Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture - The Pentateuch (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture 

The Pentateuch 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Sunday, July 13, 2025)

The first five books of the Old Testament and the Holy Scriptures in general are called the "Pentateuch" and are understood as the "Pentateuch Bible" since the 2nd century AD by the Greeks and Christians.

In the Hebrew period these books are called the "Law of Moses" or the "Book of the Law of Moses", because they were given by God to Moses, so that with this law he could guide His people. Christ Himself considered the author to be Moses, which is why in a conversation He had with the Jews of His time He said: “If you believe Moses, believe Me; for he wrote about Me” (John 5:46).

These five books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

"I Kiss His Name Many Times": Saint Paisios the Athonite's Reverence for Righteous Phinehas

Speaking on the topic of righteous anger, Saint Paisios the Athonite said the following:

There is a righteous, divine indignation, and only this indignation is justifiable in man.

When Moses saw the people sacrificing to the golden calf, he got very angry and threw down the tablet of stone with the commandments given to him by God, and they broke (cf. Ex. 32:1-20).

Phinehas, the grandson of the high priest Aaron, had committed two murders and yet God established a covenant whereby the perpetual priesthood of Israel would derive from him and his descendants. When he saw the Israelite man Zimri sinning with the Midianite Cozbi before Moses and all the Israelites, Phinehas could not control himself; he rose and slew both of them, putting an end to God's anger. Had he not slain both of them, the wrath of God would have befallen all the people of Israel (cf. Num. 25:1-15). What a fearful thing!