What is the name of the person who writes the Torah?

Answer 1

Moses wrote the Torah, as stated explicitly(Deuteronomy 31:24). The last eight verses (of the death of Moses) were penned by Joshua (Talmud, Bava Bathra 15a).

The Jewish tradition between verses which seem different or contradictory is that they complement each other and are intended to add information to each other (for example, see Rashi commentary on Exodus 21:12). The Talmud follows this same system.

The names of God each refer to one or more of His attributes (Rashi, Genesis 1:1).

Moses wrote the Torah (Deuteronomy 31:24), in 1272 BCE, in exactly the same wording (in Hebrew) that we possess today.

Answer 2

The person who writes the Torah is called a scribe (in English) or a sofer STaM (in Hebrew). "STaM" is an acronym for Scrolls (Torah), tefillin (phylacteries) and mezuzah (the scroll affixed to the doorways of a Jewish home). So a sofer STaM is a scribe of these sacred texts.

Answer 3

Sofer (סופר) is the Hebrew word for the type of individual that writes a Torah Scroll. However, if you are asking about original authorship, Religious Jews hold that it comes from God and was written by Moses' hand, while archaeological scholars hold that it was written by four groups (the Jahwists, Elohists, Priestly Class, and Deuteronomists - JEPD).

• Answer 2

Torah-scrolls are written by a sofer (a religious scribe).

The first Torah was written by Moses (Deuteronomy 31:24) at God's dictation (Exodus 24:12). Secular theories that claim otherwise, are based upon zero physical evidence. No parchment, scroll, or inscription has ever been found that would support The Bible-critics' JEPD (different sources) hypothesis, which remains a set of postulates. And those ancient writers who mention, describe, summarize or translate the Torah (Josephus, Samaritans, Targum, Septuagint etc.), describe it in its complete form.

Professor Gleason Archer Ph.D of Harvard University states: "In case after case where historical inaccuracy was alleged as proof of late and spurious authorship of the biblical documents, the Hebrew record has been vindicated by the results of excavations, and the condemnatory judgment of the Documentary theorists have been proved to be without foundation." Archaeological finds, such as the Ugarit documents and those of Nuzu, Mari, Susa, Ebla, and Tel el-Amarna, have repeatedly caused the critics to retract their claims. The entire social milieu portrayed in the Torah, once criticized as anachronistic, has been shown to be historically accurate, including customs of marriage, adoption, contracts, inheritance, purchases, utensils, modes of travel, people's names and titles, etc.

Answer 4

Actually God did, but God sent it through scribes.

HaShem, The Creator, gave us the Torah through Moshe (Moses). The rest of the Jewish Bible was recorded by prophets and various sages. The Jewish Bible is actually called the Tanach. The word Tanach is an acronym made up from the names of its sections: Torah (Teachings), Nevi'im (Prophets), and K'tuvim (Writings).

The Christian Old Testament was based on the Tanach, however, the Christian Church altered the texts to support the teachings of Christianity. There are many versions of the Christian Old Testament which were compiled by various groups and people.

Answer 5

A Torah scroll is copied out by a professional scribe called a Sofer.

The original Torah text is attributed to God (Exodus 24:12), who spoke it to Moses, who wrote down (Deuteronomy 31:24).

Answer 6

I believe it is a writer who went by the name of "Cohelet," a Levite priest who learned how to write in Babylonian Cuneiform, and later modified the script to suit Hebrew phonetic sounds, and single handedly basically created Hebrew. Although Moses was the giver of the law, and the law was preserved by Aaron and his descendants, they were not formally written down, that is, authored, until the period of the Babylonian "captivity."

According to Jewish and therefore also Christian tradition, the Torah was written by Moses.

Answer 7

G-ds is the writer, auther and maker of the Torah

Moses was the messenger for G-d to write it down for Him out of Free will

G-d is the creator of all especially His own book

God for bid if Moses was the writer than the Torah has no holy value

The reason the Torah has so much value in it is because Hashem is the writer

other wise it will just be a library book God for bid

and this is what the New Testament is not all about the bible was written by humans not by the creator so in my eyes it has no value what so ever the Torah is written bythe creator so it does have major value

after G-d made the Torah he passed it on through Torah scholars and it was passed down still holy from the start to now

Answer 8

The traditional view is that Moses was the author of the first five books (known in English as: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). However, the Sources Theory, which states that the Pentateuch had several authors, is widely accepted by modern scholars. It is important to note that nowhere in 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).

Some brief examples I have taken from the Bible support the scholarly view of the authorship, with. a brief resume of each of the principal authors.

The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 have a slightly different wording to the same commandments in Deuteronomy 5. Exodus 20:11 also says that the Sabbath is in honour of the 7 days of creation; Deuteronomy 5:15 says that the Sabbath is in honour 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.

There are many other '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.

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 until long after 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 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, a mistake that Moses himself could not have made.
• At some time around 650 BCE., J and E were combined by Judaean editors, producing a composite 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.

For more information, please see: http://christianity.answers.com/bible/the-pentateuch-explained

Answer 9

Moses wrote the Torah, as stated explicitly (Deuteronomy 31:24), in exactly the same wording (in Hebrew) that we possess today. The last eight verses (describing the death of Moses) were penned by Joshua (Talmud, Bava Bathra 15a).

Note that the same literary devices which the Torah employs to enrich its text, have been used by Bible-critics in an attempt to reassign its authorship.

The Jewish sages, based on ancient tradition, identified many of these devices, which include:

recapping earlier brief passages to elucidate,

employing different names of God to signify His various attributes,

using apparent changes or redundancies to allude to additional unstated details,

speaking in the vernacular that was current during each era,

and many more. While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source, some modern authors such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) have suggested artificially chopping up the narrative and attributing it to various authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24). This need not concern believers, since his claims have been debunked one by one, as Archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim. See also the Related links.

Link: Refuting the JEPD Documentary Hypothesis

Link: The authorship of the Hebrew Bible

Link: About Biblical-criticism

Answer 10

The traditional view is that Moses was the author of the first five books (known in English as: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). However, the Sources Theory, which states that the Torah had several authors, is widely accepted by modern scholars. It is important to note that nowhere in the Torah can we say it was actually 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).

Some brief examples I have taken from the Bible support the scholarly view of the authorship, with. a brief resume of each of the principal authors.

The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 have a slightly different wording to the same commandments in Deuteronomy 5. Exodus 20:11 also says that the Sabbath is in honour of the 7 days of creation; Deuteronomy 5:15 says that the Sabbath is in honour 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.

There are many other '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.

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 until long after 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 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, a mistake that Moses himself could not have made.
  
• At some time around 650 BCE., J and E were combined by Judaean editors, producing a composite 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.

For more information, please see:

http://christianity.answers.com/bible/the-pentateuch-explained