The Original Texts of Christianity 1: The Law (Pentateuch), Book by Book

Thank you for visiting. This article is the first installment in a series that explains, book by book, the “original texts (the source books)” of the world’s myths and religions.

We follow carefully, in line with what the original texts actually say, in which book and where each tradition’s stories are written, and how their contents unfold.

For the first installment we take up the most widely read book in the world: the Christian “Bible.”

The “strength” of the gods and heroes who appear in each myth and religion has been introduced previously in ranking form, so please use that as a reference too.

Mythology & Religion: TOP 100 Gods, Monsters & Heroesen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-legends-ranking-1/

The Overall Structure of the Bible’s 66 Books

First, as a basic premise: the Christian original text — “the Bible” — is not a single book but a culmination of documents that gathers no fewer than 66 books into one.

The Bible divides broadly into the “Old Testament (39 books)” and the “New Testament (27 books),” and each is divided further into several sections.

Putting that big picture into a diagram gives the following.

Treating all 66 books in one article would be enormous, so this series divides them into the following four articles.

And what this article explains is the first section of the Old Testament, the 5 books of the “Law (Pentateuch).”

Now let’s look at these five books — the foundation of the whole Bible — one at a time.

The World of the Bible Through 50 Masterpiece PaintingsView on Amazon → Christianity from Age 14, Explained with DiagramsView on Amazon →

What Is the Law (Pentateuch)?

The five books that open the Old Testament are called the “Pentateuch,” and in Judaism the “Torah (the Law)”; they are regarded as the most important foundation of the whole Bible.

Traditionally attributed to the prophet Moses, their content begins with the “creation of the world” and, following roughly chronological order, depicts the Israelites making a covenant with God and arriving on the threshold of the Promised Land.

---

Book 1: Genesis

Genesis divides broadly into two parts: the “Primeval History (chs. 1–11)” and the “Patriarchal History (chs. 12–50).” The first half is the story of all humankind; the second, the story of Israel’s forefathers.

Putting that flow into a diagram gives the following.

Primeval History (chs. 1–11) — the Beginning of the World and Humankind

The story begins with the all-too-famous scene of the Creation.

The Creation (chs. 1–2)

God brings forth light with the single word “Let there be light.” Then, over six days, he makes on day one the light (day and night), on day two the firmament (heaven), on day three land and sea and plants, on day four the sun, moon, and stars, on day five fish and birds, and on day six the land animals and human beings — and on the seventh day he rested. This “resting on the seventh day” is held to be the origin of the Jewish and Christian “Sabbath.”

Of human beings in particular it is written that they were “made in the image of God,” which is the basis of the Christian view that “humans are a special being set apart from the other creatures.” God forms the first man, “Adam,” from the dust of the ground and breathes the breath of life into his nostrils. Then, declaring that it is not good for Adam to be alone, he makes from his rib a wife, “Eve,” and settles the two in the lush “Garden of Eden.”

The Lost Paradise (ch. 3)

Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden lacking nothing, but God had commanded that they must never eat the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” at the center of the garden.

Then a cunning serpent whispers to Eve, “You will not die if you eat it. Rather, your eyes will be opened and you will become like God.” Eve gives in to the temptation, eats the fruit, and shares it with Adam too. At once the two are ashamed for the first time that they are naked, and hide from God.

Called to account for the sin, Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. God gave the serpent the curse of crawling on the ground, the woman the pain of childbirth, and the man the toil of earning bread by the sweat of his brow, and finally banished the two from paradise. Thus toil and death entered humankind. This is the starting point of the supremely important Christian teaching of “original sin,” the idea that humans bear sin from birth.

Cain and Abel (ch. 4)

The children of Adam and Eve were the elder brother “Cain” (a farmer) and the younger “Abel” (a shepherd). When the two made offerings to God, God looked with favor on Abel’s offering but had no regard for Cain’s.

Envious of this, Cain lured his brother Abel out into a field and killed him. It was humankind’s first murder. When God asked, “Where is your brother?” Cain answered, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” God punished Cain to become a wanderer, but is said to have placed a “mark of Cain” on him so he would not be killed. And so sin spread rapidly through the world.

