TheHexateuch ("six scrolls") is the first six books of theHebrew Bible: theTorah (Pentateuch) and thebook of Joshua.[1][2]
The termHexateuch came into scholarly use from the 1870s onwards mainly as the result of work carried out byAbraham Kuenen andJulius Wellhausen.[1] Following the work ofEichhorn,de Wette,Graf,Kuenen,Nöldeke,Colenso and others, in hisProlegomena zur Geschichte Israels Wellhausen proposed that Joshua represented part of the northernYahwist source (c 950 BC), detached from JE document by theDeuteronomist (c 650–621) and incorporated into theDeuteronomic history, with the books of Judges, Kings, and Samuel.
Reasons for this unity, in addition to the presumed presence of the other documentary traditions, are taken from comparisons of the thematic concerns that underlie the narrative surface of the texts. For instance, theBook of Joshua stresses the continuity of leadership fromMoses to Joshua. Furthermore the theme ofJoshua, the fulfillment of God's promise to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land, complements the thematic material of the Pentateuch, which had ended with the Israelites on the border of the Promised Land ready to enter.
The thesis thatJoshua completes the Torah in a "Hexateuch" may be contrasted with the view of scholars following the older rabbinic tradition, expressed by the compilers of theJewish Encyclopedia (compiled between 1901 and 1906), that the Pentateuch is a complete work in itself.[2] The thesis may also be contrasted with the view put forward byEduard Meyer (1855–1930) that there never was anyHexateuch per se, but that the Law (that is, the Torah),Joshua,Judges,Samuel, andKings all together once formed one great historic work.[1]
But even if there were no objections to either of these contentions, they would not be sufficient to undermine the independence and completeness of the Pentateuch, evident throughout its entire composition, and verified by an uncontradicted tradition which goes back to Biblical times. The Torah has never been connected with the Book of Joshua, and has always constituted the first part of the Bible, in contradistinction to the two other parts.
