See: “Proving The Pentateuch: Impeaching The Documentary Hypothesis,” now at Amazon:

“Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later.”~First Century letter to the Hebrews Christians [1]

Many people are introduced to the Bible by their first encounters with a Christian church or Jewish synagogue. Pastors and Rabbis who teach through the Bible often begin with the first five books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. This compilation of texts have been historically known as the Pentateuch or Torah. 

People who believe the Bible is the word of God—authored by Him as He spoke to men who were set apart for Him—stipulate that Moses is the singular author of these texts. Modern progressive Christians and atheist scholars often assert that Moses is not the author of the Pentateuch, stating that many other unknown writers are responsible for this compilation of biblical texts. 

Persons who attend university today are frequently taught that the Pentateuch was composed by four unknown authors or through several literary strands, described by the letters J.E.D.P.

• J represents the Yahwist theory (“J” from the German Jahweh), originating from the period of 950 BC, the early Hebrew kingdom.
• E represents the Elohist theory, originating from the period of 750 BC, during the Northern Kingdom of Israel. 
• D represents the Deutero theory that is observed in the Pentateuch by the book of Deuteronomy, originating from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, about 650 BC.
• P represented as the Priestly theory, describe texts from the Pentateuch such as Leviticus, originating from the period after the decline of Israel in 587 BC. 

According to some modern scholars who assert the JEDP theory, the texts of the Pentateuch were developed into their current form during the time of Ezra, about 400 BC.

This postulation for how the first five books of the Bible were composed is often referred to as the Documentary Hypothesis, and the Graf-Wellhausen theory. 

The danger that originates in this hypothesis can be understood by its incursion into the historical defining principles of the Bible, as originating in the mind of God and not men. 

Critics who accept the JEDP theory argue that the texts of the first five books should be viewed as a combination of credible historical events, as well as religious poetry from the imaginations of men. In other words, the Pentateuch is not the word of God, it is merely a fabrication of events that never happened.

According to the JEDP theory, and critical scholars, the narratives of the Pentateuch that are asserted as written by Moses on Mount Sinai are foolish, contrived, and impossible. The fundamental premise of the Documentary Hypothesis is that the supernatural events described by the Bible are not possible in this material world. This defines the first five books of the Bible as fantasy, folklore, and merely the contrived stories of Hebrew writers. 

This view of scripture can best be characterized by the humanist-atheist worldview that removes the existence of God from all references to the Bible. By depriving the first five books of the Bible of its power and authority from the Creator of all that exists, all subsequent books that follow the Pentateuch are rendered as nothing more than fanciful literature from antiquity. 

The historical view of the Pentateuch is supported by a vast record that has been meticulously copied and preserved by the Jews throughout their long history. Every credible Hebrew scholar from antiquity adamantly declares that God imparted these texts seen in the first five books of the Bible personally to Moses by direct revelation, and all of these texts are the word of God.

Where does this historical attestation reside? In the preserved records of the Hebrew people over the past three Millenia. There is no critical argument against the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch found anywhere prior to the seventeenth century.

The JEDP hypothesis is a new argument postulated by atheists and progressive scholars, who do not believe God exists or the Bible is the word of God. 

Any person who simply reads the Bible for themselves quickly notices that all of the Old Testament affirms, in 720 citations, the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. When we arrive at the 260 chapters of the New Testament, we find the writers citing Moses in 96 citations. The 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament state over and over again—Moses is the singular author of the first five books of the Bible. 

This historical attestation to Moses’ authoritative authorship cannot be overcome by the assertion of multiple authors and differences in writing style or name usages for God, asserted by critics.

Etymology For The Documentary Hypothesis

We might ask how a 3,000-year history of the Jews in upholding Moses as the only author of the Pentateuch could have suddenly evolved into the Documentary Hypothesis in the last 200 years.

Do scholars today know more about the events of the Bible, than scholars who upheld the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch for three Millenia?

Later criticism of texts from antiquity is an often used tactic by critics of the Bible, in an effort to cause doubt and disbelief in their reliability. 

This is particularly effective when the persons making the assertions are scholars who have obtained a PhD. Most people believe that anyone who devotes themselves to the apprehension of an advanced degree must be an expert in their field. 

You will discover that there are many who are known as Old Testament scholars, who are also atheists and unbelievers masquerading as scholars who are interested in literary integrity. Some people attend university to obtain a degree for the express purpose of trying to overturn the reliability of the Bible. 

These persons act as agents of atheism—to disrupt, impugn, and bring doubts to people who are actively pursuing faith in God and the Bible. These scholars are enemies of biblical truth, and they often infiltrate the minds of unsuspecting people by the guise of scholarly expertise. The problem is that these persons do not believe the texts of the Bible they claim to be proficient in—even before they begin their pursuit of a scholarly degree. 

