A question about the Torah?

Question

How is it that much of the stuff written in the Torah is supposed to have taken place after Moses received the Torah?

Answer 1

Not a lot; why?
Remember, G-d is outside time, so the things Moses wrote could have been about his own life before they happened.
Torah is the first 5 books of the Old Testament. Tanakh is the Old Testament, or the Jewish Scriptures.

Answer 2

Moses did not necessarily receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Moses received the ten commandments on Mt. Sinai. The Torah, the "Five Books of Moses," might have been written sometime later. According to Jewish tradition, the Torah is understood to be the word of God as told to Moses by God. Moses may have written it sometime at the end of his life.

Actually, looking at Wikipedia - it does say that some people believe the Torah was revealed to Moses at Mt. Sinai. The events that occurred later were included in what God told Moses - including Moses' own death. If a person believes in an eternal, all-knowing God, then why couldn't he believe that God foretold future events to Moses? It makes perfect sense to me.

Answer 3

Many Jewish and Christian organizations teach that Moses wrote these five books, so I understand why you would think he had a hand in it.

The scholarly way to look at the authorship of the Torah is the Documentary Hypothesis. In a nutshell, there were five authors known as J-E-P-D-R who wrote the books over several hundred years.

J & E were Levite priests. One lived in the northern kingdom of Isreal and the other lived in the southern kingdom of Judah. They wrote most of what was to become Genesis and Exodus. Each favored Moses or Aaron as the hero, depending on one's ancestry.

When the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom, many Jews escaped into the southern kingdom. The Levite priests named P consolidated J & E's writings into what is now Genesis and Exodus. They also added a bunch of rules of behavior, known as the book of Leviticus.

Hundreds of years later, another priest named D did more revisions and added some additional writings which became part of the book of Deuteronomy.

Hundreds of years later, the Babylonians conquered Judah and most Jews were taken into exile. Upon their release the fifth author, named R for Redactor, edited the existing writings plus added some more of his own, including tidbits about being in exile. He wrote much of Deuteronomy and Numbers.

I hope I have that correct. For a more expert answer, please consult Richard Friedman's work.

Answer 4

I am not sure, but The Torah is made up of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.....these are the books of law......The story of Moses receiving the 10 commandments was recorded in Exodus.....so lots of what went on after Moses received the commandments of law between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C. The books called the Prophets and Writings and Wisdom, plus the Five Scrolls didn't come until the first century A.D.

Answer 5

the Torah is the Old Testament