Did Moses Write The Pentateuch?
A Study Guide by Steve Wood
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“The young, if they lose their reverence for the Holy Scriptures on one or more points, are easily led to give up believing in it altogether.” – Pope Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus (On the Study of Holy Scripture)
“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” – Jesus (John 5:46-47)
Try to picture a person’s faith like a well-built house. Despite solid construction in this house of faith, St. Paul warns us that we will always be under attack and that we need a shield of faith to quench the flaming darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16).
So, how would a devious enemy try to destroy this house of faith? The best attack would be a stealth assault on a key part of the building’s foundation. If sufficient weakness could be silently inserted into the foundation, then the entire structure would eventually collapse.
An early chapter in Genesis describes how the enemy of our souls weakened the foundation of our first parents’ faith. He initially came and planted a doubt in their minds about the veracity of divine truth, when he asked the question, “Did God say?”
After the doubt had time to infest the mind and heart, he came forward with an outright denial of the truthfulness of God’s word. Sowing doubt followed by denial of divinely revealed truth is the devil’s time-tested method of destroying faith.
Genesis 3: – The Temptation & Fall into Sin
- Stage 1 of temptation (3:1) – Place doubt in God’s word. – “Did God say?”
- Stage 2 of temptation (3:4) – Deny the truthfulness of God’s word. – “You will not die?” (denial of any significant consequences to sin)
- Stage 3 – fall into original sin
Jesus was exceedingly clear about how doubt and disbelief regarding Moses’ foundational scriptures (that is, the first five books of the Old Testament, called the Pentateuch) would prevent authentic belief in his role as Savior and Messiah as revealed in the New Testament.
“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” – John 5:46-47
“And he [the rich man] called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’” – Luke 16:24-26, 30-31
If you are a parent of a student, or a student yourself, I urge you to re-read the two scripture passages above. The disbelief in Jesus that leads to eternal torment and the loss of eternal life is fundamentally related to a weakened belief in the truthfulness of Moses’ writings (i.e., the Pentateuch). A successful attack on the veracity of Moses’ writings eventually leads to the entire structure of faith collapsing in eternal ruin.
The Bible is crystal clear in attributing the authorship of the Pentateuch to Moses. The Pentateuch itself says that God spoke his words to Moses to record in the first books of the Bible. Throughout the Old Testament this truth is upheld. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, spoke explicitly of Moses as the author of the early books of the Old Testament. There has been an unbroken Catholic tradition that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch – until the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Tragically, in the majority of Catholic classrooms today students are told that Moses wasn’t the actual author of the Pentateuch. In all liberal Catholic colleges and universities Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch is denied. The majority of otherwise “orthodox” Catholic colleges are teaching that mysterious editors wrote the Pentateuch instead of Moses. Later in this paper I’ll give you a few simple questions that will help you discover what’s being taught in a school or college that you might be considering.
The faith-destroying flaming dart denying Mosiac authorship has wormed its way into Catholic scripture commentaries and even into Catholic bibles. Below is the introduction to the Book of Genesis in the New American Bible:
“Despite its unity of plan and purpose, the book is a complex work, not to be attributed to a single original author. Several sources, or literary traditions, that the final redactor used in his composition are discernible. These are the Yahwist (J), Elohist (E) and Priestly (P) sources, which in turn reflect older oral traditions (see Introduction to the Pentateuch).”
Before Catholics readily accept a theory denying Mosiac authorship of the Pentateuch, it would be a wise first step to investigate the situation in which such theories arose.
The Origins of the JEDP Theory
Various speculations denying that Moses wrote the Pentateuch coincided with the rise of the so-called Enlightenment during the 1700s. The theory that Moses didn’t write the Pentateuch really took hold following the publication of Darwin’s Origin of the Species in 1859. German theologians and scripture scholars began applying the theory of evolution to the study of Christianity and the Bible.
The most notable of these German scholars was Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918). Dr. Wellhausen is the father of what is called the documentary hypothesis. His hypothesis claimed that the Pentateuch (Torah) was not written by Moses. Rather, it was compiled by various authors and editors over a period of five centuries after the death of Moses.
