Filed under: Bible, Canon | Tags: Bible, Christ, Christianity, God, Gospel, Jesus, Pentateuch, Religion, Truth
Jesus, the Apostles, and others attribute the writing of the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Old Testament) to Moses; Moses is referred to 79 times in the New Testament by as the writer of the Law. Jesus, in Mark 12:26 quotes the book of Exodus and calls it “The Book of Moses”, in Luke 2:22 the law is called “The law of Moses”. Jesus even says that Moses wrote of Him (Jesus)
“If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.” (John 5:46 ESV)
When Jesus tells the story (not parable) of Lazarus the beggar and the rich man, Abraham tells the rich man that the man’s brothers have “Moses and the prophets….” This is not a parable, Jesus didn’t use real names in His parables, so this is in actuality Abraham testifying about Moses being the human “author” of the law.
God Himself wrote the Law on tablets of stone:
The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” (Exodus 24:12 ESV)
And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
(Exodus 31:18 ESV)
God gave the entire moral, judicial, and ceremonial law to Moses and then the LORD told Moses:
“Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” (Exodus 34:27 ESV)
“Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” (Exodus 17:14 ESV)
When Moses was close to death and the people of Israel were about to cross over the Jordan into Canaan, Moses and the elders commanded the people to obey the words of the law and commanded them to:
“… set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you. (Deuteronomy 27:2-4)
This was to be a sign of continuity and continuation of the covenant of God with Israel as the children of Israel crossed the Jordan without Moses.
The Law was eventually put into a book:
“Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” (Exodus 24:7 ESV)
When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD,
“Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. (Deuteronomy 31:24-26 ESV)
