Arguments Against Mosaic Authorship.
That the Pentateuch was not written by Moses, that it is an anonymous work belonging to a later age, is clearly proven by the following:
1. There is no proof that Moses ever claimed to be the author of the Pentateuch. There is nothing in the work, neither is there anything outside of it, to indicate that he was its author.
2. The ancient Hebrews did not believe that he wrote it. Renan says: “The opinion which attributes the composition of the Pentateuch to Moses seems quite modern; it is very certain that the ancient Hebrews never dreamed of regarding their legislator as their historian. The ancient documents appeared to them absolutely impersonal, and they attached to them no author’s name” (History of Semitic Languages, Book II., chapter i).
3. The Pentateuch was written in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew of the Bible did not exist in the time of Moses. Language is a growth. It takes centuries to develop it. It took a thousand years to develop the English language. The Hebrew of the Bible was not brought from Egypt, but grew in Palestine. Referring to this language, De Wette says: “Without doubt it originated in the land [Canaan] or was still further developed therein after the Hebrew and other Canaanitish people had migrated thither from the Northern country” (Old Testament, Part II.). Gesenius says that the Hebrew language scarcely antedates the time of David.
4. Not only is it true that the Hebrew language did not exist, but it is urged by critics that no written language, as we understand it, existed in Western Asia in the time of Moses. Prof. Andrew Norton says: “For a long time after the supposed date of the Pentateuch we find no proof of the existence of a book or even an inscription in proper alphabetical characters among the nations by whom the Hebrews were surrounded” (The Pentateuch, p. 44). Hieroglyphics were then in use, and it is not to be supposed that a work as large as the Pentateuch was written or engraved in hieroglyphics and carried about by this wandering tribe of ignorant Israelites.
5. Much of the Pentateuch is devoted to the history of Moses; but excepting a few brief compositions attributed to him and quoted by the author he is always referred to in the third person. The Pentateuch contains a biography, not an autobiography of Moses.
6. It contains an account of the death and burial of Moses which he could not have written:
“So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab.... And he buried him in a valley of the land of Moab” (Deut. xxxiv, 5, 6).
“And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days” (8).
Orthodox commentators attempt to remove this difficulty by supposing that the last chapter of Deuteronomy belongs to the book of Joshua, and that Joshua recorded the death of Moses. The same writer, referring to the appointment of Joshua as the successor of Moses, says: “And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom” (Deut. xxxiv, 9). If Joshua wrote this, however full of the spirit of wisdom he may have been, he certainly was not full of the spirit of modesty. Joshua did not write this chapter.
7. “No man knoweth of his [Moses’] sepulchre unto this day” (Deut. xxxiv, 6).
That the authorship of this chapter should ever have been attributed to either Moses or Joshua is incomprehensible. The language plainly shows that not merely one but many generations had elapsed between the time of Moses and the time that it was written.
8. While the advocates of the Mosaic authorship have, without proof, asserted that Joshua wrote the book of Joshua and the conclusion of Deuteronomy, the Higher Critics have demonstrated the common authorship of Deuteronomy and a large portion of Joshua. As all the events recorded in Joshua occurred after the death of Moses, he could not have been the author of Deuteronomy.
9. “They [the Israelites] did eat manna until they came unto the borders of Canaan” (Ex. xvi, 35).
This passage was written after the Israelites settled in Canaan and ceased to subsist on manna. And this was not until after the death of Moses.
10. “The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them” (Deut. ii, 12).
This refers to the conquest of Canaan and was written after that event.
11. “And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day” (Num. xv, 32).
When this was written the children of Israel were no longer in the wilderness. Their sojourn there is referred to as a past event. As Moses died while they were still in the wilderness—that is, before they had entered the promised land—it could not have been written by him.
12. “Thou shalt eat it within thy gates” (Deut. xv, 22).
The phrase, “within thy gates,” occurs in the Pentateuch about twenty-five times. It refers to the gates of the cities of the Israelites, which they did not inhabit until after the death of Moses.
13. “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, ... that the land spew not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you” (Lev. xviii, 26, 28).
When Moses died the nations alluded to still occupied the land and had not been expelled.
14. “And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen” (Gen. xxii, 14).