Old Testament Scholarship is not biased, but many Old Testament Scholars are. Every human being is capable of cognitive prejudice. People often choose their preferred conclusions and then seek to justify their choices by fallacious reasoning.

Where Did We Go Wrong?

The failure of Old Testament Criticism is that we who believe have allowed atheist scholars to inject false suppositions and conjecture into the study of the Old Testament and distort the true facts of the Bible.

Atheist and progressive scholars do not accept that the biblical texts are true and authoritative, because they don’t believe that God exists. God-believing biblical scholars affirm the 66 books of the Bible as inspired by God and perfect the way they are.

Believing scholars insist that the texts of the Bible are eternal truths from an infinite mind and do not need to be proven authoritative today by transient human minds. Believing biblical scholars assert that the arduous task of proving the texts of the Bible are true, has already been accomplished centuries before by some of the greatest biblical scholars ever to inhabit the earth.

Starting with Origen in 248 AD, all of the texts of the Bible were arduously studied, subjected to extreme criticism, and found absolutely true. Modern biblical criticism that exists in the world today is often based upon the opinions, conjectures, and speculation of predominantly atheist scholars. There has never been any evidence that proves Moses did not write the entire Pentateuch. All that you will find are the opinions of people who don’t believe God exists in the first place.

The believing biblical scholar maintains that an intensive study of the biblical texts is the way that a person may know the Bible and prove they are truthful and reliable. This is the time-tested method used for centuries in proving all historical literature for accuracy and reliability. We examine the texts themselves using forensic methods that prove the writers of the Bible are telling the truth. The primary reason that critics object to the Bible is due to its supernatural references to God, miracles, and events they say are impossible. 

In the chapter “Can we prove the Bible by the Bible,” the evidence which proves the authority and perfection of the Bible is detailed.

This book documents the primary difficulties cited by critics, who assert the biblical narrative of Moses and the Exodus are not accurate. In fact, when we explore the alleged difficulties presented by critics, we discover that these assertions are easily impeached.

In 1753, the first claims of inaccuracies leveled against the Genesis narrative were made by French physician, Jean Astruc.[2] This commenced the study of literary analysis for the book of Genesis and the claim that two different writers are responsible for Genesis chapters 1 and 2. 

Astruc claimed that the first chapter of Genesis uses the name of Elohim for God, while the second chapter describes God as Yahweh. This multiple use of terms for God caused Astruc to conclude that Moses must have accessed two different literary sources when he composed Genesis. This was the beginning of the modern term for literary criticism of the Pentateuch, called “The Documentary Hypothesis.”  

God is known throughout the Bible by multiple names. If the usage of different names in a particular text was an indication that a different author had written the texts, we would need to assert that over 950 authors wrote the Bible. In the Appendix A chapter of this book, we find a complete list of 950 names that God is known by, that are found in the Bible. 

Without any real knowledge of the Bible or how it was written, Astruc, a medical doctor specializing in diseases of the anus, created a hypothesis in 1753 that asserts the usage of different names for God in Genesis 1 and 2 as indicative of two different authors.[3] 

Twenty-seven years later Johann Eichhorn, an atheist and humanist, further developed this theory and in 1780 applied this method to all of Genesis, Exodus, and a majority of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. This was the beginning of atheist scholarship of the Bible and the abandonment of Moses as the singular author of the Pentateuch.

Eichhorn did not believe that the God of the Bible exists nor the texts are inspired by God. He concluded that a majority of the books from the Old Testament were fabricated, and carried his atheist view of the Bible into his own commentary about the unreliability of the New Testament. 

Eichhorn also asserted without evidence that the first and second letters written by Peter, and Jude, were not written by these men, and many of the letters that have historically been proven as written by Paul were not penned by him. Eichhorn wrote that the canonical Gospels were not written by the men who saw and heard Jesus, but fabricated from several translations of a primary Aramaic gospel. 

There has never been any evidence anywhere that what Eichhorn claims about the Old and New Testaments is actually true. These are merely the assertions made by men who have achieved an academic status as a biblical scholar while being atheists and progressives.

Astruc and Eichhorn were the early purveyors of modern atheist scholarship of the Bible, that cannot be proven by evidence but relies upon their status as academic scholars. This tactic is continuing today with Bart Ehrman as an atheist New Testament scholar, Joel Baden and Josh Bowen as atheist Old Testament scholars. These men use their academic credentials to convince unsuspecting readers that they know what they are talking about. This book documents that these men do not know or understand the texts they criticize, but have an agenda as atheists to impugn and malign God and the Bible.

In subsequent chapters of this book, you will see a demonstration of the errors perpetrated by these men upon unsuspecting reader of their books and essays. 

