Does the Catholic Church teach that Moses wrote the Pentateuch?

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Hey all at the CAF,

I’m currently a sophomore in college earning a B.A. in Religious Studies, in hopes of being an apologist 😃 I’ve been learning a lot, but some of what I’ve been learning is troubling me a little. In my Hebrew Scriptures class, for example, the professor taught us that the Old Testament was not written by Moses (as is traditionally believed) but was instead compiled from four sources known as P,J,D, and E, sometime after 587 BC. This is known as the Documentary Hypothesis. However, I’ve also read things that promote Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, such as Introduction to the Bible by Fr. John Laux, M.A. Even though it was published in 1932, the arguments it made against the DH were very interesting. So now I’m wondering, does the Church have an official teaching concerning this? The closest I’ve seen is a statement from the Pontifical Bible Commission in 1906 reaffirming the traditional belief in Mosaic authorship. Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Yup - that is what they are teaching.

You might consider the toledoths, do some research on them and colophon phrases as well. These would point to Moses being the compiler based on a collection of tablets he had in his possession.
 
Found the actual Pontifical Biblical Commission statements:

On the Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch (June 27, 1906)

I: Are the arguments gathered by critics to impugn the Mosaic authorship of the sacred hooks designated by the name of the Pentateuch of such weight in spite of the cumulative evidence of many passages of both Testaments, the unbroken unanimity of the Jewish people, and furthermore of the constant tradition of the Church besides the internal indications furnished by the text itself, as to justify the statement that these books are not of Mosaic authorship but were put together from sources mostly of post-Mosaic date?
Answer: In the negative.

II: Does the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch necessarily imply a production of the whole work of such a character as to impose the belief that each and every word was written by Moses’ own hand or was by him dictated to secretaries; or is it a legitimate hypothesis that he conceived the work himself under the guidance of divine inspiration and then entrusted the writing of it to one or more persons, with the understanding that they reproduced his thoughts with fidelity and neither wrote nor omitted anything contrary to his will, and that finally the work composed after this fashion was approved by Moses, its principal and inspired author, and was published under his name?
Answer: In the negative to the first and in the affirmative to the second part.

III: Without prejudice to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, may it be granted that in the composition of his work Moses used sources, written documents namely or oral traditions, from which in accordance with the special aim he entertained and under the guidance of divine inspiration he borrowed material and inserted it in his work either word for word or in substance, either abbreviated or amplified?
Answer: In the affirmative.

IV: Subject to the Mosaic authorship and the integrity of the Pentateuch being substantially safeguarded, may it be admitted that in the protracted course of centuries certain modifications befell it, such as: additions made after the death of Moses by an inspired writer, or glosses and explanations inserted in the text, certain words and forms changed from archaic into more recent speech, finally incorrect readings due to the fault of scribes which may be the subject of inquiry and judgement according to the laws of textual criticism?
Answer In the affirmative, saving the judgement of the Church.

Document listed on the Vatican website: 33. De mosaica authentia Pentateuchi (June 27, 1906)
 
Buffalo,

Not that I don’t believe you or anything, but do you know where I could find that teaching in writing? The reason I ask is because I own a couple Catholic books with an imprimatur and nihil obstat that treat the DH as a given fact (these include A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (1969) and The New American Bible: St. Joseph Edition (1991). If the Church teaches Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, how in the heck did these books get an imprimatur? :confused:
 
**The Tablet Theory of Genesis Authorship

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:FFM_08xFR1OhlM:http://www.ancientdays.net/images/mosgen1.jpg Clay Tablet with Colophon

**
  • Tablet 1: Genesis 1:1 - 2:4. The origins of the cosmos Author: (God Himself (?)
  • Tablet 2: Genesis 2:5 - 5:2. The origins of mankind (Adam)
  • Tablet 3: Genesis 5:3 - 6:9a. The histories of Noah(Noah)
  • Tablet 4: Genesis 6:9b - 10:1. The histories of the sons of Noah (Shem, Ham & Japheth )
  • Tablet 5: Genesis 10:2 - 11:10a. The histories of Shem (Shem)
  • Tablet 6: Genesis 11:10b - 11:27a. The histories of Terah (Terah)
  • Tablet 7: Genesis 11:27b - 25:12. The histories of Ishmael (Isaac)
  • Tablet 8: Genesis 25:13 - 25:19a. The histories of Isaac (Ishmael, through Isaac)
  • Tablet 9: Genesis 25:19b - 36:1. The histories of Esau (Jacob)
  • Tablet 10: Genesis 36:2 - 36:9. The histories of Esau (Esau, through Jacob)
  • Tablet 11: Genesis 36:10 - 37:2. The histories of Jacob(Jacob’s 12 sons)
 
Oh wow, lol, OK, thanks! You posted that as I was writing my first reply.
 