The Wellhausen documentary hypothesis became known as the “JEDP” theory, so called for the four primary editors who wrote the Pentateuch as listed below:
- J – Jehovist (Yahweh) – about 850 B.C.
- E – Elohimist (Elohim) – about 750 B.C
- D – Deuteronomist – about 621 B.C.
- P – Priestly – produced in various stages until around 570 B.C.
A Letter Every Catholic Parent Needs to Read
On April 5, 1882, Dr. Julius Wellhausen submitted his letter of resignation from his teaching position. He had come to the sad realization that he was personally responsible for the destruction of the faith of his seminary students. Here is a portion of his letter:
“I became a theologian because the scientific treatment of the Bible interested me; only gradually did I come to understand that a professor of theology also has the practical task of preparing the students for service in the Protestant Church, and that I am not adequate to this practical task, but that instead despite all caution on my own part I make my hearers unfit for their office. Since then my theological professorship has been weighing heavily on my conscience.” (http://www.ctsfw.edu/library/files/pb/1647, p.17.)
This is an amazing admission on the part of Dr. Wellhausen, but at least he had the integrity to resign from teaching scripture to seminary students due to the faith-destroying nature of his theory.
During the century following this letter, Dr. Wellhausen’s theory spread worldwide throughout mainline Protestantism.
Papal Warning about the Modernist Treatment of the Bible
The modernist theories about the Bible were kept out of the Catholic Church thanks to timely papal warnings, such as the one by Pope Pius X:
“The result of this dismembering of the Sacred Books and this partition of them throughout the centuries is naturally that the Scriptures can no longer be attributed to the authors whose names they bear. The Modernists have no hesitation in affirming generally that these books, and especially the
Pentateuch and the first three Gospels, have been gradually formed from a primitive brief narration, by additions, by interpolations of theological or allegorical interpretations, or parts introduced only for the purpose of joining different passages together. This means, to put it briefly and clearly, that in the Sacred Books we must admit a vital evolution, springing from and corresponding with the evolution of faith.” – 1907 Encyclical Letter, On the Doctrine of the Modernists (Pascendi Dominici Gregis)
During the past half century, Pope Pius X’s warning has been forgotten, or ignored. Simultaneously, Dr. Wellhausen’s destructive theory has been uncritically accepted by the majority of Catholic scripture scholars, Catholic seminaries, and Catholic colleges.
While the JEDP theory has gone mainstream within Catholic scripture study, the theory is being abandoned by many advanced Biblical scholars due to: the multitude of internal contradictions in the theory; archaeological findings during the past century that contradict assertions of the theory; and advances in studies of literature from the Ancient Near East.
I need to mention that many Catholics with good intentions are teaching some variety of the documentary hypothesis. The reason why many well-intentioned people are taken in by the JEDP theory is that they haven’t heard what Wellhausen said about the destructive effects of his theory, nor have they heard even a simple rebuttal of the JEDP theory. In addition, many of those who know that the JEDP theory is weak are reluctant to speak out against it, fearing the intellectual scorn of their colleagues.
What follow are ten replies to some of the most common objections to the Mosiac authorship of the Pentateuch. Anyone enrolling in an Old Testament scripture class should keep this list of objections and replies close at hand.
Replies to Ten Objections Raised by the JEDP Hypothesis
Objection 1: Moses could not have written Genesis because he was not alive during the historical period recorded in Genesis.
Reply: Moses, as he was inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, compiled the text of Genesis between 1446 and 1406 B.C. Divine inspiration can guide an author of scripture in the selection and editing of earlier source materials. The prime example of this in the New Testament is St. Luke, who was not an eyewitness of Jesus’ life. Yet he wrote one of the most historically accurate and detailed books in the New Testament.
Genesis has several distinct sections representing the time periods covered in the book of Genesis. These sections are recognized by the phrases: “This is the history of” / “These are the generations of.” (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1, 32; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1; 37:2)
These generational records could have been gathered, edited, and used under divine inspiration by Moses. [See Denzinger #1999 below].
