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Barrick, The Authorship of Deuteronomy 34
ETS Annual Meeting, November 14-16, 2001
2
Concluding his brief treatment of problematic portions of the Pentateuch, Wolf indicated
that the "possible post-Mosaic materials in the Pentateuch are relatively minor. The bulk
of the five books could indeed have been written by Moses or under his supervision."
6
Where should the boundary of evangelicalism be drawn? Mosaic authorship for "the bulk
of" the Pentateuch or Mosaic authorship for all of the Pentateuch? Is the boundary drawn
in such a way that the latter has been excluded or made to appear unscholarly and
radical?
Acceptance of non-Mosaic authorship of all or part of Deuteronomy 34 is not
new. Jerome remarked that the phrase "to this day" (v. 6) refers to "the time of
composition of the history, whether you prefer the view that Moses was the author of the
Pentateuch or that Ezra re-edited it. In either case I make no objection."
7
That indicates
that around A.D. 383 the same two basic views were extant: (1) that Moses wrote all of
the Pentateuch and (2) that someone other than Moses, at minimum, edited the writings
of Moses, adding such observations as the events following Moses' death. In the words of
G. Herbert Livingston,
Since the Middle Ages, and especially during the first part of the twentieth
century A.D., portions of the following verses were the center of argument--
whether or not they were late additions and whether or not they denied Mosaic
authorship. These verses are: Genesis 12:6b; 13:7b; 13:18; 14:14; 22:14;
23:19b; 36:31; 49:5-7; Exodus 6:26, 27; 16:33-35, 36; Numbers 4:3; 12:3;
13:16; 21:14; 24:7; Deuteronomy 1:1; 2:4-7; 2:26-30; 3:14-17; 10:6, 7; 32:7-
12, 13-20; 34. Their relationship to Mosaic authorship has properly faded out
of discussion.
8
In case anyone should think that adherence to Mosaic authorship for all of
Deuteronomy (much less the Pentateuch) is still considered a viable option among
scholarly evangelicals, consider the words of J. A. Thompson nearly thirty years ago:
Probably no-one today would argue that Deuteronomy was entirely the work
of Moses, although writers in former centuries attempted to show that Moses
could have written of his own death by divine inspiration.
9
As recently as September 2001 Block's article in JETS expressed a similar conclusion:
in pre-critical Jewish and Christian traditions the predominant interpretation
ascribed the authorship of the Pentateuch as a whole and of Deuteronomy in
particular to Moses. In fact, many maintained that the entire Torah was
dictated by God to Moses, and this remains the position held by many
preachers in evangelical churches, not to mention the lay people in the pews--
though some would concede that a later writer (perhaps Joshua) may have
added Deuteronomy 34.
6
Ibid., 60.
7
"The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary: Against Helvidius," The Principal Works of St. Jerome, trans.
by W. H. Fremantle, A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second
Series, vol. 6, ed. by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co., 1954), 337.
8
G. Herbert Livingston, The Pentateuch In Its Cultural Environment (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book
House, 1974), 220 (emphasis added).
9
J. A. Thompson, Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary, The Tyndale Old Testament
Commentaries (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1974), 49.