Mosaic Authorship Notes

2 Timothy 3:16 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness."

Scriptures that say Moses wrote at least parts of the Bible:

Exodus 17:14, 24:4 (all), Numbers 33:1-2, Deuteronomy 31:9, 22 2 Chronicles 35:12

Scriptures hinting that other authors could have written the Pentateuch:

In Genesis Dan is mentioned. Post-Mosaic authorship scholars will ask why Judges 18:29 calls Dan by the name Laish in the past. If Moses wrote the Pentateuch, wouldn't he have called the city Laish? There is controversy over whether this is the same city or not. There is also a question about whether Genesis was talking about the tribe of Dan and not the city of Dan.

Deuteronomy 34:5-8 - Moses' death.

-- According to scholars, the way the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch is written today is nothing like it might have appeared in Moses' day. For hundreds of years, the Hebrew text was copied by hand. In the process of copying, the shape of the letters was completely changed. Vowel points and accents were added. Words were separated word by word and divided into verses and chapters.

-- Wellhausen's J E D P sources. J = Jehovah, E = Elohim, D = Deuteronomy, P = Priestly

It is not necessary that we know the date and authorship of a book in the Bible before we can read it with profit. At times we must sacrifice our need for security in certainty to God's nature as sovereign mystery.

Deut. 34:10 "And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face."

2 Chronicles 35:12 -- Calls the Pentateuch the books of Moses "And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen." This wasn't one of the Ten Commandments, further proving that the book of Moses refers to the Pentateuch and not merely a single book or chapter.

His name means "Drawn out of water"

He is referred to as a "man of God"

Was the mouthpiece of God to Pharoah when the plagues were unleashed on Egypt.

Moses and the law are referred to in the NT, 14 times. The Greek word for law is "nomos." This does not mean simply the 10 commandments or the book of Exodus.

Moses went up to Mt. Sinai and got the 10 commandments from God. So, even though he wasn't born until the beginning of the book of Exodus, he could have written Genesis.

God gave Moses special powers:

His rod turned into a snake and back into a rod.

His hand could become leprous, then return to normal.

He parted the Red Sea.

"There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel" (Deut. 34:10-12)

Moses is mentioned 8 times in the Psalms.

Jude mentions the body of Moses--that is how important he is.

Date and Authorship The problem of the date and authorship of the Pentateuch is one of the major critical problems of the Old Testament. Dr. John R. Sampey wrote,

Possibly the higher criticism of the Pentateuch is the most important critical problem confronting students of the Old Testament. Fundamental and difficult it calls for patience, industry and the ability to sift evidence and estimate its value. It requires logical discipline and a well-balanced mind [John R. Sampey, Syllabus For Old Testament Study (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1924), p. 52].

The existence of sources for its writing is not the major issue, but its inspiration and reliability in its present form.

One reason the question of date and authorship of the Pentateuch is difficult is that the books themselves are anonymous. Most English Bibles carry the titles of the first five books as "the books of Moses." These titles are not in the Hebrew manuscripts. They came into England through Tyndale's version and were probably derived from Luther's translation which used only the numerical titles, "First Book of Moses," and so on to the fifth.

Although the books of the Pentateuch as a whole are anonymous, a number of passages refer to Moses writing at least certain things (compare Ex. 17:14 "And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.";Ex. 24:4 "And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel."; Num. 33:1-2 "These are the journeys of the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the LORD: and these are their journeys according to their goings out."; Deut. 31:9, 22 "And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel."). Late in the Old Testament period, the tradition arose which seemingly refers to the Pentateuch as the "Book of Moses" (2 Chron. 35:12). This tradition was carried on by Jews and Christians until after A.D. 1600. Some Jews and Christians raised occasional questions about the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch during all that time, but the Renaissance and the Enlightenment led to the questioning of all things including the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. One passage in the Pentateuch which contributed to the serious questioning of Mosaic authorship is Deuteronomy 34:5-8, describing Moses' death and the following period of mourning. Other post-Mosaic references are to Dan (Gen. 14:14; compare Josh. 19:47; Judg. 18:28b-29), and the conquest of Canaan (Deut. 2:12). The way the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch is written today is nothing like it might have appeared in Moses' day. For hundreds of years, the Hebrew text was copied by hand. In the process of copying, the shape of the letters was completely changed. Vowel points and accents were added. Words were separated word by word and divided into verses and chapters.

We do not know who wrote the completed Pentateuch. The Pentateuch makes no claim that Moses wrote all of it. Many theories and hypotheses have been advanced to explain its origin. The classical literary critical theory is associated with the name of Julius Wellhausen, a nineteenth century German scholar. He popularized and synthesized the views of many Old Testament scholars and said that the Pentateuch was a compilation of four basic literary documents identified as J, E, D, and P. J stood for Jehovah or Judah and supposedly was written in the Southern Kingdom about 850 B.C. E stood for Elohim, a favorite Hebrew name for God in this document. It was supposedly written about 750 B.C. D stands for Deuteronomy and was written according to this hypothesis about 621 B.C. P stands for the Priestly document and was written about 500 B.C. The Priestly writer might have compiled the whole Pentateuch according to this theory.

Many other theories and modifications of older theories have arisen in the twentieth century. Critical scholarship's earlier agreement on the four sources has disappeared in the 1980s. Some date P early. Some date J very late. Some see D as the dominant author. Many are more interested in the literary art of the Pentateuch than in literary sources. Scholars are thus no closer to a solution to the problem of the authorship of the Pentateuch than they were when they first asked questions about it.