That the Torah has been redacted over time is indisputable, though it is denied by some fundamentalists. Consider, for example, the following evidence which shows that the Torah has been redacted by post-Mosaic editors:
Did Jesus Attribute Mosaic Authorship to the Entire Torah?
In their "response" to my article, Refuting Jeff Durbin on "Mormonism" James White and Jeff Durbin held that Jesus believed and taught that Moses authored the entire Torah. Consider the following texts often used by White, Walter Kaiser, and others to support this contention:
However, in these and other texts, Christ never says that the Torah was written en toto by Moses. Mark 10:5 says Moses wrote the commandment concerning divorce, and John 5:46-47, in which Christ tells His opponents that if they had believed Moses they would have believed Jesus since Moses wrote about him. However, Christ does not attribute the Torah to Moses in either passage; Christ never attributes the Pentateuch to Moses at all.
Further evidence of the redacted nature of the Torah and non-Mosaic authorship of much of the five books (Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy) would include the fact that not a single book of the Torah is written from Moses' first-person perspective; the writer of each book of the Torah refers to Moses in the third person as if someone else is the writer. Further, notwithstanding Moses' words being used in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the final versions of the books themselves we now possess were clearly not written by him. Additionally, the Bible itself describes what Moses spoke and/or wrote, demonstrating Moses was not responsible for the Pentateuch itself. This is what Moses is recorded as being responsible for.
Again, James White and others are way out in left field on this issue and other topics.
· Gen 12:6; 13:7 were written from the perspective of someone living in a time when the Canaanites were no longer in the land.
· The list of Edomite kings in Gen 36
· The phrase "before there reigned any kings over the children of Israel" (Gen 36:31), indicating that the author was living at a time when kings were part of Israel's history (a note which would have been unnecessary during the time of Moses and his contemporaries)
· The statement "No prophet ever again arose in Israel like Moses" in Deut 34:10
· Reference to the "book of the wars of the Lord" (Num 21:14) as an account corroborating a geographical description (Moses would not have needed to write this to an audience contemporary with these events and the geography thereof)
· The parenthetical note in Deut 2:20-23 is from an author later than Moses, explaining the presence of the Ammonites in the and, and why God had instructed Israel (through Moses) not to fight them.
· Use of the place name "Dan" in Gen 14:14--this place was originally known as Laish, and was not captured by Dan until the time of the Judges.
· The explanatory note "Kiriath Araba (that is, Hebron)" in Gen 23:2--this change of place name did not happen until the time of Joshua.
· The use of "Bethlehem" as a place name in Gen 35:19; 48:7.
· Repeated explanations of where certain places are, showing the reader was not going to be familiar with them (unnecessary for anyone living during Moses' or Joshua's time)--the wilderness of Zin, identified for the reader as being between Elim and Sinai (Exo 16:1; Num 33:36); Ijeabarim, identified as being near Moab (Num 21;11); Arnon, identified as the border of Moab (Num 21;13); a clarification necessary because previously it belonged to the Amorites (Judges 11:22-26); Etham, identified as being on the edge of the wilderness (Num 33:6); Jebus being identified as Jerusalem (Joshua 18:28; Judges 19:10).
· Reference in Gen 10:12 to "the great city of Calah" which did not exist until the ninth century BC.
Did Jesus Attribute Mosaic Authorship to the Entire Torah?
In their "response" to my article, Refuting Jeff Durbin on "Mormonism" James White and Jeff Durbin held that Jesus believed and taught that Moses authored the entire Torah. Consider the following texts often used by White, Walter Kaiser, and others to support this contention:
And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart and he wrote you this precept. (Mark 10:5)
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? (John 5:46-47)
Further evidence of the redacted nature of the Torah and non-Mosaic authorship of much of the five books (Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy) would include the fact that not a single book of the Torah is written from Moses' first-person perspective; the writer of each book of the Torah refers to Moses in the third person as if someone else is the writer. Further, notwithstanding Moses' words being used in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the final versions of the books themselves we now possess were clearly not written by him. Additionally, the Bible itself describes what Moses spoke and/or wrote, demonstrating Moses was not responsible for the Pentateuch itself. This is what Moses is recorded as being responsible for.
Again, James White and others are way out in left field on this issue and other topics.