Objection 2: Writing wasn’t yet invented at the time of the patriarchs in Genesis. Therefore, oral sources became corrupted over centuries of transmission before they were finally written down by the JEDP editors.
Reply: The 1974-76 discoveries of thousands of cuneiform tablets dated to 2500 B.C. at Ebla (N.W. Syria) destroyed the “it had to be oral tradition” arguments. The heat from fire which destroyed the Ebla library helped to preserve the clay tablets for 4,500 years.
The dating of the Ebla tablets is five centuries before Abraham (Genesis 12-25) and about 1,000 years before Moses. The notion that writing was not invented at the time of Moses is passé since the discovery of the Ebla tablets.
Objection 3: There are different names for God used in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. This objection is fundamental to the development of the documentary hypothesis. E= Elohim in Genesis 1
J = Yahweh Elohim in Genesis 2
Objection 4: Repetition of the creation account in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 reflects the work of two different editors
Replies to 3 & 4: The change of names reflects the change in subject matter between Genesis 1 (creation) and 2 (covenant).
Elohim is used in Genesis 1 as the name for God to express the divine work of creation. Yahweh, the covenant name for God, is used in Genesis 2 because here he is establishing a divine covenant with Adam and Eve. Dr. Meredith Kline, an expert in Ancient Near Eastern covenants/treaties, demonstrated that Genesis 2 was a covenant between God and mankind that was in many ways similar to covenants between ancient kings and their vassals.
One of the biggest hints that Genesis 2 is a divine covenant is that for the first time the marriage covenant is mentioned at the end of the same chapter. The marriage covenant is a reflection of the divine covenant.
Repetition:
In the ancient world, repetition was used when telling the general outline of a story and then retelling a brief recap before giving a more detailed account of one aspect of the wider story (Genesis 1 and Genesis 2).
- Common in the literature of the Ancient Near East
- Paul’s conversion: 3x in Acts
- Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
This repetitive technique is also used in a television series. The new show will play a partial repetition of the previous show before launching into a new segment.
Objection 5: Deuteronomy 34, recounting the death and burial of Moses, proves that Moses didn’t write Deuteronomy.
Reply: No, Deuteronomy 34 just proves that Moses didn’t write Deuteronomy 34. It says nothing about the 99.9% of the rest of the Pentateuch. When we say Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, we mean that he was substantially the author of the first five books of the Bible as we have them today. Yes, there was some minor editing, including a later editor adding the account of the death of Moses. Yet Moses remains the author.
In our day, a publisher will update information about the lifespan of a deceased author when republishing a book. Because of this minor additional information, the original writer of the book is still regarded as the genuine author.
[See Denzinger #2000 below]
Objection 6: Exodus 6 says that the divine name YHWH was unknown in the days of the Patriarchs (Genesis). Yet, the name YHWH is used as early as Genesis 2. Therefore the chapters of Genesis using the divine name YHWH are the work of a later editor.
“And God said to Moses, ‘I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.’” – Exodus 6:2-3
Reply: “The resolution to this apparent contradiction to some 150 (and perhaps as many as 165x) uses of the name Yahweh during the patriarchal period [in Genesis] is to be found in a technical point of Hebrew grammar, known as beth essentiae, in the phrase ‘by my name.’ This phrase meant that while Abraham, Isaac and Jacob heard and used the name Yahweh, it was only in Moses’ day that the realization of the character, nature and essence of what that name meant became clear. ‘By the name’ is better translated ‘in the character [or nature] of Yahweh [was I not known].’” – Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce, Manfred T. Brauch Hard Sayings of the Bible, InterVarsity Press, pp. 808
Example of Yahweh in Genesis:
Genesis 15:7 – “And he said to him, ‘I am the LORD (Yahweh) who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.’”
“God has not revealed himself in his character as ‘Jehovah’ to Abraham as he was now about to do to Israel. As Jehovah, God was now going to redeem the people of Israel (v. 6), adopt them as his people (v. 7), and bring them into the Promised Land (v. 8). By this they would learn the nature of the God who said, I am Jehovah (vs. 2).” – Philip C. Johnson, “Exodus,” in The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 56.