If genuine Biblical scholars, who understand how the Bible was written, had vigorously defended against these false ideas perpetrated by men like Astruc and Eichhorn at the time they began to assert these errors, we would not see the catastrophic effects of their unprovable ideas taught to young Bible students today. 

The highway of biblical scholarship is littered with the lives of young men and women, who have abandoned their faith in the God of the Bible and the reliability of these texts. Many of the men and women who were taught these false ideas at seminary or Bible college have now become atheists or agnostics themselves.

The evidence which proves all of the Bible is true is immense, yet the assault against these texts by atheist scholars is also massive. 

Left unchecked, these errors of biblical interpretation that are based in atheism continued. 

In 1805, Wilhem De Wette postulated that the entirety of the Pentateuch was written prior to David in 1,000 BC. This posit included the idea that Deuteronomy was written as mere propaganda and composed to bolster the religious and political merger of ideas in Jerusalem during the reign of Josiah, King of Judah, c. 640–609 BC. There is no evidence anywhere these assertions are true. They exist as mere conjecture.

• In 1753, Jean Astruc originated the J portion of the JEDP hypothesis. In 1780, Johann Eichhorn originated the E portion of the JEDP hypothesis.
• In 1805, Wilhem De Wette originated the D portion of the JEDP hypothesis.
• In 1853, Hermann Hupfeld originated the P portion of the JEDP hypothesis. 

In just 100 years of conjecture and speculation by critics who do not believe the Bible, ideas were contrived without evidence that adulterated the true historical reliability of Moses as the single author of the Pentateuch. 

If any of these theories by critics were accurate, or based on actual facts, we might have reason to question the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. The problem is that all of these ideas originate in atheism, conjecture, and speculation. There is not a scintilla of evidence anywhere that the JEDP hypothesis is predicated upon facts or provable theories. 

The entire purpose of the Documentary Hypothesis is to impugn the truth and reliability of the first five books of the Bible. Christians have failed to effectively defend against this attack on the veracity of the biblical texts, and this has resulted in the catastrophic loss of thousands of souls by its deceit. 

If a person is struggling with their faith in God and the Bible, and they read commentary by critics of the Bible, many are persuaded to cease their trust in God. The problem is that none of these theories or hypotheses is true, and they are easily refuted by actual evidence. This was a primary reason that I wrote this book: to prevent people from losing their faith and falling away from Jesus.

From the inception of the Documentary Hypothesis, scholars who know the difference between false theories and the truth presented by scripture have tried to defend the historical reliability of the Pentateuch. The problem early in the assault made by atheists was that the defense was insufficient to prevent the deceit to continue.

Of greater concern are the number of liberal institutions which teach the Documentary Hypothesis to students, without disclosure that the hypothesis is yet unproven. The reason this happens is that a large number of non-believing, progressive, and even atheist professors are teaching these false and unprovable ideas to unsuspecting young people.

I have personally had hundreds of conversations with young men and women, who have abandoned their former education in the Bible, because their professors convinced them the Bible is not true. The Documentary Hypothesis is the beginning of the end for many of these students who are now atheists, or agnostics in their view of God and the Bible.

Once a person crosses this fine line from trust in the Bible to mistrust, doubts, and unbelief, continued faith is nearly impossible. On rare occasions, publications like this can educate and inform people, and return them to a solid faith in the texts of the Bible. Many, however, are lost forever. 

In this reality, we can see how important it is to have resources which truthfully communicates the facts of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. It is my sincere desire that this small work might accomplish this crucial goal and prevent many from abandoning their faith to the emptiness of unbelief and a life without God. 

Today, even Christian universities and Bible colleges continue to teach the Wellhausian theory, at a minimum—in their outlines—without presenting the historical and archeological evidence that proves Moses is the only writer of the first five books of the Bible, and the Exodus from Egypt is a historical fact. 

This publication presents the reader with the historical and archeological discoveries found in Egypt, which prove the existence of Moses and Exodus are genuine historical events. The archeological evidence that exists today proves that the Exodus took place in 1446 BC, not the alleged period two hundred years later. 

The incorrect dating of the Exodus at 1250 BC, which is asserted by several atheist archeologists, scholars, and professors of Egyptian history, has resulted in the entire timeline of the Exodus being distorted. When the Exodus is placed two hundred years later, at 1250 BC, the events described in the book of Exodus narrative do not fit the historical and archeological evidence. 

This book presents the archeological evidence that exists today, which establishes the correct departure of the Israelites from Egypt in 1446 BC. This date allows the events described in the Exodus narrative of the Bible, to fit precisely within the archeological discoveries found in the past one hundred years. 

