06.07. Why I Believe Moses Wrote the Pentateuch
Chapter 6 Why I Believe Moses Wrote the Pentateuch
Why do I believe Moses wrote the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Law? This is the question I have been asking myself of late, and which I propose to answer in this chapter. I do this not because my opinion is of so much value to other people, but partly for my own satisfaction and partly because I believe that what will satisfy me will satisfy the average Christian, and it is for such I write.
1. I believe Moses wrote the Pentateuch because the whole Christian church and the whole Jewish nation have believed it, with fewest exceptions, during these past 3500 years; and these exceptions, for the most part, have been grouped together within a century. It is almost inconceivable that the Christian fathers and the leaders of the Jewish nation should have been so indifferent to this question, or so incapable of considering it, as never to have sifted it to the bottom; while on the other hand, living nearer its source they had better opportunities to do so than their successors in the present day.
2. I believe Moses wrote the Pentateuch because Jesus Christ believed it. Read his words in Mark 12:26, Luke 24:44, John 5:46-47, and elsewhere. In these words he speaks of Moses, of Moses’ writings, the book of Moses, the law of Moses, etc., and it is admitted by all the critics that in so doing He has in mind the Pentateuch as we have it today. Moreover, they admit that such was the understanding of His contemporaries, and of the hearers to whom He addressed these words But they add, Jesus was Himself mistaken! To be sure He was God, but in taking upon Him our nature He did, as to that nature, so empty Himself of His Godhead as to limit His capacity to know such things to that of His contemporaries.
You may not be ready to accept this, they say, and therefore we offer another hypothesis, viz. that Jesus may have been aware of the error of His contemporaries but felt Himself under no obligation to correct it. I must leave it with my readers as to whether they are prepared to accept either of these hypotheses. As for myself, I am not. My knowledge of the Son of God, gathered from the Gospels, from the teachings of the Old Testament prophets, and from the effects of His life, death and resurrection in all these centuries will not permit me to believe that He was ignorant of the authorship of the Pentateuch, or that knowing it to be other than that of the man Moses, He failed to correct the prevailing error of His time and of all time.
3. I believe Moses wrote the Pentateuch because other Scriptures of the Old Testament bear testimony to it. So frequent are these testimonies as to be quite familiar to every reader of the Bible, without quotation. The “Law,” the “Book of the Law,” the “Law of Moses,” “The Book of the Law of Moses,” how frequently we meet such references, what do they mean? “Oh,” it is answered, “these allusions should be interpreted in accordance with custom. Anonymous books are frequently named after the chief character in them, as in the instances of Ruth and Esther, and this is all that can properly be claimed for the so called law of Moses.” But what if “the so called law of Moses,” unlike the books of Ruth and Esther, for example, does itself claim to have been written by Moses?
4. This brings me to the last argument by which I satisfy myself of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Read Exodus 17:14; Exodus 24:3-4; Exodus 24:7; Exodus 34:27; Numbers 33:2; Deuteronomy 28:58-61; Deuteronomy 31:9; Deuteronomy 31:22; Deuteronomy 31:26; etc. According to these statements Moses wrote the account of the battle with the Amalekites, he wrote all the words of the Lord received in the mount; he wrote the account of the journeyings of Israel, and he wrote all the words of the book of Deuteronomy including those of his song. Some of the critics say, “Yes, he wrote all these things to which his name is attached, but he did not write the rest of the Pentateuch.” But if he wrote all these things, pray what was left, if we omit the book of Genesis?
Take Leviticus as an example. It has twenty-seven chapters, but in these twenty-seven chapters Moses’ name is mentioned fifty-four times in some such way as his, “And the Lord spake unto Moses.” To be sure, it does not say Moses wrote all that the Lord thus spake unto him, but who would be more likely to write it, or who more competent? Let us then omit from the book of Leviticus all thus ascribed to Moses, and how much of its contents would remain? The same may be asked of Deuteronomy. Professor Bissell has estimated that about 940 words out of every 1000 in that book are intrinsically associated with its direct claim of Mosaic authorship. And as to Genesis what shall we say? It contains no reference to Moses’ name, but he who has ever read the Pentateuch as a whole must be impressed with its natural connection with that which follows. Moreover no historical evidence exists that it was ever separate from that which follows. Then, too, competent scholars tell us that the language of the whole Pentateuch is of a piece, i.e., it all belongs to the same period of Israel’s history, the earliest period when the language was the purest and best. These things satisfy me, but we shall see in another chapter what the critics say concerning them.