This word, which is derived from the Greek Πεντατεύχος, from πέντε, five, and τεύχος, an instrument or volume, signifies the collection of the five instruments or books of Moses, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy: each of which books we have given an account of under their several names.

There are some modern critics who have disputed Moses's right to the pentateuch. They observe that the author speaks always in the third person. "Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, &c. Moses said to Pharaoh, &c." Thus they think he would never have spoken of himself; but would at least sometimes have mentioned himself in the first person. Besides this, say they, the author of the pentateuch sometimes abridges his narration like a writer who collected from some ancient memoirs. Sometimes he interrupts the thread of his discourse; for example, he makes Lamech the bigamist to say (Gen. iv. 23.), "Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech; for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt," without informing us before-hand to whom this is related. These observations, for example (Gen. xii. 6.), "And the Canaanite was then in the land," cannot be reconciled to the age of Moses, since the Canaanites continued to be the masters of Palestine all the time of Moses. The passage out of the book of the wars of the Lord, quoted in the book of Numbers (xxi. 14.) seems to have been added in afterwards, as also the first verses of Deuteronomy. The account of the death of Moses, which is at the end of the same book, cannot certainly belong to this legislator; and the same judgment may be made of other passages, wherein it is said, that the places mentioned lay beyond Jordan; that the bed of Og was at Ramah to this day: that the haven of Jair, or the cities of Jair, were known to the author, though probably they had not that name till after Moses's time (Num. xxxii. 41. Deut. iii. 14.).

It is observed also in the text of the Pentateuch, that there are some places that are defective; for example, in Exodus (xii. 8.), we see Moses speaking to Pharaoh, where the author omits the beginning of his discourse. The Samaritan inserts in the same place what is wanting in the Hebrew. In other places, the same Samaritan copy adds what is deficient in the Hebrew text; and what it contains more than the Hebrew seems so well connected with the rest of the discourse, that it would be difficult to separate them. Lastly, they believe that they observe certain tricks in the pentateuch which can hardly agree with Moses, who was born and bred in Egypt; as what he says of the earthly paradise, of the rivers that watered it, and ran through it; of the cities of Babylon, Erech, Refen, and Calneh; of the gold Pentateuch gold of Pifon, of the bdellium, of the stone of Sohem, or onyx-stone, which was to be found in that country.

These particulars, observed with such curiosity, seem to prove, that the author of the pentateuch lived beyond the Euphrates. Add what he says concerning the ark of Noah, of its construction, of the place where it refted, of the wood wherewith it was built, of the bitumen of Babylon, &c. But in answer to all these objections, we may observe in general, from an eminent writer* of our own country, that these books are by the most ancient writers ascribed to Moses; and it is confirmed by the authority of heathen writers themselves, that they are of his writing: besides this, we have the unanimous testimony of the whole Jewish nation, ever since Moses's time, from the first writing of them. Divers texts of the pentateuch imply that it was written by Moses; and the book of Joshua, and other parts of scripture, import as much; and though some passages have been thought to imply the contrary, yet this is but a late opinion, and has been sufficiently confuted by several learned men.

The Samaritans receive no other scriptures but the pentateuch, rejecting all the other books which are still in the Jewish canon.