[b said:
Quote[/b] (Gods_Peon @ Aug. 18 2004,5:18)]There is no logical reason (particularly any based on the term used for God) to ascribe this account to any other author or authors.
Let me see if I can make my argument more logical.
The name of the God is often and variously abbreviated in the Hebrew texts. Dozens of times in Genesis it is written simply yy, the first time in Gen. ii, 4, the first mention of Yahveh. Elsewhere it occurs as Yah, or Yehu, Yeho, and as Yah,-Yahveh; often as Yahveh-Elohim. IYet itt is always, falsely rendered in the translations as "Lord" and "Lord God". In fact, the literal translation of Elohim is godS, not god. So if there were one author, why the various abbreviations?
Throughout history there has not been a single original book or manuscript of Hebrew or Christian Scriptures, containing the inspired Word of God. That is a fact. And the oldest manuscripts contain gross corruptions of text and numberless errors and conflicting readings. That opinion comes from noneother than St. Jerome, author of the Latin Vulgate version of the Scriptures. He said that the sacred texts "varied so much that there were almost as many readings as codices," or manuscript copies of the text. So the problem of clarity has existed from the very beginning. Not exactly what you would expect from someone who is not the "God of confusion".
I will try not to deviate too far from our original topic, but it is important to lay the groundwork to show that the Bible is a horrible mishmash of translations, mistranslations and contradictions: all of these pointing to various authors.
It is has been accepted that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, labeled in the Bible as "The Five Books of Moses", under the inspiration of God. These five books could not have been written by Moses though. These books contain information, history, that occurred AFTER the death of Moses. Moses would have had to write about past AND future events. Moses and the Hebrews of his time existed around 1500 BC. But it wasn't until many centuries later that the Hebrews acquired the art of writing. According to the Egyptologist Brested, it was not until about the time of Amos (about eight hundred years after Moses) that the Hebrews were just "learning to write"; that "they were now abandoning the clay tablet, and they wrote on papyrus with Egyptian pen and ink. They borrowed their alphabet from the Phoenician and Aramean merchants."
One of the more obvious proofs that Moses didn't write the Pentateuch comes in the form of post-Mosaics, or "after-Moses" events, related in those books under the name of Moses as their inspired author; events of which Moses of course could not have known or written, as they occurred long after his death. Keep in mind that nowhere does Moses claim to authoring the first five books of Genesis and nowhere does the Bible give Moses authorship of them. Except when Moses is recorded as making a speech is he ever referred to in the first person. The rest of the Pentateuch is recorded in the third person. A good illustration of this point is in Exodus 6. Verse 13 says: "And Yahveh spake unto Moses and unto
Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt." Immediately, in verses 14 to 27, follows a strange interruption of the narrative by the insertion of a series of family genealogies. This information could NOT have been written by Moses because it includes genealogies that occur long after his death. It is widely accepted by Biblical scholars that thse genealogies were added in after the exile. If Moses had indeed written these books, why did he not once include the name of the Pharaoh of the Exodus? Several times in the verses cited is it said, as often
elsewhere in the Five Books, "Pharaoh king of Egypt," as if Pharaoh were the name of the king instead of simply the official title of the ruler. Pharaoh's name was never used because the author DID NOT KNOW HIS NAME. In later and more historical books, several Pharaohs are mentioned by their proper names, such as Pharaoh Necho (2 Chron), Pharaoh Hophra (Jer.), and Shishak, king of Egypt (1 Kings).
Further proof follows in Deut. concerning the graphic detail of the death and burial of Moses. How could he have written this himself? If you claim that Moses was given this information by divine means, doesn't that negate this verse, "but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day"?
Another proof...In the same chapter is another similar proof of much later authorship by some other than Moses; for it is written: "And there hath not yet arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses" (verse 10) -- a statement which could only have been made after many later great prophets had arisen with whom Moses could be compared. Moses could not himself have written that no prophet had arisen "since" himself when he was yet alive and when no prophet could as yet be his successor.
One more...Exodus 11:3 states "the man Moses was very great"; and in Numbers 12:3 is the information, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." Such a meek man would probably not have made such immodest boasts of himself. It had to have been some later chronicler. This conclusion is strengthened by the use of "was" and "were," in the past tense. And Moses no doubt well knew the name of his own pagan father-in-law; but the latter is variously named in the Five Books by four different names: Jethro (Ex. 3:1); Reuel (Ex. 2:18); Raguel (Num. 10:29); Jether (Ex. 4:18);and in Judges he is given a fifth name, Hobab (Judges 4:11), all which indicates several different authors, or one very careless one, but not Moses.
I think that's plenty to show my point.
