The Pentateuch: the Five Books of Moses

The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Jews call them the Torah, and tradition credits them to Moses. The name is Greek for "five scrolls". Together they hold 187 chapters, 5,852 verses and 156,837 King James words: 25.7% of the Old Testament in 5 of its 39 books.

Updated November 2, 2026. Chapters, verses and words are counted from the full text of the King James Version and the World English Bible; the WEB, a modern public-domain translation, has 147,556 words in the same five books.

Books

of 39 in the Old Testament

187

Chapters

20.1% of the Old Testament's 929

156,837

KJV words

25.7% of the Old Testament, 19.8% of the Bible

648

"Moses", KJV

of his 847 mentions in the whole Bible

The five books, sized

The five books are 13% of the Old Testament's books but 25.7% of its words, because each one is long. Genesis alone is the 4th-longest book of the Old Testament, and even Leviticus, the shortest of the five, ranks 12th of 39.

#	Book	Chapters	Verses	KJV words	WEB words	Share of OT words	Share of Bible words
1	Genesis	50	1,533	38,307	35,731	6.3%	4.8%
2	Exodus	40	1,213	32,692	30,696	5.4%	4.1%
3	Leviticus	27	859	24,543	23,305	4.0%	3.1%
4	Numbers	36	1,288	32,930	30,929	5.4%	4.2%
5	Deuteronomy	34	959	28,365	26,895	4.7%	3.6%
	All five	187	5,852	156,837	147,556	25.7%	19.8%

Verses are the same in both translations (5,852). The shares use the King James count: 609,937 words in the Old Testament and 790,325 in the Bible. By verses the five books are 25.3% of the Old Testament and 18.8% of the Bible.

Genesis

38,307

Exodus

32,692

Leviticus

24,543

Numbers

32,930

Deuteronomy

28,365

One surprise in the counts: Numbers is longer than Exodus by 238 King James words, though Exodus is the better-known book. The World English Bible gives the same order (30,929 to 30,696).

What each book covers

Each book in a sentence or two, with its Hebrew name (taken from a word in its opening line) and one well-known verse, quoted from both translations.

1. Genesis (Hebrew Bereshit, "In the beginning")

Creation, the flood, and the families of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, ending with Israel's sons in Egypt. 50 chapters, about 2 hours 41 minutes to read.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1, KJV)
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (WEB)

2. Exodus (Hebrew Shemot, "Names")

Israel's slavery in Egypt, Moses, the plagues and the escape, the Ten Commandments at Sinai, and the building of the tabernacle. 40 chapters, about 2 hours 17 minutes to read.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3, KJV)
"You shall have no other gods before me." (WEB)

3. Leviticus (Hebrew Vayikra, "And he called")

The laws for offerings, priests, clean and unclean food, the Day of Atonement and holy living. 27 chapters, about 1 hour 43 minutes to read.

"Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD." (Leviticus 19:18, KJV)
"‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh." (WEB)

4. Numbers (Hebrew Bamidbar, "In the wilderness")

Two counts of the tribes, and the forty years between Sinai and the edge of Canaan. 36 chapters, about 2 hours 18 minutes to read.

"The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:" (Numbers 6:24, KJV)
"Yahweh bless you, and keep you." (WEB)

5. Deuteronomy (Hebrew Devarim, "Words")

Moses' farewell speeches on the plains of Moab, the law restated, and his death on Mount Nebo. 34 chapters, about 1 hour 59 minutes to read.

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:" (Deuteronomy 6:4, KJV)
"Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one." (WEB)

Why it is called the Pentateuch

The word is Greek. Merriam-Webster traces it through Late Latin pentateuchus to Greek pentateuchos: penta-, five, and teuchos, a word for a tool or vessel that came to mean a book. Writing for the Society of Biblical Literature's Bible Odyssey, Christophe Nihan and Julia Rhyder say that because the collection comprises "five books, or scrolls", it "came to be known as the Pentateuch in antiquity", and that the books were translated from Hebrew into Greek in the third century BCE.

The older name is Hebrew: Torah, which means instruction or teaching more than law. The phrase "the law of Moses" appears 22 times in the King James Version, first in Joshua 8:31, and Jesus uses the phrase in Luke 24:44 for the first part of the Hebrew scriptures: "all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me". In synagogues the Torah is read through in 54 weekly portions, according to My Jewish Learning.