Chapter 4: “Correctly Dating The Exodus”

In the late 1800’s, scholars William Green and Joseph Alexander of Princeton Seminary presented evidence that had a profound effect upon the documentarian school that seeks to refute the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. 

Near 1829, scholar Ernst Wilhem Hengstenberg of Germany accurately defended the Mosaic authorship of the first five books of the Bible. In his book, “The Genuineness of the Pentateuch,” Hengstenberg refuted the Documentary Hypothesis entirely. 

The problems that arose in biblical scholarship during that period of history resulted from a global effort to find a natural and rational answer for the supernatural descriptions found in the Bible.

Instead of stipulating that the creation of the universe by the God of the Bible is the greatest miracle of all, and one that we can all see, during the 1800’s all references to the supernatural were vigorously opposed by critics. 

In truth, the miracles that God is capable of are only miracles for us, being transient beings who have very limited knowledge regarding the physical laws of the universe. 

People have problems with the miracles described in the Bible, because human beings cannot do these things. Not many of us have ever seen something happen supernaturally, in opposition to the normal laws of physics. What we don’t realize is that science doesn’t know everything about the physical laws which govern the universe. 

In John chapter 20, after Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to His disciples suddenly within a room that had a locked door. How could Jesus move through the physical structure of four walls and roof, without harm to His physical body?

In order to confirm that He was not a ghost or other spirit entity, Jesus instructed His disciples to touch Him and see that He did have flesh and bones. 

The text doesn’t say that Jesus walked through the walls. John writes that Jesus suddenly appeared before His disciples in the room which they occupied. Quantum Physicists who have examined this text state that in order for Jesus to appear suddenly in this room without going through a physical structure, this would require access to a sixth dimension. 

When you or I move from the dimension of length to width, we are able to freely move without encountering a physical barrier. In the same way, when Jesus moved from a sixth dimension to our three-dimensional world, He did not need to pass through a closed door or a wall. Jesus suddenly appeared from an unseen dimension. 

What was it that enabled Jesus to accomplish this supernatural event? Apparently, the death of our physical body allows us access to a part of the laws that govern the universe, which we are not currently aware of.

It’s not that the miracles and other supernatural descriptions found in the Bible are impossible, we humans are merely ignorant of how they are produced. 

Rather than stipulate that the supernatural descriptions found in the Bible may be possible, and seek to find answers for how they were possible, the archaic thinking of primitive men concocted a naturalistic solution that is incoherent. 

If God exists, and He is responsible for this incredibly complex universe we live in, He must certainly be capable of exhibiting events that would appear supernatural to us but quite normal for Him. 

In some small part, many of the early opinions formed about the descriptions of the Exodus have resulted from the willful ignorance of people, who appear incapable of comprehending a Being of unlimited capacity. 

Paul said that Jesus communicated to him eighteen mysteries that were unknown by former generations, revealed to him by direct revelation from God.[4] The events of creation in Genesis, and those described during the Exodus event, are mere extensions of God’s unlimited power to do all things. Moses was told directly by God the specific details we see written in the book of Genesis regarding the creation of the universe, earth, and all life on earth. 

Archeological discoveries have confirmed that the date for the Exodus described in the Bible was 1446 BC, not 1250 BC asserted by several scholars today. The first section of this book, in the chapters that follow this one, you will see this evidence.

By asserting a later date for the Exodus, and four different authors other than Moses, critics in the 1700’s asserted a naturalistic answer for the texts of the Bible that were viewed as fabricated. The problem at that time, and even to the present day, is that the God of the Bible is capable of all these incredible acts—proven by His creation of the universe. 

Today we know that there is no natural process that could commence, expand, and result in a universe that has been fine-tuned to make human life possible on earth. Order never comes from chaos; precisely tuned physical constants cannot result from random and arbitrary events. The existence of a universe specifically engineered for human life proves that the God of the Bible created all that exists.

I have published two books that document the scientific evidence which proves a Being is responsible for the universe, and no natural process could ever accomplish this feat of engineering. 

When a person understands this science and the impossibility of a naturally occurring universe, it changes their view of the events described in the Pentateuch immediately. You can see this evidence in two of my books: “How Intelligence Acted Upon The Universe,” and “A Universe From God: The True  Origin Of The Cosmos.” 

At the time that a large-scale assault was leveled at the Pentateuch during the 1700’s, critics were able to successfully convince a large number of skeptical scholars, that the God described in the Bible could not exist and all the texts which exist in the first five books were written not by Moses, but four other unknown writers. 

One of the critical errors made by early scholars, who assert the Documentary Hypothesis, is the assumption that Hebrew writers are different from those of other historical narratives. The Hebrew writers are described by critics as being incapable of using more than one name for God, or one style of writing in the same genre narrative.[5]

Upon an investigation of the Qur’an, we find that the writers used multiple names for God, but no criticism is expressed against Muhammad as the singular author. 