This is one of the passages adduced by the critics of the seventeenth century against the Mosaic authorship of these books. It implies the conquest and a long occupancy of the land by the Israelites.
15. “And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan” (Gen. xxiii, 2). “And Jacob came ... unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron” (xxxv, 27).
Moses’ uncle was named Hebron, and from him the Hebronites were descended. After the Conquest this family settled in Kirjath-arba and changed the name of the city to Hebron.
16. “And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem” (Gen. xxxv, 19).
The Hebrew name of Bethlehem was not given to this city until after the Israelites had conquered and occupied it.
17. “For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon?” (Deut. iii, 11.)
This is another passage relied upon by the early critics to disprove the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. The writer’s reference to the bedstead of Og, which was still preserved as a relic at Rabbath, indicates a time long subsequent to the conquest of Bashan.
18. “Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance” (Deut. xix, 14).
This refers to the ancient landmarks set by the Israelites when they obtained possession of Canaan, and was written centuries after that time.
19. “And Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the small towns thereof, and called them Havoth-jair” (Num. xxxii, 41).
The above is evidently a misstatement of an event recorded in Judges:
“And after him [Tola] arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years. And he had thirty sons, ... and they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-jair unto this day” (Jud. x, 3, 4).
Jair was judge of Israel from 1210 to 1188 b.c., or from 241 to 263 years after the date assigned for the writing of the Pentateuch.
20. “And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his own name” (Num. xxxii, 42).
Referring to this and the preceding passage, Dr. Oort says: “It is certain that Jair, the Gileadite, the conqueror of Bashan, after whom thirty places were called Jair’s villages, lived in the time of the Judges, and that a part of Bashan was conquered at a still later period by a certain Nobah” (Bible for Learners, vol. i, p. 329).
21. “Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair, unto this day” (Deut. iii, 14).
Even if Jair had lived in the time of Moses, the phrase “unto this day” shows that it was written long after the event described.
22. “And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan” (Gen. xiv, 14).
This passage could not have been written before Dan existed. In Judges (xviii, 26–29) the following account of the origin of this place is given: “And the children of Dan went their way; ... and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.... And they built a city, and dwelt therein. And they called the name of the city Dan.” This is placed after the death of Samson, and Samson died, according to Bible chronology, 1120 B.C.—331 years after Moses died.
23. “And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Israel” (Gen. xxxvi, 31).
This could not have been written before the kingdom of Israel was established; for the writer is familiar with the fact that kings have reigned in Israel. Saul, the first king of Israel, began to reign 356 years after Moses.
24. “And his [Israel’s] king shall be higher than Agag” (Num. xxiv, 7).
This refers to Saul’s defeat of Agag. “And he [Saul] took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword” (1 Sam. xv, 8). The defeat of Agag is placed in 1067 B.C., 384 years after Moses.
25. “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, ... until Shiloh come” (Gen. xlix, 10).
These words are ascribed to Jacob; but they could not have been written before Judah received the sceptre, which was not until David ascended the throne, 396 years after the death of Moses.
26. “And the Canaanite was then in the land” (Gen. xii, 6).
When this was written the Canaanite had ceased to be an inhabitant of Palestine. As a remnant of the Canaanites inhabited this country up to the time of David, it could not have been written prior to his time.
27. “The Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land” (Gen. xiii, 7).
This, like the preceding passage, could not have been written before the time of David. The Perizzites, also, inhabited Palestine for a long period after the conquest. In the time of the Judges “the children of Israel dwelt among the ... Perizzites” (Jud. iii, 5).
28. “The first of the first fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God” (Ex. xxiii, 19).
This was not written before the time of Solomon; for God had no house prior to the erection of the temple, 1004 B.C., 447 years after Moses. When David proposed to build him a house, he forbade it and said:
“I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle” (2 Sam. vii, 6).
The tabernacle itself was a tent (Tent of Meeting). During all this time no house was ever used as a sanctuary.
29. “One from among the brethren shalt thou set king over thee.... But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses.... Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold” (Deut. xvii, 15–17).
“And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses” (1 Kings iv, 26). “And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt” (x, 28). “And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart” (xi, 3). “The weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred three score and six talents of gold” (x, 14). “And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones” (27).
