Forms: 6, 9 thora, 7 tora, 7, 9 thorah, 9 torah. [Heb. tōrāh ‘direction, instruction, doctrine, law,’ f. yārāh ‘to throw,’ in Hiphil ‘to show, direct, instruct.’] The teaching or instruction, and judicial decisions, given by the ancient Hebrew priests as a revelation of the divine will; the Mosaic or Jewish law; hence, a name for the five books of the law, the Pentateuch.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades, I. (1592), 9. The law of Moses, which is in deede the lawe of God, and is most properly called Thora, as it were the guide and rule of faith.
1842. Bonar & M’Cheyne, Narr. Mission to Jews, iv. (1843), 215. The [Samaritan] priest agreed to shew us the copy of the Torah, or five books of Moses … so famed for its antiquity.
1875. M. Arnold, God & Bible, iv. 188. Thus the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, stood alone as the ‘Thora.’
1890. P. H. Hunter, After the Exile, I. xiv. 273, note. The word Torah … signifies doctrine, instruction. This wider meaning of the word is lost in the usual translation by νόμος Law.
