3. External Testimony to the Authorship
In the time of Jesus and the Apostles the Pentateuch was certainly regarded as the work of Moses
(Mark xii. 19;
John viii. 5),
and from
this point of view the expressions of
the Lord and his disciples regarding
"the
the law" are made (Jesus in Matt.
Authorship. viii. 4;
Mark xii. 26;
Luke xvi. 29;
John v. 45;
Peter in
Acts iii. 22;
Paul
in
Rom. ix. 15).
For the view in the Apocrypha
cf.
II Macc. i. 29, vii. 26.
For earlier times this
same view is indicated as regnant in
Ezra vi. 18;
Neh. xiii. 1.
In the prophetical writings the name
of Moses as attached to the law occurs only
Mal. iv. 4,
and the expression there does not necessarily
involve authorship. The passages in the books of
Kings where occur the phrases "the law of Moses"
and "the law-book of Moses" relate only to Deuteronomy,
I Kings ii. 2-4;
II Kings xiv. 6
(II Kings xviii. 6, 12, xxi. 8, xxiii. 25
designate the law as
given by God through Moses). Moses' name appears in Psalms lxxvii., xcix., cv., cvi., but in these
passages is not associated with literary activity.
Moses gives no testimony for his authorship of the
whole, since
Ex. xvii. 14, xxiv. 4, 7, xxxiv. 27,
and
Num. xxxiii. 2
concern only portions, while Deut.
xxxi. refers only. to the law in Deuteronomy. External testimony is therefore inconclusive. Regarding the citations from the New Testament it is to
be remarked that
they testify simply to the current
opinion of the times. Were they an essential part
of the authoritative teaching of the New Testament
they would be decisive in themselves, and any introduction of further proof would be a setting aside of
the authority of the Lord and his disciples. But
none of the advocates of the Mosaic authorship of
the Pentateuch who have made themselves soquainted with the difficulties and development of
the question have gone so far as to assert that the
Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch is conclusively
decided by the manner in which the books are
referred to by the Lord and his apostles and
that no further proof is required. A remarkable
exception was the late William Henry Green of
Princeton (q.v.).
