Book of Numbers twelve princes, one of each tribe. The majority of modern biblical scholars believe that the Torah (the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) reached its present form in the post-Exilic period (i.e., after c.520 BCE), based on pre-existing written and oral traditions and "contemporary geographical and demographic details but even more importantly from contemporary political realities". The five books are often described as being drawn from four "sources" - schools of writers rather than individuals - the Yahwist and the Elohist (frequently treated as a single source), the Priestly source and the Deuteronomist. There is ongoing dispute over
Society for Old Testament Study Old Testament at the time of publication, namely The People and the Book (ed. A.S. Peake; Oxford, 1925), Record and Revelation (ed. H.W. Robinson; Oxford, 1938), The Old Testament and Modern Study (ed. H.H. Rowley; Oxford, 1951), Tradition and Interpretation (ed. G.W. Anderson; Oxford, 1979), and Text in Context (ed. A.D.H. Mayes; Oxford, 2000). The Society has also commissioned from time to time other multi-essay volumes devoted to specific topics, namely Documents from Old Testament Times (ed. D.W. Thomas; London, 1958), Archaeology and Old Testament Study (ed. D.W. Thomas; Oxford, 1967), Peoples of Old Testament Times (ed. D.J. Wiseman; Oxford,