If we follow the line of reasoning used by modern critical scholars, who try and refute the singular authorship of Moses for the Pentateuch, we would also have to conclude that modern writers were incapable of writing various styles, genres, and language. 

There are hundreds of examples where modern writers have accomplished exactly what critics of Moses say he could not have done—using multiple names, genres, and writing styles. 

Applying the criteria that scholars use to refute Moses as the only author of the first five books of the Bible, we would have to disqualify hundreds of modern publications for the same reasons. Clearly, one author is capable of writing using multiple words to describe God, various styles in writing texts, and many genres.

Noted author C.S. Lewis accomplished this very thing in the culmination of his own literary works—Mere Christianity, The Allegory of Love, The Screwtape Letters, The Abolition of Man, The Space Trilogy, Till We Have Faces, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life—all exhibit qualities that critical scholars say are not possible by a single writer.

These famous works  of Lewis consist of children’s stories, science fiction, allegorical satire, and literary critiques, asserting that many sources must have been accessed in creating these literary successes. 

Moses Was Uniquely Qualified

Moses received the highest form of education during his life in Egypt, by the most preeminent teachers of that period. It is certain that Moses was capable of writing all of the texts we find in the Pentateuch. There were no other persons during that period of history who were better qualified and more able to construct these narratives than Moses. 

God said to critics of Moses at that time, that He chose Moses specifically because of his qualifications and background: 

“The LORD said to them, “Now listen to what I say: “If there were prophets among you, I, the LORD, would reveal myself in visions. I would speak to them in dreams. But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the LORD as he is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?”[6]

If we study the five books of the Pentateuch for ourselves, very quickly we learn that Moses was quite unique amongst all the men of that period in history. God specifically chose only Moses, and to him alone did God reveal all the texts he was to record for posterity.

“…Of all my house, he is the one I trust…”

The details of creation, the principle that God is following just one line of descendants in order to reveal Himself and His plan of salvation, are unique amongst all other writings of antiquity.

As Moses was uniquely qualified to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and write the Pentateuch, Abraham was also specifically qualified to represent the kind of faith that God requires for salvation. God told Abraham that He was going to make him a great nation—while he was nearly 100 years old and had no descendants. The text of Genesis 12:6 says that Abraham heard what God said and he believed everything God told him. 

This kind of unwavering faith is what God established as the only kind of faith that will save anyone. God doesn’t care about your failures, weaknesses, inabilities, or lack of resources; He cares only about your trust in Him. If you believe everything that God says, He will save you.

“It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”[7]

The first prophecy of a Redeemer who would die for the sins of the world was recorded by Moses in Genesis 3:15: From the “Seed of a woman,” the Messiah would be born. A woman does not have “Seed,” designating this as a supernatural event of a virgin birth.[8]

God was not interested in giving the reader a historical narrative of Egypt or any other nation. The Pyramids and the mighty empires of this human empire were of no interest to God. The Bible was engineered and built by the One God of the universe, who wanted the world to know who He is. God was revealing Himself and the salvation He was offering every person, and Moses was a crucial part of this revelation. The entire Bible, Old and New Testaments, are a single integrated narrative that follows a specific line of descendants leading to the Messiah, Jesus, in the four Gospels. 

Anyone who thinks that a secular, humanistic, critical assessment of the Bible will reveal what the Bible is really about doesn’t understand the purpose God determined in giving these texts to the men He chose to write the Bible.

The texts of the Bible cannot be understood by human logic or understanding. They are a transcendent communication from an Eternal Being, that is capable of effectively and accurately communicating who He is—through the people He chooses to speak through. Hebrew scholar, Paul, communicated this reality in his letter to the Corinthians:

“So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom…Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.”[9]

The same God, who possessed the intelligence, power, and ability to create the majestic universe we behold, also has the power to communicate words to unique men and ensure that His words are written and preserved for all time. He decided this, so that every person born on the earth could know who He is and what He requires to redeem us back to Himself.

Today the conclusions of nineteenth century experts, who assert that the Exodus narratives are not historical, are eating their own words. Archeological discoveries detailed in this book, as well as an exploration of the historical, literary texts of the Pentateuch, prove that Moses—not other alleged authors—composed the first five books of the Bible. 

The modern view advocated by Wellhausen, that the Jews evolved in their religion from a primitive animism into a semi-sophisticated monotheism, has been impeached by the diligence of true biblical scholars. 

The idea that the Hebrew writers of the Bible did not make use of repetition for certain principles or events, as is found in other Semitic languages of antiquity, is absurd. The texts of Genesis one and two impeach this idea. In chapter one of Genesis, God gives us a summary of the events that concern creation. Chapter two, Moses makes use of a common tool, used by him and other Hebrew writers, to come back and fill in the details of what was formerly stated in chapter one of Genesis, in chapter two.

