The Making of the Pentateuch Pentateuchal origins the composition and dates of the first five books of the Old Testament. In the closing decades of the 19th century Julius Wellhausen published "Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels", in which he had set out the definitive version of the historical development of the Hebrew bible. According to this hypothesis, the Pentateuch Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy was originally four separate documents, retelling the same episodes and stories, but with differing emphases designed to further the theological and political agendas of their authors. Their combination by a Redactor (editor) into a single narrative spread over five books had
Development of the Old Testament canon Church, first found as last chapter of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. Canon n. 85 of the "Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles" is a list of canonical books, includes 46 books of Old Testament canon which essentially corresponds to that of the Septuagint. The Old Testament part of the Canon n. 85 stated as follows: Karl Josef von Hefele argues that "This is probably the least ancient canon in the whole collection"; even he and William Beveridge believe that the writings of the Apostolic Canons dating from end of the second or early of the third