> I am just curious. Is it normal to think of Moses as the author of
> the Pentateuch. When I studied theology at the evangelical faculty
> in Oslo here in Norway I didn't learn that. I learned that the
> Pentateuch is composed of different sources edited in a later period.
>
> I don't want to trigger a big discussion on this issue. Just want to
> know whether Jan de Koning expresses a view that is common "over there",
> and to find out whether there is a "geographical" difference here among
> evangelicals, since here in Norway many evangelicals
> don't think of Moses as the author.
The traditional Jewish belief, taken over by the Christian
church, was that Moses wrote the 5 books included in the torah (with the
possible exception of the account of his own death!) This belief was
held well past the time of the Reformation - the title of Genesis in
Luther's translation is _Das Erste Buch Mose_ & in the King James "The
First Book of Moses called Genesis". Critical study over the past ~3
centuries has made the idea of Mosaic authorship pretty untenable,
though some of the material may go back to him. I have no statistics,
but there are many conservative Christians in America who,
unfortunately, regard Mosaic authorship as vital to orthodox belief.
George Murphy