Moses is reputed to have written the Five Books in the chronological order of the inspired events, and of course, he must have written them before he died, which was months before the Israelites entered the promised land. The events of the forty years in the wilderness are supposed to have been written in the wilderness where they occurred. Yet in Numbers xv,32 it is recorded: "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that had gathered sticks on the sabbath day"; and he was brought to Moses, and "they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done with him. And Yawveh said to Moses, the man shall surely be put to death" (xv,33-36). Apparently the writer was not in the wilderness when this was written, or he would never have added that phrase to it, as everything that occurred at all was 'in the wilderness'. Ironically though, the "Law" had already (it is alleged) been declared at Sinai, "whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death" (Ex. xxxi,15) so this narative is just another 'mistake of Moses'.
Joseph tells the Pharoah: "I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews" (Gen. xl, 15) There was no "land of the Hebrews" in the days of Joseph, nor of Moses, nor until some years later when the Hebrews more or less possessed the land of Canaan or the 'promised land' under Joshua after the death of Moses.
In Genesis xvi is the account of the capture of Lot, nephew of Abram, in a battle; Abram took a posse of 318 of his armed retainers and went to his rescue and "pursued as far as Dan" (xvi,14) Now Dan clearly did not exist in those times, nor in the time of Moses. This name of one of the tribes of Israel, descended from Abraham through his grandson Jacob, was given to the town (then called Laish) of the promised land which was captured by the tribe of Dan during the conquest (Judges xviii, 27-29) some seven hundred years after Abraham and long after the death of Moses.
In Deuteronomy iii, Moses is supposed to tell of a war which he had with the giant Og, king of Bashan, whom he conquered and killed. It is related (iii,11) that Og had an iron bedstead 16 1/2 feel long and 7 1/3 feet wide, and for proof of the whole story it says: "Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon?"-- preserved as a relic unto those days. But Moses never saw or heard of Rabbath and he could not have known what was in its local museum, for the town was first captured and entered by the Hebrews under David (2 Sam. xii,26) some five hundred years after Moses died.
At this point, it becomes clear that the Five Books attributed to Moses were not written by him, were not written during his lifetime and in fact were likely written many centuries after the supposed events which they convey. All by a number of unknown authors who had not the slightest interest in factual history nor of credibility in the literary sense. While a man named Moses may have lived at one time in the distant past, we are still at a loss to know who wrote the Books which this most famous of men is attributed authorship.
More on the Five Books and less of Moses next. Peace,
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