The Pentateuch refers to the five books of the Bible including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These five books form the theological foundation of the Bible.

Authorship of the Pentateuch

The Jewish and Christian tradition credit Moses as been the primary author of most parts of the Pentateuch.

However, some modern critical scholars disagree with the views of the Jewish and Christian tradition about the writing of the Pentateuch.

Justification for Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch

Moses is viewed as the central figure and character in the first five books. His name is mentioned quite often as he played key roles in the events recorded in these books particularly beginning with Exodus.

Moses is presented as a law giver. He was the person to whom God handed over the Ten Commandments which is the main theme of these books. Therefore, it is highly possible that he could have written these laws himself.

Moses was also at the center of the Jewish tradition at it inaugural stage during their life in the wilderness. These practices were governed by the laws which acted as the custodian thus he could have been the person behind their writing.

Moses was alone as the Lord appeared to him in the bush incidence. Therefore, no one else other than Moses himself could have written accurately the account of the event as it appears in those books.

Besides, Moses knew how to write because of the education he acquired when he stayed in the palace of the Egyptian king as his fellow Hebrews continued with slavery work. Therefore, he could have used this knowledge to put down the laws that God had given him.

God also instructed Moses to write down an account of Israel's victory over their enemies, the Amalekites purposely for remembrance (Exodus 17:14).

Moses is presented as having written down all the commands of the Lord after he told the people about the commands and all the ordinances before the covenant was eventually sealed (Exodus 24:3).

The Jews themselves referred to the laws as Moses'. Therefore, this meant that they knew him as being the writer since they had lived with him.

Besides, King David instructed his son, Solomon to obey all the laws and the commands of the Lord as written down in the Law of Moses (1 Kings 2:2).

It is also possible that Moses could have used the Jewish oral tradition to compile events that had occurred before he was born.

Jesus quite often referred to the laws as that of Moses in his teaching showing those he was the fulfillment of the Laws.

Moses continued to play a significant role in the Jewish history even up to the time of Jesus Christ. He appeared during the transfiguration of Jesus and the respect with which the three disciples treated showed how important he was in their history.

Argument against Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch

There are many contradictions in the first five books that if Moses was the writer, he could have not made such mistakes. For example, the two creation accounts greatly differed.

Besides, there are a lot of inconsistencies in some parts of the first five books. In the story of Noah and the flood; the first version has it that Noah was commanded to take seven pairs of clean animals and nine pairs of unclean animals. However, this sharply contradicts the second version for he was instructed to take only a pair of each animal (Genesis 7: 1 ff).

The name of Moses' father-in-law was also controversial. He was called by different names at different times such as Habob, Ravel and Jethro.

In most of the events, Moses is only referred as a person. For example, he is portrayed as having been afraid after he had killed the Egyptian slave master.

The biblical writer presented how Moses died and the people of Israel mourned for him. Therefore, it was not possible that Moses could have written about his own death and how the people mourned for him (Deuteronomy 34:4-8).

Some of the events occurred when Moses was not yet born like the creation for the universe and how the sons of Jacob became slaves in Egypt.

Moses had such a tight schedule from the time of his call up to when he died. Therefore, this implied that he was too busy to write down the information as presented in the first five books.

Moses lived at a time of oral tradition. This was a period where spoken words were no more important than written ones. Therefore Moses could have not thought of breaking down the tradition.

There are so many repetitions in the content particularly about the laws itself. Therefore, Moses could not have kept repeating himself had he been the writer.

Some argue that the Pentateuch was written much later after the Babylonians exile which occurred quite later after the death of Moses.