Bible Contradiction? Who wrote the Pentateuch?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who wrote the Pentateuch?

Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch.

“So Moses wrote this Law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 31:9)

“These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.” ( Deuteronomy 1:1)

There were other authors.

Unless Moses called himself (using the 3rd person) the meekest man “upon the face of the earth.”: “(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any person who was on the face of the earth.)” (Numbers 12:3)

Observed and described his own death and burial. And then said that no one knows exactly where he was buried: “So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, in accordance with the [a]word of the Lord. 6 And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows his burial place to this day.” (Deuteronomy 34:5-6)

And unless Moses claimed to be be greatest prophet, saying there hasn’t been as great a prophet ever since: “Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,” (Deuteronomy 34:10)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. The skeptic tries to pit two passages (Deuteronomy 31:9 and Deuteronomy 1:1) as affirming the claim “Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch” (Pentateuch is the first five book of the Bible) against three other passages (Numbers 12:3, Deuteronomy 34:5-6, Deuteronomy 34:10) as affirming “Other authors wrote the entire Pentateuch.”
4. The two passages (Deuteronomy 31:9 and Deuteronomy 1:1) cited as “Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch” actually does not state what the skeptic claimed.
   1. Neither Deuteronomy 31:9 nor Deuteronomy 1:1 said anything of all or the entire Pentateuch.
   2. Also both passages seems to have the book of Deuteronomy in view and not the whole Pentateuch.
5. Given Deuteronomy 31:9 and Deuteronomy 1:1 doesn’t establish the skeptics claim of “Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch” this means there’s no Bible contradiction with the skeptics’ claim “Other authors wrote the entire Pentateuch.”
6. Still I want to look further.  It seems possible that some of the verses the skeptics cited as proof for the proposition “Other authors wrote the entire Pentateuch” are not conclusive.
   1. While it might be strange for Moses to say he’s the most humble in Numbers 12:3, it might be possible that God is doing more of the speaking here through Moses.  It might be awkward for us readers today but it doesn’t necessitate that it was written for sure by another writer.
   2. Likewise both Deuteronomy 34:5-6 and Deuteronomy 34:10 can be Moses writing prophetically.
7. My interpretation is that Moses wrote the majority of the Pentateuch given how frequently the rest of the Bible call these five books “the Law of Moses.” Yet there was a Prophet, likely Joshua, who added additional details after Moses died.  But that would not be a contradiction.  As an example of how that’s not a contradiction consider the book We Are All Philosophers by John Frame.  Would it be weird if I start asserting I co-author the book by John Frame? If you read my review I mentioned the first question he answered in the appendix was actually a question I sent him many years ago, the date and the way I phrased the question was retained, and I also shared John Frame’s answer on my blog many years ago!  But it will be strange that just because those words were mine that I say John Frame isn’t the sole author.  Nor does the fact that John Frame had an editor means John Frame is not the main writer which we call author.
8. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
9. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”

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