Why are There Inconsistencies in the Torah?

PIKESVILLE, Maryland — Were the five books of Moses revealed to the Israelites by God during the Israelite sojourn in the Sinai desert for 40 years? Is the text of these five books that we have today the same as the one that was revealed by God, or, if not revealed, the same as the one that existed in ancient times? Were the biblical passages garbled over time? These questions, and many more like them, have troubled people since antiquity. Even the rabbis who wrote the Talmuds recognized that there are many seeming difficulties in the Bible.

For example, the first chapter of Genesis appears to state that God created a man and a woman simultaneously. In contrast, the second chapter indicates that the woman was made later, from the man’s side. The book of Exodus presents one version of the Ten Commandments, while the book of Deuteronomy has the same commands but with different wording and spelling. The book of Genesis recounts two tales of Abraham leaving Canaan and deceiving the residents of the places he visited by claiming his wife was his sister, thereby saving himself from being killed. His plan backfires both times. Didn’t he learn from the first incident and not repeat his mistake? Then the story is repeated with his son, Isaac. Was there originally only one story?[1]

The Talmudic rabbis offered solutions. For example, they explain that the first chapter of Genesis is a general statement that God created a man and a woman, while the second chapter has the details that the creation was performed in two stages. This is the biblical style, as when it states that Noah brought two of every kind of animal into his ark, and later explains that he got more of certain animals. They say that the Exodus version of the Ten Commandments is the divine revelation. In contrast, the version in Deuteronomy is Moses’s explanation of the original with additions and changes made to emphasize specific points.

These explanations did not satisfy everyone. By the 18th century, “biblical criticism” became rampant, a multitude of biblical difficulties were pointed out, and the “documentary hypothesis” was developed. It dismissed the idea of a divine revelation out of hand. It contended that the five books of Moses are a collection of disparate documents that the biblical Ezra probably compiled in the fifth or fourth century B.C.E.

The scholars suggest that Ezra and his cohorts collected a large assortment of diverse fragments that had been considered essential or holy by Jews in the past. They stitched the documents together with little or no editing; for who would dare change a sacred document?

Since the writings came from different sources with dissimilar versions of ancient tales, and since Ezra felt that he could make no or few alterations or corrections, the scholars contend that the text that he assembled retained the different versions, discrepancies, and other difficulties.

Professor David Weiss Halivni developed his original idea on this subject in his book Revelation Restored, which was the 1997 winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship.

Halivni insisted on the correctness of the traditional view that God interfered with natural law some three thousand years ago and revealed the Torah, the five books of Moses, to the Israelites after they escaped Egyptian bondage. This Torah, Halivni states, was perfect. God revealed it because he wanted to give humanity a gift of perfect knowledge that would teach them how to behave.[2]

Halivni wrote that a problem arose following the revelation when God stopped interfering with the laws of nature that He created and ceased to involve Himself in human affairs. He gave humanity the perfect Torah to help them, but people, being human, ignored it, and it fell into disuse.

Fragments remained here and there, but no one guarded the divine treasure. Along with the ancient pieces were ancient human versions of the lost and disused Torah, frequently distorted memories of what people thought the Torah had said. Some recalled that God told Noah to save a pair of each animal, others that it was seven of each. As a result, both versions are in Genesis.

In short, Halivni maintained the traditional belief in divine revelation while agreeing with biblical criticism that Ezra compiled fragments and constructed the Torah we have today.

But there is a problem with his idea. Why would the all-knowing deity bother to reveal a Torah when he knows that humans will corrupt it?

I do not accept Halivni’s idea. I told him so. He gave me no solution to the problem.   He may have been more intelligent than I, but I am not as sure as he is that God dictated a perfect Torah. I would like to think this is true, but I recognize that the Torah, despite what I like to think, may be a human document.

What I am sure of is that the Torah is sacred because, whatever its source, it contains wisdom that teaches all people how to behave, provided they recognize that it was written for primitive people with laws such as slavery and sacrifices along with multiple hints on how to identify what is more rational and proper, which the rabbis recognized and taught us.

Regarding the problem I raised, assuming God gave us a perfect Torah and assuming God is all-knowing, why did He give the Israelites a perfect Torah when He knew they would ruin it?

I am convinced, based on Exodus 33:18-23, where God tells Moses that humans can know nothing about God but can gain some knowledge of God by seeing what God created or formed, that we cannot be certain that God is all-knowing, and even if God knows us. I like to think so, but I cannot prove it.

I also agree with the view of the Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BCE), who told us that humans are incapable of knowing anything fully. In Plato’s Apology, Socrates says that his friend Chaerephon asked the Oracle of Delphi if anyone was wiser than he. The Oracle answered that no one was smarter than Socrates. Socrates understood that he was the wisest human because he realized he did not fully know anything, while others were sure they possessed knowledge.

Leaving this aside, how would we answer the problem I presented to Halivni?

I suggest that God does not want humans who are puppets, creatures who are unable to make decisions and act on those decisions. God created humans with intelligence and free will. God does not want to control people. God wants humans to use their intelligence and free will to better themselves and the world.

Even if the Torah was perfect and sometimes distorted, which I am not able to know if this is true, the Torah is still, as I said previously, filled with wisdom. We should learn from it and incorporate its lessons into our lives to improve ourselves and the world.

NOTES

[1] Perhaps it did recur three times. Possibly, there is a lesson here: people don’t seem to learn from past mistakes, even the brilliant ones.

[2] This traditional view that God revealed the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, along with the Decalogue, is not stated in the Torah. It only mentions the Decalogue, which most people call The Ten Commandments, despite the Torah calling it Ten Statements, Decalogue in Greek, and despite it having more than ten commands. Additionally, the travels and events of the Israelites that followed the Decalogue revelation are in the Torah, showing that the Torah would not have included them if it were revealed at Sinai.