exodus from Egypt. The
writer of Kings records the date Solomon began to build the temple (the fourth year of Solomon’s reign),
some 480 years “after the Israelites had come out of Egypt” (6:1-2). While we cannot pinpoint the exact
year in history, the temple was begun around 966 B.C., placing the exodus during the reign of the
Egyptian ruler Amenhotep II (1447 – 1421).

[“Thutmose III] was on the throne long enough… to have been reigning
at the time of Moses’ flight from Egypt, and to pass away not long
before Moses’ call by the burning bush, thirty or forty years later. In
character he was ambitious and energetic, launching no less than
seventeen military campaigns in nineteen years, and engaging in
numerous building projects for which he used a large slave-labor task
force. His son, Amenhotep II…seems to have suffered some serious
reverse in his military resources for he was unable to carry out any
invasions or extensive military operations after his fifth year (1445
B.C.) …This relative feebleness of his war effort (by comparison with
his father) would well accord with a catastrophic loss of the flower of
his chariotry in the waters of the Red Sea during their vain pursuit of Fig. 2: Thutmose III
the fleeing Israelites.
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2 Dennis J. Mock, Old Testament Survey (Atlanta: 1989), p. 28.
3 Gleason L. Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Chicago: Moody Press,
1976), 228-229.

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