Did Moses write the Pentateuch?

Описание: In Part 1 of this response to Joel Baden, I argued that Genesis 1–2 does not require multiple authors and can be read coherently as a unified narrative. In this second video, I step back and examine a deeper issue: the methodology behind the documentary hypothesis itself.

As articulated by Baden and much of critical scholarship, the documentary hypothesis rests almost entirely on perceived literary disunity within the text. From this disunity alone, scholars infer multiple authors, multiple theologies, and a long process of redaction. But this raises a serious problem: the standards of evidence being used are not applied consistently.

Critical scholars frequently argue that events such as the Exodus or the conquest of Canaan did not occur because there is insufficient archaeological evidence to confirm them. Whether one accepts that claim or not, it establishes a clear criterion: major historical claims require external corroboration.

Yet when it comes to the documentary hypothesis, that same demand disappears.

In this video, I ask a simple question: If we apply the same evidentiary standards to the documentary hypothesis that are applied to Israel’s history, what evidence do we actually have?

No manuscripts preserving separate source documents
No textual fragments divided along proposed J, E, P, or D lines
No alternate manuscript traditions reflecting different source arrangements
No ancient Jewish or Christian testimony acknowledging such documents
No awareness of these divisions in centuries of interpretation
No internal biblical evidence of competing documentary traditions

In short, there is no material, manuscript, or historical evidence for the documentary hypothesis—only modern reconstruction based on literary theory.

This video is not an attempt to prove Mosaic authorship by tradition, but to expose a fundamental methodological inconsistency. If the absence of archaeological evidence is sufficient to dismiss the Exodus, then the complete absence of textual or historical evidence should at least call the documentary hypothesis into question.

The issue is not whether critical scholarship is “allowed” to question the Bible—but whether its conclusions are supported by the standards it claims to uphold.

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