M — Moïse

Several scholars have believed that the Pentateuch could not have been written by Moses. They say that Scripture itself establishes that the first known copy was found in the time of King Josiah, and that this sole copy was brought to the king by the secretary Shaphan. Now between Moses and this adventure of the secretary Shaphan there are 867 years by the Hebrew reckoning. For God appeared to Moses in the burning bush in the year of the world 2213, and the secretary Shaphan published the book of the law in the year of the world 3380. This book found under Josiah remained unknown until the return from the Babylonian captivity, and we are told that it was Ezra, inspired by God, who brought all the Holy Scriptures to light.

Now whether Ezra or someone else made this book is entirely immaterial, provided the book is inspired. The Pentateuch does not say that Moses is its author; we are therefore free to attribute it to another man to whom the divine spirit dictated it.

Some critics add that no prophet quoted the books of the Pentateuch; that they are mentioned neither in the Psalms, nor in the books attributed to Solomon, nor in Jeremiah, nor in Isaiah, nor, finally, in any canonical book. The words corresponding to Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy occur in no other writing of either the Old or the New Testament.

Others, bolder still, have asked the following questions:

1°. In what language could Moses have written in a savage desert? It could only have been Egyptian. For this very book shows that Moses and all his people were born in Egypt. They probably spoke no other language. The Egyptians were not yet using papyrus; they engraved hieroglyphs on marble or wood. We are even told that the tables of the commandments were engraved on stone. Five volumes would therefore have had to be engraved on polished stones, which required prodigious effort and time.

2°. Is it plausible that in a desert where the Jewish people had neither shoemaker nor tailor, and where the God of the universe was obliged to perform a continual miracle to preserve the Jews’ old clothes and shoes, men should have been found skillful enough to engrave the five books of the Pentateuch on marble or wood? It will be said that craftsmen were indeed found who made a golden calf and then reduced the gold to powder; who built the tabernacle and adorned it with thirty-four bronze columns with silver capitals; who wove and embroidered veils of linen, hyacinth blue, purple, and scarlet. But this very thing strengthens the critics’ opinion. They reply that such elaborate works could not have been made in a desert where everything was lacking; that they should have begun by making shoes and tunics; that people who lack necessities do not indulge in luxury; and that it is an obvious contradiction to say that there were founders, engravers, sculptors, dyers, and embroiderers when there were neither clothes, sandals, nor bread.

3°. If Moses had written the first chapter of Genesis, would all young people have been forbidden to read that first chapter? Would so little respect have been shown to the lawgiver? If Moses had said that God punishes the iniquity of the fathers down to the fourth generation, would Ezekiel have dared say the opposite?

4°. If Moses had written Leviticus, could he have contradicted himself in Deuteronomy? Leviticus forbids marrying one’s brother’s wife; Deuteronomy commands it.

5°. Would Moses have spoken in his book of cities that did not exist in his time? Would he have said that cities which lay east of the Jordan from where he stood were to the west?

6°. Would he have assigned forty-eight cities to the Levites in a country where there have never been ten cities, and in a desert where he was always wandering without a house?

7°. Would he have prescribed rules for Jewish kings when not only were there no kings among this people, but kings were held in horror and seemed unlikely ever to exist? What! Moses would have given precepts for the conduct of kings who came only some eight hundred years after him, and said nothing about the judges and high priests who succeeded him? Does this reflection not lead us to believe that the Pentateuch was composed in the time of the kings, and that the ceremonies instituted by Moses had been only a tradition?

8°. Could he have said to the Jews: “I brought you out of the land of Egypt, six hundred thousand fighting men, under the protection of your God”? Would the Jews not have answered: “You must have been very timid not to lead us against the Pharaoh of Egypt. He could not have opposed us with an army of two hundred thousand men. Egypt has never had so many soldiers under arms; we would have defeated him easily; we would be masters of his country. What! The God who speaks to you slaughtered all the firstborn of Egypt to please us; and if there are three hundred thousand families in that country, that means three hundred thousand men killed in one night to avenge us. And you did not support your God? You did not give us that fertile country, which nothing could defend? You brought us out of Egypt like thieves and cowards to let us perish in deserts, among precipices and mountains! At least you could have led us by the direct road into that land of Canaan to which we have no right, which you promised us, and which we have still been unable to enter.