“Exodus 6:3 teaches that God, who in earlier generations had revealed Himself as El Shaddai (God Almighty) by deeds of power and mercy, would now in Moses’ generation reveal Himself as the covenant-keeping Jehovah by His marvelous deliverance of the whole nation of Israel.” – Gleason Archer, A Survey of the Old Testament, p. 122.
Alternative explanation/translation (Gordon Hugenberger/ NIV Archaeological Bible): Exodus 6:3 could be translated as a rhetorical interrogative (i.e., a rhetorical question) “Did I not make myself known to them?”
Objection 7: The Exodus and Numbers narratives speak of Moses in the third person.
Reply: It was common in the Ancient Near East for authors to write in the third person (cf. Code of Hammurabi). Therefore, the fact that Moses sometimes writes in the third person proves nothing against his authorship of the Pentateuch.
Objection 8: Moses would never boast about his own humility.
Numbers 12:3 – “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men that were on the face of the earth.”
Reply: “Numbers 12:3 is not a boast; it merely asserts that no one had a lower opinion of Moses than Moses.” – Dr. Gordon Hugenberger
Objection 9: It’s unanimous; every modern “authority on scripture” says that Moses didn’t write the Pentateuch – including the teacher of my Bible class, my CCD instructor, my college theology professor, and my seminary professor. Even my Catholic study Bible supports the theory which denies Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch.
Reply: No, it’s not unanimous. Here are some infallible witnesses to Mosiac authorship.
Statements of Mosiac authorship within the Pentateuch itself
Exodus 24:4 – And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD.
Numbers 1:1 – The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying …
Numbers 33:2 – Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the LORD; and these are their stages according to their starting places.
Deuteronomy 1:1 – These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness.
Joshua said that Moses wrote the law (first five books of the Old Testament): Joshua 1:7 – Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you…
Other Old Testament witnesses to Mosiac authorship
2 Chronicles 34:14 – Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the LORD given through Moses.
Ezra 6:18 – And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.
Sirach 24:23 – All this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law which Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the congregations of Jacob.
Daniel 9:11 – All Israel has transgressed thy law and turned aside, refusing to obey thy voice. And the curse and oath which are written in the law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him.
Malachi 4:4 – “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.”
Jesus is the divine witness to Mosaic authorship (in all four Gospels) Matthew 19:8 – He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives.” (Referring to Deuteronomy 24)
Mark 7:10 – For Moses said, “Honor your father and your mother.” (Jesus citing Exodus 20)
Luke 20:37 (Mark 12:26) – But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. (Jesus referring to Exodus 3:6)
Luke 24:44 – Then he said to them, “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
John 7:19 – Did not Moses give you the law?
St. Peter’s witness to Moses’ authorship
Acts 3:22 – Moses said, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.” (St. Peter referring to Deuteronomy 18:15)
St. Paul’s witness to Moses’ authorship
Romans 10:5 – Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by it. (St. Paul referring to Leviticus 18:5)
Objection 10: Yes, the Bible may say Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, older papal encyclicals may also say so along with the 1906 papal Biblical commission, but modern scholarship using theories like the documentary hypothesis have proven the Bible all the older views wrong.
Reply: Perhaps the greatest myth about the JEDP theory is that it is a modern up-to-date reflection of modern scholarship. If you lived in the nineteenth century you could say the documentary hypothesis was a modern theory, but after the mid-twentieth century and especially after the archaeological finds at Elba (1975) the theory is woefully outdated.
Modern scholars of Ancient Near Eastern literature and archaeology, like Dr. K.A. Kitchen, realize how hollow and unfounded Wellhausen’s theory is. Kitchen’s informative book (listed in the Recommended Reading section) unlocks a wealth of archaeology discoveries since the time of Wellhausen that convincingly refute the major claims of the JEDP theory.
Kitchen demonstrates that Wellhausen and his fellow critics were working in a “historical vacuum,” that is, a total lack of historical perspective on the Ancient Near East. Thus Wellhausen and fellow critics reconstructed theories of the history of ancient Israel which modern archaeology has shown to be highly inaccurate. Kitchen’s book devastates the false notion that the JEDP theory is a modern and up-to-date way to understand the Old Testament. Modern archaeology has provided first-hand evidence for uncovering the unfounded assumptions of the documentary hypothesis.
