Who Wrote the Five Books of Moses?

⁷ The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel. ⁸ Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. ⁹ And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.

(Judges 2:7-10)

Judges 2:7-10 (above) puzzles. How could the first generation after Joshua son of Nun "not know the LORD nor what he had done for Israel" unless all twenty-two thousand Levites (Numbers 3:39) had perished without leaving offspring who could pick up and carry their staff of authority over the people, and simultaneously a new generation of Israelites had mislaid or destroyed all records of Moses and Joshua? Had not Moses east of the Jordan in the territory of Moab enjoined all the Israelites gathered there to teach the things their eyes had seen to their children and these to theirs? (Deuteronomy 4:7-10, 6:6-9, 11:18-21, 32:45-47).

The assertion of Judges 2:10 implies that the tribe of Levites had disappeared mysteriously in contravention of Exodus 40:12-16. Else how could the generation after Joshua be unacquainted with the Book of the Law which the Levites had been enjoined to read in the hearing of all Israel every seven years? (Deuteronomy 31:9-13, Ezra 8:1-18). Had that original tribe of Levites not displayed their zeal for the Lord by ruthlessly slaughtering three thousand apostates? (Exodus 32:25-29).

The assertion of Judges 2:10 implies that all records of Moses and Joshua were mislaid or wilfully destroyed by an apostate generation that grew up after Joshua. Unaccountably this second generation wilfully disobeyed the command of Moses and of the elders of Israel to write the Book of the Law "very clearly" on plaster-coated stones erected on Mount Ebal (Deuteronomy 27:1-8).

Instead of the Levites and the ancient records vanishing into thin air it is more logical to brand the story of Moses a fabrication that requires the whimsical oblivion cited by Judges 2:10 to address a latter people's original dismissal of the fresh tale of Moses and Joshua.

The five books of Moses are religious literature similar after a fashion to the Book of Mormon. Despite their specious prose, no one can tell where the central figures of Moses, Joshua, Jarom or Nephi lie buried nor can anybody summon archeological records of their existence.

The goal of this essay is to find out who wrote the books of Moses and when was it written.

Who Wrote the Five Books of Moses?

Introduction

Index