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Answer - Late date (textual evidence 1)The traditional view is that the Book of Exodus was written by Moses. Based on the traditional date for the death of Moses, that would mean that it was written about 1400 BCE.

However, the view of biblical scholars now is that Moses did not write, and could not have written, Exodus.

Exodus was compiled over a period of centuries, before it reached a more or less identifiable form, and was then redacted into substantially the form we know today. So, the answer to this question depends on the level of the book's evolution at which you would finally consider it to be 'Exodus'. Arguably, that would be somewhere around 500 to 600 BCE.

The book is based on input from several sources. Because we do not know the actual names of those sources, we generally call the major contributors: J, E, D and P.

Based on the archaic Hebrew and other evidence, J and E appear to be from around 800 to 1000 BCE. D (the Deuteronomist) lived a little before 600 BCE. P (the Priestly source) probably lived during the Babylonian exile.

Answer - Late date (textual evidence 2)The first answer to this question gave the traditional answer (about 1400 BCE) and a briefly reasoned scholarly answer (around 500 to 600 BCE) for the date of the Book of Exodus as we would know it, leaving it up to the reader to decide which date to accept. To have reasoned the scholarly date more fully would have risked appearing to place undue weight on one date in preference to the other.

It has been argued further that Moses was not only the author of Exodus, but also of the entire Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). That is fully supportive of the first of the two dates provided in the first answer to this question.

However, the Sources Theory, which states that the Pentateuch had several authors, is widely accepted by modern scholars and some Christians. After all, a late date for Exodus does not undermine the message of The Bible. It is also important to note that nowhere in Exodus, or the Pentateuch, does it claim to have been written by Moses so we must analyse the text to determine who probably wrote it. Just one citation is "Testament: the Bible and History", by John Romer (1996). However, some Christian organizations and their websites present a different view.

In order to provide balanced support for a late date of the authorship of the Pentateuch, I have added some additional reasoning, taken from examples in the Bible. The reader should make his or her own decision as to which date to accept (eg circa 1400 BCE or circa 500-600BCE).

Deuteronomy chapter 34 describes the death of Moses.and says that "not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses..." This could not have been written by Moses or even by any author prior to the establishment of a nation called Israel. If we explain this by saying that this chapter was added after the death of Moses, we leave open the question as to what else was added after the death of Moses.

The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 have a slightly different wording to the same commandments in Deuteronomy 5. Exodus 20:11 says that the Sabbath is in honor of the 7 days of creation; Deuteronomy 5:15 says that the Sabbath is in honor of the flight from Egypt. While these issues have no important theological consequences, it is not possible that the man who personally carved the commandments onto tablets would not even remember what he wrote. And if, as the author of the Pentateuch, he was not sure, he could have looked in the ark and read the tablets again.

· The J (Yahwist) source always used 'YHVH' as the name for God and presents tradition from the point of view of the southern kingdom, Judah, using archaic Hebrew. J was a gifted storyteller who was especially interested in the human side of things and had his own characteristic vocabulary. J referred to Moses' father-in-law as Reuel or Hobab.

· The E (Elohist) source always used 'Elohim' as the name for God and presents tradition from the point of view of the northern kingdom, Israel, using archaic Hebrew. E referred to Moses' father-in-law as Jethro, an apparent error that Moses himself could not have made.

· At some time around 650 BCE., J and E were combined by Judaean editors, known to us as JE.

· The D (Deuteronomist) source emphasises centralisation of worship and governance in Jerusalem, as would be expected from political events that followed the defeat of Israel. It uses a more modern form of Hebrew.

· The P (Priestly) source uses both Elohim and El Shaddai as names of God and focusses on the formal relations between God and society. He also uses a late form of Hebrew, with a rather turgid style.

There are also many 'doublets' where each author provided his own, separate version of the same event. We can be sure that had Moses had been the author, he would have chosen a preferred version and stuck with that one.

