Spinoza was particularly concerned
with the post-Mosaic features of the Pentateuch. He was right to point out that
no one should argue that Moses wrote every word of the Pentateuch as we now
have it. The Torah itself does not allow this. Aside from the report of Moses’s
death (Deut 34), Deut 2:12b tells us that the Edomites “destroyed the Horites
from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the
LORD gave them as their possession.” This is clearly written from a postconquest
point of view. Similarly, at one point the Esau genealogy in Gen 36 tells us
that “these are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before a king ruled
over the Israelites” (v. 31). This verse is written from a historical point of
view after there were kings over Israel; therefore, long after Moses.
Apparently, a later writer added this section into the genealogy from some
other source, whether it be the parallel passage in 1 Chr 1:43-50 (cf. Gen
36:31-39) or some other unknown source common to both. These are just a few
examples. On the one hand, therefore, we know from the text itself that Moses
did not write every word of the Pentateuch as we now have it. On the other
hand, the text plainly tells us that Moses wrote down certain—sometimes major—portions
of the Pentateuch (e.g., Exod 17:4; 24:4, 7”; the scroll of the covenant”; Deut
31:9 “Moses wrote this Torah,” and vv. 19, 22, 30, which refer to him writing
down הַאֲזינוּ, the magnificent poem record in Deut 32:1-43). In many other places
the text tells us that God spoke to and through Moses. What should we make of
this? Although many in the academy would deny that Moses ever existed, or that
if he did, he had nothing or very little to do with the actual composition of
the Pentateuch, many others take Moses seriously as a historical person and
author of the Pentateuch. The point here is that the text itself no doubt
claims there was a historical Moses, and that he had a good deal to do with the
origin and composition of the Pentateuch. (Richard E. Averbeck, “The Exodus,
Debt Slavery, and the Composition of the Pentateuch,” in Exploring the
Composition of the Pentateuch, ed. L. S. Baker Jr., Kenneth Bergland,
Felipe A. Masotti, and A. Rahel Wells [Bulletin for Biblical Research
Supplement 27; University Park, Pa.: Eisenbrauns, 2020], 30-31)
