The Pentateuch, also known as the Torah, is the first five books of the Bible that cover the creation of the world, the ancestors of Israel, the life of Prophet Moses, and the laws revealed to him by God. Traditionally, it is believed that Moses wrote the Pentateuch under God's guidance, but there are issues with this idea. There are several narrative quirks, including doublets and contradictions, that put the whole idea of a single author into question. Theologians have tried to reconcile this problem with their beliefs regarding the authorship and authority of the Bible.

In the wake of the European Enlightenment, many biblical scholars rejected divinely inspired Mosaic authorship, and instead turned to source criticism. A consensus emerged that the Pentateuch was actually the work of multiple authors, each recording versions of traditional legends from their time and place. The most prominent model for the composition of the Pentateuch is the documentary hypothesis, which identifies four distinct voices throughout the text, each with their own narrative threads and other stylistic and thematic features that distinguish them from one another.