Nephi’s statement, that the plates of brass contained “the five books
of Moses” would seem to imply that the answer to these questions is yes (1
Nephi 5:11). This is not necessarily so, however. A quarter century ago,
Kevin Barney suggested that this expression could be a translator’s gloss for
another expression Nephi might have used for this material as it existed and
was known in his day. Furthermore, if the basics of the classic Documentary
Hypothesis are accepted, the source material could have existed in the form of
“five books” — J, E, D, P, and H — before the final compilation into the Torah
as it is known today. This could be reduced to only four sources if either JE
or P/H are taken to be a single source by 600 BC. But since the Book of Mormon
indicates the existence of additional material not attested in the current
Pentateuch with a seemingly northern kingdom bias (such as 2 Nephi 3), one
could still hypothesize a fifth source (call it N for “northern source”)
on the plates of brass.
That said, there is some evidence to suggest that the source material
had been compiled into something closely resembling the Torah, as it stands
today, by the seventh century BC. First, as already noted, Deuteronomy, more or
less as presently constituted, essentially dates to the early to mid-seventh
century BC, with much of the core, and even the overall structure, going back
even earlier; and Deuteronomy shows awareness of both the narrative and legal
material from Genesis to Numbers. To quote, again, from Berman, “Deuteronomy
seems to rely on the reader’s familiarity with the accounts as they appear in
the Tetrateuch [i.e., Genesis–Numbers].” Benjamin Kilchör concluded from a
detailed study of the legal material in the Pentateuch, that “Deuteronomic law
pre-supposes Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers more or less in their present shape
and in quasicanonical prestige.”
Deuteronomy, then, the “linchpin” of Pentateuchal dating, attests to
the existence of the rest of the Torah, essentially in its current form, no
later than the mid-seventh century BC.
In addition to Deuteronomy, the prophetic works of Jeremiah and
Ezekiel, written in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC, demonstrate
familiarity with material traditionally attributed to both P and D. The ways
these prophetic works interact with (and sometimes blend) the laws of P and D
can only be explained if both the P and D sources pre-dated the
composition of Jeramiah. It further suggests that both legal codes were part of
an established, authoritative corpus together. Georg Fischer goes even further,
arguing that the book of Jeremiah betrays familiarity with the Pentateuch as a
whole, in essentially the same form as it exists today. “Overall, the links
between the books of the Torah and Jeremiah are too many and too strong to be
accidental. They span the whole range, from the first chapter of Genesis to the
final frame of Deuteronomy …. No book of the Torah is missing. … The author of
Jeremiah was obviously very closely acquainted with the whole Torah.” Passages
of Ezekiel, too, indicate knowledge of all parts (JE, P/H, and D) of the Torah,
sometimes in their combined form. (Neal Rappleye, “’They Did Contain the Five Books
of Moses’: Source Criticism and the Contents of the Plates of Brass,” in “Open
Thou Mine Eyes”: Defending the Old Testament in Latter-day Saint Doctrine:
Proceedings From the 2025 FAIR Virtual Conference and Additional Papers,
ed. Jared Riddick, Sarah N. Allen, Spencer Kraus, and Trevor Holyoak [Redding,
Calif.: FAIR, 2025], 383-85)