Noah’s Flood (chs. 6–9)

Seeing that human evil had filled the earth, God regretted having made humankind and resolved to wipe out the world with a great flood. But one man alone, “Noah,” was righteous and obeyed God.

God commands Noah to build a giant “ark.” Noah took his family and a pair, male and female, of every animal aboard the ark. Soon rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights, and the waters destroyed every living thing on the earth.

When the waters began to recede, Noah sent out a dove. By the dove returning with an olive leaf in its beak, he knew the waters had subsided. To Noah coming out of the ark, God set a “rainbow” in the sky as the sign of his promise that “never again will I destroy all living things by a flood.”

The Tower of Babel (ch. 11)

The Primeval History closes with the “Tower of Babel.” At that time, all of humankind spoke one and the same language. The people pressed ahead with an arrogant plan: “Let us build a city with a tower that reaches to heaven and make a name for ourselves.”

Seeing this, to rebuke human pride, God confused the people’s language so they could not understand one another, and scattered them across the world. This serves as the mythological explanation for why so many languages and peoples exist in the world.

Patriarchal History (chs. 12–50) — Israel’s Forefathers

The story that depicted all humankind up to chapter 11 narrows its view sharply from chapter 12 and focuses on a single figure: “Abraham.”

Abraham and God’s Covenant (chs. 12–25)

God commands Abraham, who lived in Mesopotamia, “Leave the land of your birth and go to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation.” Abraham obeyed and set out for the Promised Land of Canaan. Here the covenant between God and the people of Israel (the Abrahamic covenant) is made.

To the aged and childless Abraham, God has him look up at the night sky and promises, “I will multiply your descendants like these stars.” Abraham’s believing this was “reckoned to him as righteousness,” which became the origin of the later Christian teaching of “being saved by faith.”

Around this time, the depraved cities of “Sodom and Gomorrah” are destroyed by fire and brimstone from heaven. And as promised, when Abraham was 100, the long-awaited son “Isaac” was born.

The Binding of Isaac (ch. 22)

The most famous scene in the Patriarchal History is the “Binding of Isaac.” To test Abraham’s faith, God issues an all-too-harsh command: “Offer your beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice.”

Abraham obeyed in anguish, bound his son on the mountain, and at the very moment he raised the knife, an angel appeared and stopped him. Saying “Now I know that you fear God,” a ram in a nearby thicket was offered in his place. This story is known as a tale that shows absolute obedience to God.

Jacob — the Origin of the Name “Israel” (chs. 25–36)

Isaac’s sons were the twin elder brother “Esau” and the younger “Jacob.” Jacob bought the birthright from his hungry brother in exchange for “a bowl of stew,” and went on to deceive his blind father Isaac, seizing the blessing that should rightly have gone to the elder brother.

Setting out on a journey in fear of his brother’s anger, one night Jacob has a “dream of angels going up and down a stairway reaching to heaven” and receives God’s blessing. Years later, on his way back home, Jacob wrestles all night with someone (a messenger of God) and is given a new name, “Israel (one who struggles with God).” This name becomes the very name of the people.

Jacob had twelve sons, who became the ancestors of the later “twelve tribes of Israel.”

Joseph — Forgiveness and the Providence of God (chs. 37–50)

Genesis closes with the story of Jacob’s son “Joseph.” Especially loved by his father, Joseph drew his brothers’ fierce envy by telling them of a “dream in which their sheaves bowed down to his,” and after being thrown into a pit, he was sold into Egypt as a slave.

In the household he served in Egypt, he was falsely accused and imprisoned, but Joseph displays his innate “gift for interpreting dreams.” Eventually, by interpreting Pharaoh’s (the king of Egypt’s) dream foretelling “seven years of plenty and seven years of famine,” he is raised in one step to vizier of the land.

When the great famine arrived as foretold, those who came to Egypt seeking food were the very brothers who had once sold him. Reunited, Joseph forgave them and said, “You meant evil against me by selling me, but God turned it to good.” This line is a passage that symbolizes the “providence of God” — that God leads even human malice to a good outcome.

