What is "pentateuch"

Pentateuch \Pen"ta*teuch\, n. [L. pentateuchus, Gr. ?; ? (see Penta-) + ? a tool, implement, a book, akin to ? to prepare, make ready, and perh. to E. text. See Five, and Text.] The first five books of the Old Testament, collectively; -- called also the Law of Moses, Book of the Law of Moses, etc.

first five books of the Bible, c.1400, from Late Latin pentateuchus (Tertullian, c.207), from Greek pentateukhos (c.160), originally an adjective (abstracted from phrase pentateukhos biblos), from pente "five" (see five) + teukhos "implement, vessel, gear" (in Late Greek "book," via notion of "case for scrolls"), literally "anything produced," related to teukhein "to make ready," from PIE *dheugh- "to produce something of utility" (see doughty). Glossed in Old English as fifbec.

The Pentateuch is the first part of the Bible, consisting of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

It can also refer to:

• Ashburnham Pentateuch — late 6th- or early 7th-century Latin illuminated manuscript of the Pentateuch.
• Chumash — printed Torah, as opposed to a Torah scroll
• Samaritan Pentateuch — a version of the Hebrew Pentateuch, written in the Samaritan alphabet and used by the Samaritans, for whom it is the entire biblical canon.
• Targum Yerushalmi — a western targum (translation) of the Torah (Pentateuch) from the land of Israel (as opposed to the eastern Babylonian Targum Onkelos).