ISSUE #11 // JANUARY 2025
MOMENT OF TRUTH
Who really wrote the first five books of the Bible?
Did Moses write the Books of Moses?
That might sound like a silly question. Of course he did! But ‘Progressive Christians’ want us to ‘progress’ in our interpretation of the faith. They seek to undermine the authority of God’s Word. Consequently those loyal to Christ are compelled to ‘contend for the faith’ (Jude 1:3). The ‘liberal loonies of the Christian left’ (as some impolitely call them) like to teach religion in backslidden Christian schools. They offer their students the choice between believing that God (the One who refers to himself as the Unchanging One) has changed his mind on many fundamental philosophical and moral issues over the years, or that the holy scriptures (which the apostle Peter described as ‘breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness’) are in fact not holy at all, but merely a collection of fairy stories and the fallible theories of unenlightened men (such as the apostle Paul who was ‘taken to the third heaven’ to be taught face to face by Jesus before he shared what he learnt in his letters).
Answering the question of Mosaic authorship is about far more than historical accuracy. Upon it hinges the credibility, authority and accuracy of the entire Bible. If Moses didn’t write the Pentateuch, what assurance do we have that any of the Bible was divinely inspired and that any of it is relevant to us? These ‘Progressive’ skeptics are peddling the idea that the books of Moses were written a thousand years after Moses’ time, being composed of many different sources. Let’s drill some holes in this limp-wristed Documentary Hypothesis:
Internal Integrity
From a biblical perspective it is beyond reasonable doubt that Moses was the author of at least large parts of the first five books of the Bible – the Pentateuch (or ‘Torah’ as it is also called). The Pentateuch clearly states to have been written by Moses, for example in Exodus 17:14, Exodus 24:4 or Deuteronomy 31:9. This is confirmed by later biblical authors and Christ himself, when He said:
“For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46). Note how Jesus didn’t just say that Moses wrote the books; he’s staking a lot on that reality.
Historiography
There are clear historiographical differences between the Torah and the later biblical writings. Exodus, for example, does not name any of the Egyptian Kings. At the time Moses wrote the Torah it was the standard practice among Egyptian scribes to not write the names of foreign Kings. Moses (who was educated in Egypt) followed this convention of his day, not naming the foreign Kings of Egypt, Israel’s enemy. Later biblical writers, following the historiographical conventions of their day, did record the names of Egyptian Kings (e.g. 1 Kings 11:40; 2 Kings 23:29)
Unified Narrative
Is not the Pentateuch – as a single, unified narrative – best explained by the authorship of one person? The books’ internal coherence, its consistent themes, and overarching message all point to a single author.
External Historicity
Jewish tradition and biblical scholarship have consistently held Moses as the author of the first five books of the Bible. Early Jewish writers and historians like Philo for example (in the first century BC) and Josephus (in the first century AD) accepted Moses as the author of the Pentateuch and treated the books as historically authoritative.
Archaeology
The material and findings from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the ancient Near East support the credibility of the events described in the Pentateuch. And with the evidence gathered from ancient cultures we can be confident that royal scribes and leaders were capable of documenting extensive records. The Turin Canon or the Pyramid Texts from Egypt, dating back to around 2350–2100 BC, strongly support the idea that someone like Moses, who received a royal education in Egypt, could have written the Pentateuch.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
‘Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.’
C.S. LEWIS
This is just a sampling of the extra-biblical evidence for Mosaic authorship.
By the way, did you hear about the two tiny silver scrolls found at a tomb on the west side of the Hinnom valley in Jerusalem in 1979? These were dated back to the seventh century BC and record part of the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6:24–26. These demonstrate that ancient texts (especially biblical texts with the preserving hand of God upon them) have been copied and handed down from one generation to the next, over many centuries, without alteration.
Common Arguments Against Mosaic Authorship
A favourite of the skeptics – The Documentary Hypothesis – suggests that the Pentateuch is a compilation of multiple sources (commonly labeled as J, E, D, and P) written by different authors over centuries. Its arguments, such as the use of different names for God (which doesn’t necessarily suggest different authors or times, merely different literary styles or theological emphases), are unconvincing, and are founded on faulty atheistic, evolutionary assumptions, like the assumption that people back then would not have been intelligent enough to write such a document, or the belief that Bible is not a supernatural revelation from God. Furthermore, no direct manuscripts from the supposed authors (J, E, D, P) have ever actually been found.
Another argument is that Deuteronomy Chapter 34 records the death of Moses (the claim being that Moses can’t have written the books because, obviously, he can’t have written about his own death).
That Moses was the author of the Pentateuch doesn’t mean he wrote every single word. Obviously, the account of his death will have been added by someone else, most likely Joshua, his assistant and successor.
We could perhaps have saved ourselves the effort of reviewing all this evidence by simply applying a little common sense. Is it such a great stretch of the imagination to think that Moses might have had a thing or two to write down after his lengthy face-to-face conversations with Almighty God (Exodus 33:11), the creator of the universe (like, you know, the creation account or the history of his people)? Having in mind his royal education in Egypt, his position as leader and lawgiver in the nation of Israel and his friendship with God, there is no other ancient Hebrew who was more qualified than Moses to write the Pentateuch.
Biblical scepticism isn’t new. Attempts to attack the faith and undermine the Bible have been around for centuries. But with the recent avalanche of archeological discoveries – all confirming and none contradicting the authenticity of the Bible’s most ancient stories – it’s only a matter of time before the last remnants of this argument against Mosaic authorship are also utterly demolished. Until then, we can cling to the truth of God’s Word, knowing it is completely accurate and trustworthy. As Paul wrote in Romans 3:4, ‘Let God be true but every man a liar’ (NKJV).
P.S. Did you hear about the discovery of the likely resting place of Noah’s ark
‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’
2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17 (NIV)
FACT OF THE WEEK
A woman from Indiana was healed of stage 4 incurable colon cancer with tumors in the lungs, liver, and colon in August 2017 after visiting the healing rooms at Bethel Church, Redding. Bethel takes God at his word and believes in the power of God’s Word to transform and heal, frequently seeing healings of all shapes and sizes.
