The Documentary Hypothesis Of Moses

The Documentary Source Theory states the belief that Torah was not written by Moses, but rather, four independent authors. (Ch. 1 Pg. 21 )

Although it is argued that rabbis began work on compiling the oral histories prior to the fall of the Second Temple, there was a definite resurgence in documentation of the important history and moral laws of Judaism after the fall. The most important of these written documents in the Jewish faith is the Hebrew Bible. This bible is comprised of the Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim, these three components combine to make up the Tanakh. The Torah is the core of the Hebrew Bible and contains the story of creation, as well as directions on daily conduct and religious rituals. The Nevi’im contains the stories of prophets. The prophets were people that spoke on behalf of God to the Jewish people. Lastly, the Ketuvim is comprised of mostly imaginative literature such as psalms, proverbs and poetry (Molloy, 294). Shifting the focus from priests and temple to a written work that is accessible to all regardless of location was the main adaptation of Judaism and certainly saved the faith. Although the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible is debatable, as some stories may have morphed from their origination to when they were assembled in writing, the bible still remains at the core of Judaism today.

Solomon is credited with writing many books of the Bible including Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes. King Solomon is mentioned in several books of the Old Testament such as 1 Kings and 1 Samuel. Not only did he write what would later be selected and put into the Bible, but he is also known for writing things helpful to botany and zoology, although no writings of his have been discovered.

The Old Testament is said to have been written by several people, some who were anonymous. Israel the priest and scriber is known to be an author of the Old Testament along with David (Psalm)

There were many biblical manuscripts produced in the names of ancient canonical figures such as Noah, Abraham, Daniel, Enoch, Ezra, and Moses. The Christian movement did not end this manufacturing of pseudonymous works as many scholars question the authenticity of Ephesians, the Pastoral Epistles, 2 Peter, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, and 1 Peter.

Before the Enlightenment people believed prophesying in the Bible was possible because of Divine intervention (Dillard). After the Enlightenment some began to believe that Isaiah was written by two or three different authors because the prophecies in it were fulfilled. They believed a later author came back to the book and wrote what occurred (Rochford). However, “Hebrew scholar Walter Kaiser states that roughly 27% of the Bible was predictive at the point it was written (Rochford).” To deny the legitimacy of Isaiah’s authorship would deny the validity of a significant portion of the rest of the Bible. The three main reasons scholars defend Isaiah’s authorship are because of it’s claim, New Testament citations, and themes and

The life of Moses can be adequately summed up by the verse Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for saith the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future.” Little did Moses’ mother know that God would use her child to change the history of the Israelite people forever.

It is impossible to positively prove who wrote the book. However, the Deuteronomistic History theory is the more convincing explanation because it provides a reason for Josiah’s reforms in 2 Kings. Although Moses may have written some of Deuteronomy, it is extremely unlikely that he composed the entire book during his life. The evidence seen in the Bible points to a Deuteronomistic Historian recording the events

Who wrote the Holy Scripture: The entire Bible was written by actual men, writers whom made them selves available, furthermore, writers whom God decided to use to revealed His plan of salvation to mankind. On another note, how did God inspired these men to write? Scholars suggest that they are at least five theories. First of all, “the intuition theory”, which makes a high degree of insight. Experts suggest that this kind of inspiration functions like a gift in a particular person, perhaps like a natural ability. Second, “the illumination theory,” which in tells that the Holy Spirit did influence the authors, however, they were operating under their normal abilities. Perhaps, the chosen person would easily get connected to the spirit

The theory that John is the author is backed by early authors like: Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, the Muratorian Canon, Tertulian, and Clement of Alexandria.

When we talk about Scripture, we have to discuss the source of our revelation. In fact, without an understanding and personal standpoint/beliefs on the canon of Scripture, one is not able to build a solid foundation in other matters regarding Scripture, including the authority of Scripture, the inerrancy, the clarity, the necessity, and the sufficiency. Often the canon of Scripture is a prevalent topic in the Christian faith among believers as there is a debate which books of the Holy Bible are considered to be part of the canon. However, although there are other books that have been added (including the Deutro-Chronical Books in the Roman Catholic church), there are in fact only 66 books in the canon of Scripture. There are 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books that are included in the canon of Scripture. While some churches (including the Roman Catholic Church) believe that the church should determine what books are in the New Testament canon, God is responsible for the canon of Scripture. The Old Testament canon includes the Pentateuch Books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), the Historical Books (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ester), the Poetical Books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon), and the Prophetical Books ( Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,

Many Bible scholars believe that the book was written by the Lord's brother because of the references to the teachings of Jesus. There are different references especially to the Sermon on the Mount such as James 4:11 compared to Matthew 7:1-2 and James 1:22 compared to Matthew 7:24-27. In other places there are other references to the oral teachings of Jesus that help suggest that this book would be written by the brother of Jesus (Lea 520). There is external evidence also. The early church leaders such as Origen and Eusebius identified this James as the author of the epistle. This is partly because of the Jewish flavor of the book. The Jewish atmosphere of the epistle and the references of the Old Testament present the that the book was most likely written by someone with a Jewish background such as this James (Davids 14).

What we know today as the New Testament was compiled over a period of many decades. It was first referenced as the “New Testament” by Clement of Alexandria. It is believed that the books that comprise what we know as the New Testament canon were in existence no later than the end of the first century. The included books varied by different sources until the fourth century when the Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasios, included them in a letter to his flock in AD 367. His list was approved by councils at Hippo in AD393 and Carthage in AD397. The process used to arrive at this list varied by time and source. There were many debates along the way and some continue to this day.

Literary analysis of the Old Testament is searching the characters and the movement of the text. It studies "Who says the text and to whom the text was said? What happened?" According to the Oxford Biblical studies, literary criticism is "the investigation of sources and problem of authorship." Therefore literary criticism helps us to know the original sources of the biblical text. The texts itself show that what kind of genre or writing of the texts. And in the case of Pentateuch, most Christians believe that the book of Pentateuch was written by Moses. But by the help of literary criticism, we can know that this is the amalgamating of small fragments. But I believe that some portions were written by Moses. Barton mentions two different points of view on the Book of Pentateuch, Fundamentalist view, and source critics'

Most ancient Jews thought that Moses wrote the Torah/Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).