PENTATEUCH
650
PENTATEUCH
tion of the decalogue, and reasons for the promulga-
tion of the law through Moses; explanation of the
first commanilinent, and prohibition of all intercourse
with the gi'iitiles; reminder of the Divine favours and
punishments; promise of victory over the Chanaan-
itcs; tiod's blessing on the observance of the Law,
His curse on the transgressors.
(b) Special Laws, xii, 1-xxvi, 19. — (i) Duties to- wards (!od: He is to be duly worshipped, never to be abandoned; distinction of clean and unclean meats; tithes and first-fruits; the three principal solemnities of the year, (ii) Duties towards God's representa- tives: towards the judges, the future kings, the priests, and Prophets, (iii) Duties towards the neighbour: as to life, external possessions, marriage, and various other particulars.
(3) Third Discourse, xxvii, 1-xxx, 20. — A renewed exhortation to keep the law, based on diverse reasons.
(a) xxvii, 1-26. — Command to inscribe the law on stones after crossing the Jordan, and to promulgate the blessings and curses connected with the observ- ance or non-observance of the law.
(b) xxviii, 1-68. — A more minute statement of the good or evil depending on the observance or violation of the law.
(c) xxix, 1-xxx, 20. — The goodness of God is ex- tolled; all are urged to be faithful to God.
(4) Historical Appendix, x.\xi, 1-xxxiv, 12.
(a) xxxi, 1-27. — Moses appoints Josue as his suc- cessor, orders him to read the law to the people every seven years, and to place a copy of the same in the ark.
(b) xxxi, 2S-xxxii, 47. — Moses calls an assembly of the Ancients and recites his canticle.
(c) x.xxii, 48-52. — Moses views the Promised Land from a distance.
(d) xxxiii, 1-29. — He blesses the tribes of Israel.
(e) xxxiv, 1-12. — His death, burial, and special eulogium.
in. Authenticity. — The contents of the Penta- teuch furnish the basis for the history, the law, the worship, and the life of the Chosen People of God. Hence the authorship of the work, the time and man- ner of its origin, and its historicity are of paramount importance. These are not merely literary problems, but questions belonging to the fields of history of re- ligion and theology. The Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch is inseparably connected with the ques- tion, whether and in what sense Moses was the author or intermediarj' of the Old-Testament legislation, and the bearer of pre-Mosaic tradition. According to the trend of both Old and New Testament, and according to Jewish and Christian theology, the work of the great lawgiver Moses is the origin of the history of Israel and the basis of its development down to the time of Jesus Christ; but modern criticism sees in all this only the result, or the precipitate, of a purely natural historical development. The question of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch leads us, there- fore, to the alternative, revelation or historical evo- lution; it touches the historical and theological foundation of both the Jewish and the Christian dis- pensation. We shall consider the subject first in th(' light of Scripture; secondly, in the light of Jewish and Christian tradition; thirdly, in the light of internal evidence, furnished by the Pentateuch; finally, in the Ught of ecclesiastical decisions.
A. Testimony of Sacred Scripture. — It will be found convenient to divide the Biblical evidence for the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch into three parts: (1) Testimony of the Pentateuch; (2) Testimony of the other Old-Testament books; (3) Testimony of the New Testament.
(1) Witness of the Pentateuch. — The Pentateuch in its present form does not present itself as a complete literary production of Moses. It contains an account of Moses' death, it tells the story of his Ufe in the
third person and in an indirect form, and the last
four books do not exhibit the literary form of memoirs
of the great lawgiver; besides, the expression "God
said to Moses" shows only the Divine origin of the
Mosaic laws, but does not prove that Mo.scs himself
codified in the Pentateuch the various laws promul-
gated by him. On the other hand, the Pentateuch
ascribes to Moses the literary authorship of at least
four sections, partly historical, partly legal, partly
poetical.
(a) After Israel's victory over the Amalecites near Raphidim, the Lord said to Moses (Ex., xvii, 14): "Write this for a memorial in a book, and deliver it to the ears of Josue." This order is naturally re- stricted to Amalec's defeat, a benefit which God wished to keep alive in the memory of the people (Deut., XXV, 17-19). The present pointing of the Hebrew text reads "in the book", but the Septuagint version omits the definite article. Even if we sup- pose that the Massoretic pointing gives the original tex-t, we can hardly prove that the book referred to is the Pentateuch, though this is highly probable (cf . von Hummelauer, "Exodus et Leviticus", Paris, 1897, p. 182; Idem, "Deuteronomium", Paris, 190l, p. 152; Kley, "Die Pentateuchfrage", Miinster, 1903, p. 217).
(b) Again, Ex., xxiv, 4: "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord." The context does not allow us to understand these words in an indefinite manner, but as referring to the words of the Lord immediately preceding or to the so-called "Book of the Covenant", Ex., xx-xxiii.
(c) Ex., xxxiv, 27: "And the Lord said to Moses: Write thee these words by which I have made a cove- nant both with thee and with Israel. " The next verse adds: "and he wrote upon the tables the ten words of the covenant." Ex., xxxiv, 1, 4, shows how Moses had prepared the tables, and Ex., xxxiv, 10-26, gives us the contents of the ten words.
(d) Num., xxxiii, 1-2: "These are the mansions of the children of Israel, who went out of Egypt by their troops under the conduct of Moses and Aaron, which Moses wrote down according to the places of their encamping. " Here we are informed that Moses wrote the list of the people's encampments in the desert; but where is this list to be found? Most probably it is given in Num., xxxiii, 3-49, or the immediate con- text of the passage telling of Moses' literary activity; there are, however, scholars who understand this latter passage as referring to the history of Israel's departure from Egypt written in the order of the people's encampments, so that it would be our present Book of Exodus. But this view is hardly probable; for its assumption that Num., xxxiii, 3-49, is a sum- mary of Exodus cannot be upheld, as the chapter of Numbers mentions several encampments not occur- ring in Exodus.
Besides these four passages there are certain indi- cations in Deuteronomy which point to the literary activity of Moses. Deut., i, 5: "And Moses began to expound the law and to say"; even if the "law" in this text refer to the whole of the Pentateuchal legis- lation, which is not very probable, it shows only that Moses promulgated the whole law, but not that he necessarily wrote it. Practically the entire Book of Deuteronomy claims to be a special legislation pro- mulgated by Moses in the land of Moab: iv, 1-40; 44-9; V, 1 sqq.; xii, 1 sqq. But there is a suggestion of writing too: xvii, 18-9, enjoins that the future kings are to receive a copy of this law from the priests in order to read anrl observe it; xxvii, 1-8, commands that on the west side of the Jordan "all the words of this law" be written on stones set up in mount Hebal; xxviii, 58, speaks of "all the words of this law, that are written in this volume" after enumerating the blessings and curses which will come upon the ob- servers and violators of the law respectively, and which are again referred to as written in a book in
