1. Names

The Hexateuch is the name given to the first six books of the Bible as a whole, the first five of which are called the Pentateuch. The Old Testament names for the Pentateuch are Hattorah, "the instruction, the law," Sepher hattorah, "the book of the law," Se pher toroth Yahweh, "book of the law of Yahweh," and Sepher toroth Elohim, "book of the law of God" (with reference to its source), and Sepher torath Moaheh, "book of the law of Moses," or, Sepher Mosheh (Ezra vi. 18; Neh. xiii. 1; with reference to its human mediator). In Talmudic times Sepher hattorah served to designate the Pentateuch written as one roll for use in divine service, while VamisShah Humshey hattorah, "the five fifths of the law," was applied to the Pentateuch written in five rolls or in book form. The Aramaic designation was 'Oraita, " instruction "; the Greek, Ho nomoa or Ho namos Mauuseas, " the law " or " the law of Moses." The term Pentateuch was first used, it is believed, by the Valentinian Ptolemeeus (c. 160 A.D.) in a letter to Flora (Epiphanius, Har., viii. 14), the Latin Pentateuehus (liber) by Tertullian (Adro. Mdrcion., i. 10), taking later the form Pentateuchum in Isidore of Seville. The individual books were called by the Jews' by the first words occurring in them: Bereshith, Shemoth or We'elleh Shemoth, Wayyitra, Bemidhbar or Wayyedhabber, Debharim or Elleh debharim (cf. Origen in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VI., xxv.). The Greek names Genesis, Ezodos, Leuiti kon, Arithmoi, Deuteronomion appear in Hippolytus (Hær., vi. 15-16) as though used by Simon Magus.

The division into five books is older than the Sep tuagint, but not original. It is also older than Chronicles, since in I Chron. xvi. the psalm put into the mouth of David on the occasion of bringing the ark into Jerusalem contains the doxology at the end of the fourth book of the Psalms; and the division of Psalms into five books doubtless cor responds to the fivefold division of the Pentateuch.