The Torah's Origin

The origin of a the Bible is a highly debated topic. Some will argue that the Bible was merely written by a group of Jews who sought to create a national narrative for Israel, and early Christians who wanted to create a polemic against Judaism. These scholars largely see the Bible as nothing more than the work of humans, similar to a history book or any collection of ancient sayings. Nevertheless, the Bible itself makes different claims about its origins, and, these intra-biblical claims harmonize with one another.

Throughout the book of Genesis, there are no references to recording or writing what took place. However, once one comes to Exodus, they find the first instance: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘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).

In other words, the first attested writer of the Bible is Moses....