And so the family moved to live in Egypt, and Genesis comes to a close. This situation of “the Israelites being in Egypt” leads on to the next book, Exodus.

---

Book 2: Exodus

The theme of Exodus is, as the name suggests, the departure (liberation) from Egypt. The story proceeds broadly in two stages: the “drama of liberation” and the “covenant at Mount Sinai.”

The Drama of Liberation (chs. 1–18)

The Israelites who had moved to Egypt at the end of Genesis grew in number afterward. But the king of Egypt (Pharaoh), feeling this as a threat, worked them brutally as slaves and finally ordered that every newborn boy be killed.

Born in the midst of this was “Moses.” Set adrift on the Nile, he was picked up by Pharaoh’s daughter and, ironically, raised in the Egyptian palace.

Grown to adulthood, Moses killed an Egyptian who was abusing his kinsmen and fled into the wilderness. One day, while shepherding there, he is addressed by God from within a “bush that burned but was not consumed.”

When Moses asks God his name, God answers “I AM WHO I AM (Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh).” From here the divine name “YHWH (Yahweh)” is said to arise — a supremely important scene in the Bible.

Commanded by God to deliver the people, Moses, with his brother Aaron, demands their release from Pharaoh, who naturally refuses. So God sends down the “Ten Plagues” upon all of Egypt.

During the final “death of the firstborn,” the Israelites painted the blood of a lamb on their doorposts, and so the one who brought death “passed over” them. This is the origin of one of Judaism’s greatest festivals, “Passover.”

Yielding to this plague, Pharaoh at last permits the people to leave. But he soon changes his mind, sends his army, and corners them. At the moment they have no escape, Moses stretches out his hand and the sea splits in two, and the people cross over on the dry path through the sea. The pursuing Egyptian army is swallowed by the returning sea and destroyed (the “miracle at the Red Sea”).

The Covenant at Mount Sinai (chs. 19–40)

The people who escaped Egypt arrive at Mount Sinai, sustained in the wilderness by manna (food that falls from heaven), quail, and water gushing from a rock.

Here the central event of the story occurs. Moses climbs the mountain and receives directly from God the Law, beginning with the “Ten Commandments.” By this, Israel becomes not merely a people but “the people of God who have made a covenant with God.”

The contents of the Ten Commandments are as follows; the first half are commands toward God, the second half the ethics of human society.

But while Moses was secluded on the mountain, the people lost patience and made and worshipped an image of a “golden calf.” This was a grave betrayal of the just-made covenant, and Moses, coming down the mountain in anger, smashed the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments.

The latter half of Exodus tells in detail of the design and construction of the “Tabernacle,” a portable sanctuary for worshipping God. The story concludes with the glory of God filling the completed Tabernacle — God walking together with his people.

---

Book 3: Leviticus

Leviticus has almost no narrative element within the Pentateuch; it is, so to speak, a “book of regulations” centered on detailed laws concerning worship and daily life.

The book’s name derives from the priestly clan, the “tribe of Levi.”

The first major part is the regulations on “sacrifice.” Five kinds of offering of animals and grain to God are laid down, by purpose.

Most important of all is the rite performed once a year on the “Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).” On this day the high priest drives into the wilderness a goat bearing the sins of the whole people, cleansing the sin of the entire community. From here arises the idea of “bearing sin in another’s place,” which connects to the later Christian doctrine of atonement.

Also recorded here are the dietary laws separating clean and unclean animals, and the regulations for the year’s festivals (Passover, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Tabernacles, and so on).

The theme running through all of Leviticus is God’s call, “Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.”

This book also contains the line “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which Jesus would later quote as the heart of the Law — a supremely important teaching.

---

Book 4: Numbers

The book’s name derives from the census of the people (the counting of their numbers) carried out twice, at the story’s beginning and end. The fighting men of adult age alone numbered about 600,000.

Departing Mount Sinai, the people set out at last for the Promised Land of Canaan. But this journey was a succession of complaints and rebellions.

