Was Christ Mistaken?
The reader will be interested to know what Christ has to say of the critics' denial of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. For he who "spake as never man spake," he of whom the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him," this same Jesus had some very positive opinions on the subject before us. He has spoken clearly and definitely. We may not turn away from his testimony.
1. After healing the leper, our Lord said to him: "Go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them." (See Matt. viii. 4, Mark i. 44, Luke v. 14.)
Our Savior here quotes from Lev. xiv. 2-8. Moses had been commanded to write the words that God had given him. (Exod. xxxiv. 27.) "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord" (Exod. xxiv. 4), hence our Lord quotes the passage in Leviticus from Moses.
2. The Pharisees, always captious and controversial, sought to entangle the Savior in a discussion on the subject of divorce. Replying, "He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives." (Matt. xix. 8.) Our Lord here quotes from the Mosaic law (Deut. xxiv. I-4), recognizing Moses as the author of the same.
3. He rebuked the scribes and Pharisees also for turning from the word of God to the traditions of men. "For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother." (Mark vii. 10.) This quotation is from Exod. xx. 12, and Deut. v. 16. They had made the command of Moses of no effect, had violated the law which Christ taught had been given by Moses.
4. The Sadducees came to him with their controversy concerning the resurrection. They presented to him an unanswerable argument, as they supposed, against the doctrine, questioning as to whose wife she should be in the resurrection, who has had seven husbands in this life. Christ replied (Mark xii. 26, 27): "As touching the dead, that they rise; have ye not read in the book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living."
This quotation by our Lord is from Exod. iii. 6, and he calls the book from which it is made "the book of Moses." Did Christ know whether it was the book of Moses or of some unknown author who had so artfully palmed it off under false colors as to deceive the entire Jewish nation?
Or, as certain of the critics teach, did Christ know that the pretense that it was the book of Moses was a fraud, but, in view of public opinion, was unwilling to expose the deception? To ask these questions is to uncover the animus of the critical assumptions which logically attack the character of Christ himself.
Christ knew who was the author of the book, and knowing, he affirmed that it was "The Book of Moses."