Doug Shaver

In a way, nobody. Much is known about how it got written, including the fact that several people were involved in the project, but none of the writers' identities is known.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbible1.html

Timetospend

The first part of the quote denies what the Torah says about Moses bringing the Ten Commandments. Previously in Exodus, chapter 20, they were voiced by God, which would seem to provide authority for the Israelites believing Moses. Deut. 5 would confirms this.

Agreed that this does not provide support for the Torah being from God, but it does deny what the author of the quote says. Also, he seems to misunderstand the implication of the sin of the fathers being visited on children, but that is perhaps more a difference of opinion, while his comment concerning authority for the Ten Commandments to the original Israelites per the Torah is simply wrong.

Thanks,

Minimalist

First off, it is not a unified work but the result of many writers and, even more importantly, redactors, down through the centuries.

And don't listen to Arnoldo. "Moses" didn't write it!

arnoldo

Right, Moses never existed either, right?

chrisengland

Arnoldo little tip.
Don't answer questions with responces like that ' it's another reaosn why people just laugh and don't listen to anything you say.
You see when you don't say intelligent things people just ignore everything you say and if you make good points people just gloss over them.
Chris

Minimalist

Now you're learning, boy-o!

lpetrich

However, the hypothesis that Moses did not exist is not the reductio ad absurdum that you seem to think it is.

The well-substantiated history of the Bible starts early in the 1st millennium BCE, early in the Dual Monarchy period. Kings David and Solomon likely existed, but had likely ruled only the area around Jerusalem, and not a unified kingdom. And before that, the Bible's history is unsupported and mythological.

As I've posted elsewhere, the Exodus could well have been a rather grotesquely mangled memory of the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt as told by the Hyksos themselves. The Pharaoh who drove them out, Ahmose, has a name that sounds like "Brother of Moses" in Hebrew. And instead of crossing the Red Sea on their way out, the Hyksos crossed a Reed Sea.

Such intimate mixtures of fact and fiction are common in orally-transmitted epics where we can identify the originals, and at least in this scenario, the Bible is no exception.

Doug Shaver

Probably not, but it hardly matters to the point at issue. Even if he did exist, there is zero reason aside from religious dogma to think he wrote anything that's in the Bible.

karlmarx

Putting aside the archaeological and text analysis evidence, if Moses wrote the first 5 books, he would have had to write Deuteronomy 34. This includes a section where the Israelites are mourning Moses' death and where it is mentioned that no-one like Moses ever came again. This is so blatant that there must be a fundie explanation for it, even if it is a weak one. Anyone know what it is? Do they argue that Moses wrote everything except Deuteronomy 34? Or do they argue that God "inspired" Moses to write that chapter?

arnoldo

No, please provide any archaelogical and textual analysis which you have in reference to this issue.
Don't forget to mention the silly bit where God buried Moses in Deuteronmy 34

Also you might get a chuckle that in the NT Moses appears with Yeshua on the Mount of Transfiguration!