Who Wrote the Torah?

[Davka]

I'm curious about what the Christians here believe regarding the authorship of the Torah, also called the Pentateuch, or (for clarification) Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy - also known as the Five Books of Moses.

Judaism says Moses wrote them. Traditional Christianity tends to agree. What say you?

[FatAndFaithless]

They think Moses wrote them? Doesn't an author usually have to exist first?

[FallentoReason]

It's somewhat impossible for Moses to have written about his own death in Deuteronomy. But hey, all things are possible with God.

[Alex K]

Considering that the historical evidence says there was no Exodus, I really wonder how reliable this Moses guy is even if he wrote it.

[robvalue]

Pretty sure Moses is a copy of a previous mythological character. If memory serves. I don't think anyone with any brain cells thinks he wrote it, if any of it happened at all.

[Gawdzilla]

Who wrote the Torah? The Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Hyksos, anybody who had a story stolen by those proto-Bedouins.

[FallentoReason]

But in all seriousness, I think there's a theory that states there were four (five?) main authors.

Then there's other interesting observations such as two creation stories (of a possible four) that survived and are now in Genesis.

[robvalue]

God enjoyed making the universe so much, he did it again in a different order! Great start to a great book.

[Davka]

but - but - you guys aren't Christians! STFU already.

[Minimalist]

There is a difference between composition and writing. I lean to the concoction of oral tales in the Persian period based on various bits of local folklore and elements borrowed from Babylon. As Philip R. Davies suggests in "In Search of Ancient Israel" the primary function of the religion was to give legitimacy to the newly-arrived Persian overlords. There would have been no compelling need to reduce any of it to writing given the small population/geographic area involved and like many religions the priest class would have jealousy guarded their knowledge. It seems that it was the Greeks who let the cat out of the bag by copying down these oral traditions in what we now know as the Septuagint in the 3d century BC.

It was not until the mid 2d century BC that any recognizable independent jewish state began to form in the region which may have made use of written texts and that seems to be when we get all the rest of the nonsense being scribbled down.