AnswerThe Pentateuch itself clearly states that the following passages were authored by Moses:

Exodus 17:14

Exodus 20:22 - 23:33

Exodus 34:10 -26

Moses was certainly in a position to write the Pentateuch. Moses would have had access to the Hebrew patriarchal records. Moses had the time during the 40 years in the wilderness. Moses was personally familiar with the geographical features of the area. Moses as the leader and founder of the nation wanted them to have the laws which would facilitate their function as a nation. At this time, even Egyptian slaves were inscribing records on tunnel walls. On the other hand a man like Moses must certainly have written about one of the most significant epochs in history.

Note that the gospel passages include a number which indicate Jesus himself believed the Law was written by Moses.

So the Exodus would have been written by Moses between 1441 and 1401 BC.

Answer - Late date (external evidence)A. Domesticated camelsNo one seriously disputes the historical fact that camels were first domesticated well after 1000 BCE and not widely used for transport until the seventh century BCE, or a little earlier (One citation for this is: The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman). But the Pentateuch frequently refers to domesticated camels, a historical impossibility.

Exodus 9:3: "Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain."

Clearly, the author was not aware that camels had not yet been domesticated during the times of Abraham and Moses. This fact alone is sufficient to prove that the Pentateuch was not written before the eighth century BCE, or the tenth century at the very earliest. Technology and lifestyles changed so slowly that the biblical author believed that the lifestyle he experienced had always been so.

To broaden this research to the Pentateuch as a whole: in Genesis, the story of Jacob includes the gift from Jacob to his twin brother Esau of thirty milch camels with their colts. This could not have written in the time of Jacob nor the time of Moses. It must have been written in the first millennium BCE.

A date in the first millennium BCE is consistent with the Sources Theory, providing an independent proof of late dating for Exodus.

B. PhilistinesThe Pentateuch frequently refers to the Philistines whoonly settled in Palestine around 1200 BCE, even in the time of Abraham (for example: Genesis 21:32-34). If Moses had written the Pentateuch around 1400 BCE, he would not even have known of the future nation of Philistines. Since the Philistines arrived by boat, Moses could not even have been aware of "proto-Philistines" or forerunners of the Philistines.

Even looking at just the Exodus, with a date sometimes given as just prior to 1220 BCE, does not make sense for references to Philistines. Whoever wrote these accounts lived after 1100 BCE and probably in the first millennium BCE.

C. ArameansThe Pentateuch mentions the Arameans. Arameans were not mentioned as a separate ethnic group until around 1100 BCE, and became dominant on the northern borders of Israel in the early 9th century BCE. Whoever wrote these accounts lived in the first millennium BCE. D. EdomitesEdom, supposedly founded by Esau, did not become a political entity until eighth century BCE. Whoever wrote this account must have lived during or after the eighth century BCE and did not realise that the Edomites had not existed centuries earlier.E. HittitesThe Hittites are known to have flourished in Central Asia Minor after 1300 BCE, so it is possible that Moses (or any later author) knew of them. Therefore the Hittites do not inform us as to when Exodus was written. F. ScribesCould the differences that scholars see in different parts of the Pentateuch be due simply to the different styles of scribes that Moses may have used? If this hypothesis is supportable, it would not preclude the late date of authorship, but it would lend some credibility to a Mosaic date.

First of all, literary analysis is not about handwriting, it is largely about content.

Secondly, are we saying that Moses gave his scribes such latitude in what they wrote that it reflected their personal biases more than anything that Moses dictated to them? Whenever scholars identify the style associated with the Yahwist (J), the text reflects the Judahite perspective; whenever scholars identify the style associated with the Elohist (E), the text reflects the Israelite (northern) perspective. Also many doublets differ too much in content to have originated from the same source.

D and P also had their own style. But why did they use a much later form of Hebrew than the others? A form that is associated with the middle of the first millennium BCE?

I. CONCLUSIONThe above is just some of the volume of evidence available to show conclusively that Exodus, and in fact the Pentateuch, was written long after the time of Moses. Moses was not the author of Exodus.
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