The 17th C philosopher Baruk Spinoza observed that it seemed very odd that one person, Moses, could have authored all five of the first books of the Bible. There were so many inconsistencies, repetitions, changes in voice, things Moses simply couldn’t have known and down right contradictions.
Theories as to the composition and origin of the Pentateuch have come and gone. What is important to understand is that reading carefully, we can hear different voices in the text. Those different voices take on bundles of characteristics that can help us understand what was being said to whom, when, and why.
There are passages that describe a God named by the tetragrammaton (the four letter personal name of God that looks something like “I Am.”) This God is often anthropomorphic (he walks in the garden with Adam and Eve). God has very human emotions. These are vivid stories involving heroes and the mythical past.
There are passages that are more ordered and repetitive that refer to God as Elohim or El (“Gods” in Hebrew). This God is more distant and less personal. This God is to be feared and obedience is expected. This God speaks through dreams and visions. This God appears on Horeb, not Sinai.
There are passages that focus on genealogies, ritual, and holiness. Liturgical minutiae are important and there is lots of repetition. Some of the passages sound like they could be read as liturgy. The Priesthood and the roll of Aaron is central. References to “clean” and “unclean,” “holy” and “profane” take front seat. Lots of census data.
There are passages that focus on the centralization of worship in Jerusalem. The theme of God’s people disobeying God, being punished (defeated/oppressed/exiled) then reconciled through God’s grace who sends a (judge/prophet) to save them. God’s presence, or Glory is in the Temple rather than God’s own presence. Emphasise the importance of prophets as messengers, and Moses was the first prophet.
Just like English, Biblical Hebrew changed over hundreds of years that the books making up the Bible were compiled and redacted. You and I would have a difficult time understanding Beowulf in Old English, if we could understand any of it! Biblical Hebrew (not to be confused with modern Hebrew) has passages that are clearly very, very old from their vocabulary and grammatical structure. A few verses in Exodus, and chunks of Job are as old as literature gets (thousands of years old).
Sometimes these voices contradict each other. Sometimes they compliment each other. Sometimes they have conversations with each other over hundreds of years. Many people, many communities of people, over hundreds of years, told, retold, wrote and redacted the stories, genealogies, liturgies, histories, songs, and poems that make up “the Law of Moses.” The Bible did not just arrive in its completeness on King Jame’s lap in 1611.
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