Understanding The Pentateuch

By J Stafford Wright

Who wrote the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy ‒ the first five books of the Bible known collectively as the Pentateuch? The Jewish and Christian tradition is that it was Moses, accepting that there are some later additions ‒ such as a mention of the death of Moses, and the names of some people who lived later. But is the belief that Moses wrote the Pentateuch credible today? J Stafford Wright, renowned evangelical theologian and principal of Tyndale Hall Theological College from 1951 to 1969, presents a powerful case for accepting the traditional view of authorship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Tree Publishing
• Release date: May 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781913950996

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About the Book

Who wrote the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy ‒ the first five books of the Bible known collectively as the Pentateuch? The Jewish and Christian tradition is that it was Moses, accepting that there are some later additions ‒ such as a mention of the death of Moses, and the names of some people who lived later. But is the belief that Moses wrote the Pentateuch credible today? J Stafford Wright, renowned evangelical theologian and principal of Tyndale Hall Theological College from 1951 to 1969, presents a powerful case for accepting the traditional view of authorship.

Understanding The Pentateuch

by

J Stafford Wright

This edition

©The Trustees of J Stafford Wright 2022

e-Book ISBN: 978-1-913950-99-6

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this edition.

Scripture quotations from New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Cover

About the Book

Publisher's Introduction

Chapter 1. The Beginning

Chapter 2. The Author

Chapter 3. The Stories

Chapter 4. The Laws

Chapter 5. The Revelation of God

Chapter 6. The Law and the Gospel

Seven more Books by J Stafford Wright

About White Tree Publishing

Publisher’s Introduction

J Stafford Wright MA was a renowned theologian and expert in Biblical Hebrew and Greek. He was converted at Cambridge while reading classics, and put himself forward for ordination in the Anglican Church. Throughout his life he held a conservative, evangelical view of the Old and New Testaments. Although this book was first published in 1947 by Tyndale Press, very little has changed in Biblical scholarship regarding the origin of the Pentateuch, although the arguments regarding authorship have become more divided. White Tree Publishing presents the original book of this title, with some minor edits to help non-academic readers today.

Bible quotations have been added in many places, because this eBook is not limited by the original publisher’s requirements. Although not available when this book was first published, the 1995 edition of the New American Standard Bible has been quoted here, because the use of capital letters in this translation is used when referring to the Trinity. This use of these capital letters was something dear to the author’s heart.

John Stafford Wright was born 15 February 1905 in Great Longstone, Derbyshire, and died 27 August 1985 in Bristol. He was an evangelical Anglican theologian. He graduated in classics at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1927 and was one of the first students at the BCMS College in Bristol, and in 1930 vice-principal. From 1945-1950 he was senior tutor at Oak Hill College, London, then from 1951-1969 principal of BCMS that became known as Tyndale Hall in 1952

In the 1960s Tyndale Hall merged with Clifton Theological College, and the women’s Dalton House, to become the present Trinity College Bristol. Trinity College has developed an international reputation for its evangelical scholarship, particularly in the field of biblical studies

Chapter 1

The Beginning

A GOOD book generally begins at the beginning. That sounds obvious, but some books that ramble along anyhow might just as well begin halfway through. But the Bible begins at the beginning, and if you look at the first five Books you will see that they are the only ones that could very well occupy this position.

If you take a Hebrew, Greek, and English Old Testament, you will find that the Books are not all in the same order in each version. But they all agree in putting the Pentateuch first ‒ that is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The word Genesis means Origin ‒ a good title to begin with. The Hebrew name for the same Book is בְּרֵאשִׁית (Bereshith), which is the first word in Genesis 1:1 and means In the beginning. And once you have begun with Genesis you are bound to go on with the other four Books, because they all follow on naturally.

Supposing, for the sake of argument, that the first Book was Joshua or one of the Prophets. We would not know in the least who we were reading about, nor would we know why God was especially interested in