Contrary to the view of inept atheist scholars who do not really understand the Bible, the Genesis narratives in chapters one and two are not two different stories. The idea that this is true reveals just how unskilled many unbelieving scholars are regarding the genuine nature and story of the Pentateuch. 

The inability of some scholars to discern the reality of the Genesis narrative, and instead superimpose their own view that two different writers penned Genesis chapters one and two, is compelling evidence for the incompetence of atheist scholars.

One of the primary reasons that errors are made concerning the Pentateuch is due to the principle established in the Bible—that the Holy Spirit is only given to genuine believers, and the texts of the Bible, in their depth, can only be understood as they are revealed to believers. 

Atheists and progressive scholars have not been born again through the Spirit—a primary requirement described by Jesus in John 3:3, which conveys knowledge to those who have the Holy Spirit residing within them.[10] The unbeliever does not have the capacity to really understand the Bible. This is perfectly illustrated by the errors stated by these individuals when they attempt to explain to us what they think the Bible is saying. 

Concerning the texts of Genesis, scholars without the Spirit of God living in them cannot know the depths of what the texts are saying. Although atheist and progressive scholars disagree with this premise, nevertheless this is the reality that exists in having an ability to understand the Bible. 

The error that non-believing persons make in their views of the biblical texts is that these narratives are not like the conventional words that men and women write. The Bible is unique, in that it claims and proves inspiration from a transcendent source outside time, space, and matter. This assertion is easily proven by the fulfillment of over 400 Messianic prophecies written for the Messiah. 

At the last section of this book, there are 46 of these Messianic Prophecies that come from the Pentateuch, which demonstrate Moses’ proficiency in recording predictions that God gave him. These 46 prophecies are documented as fulfilled with great precision in the extant manuscript copies of the New Testament. When you see these prophecies for yourself, you will be amazed at their accuracy and precision. 

Deuteronomy 18 gives us a roadmap from God that described the prophecies of the Bible and their fulfillment, as sufficient evidence to prove the Bible comes to us from a Mind that is eternal and outside the physical universe. 

“But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the LORD?’ If the prophet speaks in the LORD’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the LORD did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.”[11]

God revealed the texts of Genesis directly to Moses and disclosed two of the important names for God, Elohim and Jehovah, among nearly 950 that will be revealed throughout the sixty-six books of the Bible. 

Elohim in Genesis chapter one is a revelation of God as a compound unity of three persons, working together in perfect unity for one specific purpose.[12] This perfection of unity within these three—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is the reason they are One God. This is the very essence of the word Elohim.

Jehovah/Yahweh is the general name for God that chapter two of Genesis reveals to us. When we arrive at the New Testament and see Jesus referred to as “Lord,” the translators of the Koine Greek texts understood that the writers were defining Jesus as the same “Lord,” Yahweh from the Old Testament.[13]

Those without the Spirit of God living in them do not know or understand that the different names for God revealed in the Old Testament are provided for us as a method whereby we can understand the limitless power, love, and ability of the God revealed by these texts in the Pentateuch. See Appendix A at the end of this book for a list of the 950 names for God revealed in the Bible.

Scholars who assert different writers for the Genesis one and two narratives, due to the use of multiple names for God, reveal their inability to discern the genuine nature of the God who is the subject of the Pentateuch. Moses accomplished this for us brilliantly. No other person could have achieved this result. Only Moses was given the singular privilege of having God reveal Himself so fully and completely. God chose Moses because of his deep humility and reverence for God. 

Critics assert that the repetition of laws and other principles in the Pentateuch demonstrate multiple writers. In reality, repetition of principles, laws, doctrine, and practices are a part of both Old and New Testament revelation. In the Old Testament, God established the repetition of truth as a vital method to accomplish learning:

Isaiah 28:9-10: “Who does the LORD think we are?” they ask. “Why does he speak to us like this? Are we little children, just recently weaned? He tells us everything over and over—one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there!”

Paul emphasizes the repetition of scripture and principles, in the New Testament:

Romans 15:14-15 “I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them. Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder.”

The evidence for Mosaic authorship is visually compelling throughout the Bible. Even David, writing about 1000 BC, describes Moses and the Exodus in Psalm 114:

Psalms 114:1-4 When the Israelites escaped from Egypt—when the family of Jacob left that foreign land—the land of Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel became his kingdom. The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of their way! 

How did David know about the events that took place during the Exodus? He read Moses’ narrative in the Pentateuch. David writes this Psalm near 1000 BC; the Exodus took place in 1446 BC, just 446 years before David. If anyone knew whether Moses, or four other men, had written the Pentateuch, David, the king of Israel, would have known this. We never find anything during the reign of David, indicating that Moses was not the author of the Pentateuch. 

