Here are the closing words of the Torah: “Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt – to Pharoah and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.” (Deut. 34:10-12)
We don’t know who wrote those words. But the claim makes much more sense if it were written long after the time of Moses. Why say that Moses was Israel’s greatest prophet unless you have the perspective to look back over the entire scope of Israel’s history? After all, you’d never say “George Washington was the greatest President in US History” unless you were rendering such judgement long after Washington’s time, when there were many other Presidents with which he could be compared.
This epitaph therefore suggests that the Torah underwent editorial changes over a long period of time. Such observations make some Christians uneasy. They would prefer that the entire Torah came straight from Moses & remained unchanged ever after.
As we noted in the prior blog, there is strong evidence that Moses was responsible for much of the Torah. But that does not mean that Moses wrote the entire Torah. Clearly, he could not be responsible for the final chapter of Deuteronomy which describes his death on Mount Nebo in the land of Moab.
Additionally, the events described in the book of Genesis transpired long before the time of Moses. The call of Abraham took place roughly half a millennium before Moses was born! The foundational accounts of the Patriarchs must have been carefully preserved over centuries. Nonetheless, it’s quite plausible that Moses collected, edited & arranged this material into the book of Genesis. He gave these stories his prophetic stamp of approval.
Last week we asked, “How did the people of Israel decide which writings would become a part of the sacred scriptures?” Here we find our answer. The key criterion for inclusion in the Old Testament canon was the credibility of the author. Was the author a genuine prophet who spoke the words of God?
The final words of the Torah confirm that Moses was universally recognized as an true prophet – the greatest of all Israel’s prophets. Moses had an unparalleled connection to God, who knew him “face to face.” His prophetic credentials were further confirmed by the awesome acts of judgment & salvation which God brought about through him. By the staff of Moses, the Lord inflicted devastating plagues upon Egypt and parted the Red Sea so that Israel might be delivered from the sword of Pharoah.
Based upon the immense credibility of Moses, the Torah was quickly recognized as the word of God.
The book of Joshua describes Israel’s entrance into the promised land, where they achieved early victories over the cities of Jericho and Ai. Joshua & the people of Israel then reaffirmed to the covenant: “Joshua built on Mount Ebal an alter to the LORD, the God of Israel, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses…Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written…Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law – the blessings and the curses – just as it is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel…” (Joshua 8:30-31,32,34-35)
Even at this very early stage in Israel’s history, the Torah was held in the highest regard as the commands of God himself, requiring Israel’s complete obedience.
We see this same phenomenon centuries later, during the reign of King Josiah in 622 BC. When the temple was being repaired, the high priest Hilkiah discovered a copy of the Book of the Law (probably the book of Deuteronomy) which was subsequently read before the king. “When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes” and exclaimed, “Great is the LORD’s anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book.” (2 Kings 22:13)
Even after long years of national apostasy, King Josiah immediately acknowledged the authoritative nature of the Torah. He did not doubt for a moment that the Torah accurately reflected the Lord’s covenant requirements and that Israel’s disobedience would bring terrible consequences.
Thus, we have ample evidence that the Torah was acknowledged as God’s inspired word throughout Israel’s history.
The other major sections of the Hebrew Bible are the Nevi’im or “prophets” and the Ketuvim or “writings.” Once again, the key criterion was the authority of the authors responsible for these materials. Were they genuine prophets who spoke for God?
For example, the book of 1 Samuel is dominated by the figures of Samuel, Saul and David. The scriptures explicitly tell us that Samuel was universally acknowledged as a genuine prophet: “The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD. ” (1 Samuel 3:19)
King David himself was widely recognized as having prophetic gifts. (see Acts 2:30) He wrote many of the Psalms. There is good reason to believe that Samuel and David were responsible for much of the historical content found in the book of Samuel. According to I Chronicles 29:29, the history of David’s reign was also recorded by Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer. Their standing as men who spoke on behalf of God would have quickly given these writings an exalted status as sacred scripture.
The book of Malachi, written about 430 BC, is probably the last book of the Hebrew Bible committed to papyrus. Malachi prophesied to the remnant of Jews who had returned & rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem following the exile. His prophetic career transpired during the reign of the Persian King Artaxerxes, who ruled from 465-424 BC.
In about 180 BC, a Jewish book of wisdom was written by a man named Jesus, the Son of Sirach. This book is now known as The Wisdom of Ben Sirach or Ecclesiasticus. (As we shall see in future blogs, this writing is a part of the Catholic canon, but is considered apocryphal by Protestants.) The Wisdom of Ben Sirach contains a passage (38:34-39:3) which makes a reference to the three main parts of the Hebrew canon.
In around 132 BC, Ben Sirach’s grandson added a prologue to his work. The prologue describes how Ben Sirach “had devoted himself especially to the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the other books of our ancestors.” This is another clear reference to the three major sections of the Hebrew scriptures. Thus, we have strong evidence that the basic structure of the Hebrew scriptures was acknowledged well over a century before Jesus of Nazareth.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are rightly considered the greatest archeological discovery of the twentieth century. One of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a sectarian writing known as 4QMMT. (4Q indicates that the scroll was discovered in the 4th cave at Qumran. MMT is a Hebrew acronym which means “a selection of works of the Torah.”) Scholar believe that 4QMMT was written about 150 BC. One passage speaks of “the Law, the Prophets, and David.”
The Psalms are the largest book in the Hebrew Bible and are positioned at the beginning of the Ketuvim. Since King David authored many of the Psalms, “David” can be used a shorthand way of referring to all the Psalms or to the entire Ketuvim. Thus, 4QMMT gives us further evidence that the Jews generally agreed on the basic framework of their sacred writings.
This survey brings us close to the time of Jesus. But there are still key questions to be answered. Most importantly, what did Jesus mean when he spoke about “the scriptures?”