Catholics are the Johnny-come-lately to the JEDP theory. Protestant theologian David Wells states that the JEDP theory is “old hat” to Protestants while it still seems new and modern to many Catholics. The JEDP theory is just an outdated hypothesis and a historical embarrassment – and certainly not a modern theory. Unfortunately, too much of “modern” Catholic biblical scholarship is still living in the nineteenth century.
A question for your religion teacher promoting JEDP
Question: How many pieces of ancient literature do the documentary hypothesis scholars have that prove the “several sources” literary theory? The same question stated another way asks, “What objective evidence do they have for their theory?”
Answer from one of the world’s leading Hebrew scripture scholars:
The documentary hypothesis is “only an empty delusion.” All the pillars supporting the theory are “without substance.” “This imposing and beautiful edifice has, in reality nothing to support it and is founded on air.”
“I did not prove that the pillars were weak or that each one failed to give decisive support, but I established that they were not pillars at all, that they did not exist, that they were purely imaginary. My final conclusion [is] that the documentary hypothesis is null and void … only figments of the imagination.”
The Documentary Hypothesis and The Composition of the Pentateuch by Umberto Cassuto, pp. 118-121.
Dr. Umberto Cassuto was chief Rabbi of Florence, subsequently the chair of Hebrew at the University of Rome, where he cataloged Hebrew manuscripts for the Vatican. In 1938, he was appointed to the chair of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Cassuto was one of the world’s premiere scholars in the Hebrew scriptures. The book quoted above is a record of his lectures to school teachers explaining the dangers of the documentary hypothesis.
Another answer from a widely recognized expert in literary and biblical criticism “Rarely have such grandiose theories of origination been built … on the evidential equivalent of the head of a pin; rarely have so many worked so long and so hard with so little to show for their trouble.”
– Meir Sternberg, quoted on p.vii in The Bible In Its World: The Bible and Archaeology Today.
Three easy questions to ask when making a college/school choice to find out if modern theories are eroding scripture studies:
- Who wrote the Pentateuch?
- Who wrote Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
- Who wrote the 13 epistles that mention the name Paul as the first word?
Note: I am not suggesting that you refuse to attend a Catholic school or college that teaches the documentary hypothesis, or other critical scripture theories. You do need to be aware of the view of scripture that any potential teacher or professor holds. These questions will serve to help you quickly discern his or her views. If you will be exposed to these critical theories, then you need to know the evidence against the critical theories if you don’t want to indiscriminately accept them.
Be aware of JEDP “Code”
Often notes in a study Bible or a classroom teacher will use the expression, “the sacred author,” without mentioning the name of Moses. This may be an indication of an unexpressed holding to the documentary hypothesis.
The Mosaic Authenticity of the Pentateuch*
[From the Response of the Papal Commission on Biblical Studies, June 27, 1906] Quoted in Denzinger’s Sources of Catholic Dogma
http://www.catecheticsonline.com/SourcesofDogma20.php
http://www.catecheticsonline.com/SourcesofDogma21.php
1997 Question 1.Whether the arguments accumulated by critics to impugn the Mosaic authenticity of the Sacred Books, which are designated by the name of Pentateuch, are of such weight that, in spite of the very many indications of both Testaments taken together, the continuous conviction of the Jewish people, also the unbroken tradition of the Church in addition to the internal evidences drawn from the text itself, they justify affirming that these books were not written by Moses, but were composed for the most part from sources later than the time of Moses? Reply: No.
1998 Question 2. Whether the Mosaic authenticity of the Pentateuch necessarily demands such a redaction of the whole work that it must be held absolutely that Moses wrote all and each book with his own hand, or dictated them to copyists; or, whether also the hypothesis can be permitted of those who think that the work was conceived by him under the influence of divine inspiration, and was committed to another or several to be put into writing, but in such manner that they rendered his thought faithfully, wrote nothing contrary to his wish, omitted nothing; and, finally, when the work was composed in this way, approved by Moses as its chief and inspired author, it was published under his name. Reply: No, for the first part; yes, for the second.