Nothing can be plainer than that this statute in Deuteronomy was written after Solomon’s reign. The extravagance and debaucheries of this monarch had greatly impoverished and corrupted the kingdom, and to prevent a recurrence of such excesses this law was enacted.
30. “If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, ... thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment” (Deut. xvii, 8, 9).
This court was established by Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xix, 8–11). Jehoshaphat commenced his reign 914 B.C., 537 years after Moses.
31. “But in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there shalt thou do all that I command thee” (Deut. xii, 14).
“Is it not he [the Lord] whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?” (Is. xxxvi, 7).
Up to the time of Hezekiah the Hebrews worshiped at many altars. Hezekiah removed these altars and established the one central altar at Jerusalem. This was in 726 B.C.—725 years after Moses.
32. “And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships” (Deut. xxviii, 68).
This, critics affirm, was written when Psameticus was king of Egypt. He reigned from 663 to 609 B.C.
33. “Neither shalt thou set thee up any image [pillar]” (Deut. xvi, 22).
This proves the late origin of the Pentateuch, or at least of Deuteronomy. Isaiah (xix, 19) instructs them to do the very thing which they are here forbidden to do, and as he would not have advised a violation of the law it is evident that this statute could not have existed in his time. Isaiah died about 750 years after Moses died.
34. The worship of the sun, moon, and stars by the Jews, is mentioned and condemned (Deut. iv, 19; xvii, 3). This nature worship was adopted by them in the reign of Manasseh, 800 years after Moses.
35. “Wherefore it is said in the book of the Wars of the Lord, what he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon” (Num. xxi, 14).
The author of the Pentateuch here cites a book older than the Pentateuch, which gives an account of the journeyings of the Israelites from Egypt to Moab—from the Exodus to the end of Moses’ career.
36. “And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly” (Deut. xxvii, 8).
“And he [Joshua] wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses” (Josh. viii, 32).
Christians affirm that the Law of Moses and the Pentateuch are one. That this Law of Moses was not the one hundred and fifty thousand words of the Pentateuch is shown by the fact that after the death of Moses it was all engraved upon a stone altar.
37. “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num. xii, 3).
No writer would bestow such fulsome praise upon himself. This was written by a devout admirer of Moses, but it was not written by Moses.
38. “And this is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death” (Deut. xxxiii, 1).
There are three reasons for rejecting the Mosaic authorship of this: Moses is spoken of in laudatory terms; he is spoken of in the third person; his death is referred to as an event that is already past.
39. “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses” (Deut. xxxiv, 10).
Not only is the highest praise bestowed upon Moses, a thing which he would not have done, but the language clearly shows that it was written centuries after the time he lived.
40. The religious history of the Hebrews embraces three periods of time, each covering centuries. During the first period the worship of Jehovah was confined to no particular place; during the second it was confined to the holy city, Jerusalem; during the third it was confined, not merely to Jerusalem, but to the temple itself. There are writings in the Pentateuch belonging to each of these periods. The Encyclopedia Britannica declares that this fact alone affords overwhelming disproof of Mosaic authorship.
41. The religion of the Pentateuch was not a revelation, but an evolution. The priestly offices, the feasts, the sacrifices, and other religious observances underwent many changes, these changes representing different stages of development in Israel’s religion and requiring centuries of time to effect.
42. The legislation of the Pentateuch was also the growth of centuries. Some of the minor codes are much older than the documents containing them. There is legislation older than David, 1055 B.C.—probably as old as Moses, 1451 B.C. There is legislation belonging to the time of Josiah, 626 B.C., of Ezekiel, 575 B.C., of Ezra, 456 B.C. Would it not be absurd to claim that all the laws of England from Alfred to Victoria were the work of one mind, Alfred? And is it less absurd to claim that all the laws of the Jews from Moses to Ezra were instituted by Moses?
43. The Pentateuch abounds with repetitions and contradictions. The first two chapters of Genesis contain two accounts of the Creation differing in every important particular. In the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of Genesis two different and contradictory accounts of the Deluge are intermingled. Exodus and Deuteronomy each contain a copy of the Decalogue, the two differing as to the reason assigned for the institution of the Sabbath. There are several different versions of the call of Abraham; different and conflicting stories of the Egyptian plagues; contradictory accounts of the conquest of Canaan.