“It was natural for us to march from the land of Goshen toward Tyre and Sidon along the Mediterranean; but you made us cross almost the whole isthmus of Suez. You made us reenter Egypt and go up again beyond Memphis, and we found ourselves at Baal-zephon on the shore of the Red Sea, with our backs to the land of Canaan, having marched eighty leagues through the Egypt we wished to avoid, and finally on the point of perishing between the sea and Pharaoh’s army!

“If you had wished to deliver us to our enemies, would you have taken another route or other measures? God saved us by a miracle, you say; the sea opened to let us pass. But after such a favor, did you have to let us die of hunger and exhaustion in the horrible deserts of Etham, Kadesh-barnea, Marah, Elim, Horeb, and Sinai? All our fathers perished in those dreadful wastes, and after forty years you come and tell us that God took particular care of our fathers!”

That is more or less what these murmuring Jews, these unjust children of the wandering Jews who died in the deserts, might have said to Moses if he had read them Exodus and Genesis. And what should they not have said and done at the passage about the golden calf? “What! You dare tell us that your brother made a golden calf for our fathers while you were with God on the mountain—you who tell us at one moment that you spoke to God face to face, and at another that you could only see him from behind! Still, you were with this God, and your brother cast a golden calf in a single day and gave it to us to worship. And instead of punishing your unworthy brother, you made him our high priest, and ordered your Levites to slaughter twenty thousand men of your people! Would our fathers have endured it? Would they have allowed themselves to be butchered like sacrificial victims by bloodthirsty priests? You tell us that, not content with this incredible butchery, you had another twenty-four thousand of your poor followers massacred because one of them had slept with a Midianite woman, while you yourself had married a Midianite. And you add that you are the gentlest of all men. A few more acts of such gentleness, and not a soul would have remained.

“No: if you had been capable of such cruelty, if you had been able to carry it out, you would be the most barbarous of all men, and every torture would be insufficient to atone for so monstrous a crime.”

These are roughly the objections scholars make to those who think Moses is the author of the Pentateuch. But they are answered that God’s ways are not human ways; that God tested, guided, and abandoned his people with a wisdom unknown to us; that the Jews themselves have believed for more than two thousand years that Moses is the author of these books; that the Church, which succeeded the synagogue and is infallible like it, has decided this disputed point; and that scholars must be silent when the Church speaks.

Some scholars don’t believe Moses could have written the Pentateuch. Their evidence, they say, comes from scripture itself. It puts the discovery of the first known copy in King Josiah’s reign. Shaphan, the king’s secretary, brought him that single copy. Hebrew reckoning puts 867 years between Moses and this business with Shaphan. The world was 2213 years old when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. By that same count, Shaphan published the law book in 3380. People didn’t know this book found under Josiah until they returned from captivity in Babylon. Ezra is said to have made all the holy scriptures public under God’s inspiration.

Whether Ezra or someone else wrote it doesn’t matter at all, provided it’s inspired. Nowhere does the Pentateuch say Moses wrote it. We’re therefore free to credit another man, to whom God’s spirit dictated it.

The critics make another point: not one prophet quotes any of the Pentateuch’s books. The Psalms don’t mention them, nor do the books credited to Solomon. You won’t find them in Jeremiah or Isaiah either. In fact, none of the canonical books mentions them. No other writing in either the Old or the New Testament uses words for these names: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy.

Others have gone further and asked these questions.

1°. What language could Moses have used to write out in the wilderness? Egyptian was the only possibility. His own book says he and his whole people were born in Egypt. It’s likely they spoke no other language. Egyptians hadn’t begun to use papyrus then. Their writing was hieroglyphs carved into marble or wood. Even the commandments, we’re told, were cut into stone tablets. So someone would’ve had to carve five volumes into polished stones. That would’ve meant an enormous amount of work and time.

2°. Could men in that desert really carve all five books on marble or wood? The Jewish people didn’t even have shoemakers or tailors there. The God of the universe had to keep working a miracle to preserve their old clothes and shoes. Someone will say they found workers to make a golden calf. Those workers then ground its gold into powder. They built the tabernacle, adding thirty-four bronze columns with silver tops. They wove and embroidered curtains of linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. But that only strengthens the critics’ argument. They answer that nobody could have made such elaborate things in a desert that lacked everything. Shoes and tunics would’ve had to come first. People who lack the basics don’t spend on luxuries. How could they have metalworkers, engravers, sculptors, dyers, and embroiderers, but no clothes, sandals, or bread? That’s an obvious contradiction.

