Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Reynolds and Sjodahl on 1 Nephi 5:11 and the Pentateuch

  

THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES

 

1 Nephi 5:11

 

The Pentateuch. As regards the first books of the Old Testament, we must suppose that Moses, or his secretaries under his supervision, recorded the chief events of the day. The notes, properly collated and edited, became the law. They were, in all probability, kept near the sacred chest, or ark, in which the stone tables, the pot of manna, and the rod of Aaron, were deposited. See Deut. 31:26, where we read, "Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." There must also have been copies of this law in the possession of the leaders of the people, whose duty it was to expound it and to administer the ordinances.

 

At some time Moses wrote, or caused to be written, under his direction, the introduction to the law which we have in Genesis—the account of the creation, the flood, the building of the tower, the history of the Patriarch Abraham and his immediate descendants down to the exodus. And towards the end of his life he added the fifth book, which is called Deuteronomy, because it is a recapitulation of many things previously recorded. It contains chiefly the moral law, as promulgated by Moses just before his departure. Jesus and his first Apostles loved this book. It is quoted at least 32 times in the New Testament, and scholars have recognized about 80 references to it in the latter part of the Bible.

 

The Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch cannot be successfully denied. By that I do not mean that Moses wrote everything in that volume with his own hand. But no matter who did the mechanical work, or when, the books are Mosaic. They came from him. Genesis is no doubt based upon documents and literature to which Moses had access, and which he had studied in Egypt, and in the land of Midian. The story of the expedition of Amraphel for instance, is probably based on records then existing. But besides such sources of information, revelations were given to Moses concerning the heavens and the earth, and the children of men to the last generations. (See the Pearl of Great Price, Book of Moses.) He had first-hand information from the Source of all truth. (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Press, 1976], 1:450, emphasis in bold added)