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).