3°. If Moses wrote the first chapter of Genesis, why forbid all young people to read it? Would they have treated their lawgiver with so little respect? Suppose Moses said God punishes fathers’ wrongdoing down to the fourth generation. Would Ezekiel have dared to say the opposite?

4°. If Leviticus was Moses’ work, could he then say the opposite in Deuteronomy? In Leviticus you mustn’t marry your brother’s wife. In Deuteronomy you’re told to do just that.

5°. Would his book mention cities that didn’t exist in his lifetime? Would he put cities west of the Jordan when, from where he stood, they were east of it?

6°. Would he give the Levites forty-eight cities in a country that never had ten? And in a desert where he kept wandering without a house?

7°. Would he make rules for Jewish kings when his people had none? They even hated kings, and seemed unlikely ever to have any. What! Moses supposedly laid out how kings should behave, about eight hundred years before they came. Yet he said nothing about the judges and high priests who followed him? Doesn’t that suggest the Pentateuch was written under the kings? And that the ceremonies Moses set up had only been handed down by tradition?

8°. Could Moses really have said this to the Jews? “I led six hundred thousand fighting men out of Egypt, with your God protecting you.” Wouldn’t they have replied, “How timid you must’ve been! Why didn’t you lead us against the Egyptian Pharaoh? He couldn’t muster two hundred thousand men against us. Egypt has never had so many troops ready to fight. Beating him would’ve been easy. His country would now be ours. What! The God who talks to you killed every firstborn in Egypt just to please us. Suppose there are three hundred thousand families in that country. That means three hundred thousand men died in one night to avenge us. Why didn’t you back your God up? Why didn’t you let us have that fertile country? Nothing could’ve defended it. Instead, you took us out of Egypt like cowardly thieves. You brought us into deserts to die among mountains and cliffs! At least you could’ve taken us straight to Canaan. You promised us that land, though we have no right to it. We still haven’t been able to get there.

“The natural route from Goshen ran along the Mediterranean toward Tyre and Sidon. Instead you make us cross almost the whole Isthmus of Suez. You take us back into Egypt and up beyond Memphis. We end up at Baal-zephon, beside the Red Sea, with our backs to Canaan. We’ve marched eighty leagues through the very Egypt we wanted to avoid. And now we’re about to die between the sea and Pharaoh’s army!

“Would you have planned or traveled any differently if you’d meant to hand us over to our enemies? You tell us God worked a miracle to save us. The sea split apart and let us through. After that kindness, did you have to send us to die of hunger and exhaustion in those terrible deserts—Etham, Kadesh-barnea, Marah, Elim, Horeb, and Sinai? Every one of our fathers died in those dreadful empty places. Now, after forty years, you tell us God looked after our fathers with special care!”

The Jews who grumbled were the unjust children of wandering Jews who’d died in the deserts. That’s what they might have told Moses if he’d read them Exodus and Genesis. And when he got to the golden calf, what should they have said and done? “What’s this you dare tell us? Your brother made a golden calf for our fathers while you were on the mountain with God? You sometimes claim you spoke with God face to face. At other times you say you could only see his back! Still, there you were with God. Your brother cast a golden calf in a single day and gave it to us to worship. Did you punish that worthless brother? No, you made him our high priest. You told your Levites to kill twenty thousand of your own people. Would our fathers have accepted that? Would they have let those bloodthirsty priests beat them to death like animals for sacrifice? You say even that unbelievable bloodbath didn’t satisfy you. You also had twenty-four thousand of your poor followers killed. One man slept with a Midianite woman, and that was why. Yet you’d married a Midianite yourself! Then you tell us no one is gentler than you. A few more examples of your gentleness would’ve left no one alive.

“No, if you could’ve been so cruel, and could’ve carried it out, you’d be the most barbaric man of all. No amount of punishment could atone for such an appalling crime.”

Those are roughly the scholars’ objections to people who think Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Here’s the answer they’re given. God’s ways aren’t human ways. He tested, guided, and abandoned his people with a wisdom we don’t understand. The Jews themselves have believed Moses wrote these books for over two thousand years. The church has taken over from the synagogue and is just as infallible. It has settled this disputed point. When the church speaks, scholars must keep quiet.