Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. (Deuteronomy 34:5)In Chapter 31 verse 9, Moses is said to have written down the words of the law. Nowhere in the first five books of the Bible is it claimed that Moses wrote down word for word all the events from creation through his own death, but because they are traditionally referred to as the Books of Moses, many people take for granted that he wrote them.
Most scholars would agree that these books are the product of several oral traditions and, once written down, underwent several revisions before coming to their final form sometime in the sixth century B.C.
Regarding the above verse, there are three schools of thought: 1) Moses knew he was going to die and wrote these paragraphs prophetically; 2) Moses wrote the rest of the Pentateuch and someone else added these few verses at the end; and 3) what I said in the preceding paragraph.
Does it make a difference? Does it affect your faith if these words came to us straight from Moses' laptop (sort of an Israel - the Prequel blog), or if they are the result of a long traditioning process? That's why I suggest we look at these stories through the eyes of that exiled person waiting to return to Jerusalem. If these words came to their final form in that setting, they must have held special significance for those who presented them.
So what do you think? After all, you've read the Pentateuch; most people have not. You're the expert now.
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