Thanks, Google

A student pointed out to me that, if you ask Google “Who wrote the Pentateuch?” you get the answer, in big, bold letters, “Moses.”

I decided to click the “feedback” button and indicate that this is incorrect. Here’s what I wrote as explanation for why I thought so:

There has been extensive research on this topic. The Pentateuch depicts Moses as writing laws. It does not depict Moses as writing the work which depicts him as writing. It includes references (e.g. “at that time the Canaanites were in the land”) which simply do not fit authorship in the time Moses is supposed to have lived, never mind by Moses himself.