Who wrote the Pentateuch?

Two answers, held by different readers. Both are stated here as their holders state them.

The tradition: Moses

Jewish and Christian tradition credits the five books to Moses, and the books themselves say he wrote: "And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD" (Exodus 24:4) and "And Moses wrote this law" (Deuteronomy 31:9). Later books call them "the book of the law of Moses" (Nehemiah 8:1), and in Mark 12:26 Jesus quotes the burning bush as "in the book of Moses". Moses is named 648 times in these five books, 77% of his 847 mentions in the King James Version.

The tradition had its own puzzle. Deuteronomy ends with Moses' death: "So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 34:5). The Babylonian Talmud answers it in Bava Batra 14b: "Moses wrote his own book", and "Joshua wrote his own book and eight verses in the Torah, which describe the death of Moses". Those are Deuteronomy 34:5 to Deuteronomy 34:12, the last 8 verses of the Pentateuch.

Modern scholarship: several sources over centuries

Most modern scholars read the five books as the work of many hands. The best-known model, the documentary hypothesis linked to Julius Wellhausen in the 1800s, splits them into four sources, called J, E, D and P, joined by later editors. That four-source model was the majority view for most of the 1900s and has since lost its consensus; scholars now argue over supplementary and fragment models as well. Nihan and Rhyder sum up the current view at Bible Odyssey: the Pentateuch is "the result of a long compositional and editorial process" that ran from the Neo-Assyrian to the Persian period, roughly the 900s to the 300s BCE.

Conservative scholars answer that the books' own claims and the New Testament's references point to Moses, with small later additions such as the account of his death. This page does not decide between the two; it counts the text both sides read. Who wrote the rest of the Bible, book by book, is on how many authors wrote the Bible.

Sources

The King James Version (1769) and the World English Bible, both public domain: every count and quoted verse on this page, from the text at github.com/seven1m/open-bibles, counted by scripts/build-bible-stats.mjs and scripts/lists/pentateuch.mjs, which checks each quoted verse in both translations (read and counted 2026-11-02).
Merriam-Webster, "Pentateuch": the word's Greek and Latin origin (read 2026-11-02).
Christophe Nihan and Julia Rhyder, "The Torah/The Pentateuch", Bible Odyssey (Society of Biblical Literature): the name, the Greek translation, the scholarly view of how the books were composed (read 2026-11-02).
Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b, William Davidson translation (Sefaria): Moses and Joshua as writers (read 2026-11-02).
"Documentary hypothesis", Wikipedia: Wellhausen, the four sources and the loss of consensus after the 1970s (read 2026-11-02).
"Torah", Wikipedia: the Hebrew names of the five books (read 2026-11-02).
My Jewish Learning, "The Torah": the 54 weekly portions (read 2026-11-02).

Questions about the Pentateuch

What are the 5 books of the Pentateuch?

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the first five books of every Jewish and Christian Bible, in that order. They are also called the Torah, the Law and the five books of Moses.

What does Pentateuch mean?

"Five books" or "five scrolls". Merriam-Webster traces the word through Late Latin pentateuchus to the Greek pentateuchos, from penta- (five) and teuchos, a word for a tool or vessel that came to mean a book. Bible Odyssey says the name came from the collection's five books, or scrolls.

Is the Pentateuch the same as the Torah?

In this sense, yes: the same five books. "Torah" is Hebrew for instruction or teaching, and Jewish usage can also stretch it to all of Jewish teaching. "Pentateuch" only ever means the five books.

Did Moses write the Pentateuch?

Jewish and Christian tradition says so, and the books say Moses wrote down laws and events (Exodus 24:4, Deuteronomy 31:9). Most modern scholars think the books were put together from several sources over centuries. One passage of the Talmud (Bava Batra 14b) gives the last 8 verses, which tell of Moses' death, to Joshua.

Which book of the Pentateuch is the longest?

Genesis, with 50 chapters and 38,307 KJV words. Numbers is second by words (32,930), 238 ahead of Exodus. Leviticus is the shortest at 24,543.

How long does it take to read the Pentateuch?

About 10 hours 58 minutes at the reading pace this site uses for every book. A chapter a day takes 187 days, a little over six months.

Every book in order is on the Old Testament books in order and the books of the Bible. From these five books: the ten plagues of Egypt (Exodus) and the 613 commandments, the rabbis' count of the Torah's laws.

Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-11-02.