OCTATEUCH. — The term (ὁκτώ “eight” and τοῦτος “chest” or repository for books and hence “book”) appears for the first time in Cassiodorus (De institutione divinarum litterarum, 1: PL 70, 1110–12; ed. Mynors, Oxford 1937, pp. 11–15), who coined it by analogy with Pentateuch (v.), Hexateuch, Heptateuch. This term designates the first eight books of the Greek-Latin Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth).
Hexateuch (v.), by which the first six biblical books are designated, was revived by the rationalists of modern criticism P. Ewald, Knobel, J. Wellhausen, S. R. Driver, C. H. Cornill, C. Steurnagel, O. Eissfeldt), that of O. is found only among Catholic exegetes. Angelo Penna