Did Moses author the Pentateuch?

Lee Hopkins

Biblical scholars are still divided over the authorship of the Pentateuch. Whilst for centuries the Mosaic authorship was largely accepted as 'fact', the Reformation (and in particular French philosopher Jean Astruc) saw the birth of critical analysis of this claim (Garrett, 1991).

Several opposing theoretical 'camps' have claimed authority of scholarship since then, although it would appear that dialogue between the camps, and acceptance of at least their right to hold alternative views, is growing (LaSor, et al., 1996:13).

Those who hold that Moses could not be the author of all five books base their claims on the many of the following (Garrett, op. cit. ):

Use of the Third Person: Nowhere does the text read, "I said" or "I did". Instead, the text reads, "Moses said" or "Moses did." It is held that this lack of First Person focus is a strong indication that Moses was not the author, but that his life and exploits were transcribed by others.

Different designations for God: "God" and "the Lord" are interspersed within the text, suggesting different authorship representative of different cultural times.

Chronological difficulties: The writing of his own death and his hidden burial site (Deut 34:5-6); a reference to a time before any King ruled in Israel (Gen 36:31) when the first King only ruled two centuries after his death; a reference to 'Dan' (Gen 14:14) when the city or territory only came into the land after his death; all are heralded as evidence of the impossibility of Mosaic authorship.

Linguistic variations: Modes of language purportedly ranging from the tenth century B.C. through to the fifth century B.C. are pointed to as proof of the impossibility of Mosaic authorship (Bailey, 1981:31).

But probably the largest areas of debate revolve around the numerous Story Variations within the text. For example within Genesis, did Noah take two of every animal (Gen 6:19-20), or seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals (Gen 7:2)? Did the flood last forty days and nights (Gen 7:4, 12, 17; 8:6) or 150 days (Gen 7:24)? Was the flood rain from above (Gen 7:4,12) or the bursting of subterranean waters (Gen 7:11)? What order were humans and animals created—animals first, then Man, then Woman (Gen 1:24-26), or Male first, then the animals, then Woman (Gen 2:18-19)?

These examples and more are cited as evidence of multiple authorship.

Of course, as in the physical sciences, any movement has an equal and opposite movement; some scholars still believe in Mosaic authorship, if not by the hand of Moses, then certainly by the scribes of Moses. Their evidence for such a position rests on several points:

Internal unity of composition: Despite a wide variety of genres—poetry, prophesy, wisdom, songs, stories, laws, rituals, incidents, ceremonies, genealogical lists—-there is a uniting historical narrative, as both a historical record and a preparation for the New Testament and God's work in Christ (LaSor, et al .,:3).

Repetition and Parallel Accounts: Far from repetitions of stories being evidence of multiple authors, Garrett and others forcibly argue that such repetition is found throughout all ancient stories. Doublets, Garrett argues (p.23), are what ancient audiences sought in a story. Even the book of Acts in the New Testament gives three complete and different accounts of Paul's encounter with God on the way to Damascus (9:1-19; 22:3-16; 26:9-18). As Dillard & Longman (1994:29) point out, parallel accounts of the same story are a most common characteristic of much Hebrew poetry.

Major actor: Moses is the key player throughout all but the first book, Genesis. However, the historical character of Genesis strongly suggests that the book must have been written when the memory of the events was still trustworthy. The faithful adherence to the accounts of different civilisations and districts at different times, and to their historical events, was unlikely to have happened if these had long passed by (ISBE, 1998). Even stronger evidence comes from Jesus Christ: "Moses therefore gave you circumcision" (John 7:22), circumcision being introduced as Law in Gen 17:11. We are also told (Exod 24:4, 34:27, Num 33:2) that Moses committed things to writing.

And, as if the dramatic 'icing on the cake', the Pentateuch ends with the death of Moses: (Deut 34:10-12) "Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,  who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt - to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land.  For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel."

If Moses was able to perform such awesome deeds, is it not probable that he had the authority and power to command his scribes to dictate his words into books? Perhaps after his first invocation by God to write down the covenant rights (Ex 24:4 and 34:27), Moses thought it a good idea to collect all of the traditions of earlier times, the handed-down records, both written and oral, from the days of the Patriarchs.

It is not possible, argue Keil & Delitzsch (2000), that in the five or six months it took to build the Tabernacle during his stay at Sinai he wrote not only Genesis, but the history of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt and the march to Sinai (Ex 19)? Can it not be argued that he took advantage of the forty year journey through the desert to collect Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, form them into a united whole and give them a final revision? He had, after all, many sources of information available to him (Walton, 2001:42). With a large number of priests and assistants to call upon, all that remained unwritten were his final addresses (Deut), which the priests could have taken care of (Deut 31:24).

As Keil & Delitzsch (op. cit.) argue, "with the exception of the last chapters of the fifth book, which are distinctly shown to be an appendix to the Mosaic Thorah, added by a different hand, by the statement in  Deut 31:24 ff ., that when the book of the law was finished Moses handed it over to the Levites to keep, there is nothing in the whole of the five books which Moses might not have written", although Clarke does argue that, technically, Deut 34 should constitute the first chapter of the book of Joshua (Clarke, 1999).

If the Bible is to be seen as a true historical record, then recorded history could only have begun with Noah, as the flood would have destroyed any other records. Noah would undoubtedly have had some record of his ancestry, and so in compiling Genesis Moses would have had access to the earliest records of early Earth (Taylor, 1983; Barnes, 1999).

 

Conclusion

Whether one believes in the Mosaic authorship, or a multiple-authorship model, is one of personal choice. I prefer to believe, based on the evidence so far, that Moses was the author of much of the Pentateuch, with only the events of his death having been added by a later redactor/author. For me, there is too much stylistic integrity to the entire work, even acknowledging the differing styles of writing (poetic, lists, and others), and too much continuity of the story to sway me to a multiple-author model.

However, at the end of my analysis, I leave it to Jesus Christ to determine whether Moses was indeed the author. As He says in Mark 12:26, "Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?"

Was Jesus confirming authorship, or merely utilising the accepted idiom of the day to make his point? I prefer to think He was clever enough to do both.

 

Bibliography

• Bailey, L.R. 'The Past: The Text We Must Interpret' in The Pentateuch. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1981), 13-60.

• Barnes, A. Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament . (Iowa: Findex, 1999).

• Clarke, A. Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Old Testament. (Iowa: Parsons Technology, 1999).

• Dillard, R.B. & Longman, T. III . An Introduction to the Old Testament . (Michigan: Zondervan, 1993).

• Drane, J. 'The Pentateuch'. In Introducing The Old Testament . ( Oxford : Lion, 2000), 182-187.

• Garrett, D.A. 'The Documentary Hypothesis' in Rethinking Genesis . (Michigan: Baker Book House, 1991), 13-29.

• Hamilton, V.P. Handbook on the Pentateuch . (Michigan: Baker Book House, 1982).

• Keil, C.F. & Delitzsch, F. Commentary on the Old Testament; Vol. 1:Pentateuch . (Nebraska : Findex, 2000).

• LaSor, W.S., Hubbard, D.A., & Bush, F.W. Old Testament Survey . (Michigan: Eerdmans, 1996).

• Orr, J. (ed.). International Standard Bible Encyclopedia . (Iowa: Parsons Technology, 1998).

• Taylor, C. Rewriting Bible History . (Adelaide: The House of Tabor, 1983).

• Walton, J.H. The NIV Application Commentary - Genesis . ( Michigan : Zondervan, 2001).