If so, can you give evidence of this?
Were you taught that Moses wrote the Torah when you were young? I was never taught that and I actually assumed he did not, based on the way the Torah read. I later came to believe it, but now I don't.
For a VERY brief introduction on the Documentary Hypothesis - or the idea that Moses did not write the Torah but that it comes from at least 4 different sources, see:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/2/judaism/j... - for a very brief intro.
I cannot give evidence of anything, but some very sincere Christians that I have rubbed noses with believe that there were earlier scriptural books, and that Moses condensed them. Perhaps there was once a Book of Adam, Book of Noah?
I am going to look up the Documentary Hypothesis now.
G-d wrote the Torah and gave his words to Moses. Evidence, how can I give you evidence of something that happened millions of years before I was born. Can you give me evidence of something you've never seen?
For those who say Moses wasn't real I'll just say two words "ten commandments."
I think it's generally accepted that Moses didn't initially write the the first 5 books of the bible/Torah, but he is credited as putting the already existing stories together and then continued with his own. I don't think he wrote about his own death and funeral though
No. It is not possible that the Torah was writ en directly by Moses as at times it talks about his death and beyond and talks about him in third person. It is be lived that the Torah as we know it was writ en some time after Moses based on an oral tradition although according to the Torah itself some of the laws were written down and passed in written form since the time of Moses. According to deferentialcoalts (ones that do not form the main canon of the Bible) the current Bible (Jewish of course as this was before Christ) was written by Ezra. In fact much of current Jewish practice can be sourced back to Ezra and the people returning from exile.
I personally would not call the multiple author theory false, but I think it has a lot of gaps in it and it seems like an educated guess at best.
First if the texts were only put together at the end of the northern kingdom then why dint we have a Pentateuch that conflicts with the Masoric texts? You would think that one such document would be passed down throughout the ages.
Second it assumes that multiple names for G-d means multiple writers. I find that strange that it is a problem for the Torah but when the Koran lists 99 names for G-d none thinks that their were 99 writers.
Third if People at some time felt free to mess with the texts then why didn't they correct all those so called contradictions that exist in the Pentateuch. I mean if you can streamline it then you might as well make it better.
Also throw in some extra prophecy's about how your kings will be corrupt and break away from each other. You know make it sound more divine.
can you answer me these points Heron?
PS this is just what I came up with off the top of my head I am sure if I researched it thoroughly then it would be better.
Read the book of Josephus. There are millions of Christians that believe, surely that should be some consideration. There are many very smart and well meaning men and women who study these things. If they are not believers how would any of the treasures of the First 5 books of the old testament or the entire Bible for that matter be spiritually revealed to them. God bless you and your search for truth!
moses may have written a small part of the Pentateuch. The serious bible scholar point to the fact that there are four distinct ideas running through the first five books. These are called J,E,P, and D. J or Yahowist is assigned to writers from the Southern Kingdom. E or Elohimists wrote mainly in the Northern Kingdom. P or Priestly expanded on The Ten Commandments. D or Duetrocanniocalist added the rest. The books are still divinely inspired from God. There are lexicons that show the Fist five books by J,E,P, and D designations.
no he did not write the Torah. he wrote part of the old testament, but anyhow if you are christian, your only sours of truth is the bible and nothing else. thank you.
Depends what part of the Torah you are referring to. The first five books were dictated by G-d to Moses. So yes he wrote about his own death, exactly as G-d told him to. There are a lot of things in the first 5 books that seem hard to understand or seem contradictory. Therefore the ORAL Torah came along with the written Torah. This was also transmitted at Sinai and was passed on orally from generation to generation till it was recorded in writing in later generations. That is what we call the Talmud. This "oral Torah" or Talmud was NOT written by Moses.
Hope that answers your question. As far as proving it that is beyond my purview. But same as I believe that George Washington was first President, based on Historical documentation so I believe that Moses wrote the written Torah as dictated to him by G-d based on historical documentation. I personally don't know the exact place it it is documented. I can ask my hubby, but it is probably somewhere in the Talmud that explains the verse "Moses received the Torah from Sinai, he transmitted it to Joshua, then Joshua to the Elders, etc." This verse is in a section of the Talmud referred to as "Ethics of our Fathers".
I do want to mention that you will get different answers from Jews of different denominations. I speak from the Orthodox/religious perspective. We believe the Torah is Divine, i.e. word of G-d, and transcribed by Moses.
Did Moses write the Torah?
