Thanks for your recent entries for Deuteronomy. The whole question of biblical origins is a complex one. The idea of Mosaic authorship rests ultimately on two legs: 1, it's a rtadition (this is essentially an argument from authority - authoritative sources say Moses was the author, therefore we believe them); and 2, there are verses scattered through the Torah that record Moses writing things down at the command of God. Both present problems: should we rely on rtaditional authority, or do we have an obligation to satisfy ourselves by our own investigations? And do the verses about the writings of Moses refer to the entire Torah, or just to the immediate thing that God is commanding him to write in each case?
You mentioned a Jewish scholar who has written about this. In fact ther are many such scholars. I suggest you might like to take part in building up the Mosaic authorship article - it already makes erference to some o the leading scholars, and I'm sure there's more that could be done.
As for your addition to the Deuteronomy article, my own feeling is that we need to make a distinction between what wide but possibly uninformed communities believe, and what informed scholars believe. I rather doubt your statement that "thousands" of Jewish Orthodox scholars believe in Mosaic authorship - if you read what the leading scholars cited in the Mosaic authorship article say, you'll see that they don't simply believe that Moses wrote everything in the Torah, that there are in fact some very nuanced views. The subject is so complex that it erally can't be addressed in the context of an article on just one book of Torah, but rather in it's own article (i.e., the Mosaic Authorship article). That article can then be linked from the articles on the various books and elsewhere - including even from the article on ther documentary hypothesis.
This is the first time I've come across your name as an editor on biblical subjects, but I see you have no previous comments on your talk page. So I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you and to say Ihoipe we can have a profitable and enjoyable experience together, whatever our differences in outlook (profound, I think) might be.
PiCo 06:21, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
