The Authorship of the Pentateuch

Notes taken from Dr. Ron Meeks Old Testament I class.

1. The various views of authorship

• One author alone-The Traditional View: Hebrew, Samaritan, and early Christian tradition all regard Moses as the author or compiler of the Pentateuch. The one-author view acknowledges that Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch, apart from the account of his own death in Deut. 34.

• Documentary Hypothesis of Source Theory: A theory developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that divided the material in the Pentateuch into four major blocks and sought to relate these to one another and to the course of Israelite History. The theory assumes that Moses did not composed the Pentateuch but that it was the product of various periods in Israelite history. This theory is built upon the 5 pillars of documentary analysis.

1. Use of different names (of God)

2. differences in language and style

3. contradictions and divergences among various texts

4. duplication and repetition of material

5. The evidence of literary seams suggesting the combination of various sources. (Gentz, The Dictionary of Bible and Religion, 276-277)

• One author with later editors: This view acknowledges Moses as (1) the compiler of existing written sources into what is now know as Genesis and (2) the author of the bulk of the other four books of the Pentateuch. This approach is a viable conservative to the multiple authorship theories characteristic of most modern critical scholarship without rejecting the divine inspiration of the Old Testament.

• Oral Tradition, Multiple authors, and later editors: This hypothesis assumes that the oral transmission of Israelite historical foundations and folklore was foundational to the composition form. These small literary units were then collected and finally compiled into the five books of the Pentateuch.

1. Arguments for Mosaic Authorship

• Claims from within the Pentateuch (Ex. 17:14, 24:4, 34:27, Num. 33:1-2, Deut. 31:24)

• Claims from other O.T. Books (Josh. 1:7, Judges 3:4, 2 Chronicles 25:4, Ezra 6:18, Mal. 4:4)

• Claims from Jesus and the New Testament Writers (Matt. 8:4, Mark 7:10, 10:5, Luke 20:37, John 5:45-47, 7:19)

• Internal Evidences consistent with Mosaic Authorship

1. Eyewitness details appear in the account of the Exodus which suggest and actual participant in the events, but which would be altogether beyond the ken of an author who lived centuries after the event.

2. The author of Genesis and Exodus shows a thorough acquaintance with Egypt.

3. The author of the Torah shows a consistently foreign or extra-Palestinian viewpoint so far as Canaan is concerned.

4. The atmosphere of the Exodus through Numbers is unmistakably that of the desert, not of an agricultural people settled in their ancestral possessions of a thousand years.

5. There is a most remarkable unity of arrangement which underlies the entire Pentateuch and links it together into a progressive hole.

• The Qualifications of Moses

1. He had the education and background for authorship.

2. He would have personal knowledge of the climate, agricultural, and geography of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula such the author of the Pentateuch patently displays.

3. He would have the incentive as the founder of the nation.

4. He had the time to compose the documents.