Evangelicals have long had a struggle with the
authorship of the books in the Pentateuch. Because they are called the “Books
of Moses” and because various passages in the New Testament quote from them as
“Moses”, they bristle when there is any suggestion that Moses may not have
written every word or that the final form of these books may have had a lengthy
redactional history. I remember when teaching at William Tyndale College, where
I taught the course on the Torah, that this was a perennial issue fraught with
uneasiness, not only from students coming from fundamental churches, but also
from their parents and pastors. Unfortunately, even sincere Christians with a
Biblicist point of view do not always pay attention to the actual texts
themselves, sometimes giving a knee-jerk reaction that betrays a less than
careful reading.
It should first of all be understood that a
distinction should be maintained between historical events themselves and the
documentation of those events in writing. The two may or may not be
coincidental. If, for instance, a 21st century writer sets down the
history of India during the British Commonwealth, the modern reader would not
suppose that he had fabricated his material out of thin air just because he was
not old enough to have seen it personally. Similarly, there is no necessary
requirement that the narratives about Moses and his teaching must have been
codified while he was still alive or necessarily set down by Moses himself.
Indeed, there are reasons for thinking this might not be the case, not the
least of which is the account of his death at the close of Deuteronomy (cf.
34). Further, the closing verses of Deuteronomy that “since then no prophet has
risen in Israel
like Moses” presumes a hand later than Moses (34:10-12).
Sometimes, the point of view in Deuteronomy is as
though the writer were standing in the mainland of Israel and looking over to
the Transjordan, a perspective that seems to assume entry into the land. This
point of view is especially to be seen in the handful of “across Jordan”
passages that seem to speak of the land to the east of the Jordan as across the
river (cf. 1:1, 5; 3:8; 4:41, 46-47, 49). Such language seems to presuppose
occupation west of the Jordan, which of course could not have been possible
until after the death of Moses. At the same time, there are even more passages
using the same Hebrew expression that reflect the vantage point of standing in
Moab to the east of the Jordan (cf. 2:29; 3:20, 25, 27; 4:14, 21-22, 26; 6:1;
9:1; 11:8, 11, 30-31; 12:10; 27:2, 4, 12; 30:18; 31:2, 13; 32:47). What should
be recognized is that both these perspectives are embedded in the same book,
the former in narrative sections that seem to have been written after the entry
into the land, and the latter in speech sections that quote words that Moses
said. This is no more than what one would expect for a document that describes
the speeches of Moses but was compiled after Moses died.
The language in the covenant renewal section (Dt. 29)
suggests that at least the exile of the northern kingdom was already complete
when this passage was codified.
Therefore, Yahweh’s anger burned against
this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. In
furious anger and in great wrath Yahweh uprooted them from their land and
thrust them into another land, as it is now.
Dt.
29:27-28
The
editorial clause “as it is now” (literally, “as on this day”) clearly suggests
a time far removed from Moses. Hence, it is not required that Deuteronomy be
composed as a literary piece by Moses for it to contain authentic history about
Moses.
At the same time, there are some passages describing
Moses as writing, such as, 31:9, which refers to an unspecified section of law
codes, 31:19, 22, (referring to chapter 32), and 31:24ff. (likely referring to
the Decalogue). Such references suggest that portions were written out as
smaller segments prior to the compilation of the whole. The rabbinical custom
of referring to everything in the Pentateuch as the words of Moses, of course,
was adopted by the writers of the New Testament, but this convenience of speech
does not necessarily support the view that Moses personally penned the entire
corpus. One can only speculate how long elements in Deuteronomy and other books
in the Pentateuch may have been preserved as oral tradition before being
codified. A generation later, Joshua is commanded to obey the “book of the
Torah” (Jos. 1:7-8), a reference that seems to refer to the contents of
Deuteronomy 5-26 or 5-30. Joshua is familiar with the law code that altars were
not to be fashioned using an iron tool (Jos. 8:31; Dt. 27:5), and indeed, the
whole ceremony in the Shechem
Pass is based on the
anticipation of this ceremony as described in Deuteronomy (Jos. 8:30-35; Dt.
27). Even later, Joshua is said to have drawn up decrees and laws which then
were recorded in the “Book of the Law of God” (cf. Jos. 24:25-26), so it seems
that Joshua, also, had a hand in the composition. Even later references also
cite the “Book of the Torah,” expressions that clearly seem to refer to at
least portions of Deuteronomy (cf. 2 Kg. 14:6//2 Chr. 25:4; Dt. 24:16).
Certainly some of the prophets knew of law codes that are preserved in
Deuteronomy (cf. Hos. 5:10//Dt. 19:14; Am. 8:5 and Mic. 6:10ff.//Dt. 25:13ff.;
Am. 4:4//Dt. 14:28; Hos. 4:4ff.//Dt. 17:12), but whether all these things were
from oral memory or references to a written document is unclear.
No comments:
Post a Comment