Before David became the king of Israel, during the time when Saul was appointed as the king, the prophet Samuel cited Moses and the Exodus, as they are described in the Pentateuch, as real events penned by Moses alone.

1 Samuel 12:6-8 “It was the LORD who appointed Moses and Aaron,” Samuel continued. “He brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt. Now stand here quietly before the LORD as I remind you of all the great things the LORD has done for you and your ancestors. “When the Israelites were in Egypt and cried out to the LORD, he sent Moses and Aaron to rescue them from Egypt and to bring them into this land.”

Samuel was one of the greatest early prophets of the Old Testament; and he knew, as a fact, that God had called Moses to write the Pentateuch and lead the Israelites out of Egypt. 

These historical references to the Mosaic authorship of the first five books of the Bible are amongst the chief pieces of evidence to fully validate the origin and source of the Pentateuch. It is impossible to ignore or cast aside these references that have existed in the Old Testament, citing Moses’ authorship, in lieu of supposition from latter day scholars who assert four unknown men wrote the Pentateuch. 

Exodus 34:27: Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down all these instructions, for they represent the terms of the covenant I am making with you and with Israel.”

References to Moses as the only author of the Pentateuch permeate the entire Old Testament: Joshua, 1 and 2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and Malachi, all cite Moses as the only author of these five books. 

This theme of Mosaic authorship continues throughout the entire New Testament also. There are 96 citations in the 260 chapters of the New Testament, which stipulate that Moses is the only writer of the Pentateuch.

Matthew 19:8 describes Jesus citing Moses in describing the laws of marriage that originate in Genesis and Deuteronomy, stating that Moses wrote these texts. 

Matthew 19:4-8: Jesus to the Pharisees: “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’”  The “beginning” is Jesus’ reference to Moses’ words regarding marriage, in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

This is a direct citation from the book of Genesis, 1:27 and 2:24, citing Moses as the writer of both chapters, detailing that God created man and woman for marriage, for life.[14] 

The Pharisees understood that Moses wrote these texts, because they asked Jesus “why, then, Moses also permitted them to divorce their wives.” 

“Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?” they asked. Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.”[15]

Jesus and the Pharisees were certain that Moses was the singular author of the Pentateuch, citing authority from Moses in describing the laws that concern marriage.

John’s Gospel presents us with compelling text that record Jesus saying to the leaders of Israel: “Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys it!”[16]

Eyewitness Narratives

When we conduct a forensic examination of the Pentateuch, it becomes clear that the writer of Exodus was an eyewitness of the events he describes: “So Moses lifted his hand to the sky, and a deep darkness covered the entire land of Egypt for three days. During all that time the people could not see each other, and no one moved. But there was light as usual where the people of Israel lived.”[17]

Obviously, these are the words and descriptions of someone who was there and saw these things with his own eyes. Much like the descriptions of the men who say they were there and saw Jesus with their eyes and heard Him with their ears, Moses was an eyewitness of what he included in the Pentateuch.[18 ]

An Egyptian Papyrus Records The Exodus

Near the beginning of the nineteenth century, a papyrus was discovered that is called “the Ipuwer papyrus.” Forensic literary experts describe the texts on this papyrus as genuine eyewitness descriptions of the events we read in the book of Exodus.[19] 

Critics of the Bible have asserted that this papyrus does not speak of the Exodus, as they reveal a genuine cognitive bias. An objective examination of this papyrus confirms the exact same events that Moses wrote about in the Exodus narrative. 

Rabbi Mordechai Becher, the senior lecturer at the Gateways Organization, describes the Ipuwer papyrus as a vivid description of the violent events that took place in Egypt: massive drought which brought severe famine, and the deliverance of slaves in the midst of these terrible events. 

This papyrus was composed by an Egyptian called Ipuwer, who reveals to us that he saw and heard the events of the Exodus that he is writing about. 

“The plague is throughout the land, the (Nile) river becomes blood and men thirst for water, grain has perished on every side, the hearts of animals weep while cattle moan, the land is without light, the children of princes have died, and precious metals and stones are “fastened on the neck of female slaves.”

This is valid, historical, archeological evidence that the Israelites were in Egypt during the time the biblical narrative places them there, and the Exodus is a genuine event of antiquity.

Rabbi Becher notes eighteen different parallels between the Ipuwer papyrus and the texts of the Bible described in the books of Exodus. Upon forensic examination in comparing the biblical texts with the Ipuwer papyrus, there is no doubt that we are reading a secular confirmation of biblical records that is contemporaneous with the biblical narratives of Exodus.[20] 

An honest evaluation of the Exodus texts reveals several pieces of evidence that reside within the texts and the narratives themselves. We quickly surmise that we are reading the descriptions of someone who was there and saw what they write. There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that a disinterested, unknown person is writing about these events. 

