I have been taught that Moses is the author of the first five books, but when I read Deuteronomy 34:5-10, it indicates an obituary of the author; How could this be? Nkurunzizza
Thank you for the question, Brother Nkurunziza. We hope you enjoy the Good News paper, and we thank God for all our readers. To answer the question about the authorship of the Bible’s first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy), we need to share the two schools of thought about the same for your consumption.
Moses as the author
Many believe that Moses, who led the children of Israel out of slavery, to whom the law was given, and who was also one of the earliest prophets to Israel, is the author of the first five books of the Bible.
Various scriptural verses show Moses wrote the first five books. Here are a few of those verses in defense of Moses’ authorship:
- Deuteronomy 31:9 and Deuteronomy 31:24-26 describe how Moses writes “Torah” (instruction) on a scroll and lays it beside the ark of the Covenant.
- Exodus 17:14: “And Yahweh said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven;”
- Exodus 24:4: “And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh and rose early in the morning, and built an altar under the mount, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel”
- Exodus 34:27: “And Yahweh said unto Moses, write thou these words, for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.”
- Leviticus 26:46 “These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the LORD established on Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelites through Moses.”
These verses attest to the position that Moses is the writer of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
The question you ask of how an author could write about their death leads us to the other school of thought that argues that Moses could not have been the author of these books.
Moses not the writer
The other school of thought is that which contends the authorship of Moses. This school of thought questions how Moses could have described his death (Deuteronomy 34:5-10). To this objection, the school of thought that argues for the authorship of Moses defends against this by stating that Moses could have written the big part of the book of Deuteronomy, where his death is recorded, but died before the Deuteronomic book was finished. Those who defend Moses as the writer of these books argue that Moses wrote those books except the last part of the Deuteronomy, where his death is recorded.
Those who object to the authorship of Moses further ask how Moses could give a list of the kings of Edom in the book of Genesis 36:31-43 before those kings ever lived. To this, the former school of thought replies that Moses was a prophet and, therefore, was shown the record in Genesis is not a prophetic oracle but rather a historical fact.
In Deuteronomy 34:6, it is stated, “no man knoweth of his sepulchre to this day,” implying an author living long after Moses’ death, and the language is in the third person. It could not be Moses as the writer talking about himself but in the third person. Genesis 12:6 says: “…and the Canaanite was then in the land.” This implies an author was living in a time when the Canaanite was no longer in the land, and we all know Moses never lived in Canaan. Numbers 21:14 refers to a previous book of Moses’ deeds and concludes that none of these could be by Moses.
From this, they conclude that Moses could not have been the writer since someone cannot record their own death, their burial, to speak in real historical times in which he has never lived.
Biblical authorship
To conclude on whether Moses wrote the first five books or not, it requires Bible readers to understand first what the Bible is and second its nature. Briefly, the word Bible is derived from the Greek; ‘Biblos’ which means a library or a collection of books. Since the Bible is a collection of many different books, it was also authored by different authors. The authorship by different writers goes as far as from having one author for a book to having different writers of the same book.
Moses wrote the biggest part of the books of Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy but not in the shape we have it today.
Response by Isaiah White, A life coach and theologian contact: 0775822833, whitemwine@gmail.com