The people grumble against God and Moses many times over food and water. Decisive was the report of 10 of the 12 scouts sent into Canaan, who said weakly, “The inhabitants of that land are mighty; we can never win.”

Hearing this, the people grew afraid to enter the Promised Land and rebelled against God. Only Joshua and Caleb pleaded, “Since God is with us, we will surely prevail,” but they were not heeded.

For the people’s unbelief, God declared, “Not one adult of this generation will enter the Promised Land.” And so the Israelites wandered the wilderness for 40 years, until the unbelieving generation had passed away.

Along the way, striking incidents occur one after another:

• the “Rebellion of Korah,” in which Korah and his followers, who challenged Moses’s authority, are swallowed by the earth and destroyed
• the “bronze serpent,” by which those bitten by the venomous snakes God sent to punish the people were healed if they looked up at it
• the tale of the prophet Balaam, hired to curse Israel, who could utter only words of blessing, and along the way the episode of his “donkey speaking in human speech”

Numbers concludes with a second census on the plains of Moab, just before the Promised Land, showing that the unbelieving old generation had departed and a new generation had grown up.

---

Book 5: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy, which closes the Pentateuch, is set on the plains of Moab, just before the Promised Land.

Most of its content consists of “three sermons that are, so to speak, a final testament,” spoken by the leader Moses to the people as he faced death.

To the new generation of the people, Moses retells the Law, beginning with the Ten Commandments, while looking back on past events.

Especially famous is the passage that begins with the words “Hear, O Israel (the Shema).”

Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

These words, concisely expressing faith in and love for the one God, are held to this day as the heart of Jewish and Christian faith.

Having finished his sermons, Moses appoints “Joshua” as his successor and entrusts to him the task of leading the people into the Promised Land.

And the story reaches a quiet end. Moses climbs Mount Nebo and only gazes at the Promised Land from afar; he himself ends his life at 120 without ever setting foot in it.

And so the Law (the Pentateuch) comes to a close, and the stage of the story passes on to the next section, the “History,” which depicts the entry into the Promised Land of Canaan.

The Single Thread Running Through the Pentateuch — “Covenant”

Looking back after reading the five books, what seemed like scattered stories turns out to be connected by one great thread: “covenant (berit).”

The story that began with the Creation and the fall of humankind (the first half of Genesis) starts to move in earnest when God chooses one man, Abraham, and makes a covenant: “I will make your descendants a great people and give you the Promised Land” (the latter half of Genesis). Those descendants become slaves in Egypt, escape led by Moses (Exodus), and at Mount Sinai make a covenant for the whole people: “You shall be my people, and I will be your God.” And it was the laws of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy that set out how a people living by that covenant should walk.

“God chooses a human, promises, leads, and makes a covenant” — this single sweep is the backbone of the entire Pentateuch, and the root theme of the whole Bible that runs on into the History, the Prophets, and even the New Testament (the “new covenant” through Jesus).

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

What Exactly Is Christianity? (a beginner’s primer)View on Amazon → Learn with Character Art! An Illustrated Guide to ChristianityView on Amazon →

Conclusion

In this article, I explained book by book the first section of the Old Testament — the “Law (Pentateuch),” 5 books — among the Bible’s 66 books, the original text of Christianity. How was it?

Beginning with the Creation and continuing through Adam and Eve, Noah, and from Abraham to Joseph in Genesis; Exodus, which depicts Moses’s escape from Egypt and the Ten Commandments; and then the laws of worship (Leviticus), the wilderness wandering (Numbers), and Moses’s final sermon (Deuteronomy) — these five books form the foundation of the whole Bible, depicting everything from the creation of the world to the Israelites making a covenant with God and standing on the threshold of the Promised Land.

In particular, I hope you can see that the themes running through the whole Bible — “the covenant with God” and “human faithfulness and betrayal toward it” — already appear here in the Law.

In the next article, I will explain the 12 books of the “History” (Joshua to Esther), which depict roughly 700 years of the people of Israel who entered the Promised Land of Canaan — their glory, their fall, and their rebuilding.

The Original Texts of Christianity 2: The OT History Booksen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-christianity-ot-history/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.