Moses is the only source that we could intelligently assign to record what is written in Exodus. He alone had the access, ability, and motive to record all of these crucial events, for posterity. 

A crucial piece of literary forensic evidence that is observed in the texts of Exodus is the inclusion of Egyptian figures of speech and idioms that are characteristic of Egyptian sources. This is particularly strange to the investigator, as the text is written in Hebrew, but inclusive of so much evidence of Egyptian influence. 

This is the type of forensic evidence experts look for in a text that is alleged as written by Moses. Only Moses had the background, training, and education that would enable him to write with this kind of proficiency. Moses also knew of the historic Jewish oral tradition and the meticulous manner in which events are recorded and retold with great accuracy. 

We see this in the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls that include the texts of the Exodus narrative. When we compare these one thousand-year old texts with those that are existence today, the narratives match exactly. The care and discipline that was necessary to ensure that a future generation of seekers would be able to read exactly what Moses originally recorded, into the twenty-first century, is extraordinary.

Near the date of 1670, atheist Jewish philosopher, Baruch Spinoza, asserted the non-Mosaic authorship of Moses, and instead inserted Ezra as the author of the Pentateuch. He did so without any real evidence, but made his conclusions from his bias as an atheist. 

It was because of these statements of error, that the dispersion of other authors for the Pentateuch began to circulate across the world. Those who believe the historical evidence that proves Moses is the only writer of the Pentateuch have failed to accurately defend the evidence, that has a clear historical reference to Mosaic authorship. 

Wellhausen theory, later known as the “documentary hypothesis,” further served to weaken and remove Moses as the author of these texts. Today young men and women are educated and indoctrinated into the false and unprovable ideas of Spinoza and Wellhausen, turning them away from God and the Bible. 

In subsequent chapters of this book I will show you how modern persons who have achieved a PhD have made horrific errors in their exegesis of the biblical texts.

You will see with your own eyes how these modern atheist scholars twist and distort what the biblical texts are saying, and use their personal views of the narratives to further their prominence amongst atheists and progressive scholars.

The Preceding Is From The New Book: “Proving The Pentateuch,” now available at Amazon

NOTES:

1 Hebrews 3:5 is an example of how important Moses as the singular author of the Pentateuch, was to Christians in the first century.

2 “Jean Astruc was a professor of medicine in France at Montpellier and Paris, who wrote the first great treatise on syphilis and venereal diseases, and also, with a small anonymously published book, played a fundamental part in the origins of critical textual analysis of works of the Bible.” Wikipedia

3  “A Treatise on the Fistula of the Anus;” Written Originally in Latin, by Jean Astruc.

4 Galatians 1:12 I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:7 “The wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began.”

5 Bernhard W. Anderson, Understanding The Old Testament, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966), 37.

Gleason L. Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1975)

6 Numbers 12:6-8

7 Hebrews 11:6

8 See the book by the same author: “These Things Were Written: An Expositional Treatise of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus,” chapter 62, “Virgin Birth,” for details.

9 1 Corinthians 1:20-21, Corinthians 1:27-28

10 John 3:3-8 “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

“Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

11 Deuteronomy 18:21-22

12 Strong’s Definition from “In the beginning God (Elohim): h0430. אֱלֹהִים ’elôhîym; plural of 433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative: — angels, x exceeding, God (gods)(-dess, -ly), x (very) great, judges, x mighty.

13 NT, “Lord,” kurios, is the equivalent of “Lord,” Yahweh, from the Hebrew texts of the OT. Kurios is used 6,800 times in the New Testament.

14 Genesis 1:27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

15 Matthew 19:4-8

16 John 7:19

17 Exodus 10:22-23

18 “We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.” The Apostle John describing what he saw and heard concerning Jesus (1 John 1:1).

19 Rabbi Mordechai Becher, “The Ten Plagues Live from Egypt.”

20 Rabbi Mordechai Becher, “The Ten Plagues Live from Egypt”, http://ohr.edu/838.

Categories: Agnostics and Skeptics, Alleged Contradictions, Apologetics, Atheists, Bible, Forgiveness of Sin, Historical Moses, How Salvation Occurs, Jesus is the Messiah, Joel Baden, Josh Bowen, Messianic Prophecy Bible, Old Testament Apologetics, Old Testament Apologetics, Proving The Pentateuch, Reasons For Unbelief, Reliability of the Bible, Robert Clifton Robinson, Salvation through Jesus, We must see our need, Why Jesus had to die

Tags: Documentary Hypothesis, JEDP, Moses, Pentateuch, Proving The Pentateuch, The Exodus