Who Wrote the Pentateuch? A Survey of the Evidence

Jewish and Christian tradition names Moses as the author of the Torah, yet the five books themselves are anonymous, and passages like the account of Moses’ own death have prompted questions since antiquity. Modern scholarship offers a spectrum of answers, from documentary sources to gradual scribal growth.

This article will lay out the traditional view, the rise of the Documentary Hypothesis, its more recent revisions and critics, and where the evidence seems strongest. (Placeholder article — full research to come.)