It’s easy to find professors who don’t believe in the Documentary Hypothesis. One is Michael D. Coogan, a very well respected author who is being published by Oxford University Press (and therefore not released that much in Bible study software as OUP is hard to negotiate with). Coogan doesn’t say they are written by Moses either, he just says the Documentary Hypothesis is starting to be discarded.

The Documentary Hypothesis is being taught to the seminarians studying to be priests of the (former since the turn of the millenia) state Church over here. That’s one of the reasons why I’m not going to seminary. I’ll just read Gk separately in Uni.

I buy a lot of books, printed as well as e-books in Bible study software.
TheWhoFreak said:
the professor taught us that the Old Testament was not written by Moses (as is traditionally believed) but was instead compiled from four sources known as P,J,D, and E, sometime after 587 BC. This is known as the Documentary Hypothesis. However, I’ve also read things that promote Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, such as Introduction to the Bible by Fr. John Laux, M.A. Even though it was published in 1932, the arguments it made against the DH were very interesting.
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This is a very common misconception. The answer is that getting an imprimatur doesn’t require that the entire content is in accordance with the teachings of the Church.
TheWhoFreak said:
If the Church teaches Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, how in the heck did these books get an imprimatur? :confused:
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Cyklist said:
This is a very common misconception. The answer is that getting an imprimatur doesn’t require that the entire content is in accordance with the teachings of the Church.
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I looked it up, and you’re right. But it still strikes me as odd that those books promoting the DH were given the nihil obstat. Since the nihil obstat is a declaration that the work contains nothing damaging to faith or morals, how can a work that promotes something opposed to Church teaching not be considered damaging to faith or morals?
 
My Cathedral priest, a Briton, said that You shouldn’t read theological footnotes in Bibles.
 
TheWhoFreak said:
Hey all at the CAF,

I’m currently a sophomore in college earning a B.A. in Religious Studies, in hopes of being an apologist 😃 I’ve been learning a lot, but some of what I’ve been learning is troubling me a little. In my Hebrew Scriptures class, for example, the professor taught us that the Old Testament was not written by Moses (as is traditionally believed) but was instead compiled from four sources known as P,J,D, and E, sometime after 587 BC. This is known as the Documentary Hypothesis. However, I’ve also read things that promote Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, such as Introduction to the Bible by Fr. John Laux, M.A. Even though it was published in 1932, the arguments it made against the DH were very interesting. So now I’m wondering, does the Church have an official teaching concerning this? The closest I’ve seen is a statement from the Pontifical Bible Commission in 1906 reaffirming the traditional belief in Mosaic authorship. Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I don’t know the Catholic Church’s view of this matter, although I’ve read some informative comments here. However, from the perspective of Orthodox Judaism, there is no compromising: that is, Moses is believed to have transcribed all five books of the Torah as the inspirational written Word of G-d. (That does not preclude interpretive analysis.) This incorporates the changes in literary style, as well as the passage in Deuteronomy that speaks of Moses’ death, which is interpreted as a premonition by the prophet.
 
meltzerboy said:
I don’t know the Catholic Church’s view of this matter, although I’ve read some informative comments here. However, from the perspective of Orthodox Judaism, there is no compromising: that is, Moses is believed to have transcribed all five books of the Torah as the inspirational written Word of G-d. (That does not preclude interpretive analysis.) This incorporates the changes in literary style, as well as the passage in Deuteronomy that speaks of Moses’ death, which is interpreted as a premonition by the prophet.
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What you stated above is exactly what was taught to me by a Catholic priest. I heard his extraordinary talks on Genesis, and he has studied the Hebrew language from an Orthodox Jew. The insights he gave about the Book of Genesis cause me to believe he is correct.
 
TheWhoFreak said:
Hey all at the CAF,

I’m currently a sophomore in college earning a B.A. in Religious Studies, in hopes of being an apologist 😃 I’ve been learning a lot, but some of what I’ve been learning is troubling me a little. In my Hebrew Scriptures class, for example, the professor taught us that the Old Testament was not written by Moses (as is traditionally believed) but was instead compiled from four sources known as P,J,D, and E, sometime after 587 BC. This is known as the Documentary Hypothesis. However, I’ve also read things that promote Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, such as Introduction to the Bible by Fr. John Laux, M.A. Even though it was published in 1932, the arguments it made against the DH were very interesting. So now I’m wondering, does the Church have an official teaching concerning this? The closest I’ve seen is a statement from the Pontifical Bible Commission in 1906 reaffirming the traditional belief in Mosaic authorship. Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
This ‘Documentary Hypothesis’ is also used explain how the Pentateuch was written and compiled in ‘The Navarre Bible’ commentary (which is by no means a liberal commentary!)
 
