Moses

:(See also the Exodus)

Textual origin of the Torah

It has been traditionally assumed that Moses received from God and subsequently transcribed all, or almost all, of the Torah, and this is still the view of much of Christianity and most of Orthodox Judaism. However, advances in textual criticism have convinced many Bible scholars and historians that this work, in the form we know it today, was edited together from several earlier sources. This idea is discussed in the entry on the documentary hypothesis. Others, especially Biblical literalists, still hold the traditional viewpoint that it is authored by Moses. It is, of course, uncertain objectively speaking which of these views is correct, but later verses in the Old Testament (Such as 2 Chronicles 25:4, Ezra 6:18, and Nehemiah 13:1) refer to the Torah as the "Book of Moses," and thus seem to support the latter of the two views over the former.

Related Topics:
Christianity - Orthodox Judaism - Textual criticism - Documentary hypothesis

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