Samaritans and Mohammedans have accused the Jews of having altered the text of the Bible; but they have not proved the charge. (See Emunah-ramah, 5th Principle, chap. ii.)
Modern critics have impugned the authenticity of most of the Biblical books. We will discuss their opinions concerning three of these books, and these are the most important ones concerning which Tradition speaks most decidedly, viz., the Pentateuch, the Prophecies of Isaiah, and the Book of Daniel.
The existence of the Pentateuch at the time when the other Biblical books were written is clear from the frequent references to the history and the laws contained in it. Such are, e.g.: “Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee,” &c. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth,” &c. (Jos. i. 7, 8). “As Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses,” &c. “And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and cursing, according to all that is written in the book of the law” (Ibid. viii. 31, 32, 34). “Keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses,” &c. (1 Kings [[206]]ii. 3). “But the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses,” &c. (2 Kings xiv. 6). “Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of the covenant” (Ibid. xxiii. 21). “Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, statutes and judgments” (Mal. iii. 16).
The authors of the other books of the Bible show familiarity with the words, the phrases, and the contents of the Pentateuch. Thus Psalm civ. is based on the first chapter of Genesis; the flood is mentioned in Ps. xxix. and in the prophecies of Isaiah (liv. 9); the history of the Patriarchs and of the Israelites in Egypt and in the wilderness in Ps. cvi., lxxviii.; the history of Jacob is alluded to in Hosea xii.; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Isa. i. 9, Amos iv. 11.
Of the laws contained in the Pentateuch many are mentioned or alluded to in the books of the Prophets and the Hagiographa; the feast of Passover (Jos. iv.), Tabernacles (Zech. xiv. 16–20, Ezra iii. 4, Neh. viii. 14–18); the first day[22] of the seventh month (New-year) is mentioned as a “holy day” (Neh. viii. 10). The dietary laws are referred to by Isaiah (lxvi. 17); the laws of cleanness and uncleanness form the text of a prophecy of Haggai (ii. 10 sqq.). Such phrases as “Uncircumcised in heart” (Jer. ix. 25) and “Thou wilt purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean” (Ps. li. 9) show familiarity with the laws of the Pentateuch. Sabbath and sacrifices are frequently mentioned. Critics, however, assert that certain laws seem to have been unknown or out of practice in the period of the Judges and the Kings. There is, e.g., a perfect silence as to the celebration of “the Day of Blowing the shofar” and “the Day of Atonement,” even where such [[207]]mention is suggested by the context, as Kings viii. 65, 66, and Nehemiah viii. But the inspired historians preferred to describe the celebration of those festivals that had been neglected, or those that were also of national and political importance by concentrating the mass of the people in the capital; such festivals were Passover and Tabernacles. The Day of Blowing the shofar and the Day of Atonement were set aside for quiet, private devotion and meditation, the additional service in the Temple being in the hands of the priests, and the observation of these days as holy days in accordance with the Law was a matter of course, and was not considered by the authors as a memorable event that required special notice. One of the prophecies of Isaiah (chap, lviii.) seems to have reference to the Day of Atonement.
That in the days of the Judges, when “every man did what was right in his eyes,” and during the reign of wicked kings many laws were ignored or broken is not at all surprising. When the sacrifices offered up by Samuel and Solomon are adduced as a proof that the Law, which only allows priests to sacrifice, was not known in those days, the argument is based on a misinterpretation of the Biblical text. When laymen brought sacrifices, the priests performed the service for them; the principal thing to be mentioned was in whose name or in whose presence the sacrifice was brought; it was unnecessary to state that the priests had to sprinkle the blood and to burn certain portions upon the altar; no one doubted it.
Another argument against the authenticity of the Pentateuch has been based on the fact related in the second book of Kings (xxii. 8 sqq.): “And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found a book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it [[208]]came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.” It is maintained by some scholars that the book, which seems to have been an unknown thing to those who found it and to the king, had only just then been written. This is not what is directly stated in the Bible. Hilkiah speaks of the Law התורה, the well-known Torah; he would not have said so if the Torah had not been in existence before. Furthermore, the king on hearing the words of the book rent his garments, and sent to inquire of the Lord concerning the words of this book; for “great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book.” These words of the king clearly show that the king was convinced of the divine character of the book, and also of its existence in the time of his forefathers. The fact that King Josiah accuses “the fathers” suggests the following explanation of the event:—During the reign of the wicked King Manasseh the reading of the Law was interrupted; the book itself was hidden lest it should be destroyed by the idolatrous priests; now that it was found again, the king was reminded that the Torah had been neglected in the interval through the sin of the preceding generation. Whether there was another copy of the Law in the Temple, whether the one found by Hilkiah was complete, or contained only a portion of the Law, perhaps Deuteronomy, chap. xxvii. and chap. xxviii., which are in the Pentateuch called “the words of this covenant” and also “the words of the curse,” titles which occur also in reference to the above copy in the books of Kings and Chronicles; to these and similar questions the Biblical account gives no decided answer. Only so much is certain that the book found was not new or unknown to those who found it, and the king recognised it as the book of the Torah.
Far from finding in the other books of the Bible any evidence—whether positive or negative—of the later origin [[209]]of the Torah, we feel convinced that their contents presuppose not only the existence of the Torah, but also the authors’ familiarity with it. Without the Torah the other books are unintelligible. There is nothing in the Pentateuch that betrays a post-Mosaic origin. If the Pentateuch had been written in the period of the Kings, the author would have mentioned Jerusalem as the appointed place for the Sanctuary; in the rebukes (תוכחה), in addition to idolatry, the social corruption pointed out by the prophets would have been mentioned; the restrictive law concerning the marriage of heiresses would have been superfluous, as it only applied to the first generation that entered Palestine.
The phrase עבר הירדן has been quoted as a proof that the author of the Pentateuch must have lived in Palestine, or else he could not have called the east banks of the Jordan “the other side of Jordan;” but this translation is wrong. The phrase only means the banks of Jordan.
In the Talmud the Pentateuch in its entirety is ascribed to Moses. “Moses wrote his book and the book of Bileam” (Babyl. Talm. Baba Bathra, 14b). The book of Bileam is the section of Numbers which contains the parables of Bileam (from xxii. 2 to xxiv.).