BI SQ # 4

BI 151 – Biblical Introduction (SQ # 4)
Can the Pentateuch be both Mosaic in origin and sixth century?
According to the text book mentions regarding the origin of the Old Testament extract lively debates especially on the book of Deuteronomy. They debate on the author of the Deuteronomy. The book of Thomas W. Mann mentions Deuteronomy, which originally served as introduction to the former Prophets, has been removed from that position to serve as the conclusion of the Tetrateuch (Genesis through Numbers), thereby forming the Pentateuch. The scholars who maintain an originally separate origin and function for the book of Deuteronomy defend their position by a prior claim that the book derives from a different author then the Tetrateuch. Beginning as early as the sixteenth century it has become increasingly clear that the Pentateuch, traditionally called the five books of Moses, but in fact is a composite document containing a number of literary strands, each stemming from different period of Israel’s history. W. M. L. de Wette (1805) acknowledged the law book of Josiah’s improvement in 621 BC with Deuteronomy. The assumption was planned that Deuteronomy was written in a moment before its finding in 621 BC. This assumption recognized a date by which other literature of the Old Testament was dated. Its religious expansion and grammatical style were compared to Deuteronomy. After the evolutionary assumption in science was popularized by the published work of Darwin in 1859, the evolutionary assumption was applied to Old Testament studies. By the evolutionary advance and the date of 621 BC for Deuteronomy, these men claimed that investigations had enabled them to notice four documents in the Pentateuch. According to JEDP theory, Moses was not the author of the Pentateuch. But Moses may have been the source of some early material, but Mosaic authorship for the Pentateuch was denied.

Posted by Sein Thein