Pentateuch
(ˈpɛntətjuːk)
[ad. L. pentateuch-us, -um (Tertullian c 207), n. f. Gr. ἡ πεντάτευχ-ος the pentateuch (Let. of Ptolemæus Gnosticus c 160, in Epiphanius Adv. Hæres. xxxiii. §4), n. use (sc. βίβλος) of πεντάτευχος adj. ‘of five books’, f. πεντα- five + τεῦχος ‘implement, vessel’, in post-Alexandrian Gr. ‘book’. In F. Pentateuque]
1. Name for the first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) taken together as a connected group, traditionally ascribed to Moses (hence called ‘the five books of Moses’).
| 1530 Palsgr. 253/1 Penthatheukes, fyve bokes of Moyses lawe, pentathevcon. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 343/2 That after these bokes well learned, we bee mete for Tyndales pentateukes, and Tyndales testamente. 1586 J. Hooker Hist. Irel. Ep. Ded., Then he and Iosua..did deliuer vnto them the whole Pentatychon of Moses to be dailie read & taught. 1614 Selden Titles Hon. 15 Long before his time was the Pentateuch turned into Greek. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. i. 276 Jerome professeth, in his translation he was faine sometime to relieve himselfe by the Samaritane Pentateuch. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 410 The Israelite had nothing more to do than open his Pentateuch. 1867 M. E. Herbert Cradle L. viii. 210 They were shown the oldest known copy of the Pentateuch. |
2. transf. A volume composed of five books, etc.: see quots. rare.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Pentateuch, a volume of five Books. 1658 Phillips, Pentateuch,..also any volume consisting of five books. 1842 Dunglison Med. Lex. s.v., By analogy some surgeons have given the name Surgical Pentateuch to the division of external diseases into five classes:—wounds, ulcers, tumours, luxations and fractures. 1891 Cheyne Orig. & Relig. Cont. of Psalter i. i. 6 The Hebrew Psalter came together not as a book but as a Pentateuch. 1891 Blades (title) The Pentateuch of Printing, with a Chapter on Judges. |
Hence Pentateuchal (pɛntəˈtjuːkəl) a., of, pertaining to, or contained in the Pentateuch.
| a 1846 Williams cited in Worcester. 1863 Darwin in Life (1892) 257, I have long regretted that I..used the Pentateuchal term of ‘Creation’. 1890 Gladstone Impregnable Rock (1892) 176 The spirit..of the Pentateuchal laws. |