Umm… a simple question: If Moses wrote (or edited) the Pentateuch, how is it that he wrote (or edited) the account of his death, as found in Deut 34?

Just sayin’… :cool:
 
Gorgias said:
Umm… a simple question: If Moses wrote (or edited) the Pentateuch, how is it that he wrote (or edited) the account of his death, as found in Deut 34?

Just sayin’… :cool:
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Some people are given by God such information.
 
Gorgias said:
Umm… a simple question: If Moses wrote (or edited) the Pentateuch, how is it that he wrote (or edited) the account of his death, as found in Deut 34?

Just sayin’… :cool:
Click to expand...
The account of his death could’ve been a later addition, maybe done by Joshua, as he was Moses’ successor. As I understand it, the Catholic Church does not teach that Moses wrote every word of the Pentateuch. If you go back in the thread and read the document from the Papal Biblical Commission that buffalo posted, you’ll see that they leave some “wiggle room” as far as Moses’ influence on the Pentateuch goes.
 
TheWhoFreak said:
The account of his death could’ve been a later addition, maybe done by Joshua, as he was Moses’ successor. As I understand it, the Catholic Church does not teach that Moses wrote every word of the Pentateuch. If you go back in the thread and read the document from the Papal Biblical Commission that buffalo posted, you’ll see that they leave some “wiggle room” as far as Moses’ influence on the Pentateuch goes.
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That’s just it… I’m not sure I would call it ‘wiggle room’, as much as ‘room to drive a Mack truck through’! To sum up what it says: “Moses wrote the Pentateuch, 'cause that’s what folks have always thought. Except for the parts he might have left to others to write. Oh, and except for the parts that he edited, rather than wrote. Oh – and any part you might show me that demonstrates that he didn’t write it? Yeah, I’m gonna tell you that you’re just picking up on changes made by later editors. So, it was all written by Moses… except for all the parts that weren’t.”

That’s wiggle room…??? :eek:
 
The fundamental misconception in this thread is that there is a single way of interpreting the Bible and you’re trying to find it.

I’ve read that the DH is an interesting idea, but not proven. Not only is there thought to be four sources, but there is a fifth influence called “the redactor” which was responsible for pulling the book of Genesis together as it is.

The redactor left in a lot of conflicting stuff, perhaps not choosing (out of respect for the Divine) to choose between the traditions that he/she inherited for the sake of pulling together into what is now the book.

Criticisms of the DH include that is it hard to separate the patches of the quiltwork that come from each source.

The canonical view of the test is that we should be interested in the text that is the final result of whatever process was involved. It is only at this high level that we should focus, lest we get mixed or conflicting interpretations instead of the overall which is what we are after.
 
Gorgias said:
Umm… a simple question: If Moses wrote (or edited) the Pentateuch, how is it that he wrote (or edited) the account of his death, as found in Deut 34?

Just sayin’… :cool:
Click to expand...
The funny thing is, there’s actually a Jewish legend about how Moses foresaw how he was going to die and wrote it down “with tears in his eyes.” Another story states meanwhile that Moses did not actually die but was just hidden by God out of everyone’s sight - he was only prompted to write about his supposed ‘death’ out of modesty so no one would either say that he was so righteous he was taken up into heaven or look for him.
 
In Biblical Fundamentalism, What Every Catholic Should Know, the Catholic scholar Ronald Witherup S.S. states (also *imprimatur *and nihil obstat):

Even into the early twentieth century the Catholic Church opposed some scientific studies that led to conclusions thought to be incompatible with Catholic teaching on the Bible. For example, the Church resisted for some time the conclusion of scholars that Moses himself could not have authored the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch), as ancient Jewish and Christian tradition held. To the contrary, there was strong evidence of multiple authors writing in different circumstances over a vast amount of time. For a time the Catholic Church rejected these new theories and held to the formal authorship of the Pentateuch by Moses. The Pontifical Biblical Commission attacked such scientific theories in a series of teachings between 1905 and 1915, which have subsequently been laid to rest.

The “teachings” about Moses are not dogmatic, be careful when using the older, more fundamentalist documents such as those noted in some previous postings.
 
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