Pentateuch - writer(s)

[LaceyC]

I’m doing some research and was surprised to find in a Catholic source: “… the Pentateuch was… put into written collections from about 1000 to 550, and then edited into its present form between 500 and 400.” I am surprised that Catholic teaching does not include what I consider the more conservative position that the Pentateuch was written by Moses himself (1250BC). Scholars use John 5:46-47 (among other scriptures) to support this view.

I just wanted to hear what people on the boards believed and if the non-Moses as author view was widely taught and held. Again — I’m just surprised — although very aware of my ignornace.

 

[larsenl1]

I will take a stab at this.

The books of Moses were originated by Moses. Most teaching at the time was done orally. People memorized the lesson word for word, gesture for gesture. Think of someone telling the story of the Iliad or Beowulf. These were lessons taught to a large number of people by a single orator.

Eventually, learned men wrote down the lessons passed down by the oral tradition.

The New Testament works the same way. There was not a bible that Timothy carried around and he did not hand out copies to everyone in Corinth. He proclaimed a letter from Paul. The one copy was treasured and protected in the church. Someone would copy it and then travel on foot to another metropolis like Antioch and proclaim the letter. Eventually, all of these letters were collected and the canon of the Bible was decided.

I hope that helps.

 

[larsenl1]

So will you find references to the first known written extant of a book of the Bible. This means it is the earliest known preserved copy, not necessarily the first written record ever in history. But this is the best we can do for dating. Lots of early church writings were burned. Constantine ordered all of the writings of Arius burned after the Council of Nicea denounced the Arian heresy. Then he had to deal with Athanasius…

So if Christians burned the writings of heretics and Rome burned the writings of Christians, you see where this leads?

 

[AnthonyPadua001]

I’ve talked about this point with several amazing Catholic Biblical scholars - none of which had any problem with the idea that Moses wrote the Pentateuch (apart from Dt 34 describing the death of Moses). I find no reason why one couldn’t believe that Moses wrote it, especially since Jesus talked about Moses being the author in several Scripture verses (as you also mentioned). Although you could then get into the argument of whether or not Jesus was simply going along with the tradition of Moses’ authorship or stating that Moses in fact wrote it…

I’m not surprised that a Catholic source would claim it was written later - especially since it is a matter that hasn’t been defined by the Church. Many prominent Catholic Biblical scholars (such as Brown and Fitzmyer) often write a lot of stuff you wouldn’t expect from a Catholic on matters far more important than Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch. ***Note - that’s not to say that the works of Brown and Fitzmyer are bad or always incorrect, but we should remember to always test the claims and arguments of Biblical scholars.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Scholars live by the maxim - Publish or Perish. Thus they must continually come up with new theories.

I understand that the Jesuits have modified this to - Publish or Parish.