1999 Question 3.Whether without prejudice to the Mosaic authenticity of the Pentateuch it can be granted that Moses for the composition of the work made use of sources, namely written documents or oral tradition, from which, according to the peculiar goal set before him, and under -the influence of divine inspiration, he made some borrowings, and these, arranged for word according to sense or amplified, he inserted into the work itself? Reply: Yes.
2000 Question 4.Whether, safeguarding substantially the Mosaic authenticity and the integrity of the Pentateuch, it can be admitted that in such a long course of ages it underwent some modifications, for example: additions made after the death of Moses, or by an inspired author, or glosses and explanations inserted in the texts, certain words and forms of the antiquated language translated into more modern language; finally false readings to be ascribed to the errors of copyists, which should be examined and passed upon according to the norms of textual criticism. Reply: Yes, the judgment of the Church being maintained.
The Errors of Modernists, on the Church, Revelation, Christ, the Sacraments* [From the Decree of the Holy Office, “Lamentabili” July 3, 1907]
Papal Exhortation to train defenders of the sacred books:
It is your duty, then, to train as many really fit defenders of this holiest of causes as you can. They must be ready to combat not only those who deny the existence of the Supernatural Order altogether, and are thus led to deny the existence of any divine revelation or inspiration, but those, too, who – through an itching desire for novelty – venture to interpret the sacred books as though they were of purely human origin.
Spiritus Paraclitus (On St. Jerome)
Encyclical of Pope Benedict XV, September 15, 1920
Recommended Reading
Umberto Cassuto, The Documentary Hypothesis and the Composition of the Pentateuch. Jerusalem: Shalem Press, 2006. This book, a classic in the field of biblical studies, is the result of lectures Professor Cassuto gave to school teachers on the problems with the documentary hypothesis. As a result, the brilliant thinking of this world renowned Hebrew scholar is conveyed in a manner accessible to the lay person. Available on Amazon.
K.A. Kitchen, The Bible In Its World: The Bible and Archaeology Today. Eugene, Oregon, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2004. Dr. Kitchen is Professor Emeritus of the University of Liverpool’s School of Archaeology, Classics, and Egyptology. This highly recommended and informative book is a 168 page bombshell.
Rome and the Study of Scripture: A Collection of Papal Enactments on the Study of Holy Scripture together with the Decisions of the Biblical Commission. St. Meinrad, Indiana, Abbey Press, 1964. This book is an out-of-print jewel that is most definitely worth ordering used from Amazon.
Pope Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus (On the Study of Holy Scripture), Encyclical, 1893. http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/L13PROVI.htm.
Gordon Hugenberger, Introduction to the Theology of the Pentateuch, Lectures 1 & 2 (free online Power Point presentations by a Protestant Old Testament scholar) http://images.acswebnetworks.com/1/934/Class1Intro.pdf
http://images.acswebnetworks.com/1/934/LectureonAuthorship.pdf
Gordon Hugenberger, Evidences for the Historicity of the Bible
http://images.acswebnetworks.com/1/934/Historicity_of_Bible.pdf
Isaac Kikawada and Arthur Quinn, Before Abraham Was: A Provocative Challenge to the Documentary Hypothesis. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1989. The authors persuasively argue that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are not a literary patchwork by different editors as supposed, but are the work of one author of extraordinary subtlety and skill.
“Now it is Moses who has composed this history [Genesis] … ‘My servant Moses … who is faithful in all mine house, with him will I speak mouth to mouth” (Numbers 12:6-8) … It is this man, whom God judged worthy to behold Him, face to face, like the angels, who imparts to us what he has learnt from God. Let us listen then to these words of truth written without the help of the ‘enticing words of man’s wisdom’ by the dictation of the Holy Spirit; words destined to produce not the applause of those who hear them, but the salvation of those who are instructed by them. – St. Basil the Great
One of the two pillars of the Eastern Church (A.D. 330 – 379)
The Hexaemeron (a series of nine homilies on Genesis)
Quoted in Volume VIII of Schaff’s Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, p. 52