The Books of the Old Testament

The Pentateuch

Manasses ¹:

• set up a carved image in the house of the Lord
• built altars in the two courts of the house
• used enchantments and witchcraft, and familiar spirits

For his great wickedness, he was invaded by the army of Asserhadon King of Assyria who carried captive to Babylon.

The book of the Law was lost till the 18th year of his grandson Josiah.

Then [2] Hilkiah the High Priest, upon repairing the Temple, found it there.

The King lamented that their fathers had not done after the words of the book. So he commanded that it should be read to the people.

This caused the people to renew the holy covenant with God. This is the book of the Law now extant.

Shishak [3] came out of Egypt and spoiled the temple. He brought Judah into subjection to Egypt (which was in the 5th year of Rehoboam).

The Jews continued under great troubles for about 20 years being without:

• the true God
• a teaching Priest
• Law.

But [4] after Shishak died, Egypt fell into troubles. Judah had quiet 10 years.

In that time, Asa:

• built fenced cities in Judah
• raised an army of 580,000 men

With them he overcame Zerah the Ethiopian in the 15th year of his reign.

Zerah had conquered Egypt and Lybia, and Troglodytica, and came out with an army of 1,000,000 Lybians and Ethiopians, to recover the countries conquered by Sesac.

And after this victory [5] Asa dethroned his mother for idolatry, and he renewed the Altar, and brought new vessels of gold and silver into the Temple.

He and the people entered into a new covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers, upon pain of death to those who worshiped other Gods.

His son Jehosaphat took away the high places, and in the third year of his reign sent some of his Princes, and of the Priests and Levites, to teach in the cities of Judah.

They had the book of the Law with them.

This book was afterwards lost in the reign of Manasses and found again in the reign of Josiah. Therefore, it was written before the third year of Jehosaphat.

The same book of the Law was preserved and handed down to posterity by the Samaritans, and therefore was received by the ten Tribes before their captivity.

When the ten Tribes [6] were captive, a Priest or the captivity was sent back to Bethel, by order of the King of Assyria, to instruct the new inhabitants of Samaria, in the manner of the God of the land.

The Samaritans had the Pentateuch from this Priest, as containing the law or manner of the God of the land, which he was to teach them.

For [7] they persevered in the religion which he taught them, joining with it the worship of their own Gods; and by persevering in what they had been taught, they preserved this book of their Law in the original character of the Hebrews, while the two Tribes, after their return from Babylon, changed the character to that of the Chaldees, which they had learned at Babylon.

The Pentateuch was received as the book of the Law, both by:

• the two Tribes
• the ten Tribes.

They received it before they became divided into two Kingdoms.

After the division, they received not laws from one another, but continued at variance.

Judah could not reclaim Israel from the sin of Jeroboam.

Israel could not bring Judah to it.

The Pentateuch therefore was the book of the Law in the days of David and Solomon.

The affairs of the Tabernacle and Temple were ordered by David and Solomon, according to the Law of this book.

David in the 78th Psalm, admonished the people to give ear to the Law of God, means the Law of this book.

For in describing how their forefathers kept it not, he quotes many historical things out of the books of Exodus and Numbers.

The race of the Kings of Edom, before there reigned any King over Israel, is set down in the book of [8] Genesis.

Therefore, Genesis was not written entirely in the form now extant, before the reign of Saul.

The writer set down the race of those Kings till his own time, and therefore wrote before David conquered Edom.

The Pentateuch is composed of the Law and the history of God’s people together.