Moses wrote the Law, the "Pentateuch" was the work of others who supplied addition historical material and devotional commentary. If you actually read the Pentateuch without the traditional mindset you will see that there is no reason to think that Moses wrote that material.
Read
Deuteronomy 34:5-6 which tells us of the death and burial of Moses. Are we to respond by saying "Amen" to the notion that Moses wrote the account of his own death and burial? And what about the statement "unto this day...?" Nobody knows the burial place of Moses all the way up until the day he died and was buried? Tradition makes the Bible say nonsense.
Getting back to Genesis, the writer here appears to be the same writer who wrote of Moses' death. See
Gen 26:33;
Gen. 32:32;
Gen. 35:20;
Gen. 47:26.
Then turn to and read that last short chapter of Deuteronomy again (
Deut. 34) but don't stop reading! Quickly turn the page and begin
Joshua 1. Notice the continuity? The fact that Joshua and Deuteronomy were written by the same hand (and that hand could not have been Moses) is not something that the Bible is trying to hide.
And don't stop with Joshua.
Joshua 24:29-33 closes out that book, and without even pausing for a breath
Judges 1:1 opens up. And so it goes all the way through to the end of 2 Kings. The hand that wrote Genesis also had a hand in writing 2 Kings and that could not have been Moses.
Back to Genesis again, check out
Genesis 14:14 - "he pursued them unto Dan." But wait a minute; Abraham was Dan's great-grandfather and Dan had not even been born yet. For that matter, Abraham was Abram in chapter 14 and had not children at all yet. How could Abraham have pursued his enemy all the way to a city named after his unborn great-grandson?
Well, Moses wrote it, right? Moses knew that Dan would eventually be born. Moses in fact lived over 400 years later. But that's where the real problem comes up. Moses died before the children of Israel moved into the Promised Land. Moreover, the tribe of Dan was given its inheritance in southern Israel near Reuben (
Joshua 19:40-48). The southern coastal area was given to Dan by lot. Then notice
Joshua 19:47. These are events that are described in detail in
Judges 18.
So Abram pursued his enemies to a city named after his great-grandson and this is written by Moses even though that city never was known as "Dan" until more than 100 years after the death and burial of Moses- which Moses also wrote about?
The Bible itself almost screams for us to lay down our traditions and to actually pay attention to its message.
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