When was the book of Exodus written?
Asking when Exodus was written is really asking who wrote it. The commentators in this collection answer both together: the book comes from Moses, written in his own lifetime, close to the events it records — and they treat the rival theories of a much later date as an attack on the book's honesty.
The author was there
The writers tie the date of Exodus to the life of the man who lived through it. Unlike Genesis, which covers events long before his birth, the material of Exodus was Moses' own experience.
Arend RemmersWhat has been said about the book of Genesis also applies to Exodus. In Genesis Moses depended on the revelations of God and possibly on the accounts of his ancestors, while he was mostly able to write down the happenings of Exodus to Deuteronomy from his own sight and experience under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
One writer suggests an order for the writing, placing Exodus after the books Moses could have composed during his years as a shepherd in Midian:
An Outline of Sound WordsMoses could well have written Genesis and Job during his forty years in Arabia. He was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," which was doubtless used by God in preparing His servant for his future service. Exodus, Numbers and Leviticus were written afterwards, to record the history of Israel, and God's dealings with His people, from Egypt to the edge of the land of Canaan.
A date in years
The events themselves can be dated from the Bible's own time markers, and commentators note that this cuts against the common academic dating.
Arend RemmersMost of today's scholars date the exodus of Israel in the 13th century BC... This late date leaves far too little time for the period of the conquest of the land and for the time of the judges. The different indications of time in the Bible would also be untrustworthy (see Judges 11:26; 1 Kings 6:1; Acts 13:20). But if we take the biblical indications, the time of the exodus can be dated to roughly the year 1446 BC.
The book records its own writing
Exodus does not leave the question entirely to guesswork. It describes Moses putting the words down at Sinai, and one writer marks that moment as the start of a whole new principle.
H Forbes WitherbyA very important feature in the ways of God with man now appears: Moses put "all the words of the LORD" (Ex. 24:4) into writing. "It is written" was from then on to mark the authority of the divine communications... a written authority was to speak in unchangeable words. From that date to the present hour, "It is written" has been the rule for faith. "The book" mentioned, in which Moses wrote, was at this particular time the Book of Exodus.
The witness of Christ
For these commentators the decisive evidence is not archaeological but the way Jesus and the apostles handled the book.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinOur Lord Jesus Christ, the infallible Son of God, perfect in knowledge, said to the Sadducees: "Have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?" (Mark 12:26). Our Lord thus gives positive evidence that Exodus is the book of Moses... Exodus is quoted twenty-five times by Christ and His apostles, and there are almost as many allusions to it scattered through the New Testament books.
The rival datings
The alternative answers are set out plainly, and then rejected. One writer quotes a leading critic of his day:
Arno Clemens Gaebelein"The two main sources used in Exodus are those now generally known as 'Jehovist-Elohist,' the chief parts of which date probably from the seventh or eighth century before Christ, and the 'Priestly,' which is generally thought to have been written during or shortly after the Babylonian captivity." According to these statements Moses had nothing whatever to do with the composition of this book... It is a hopeless maze of theories and contradictions.
Could anyone write that early?
One argument for a late date was that writing itself did not yet exist in Moses' time. Commentators point to excavation as the answer.
A J PollockIn the winter of 1901/2 a great discovery was made by De Morgan's expedition to Persia. The famous Code of Khama-Rabi, or Hammurabi, identified as Amraphel, king of Shinar (Gen. 14:1), was unearthed... Now Amraphel was a contemporary of Abraham. Here was writing long before the time of Moses, dating back 400 years before that great lawgiver was born.
Why the date matters
The question is not academic. A book that claims Moses as its writer cannot be quietly moved eight centuries later.
Samuel RidoutIf the Pentateuch was not written by Moses, if it is the product of a later age, then on its very face it is stamped as untrue and a fraud, and so completely unworthy of belief. In this way the enemy would seek to destroy the foundations, knowing well that if these are removed, the whole building must fall to the ground.
Summary
- Author — Exodus was written by Moses, who saw and lived most of what it reports, rather than compiled from ancestral records as Genesis partly was.
- Date — Using the Bible's own time markers, the exodus falls around 1446 BC, which places the writing inside Moses' lifetime, not centuries later.
- Moment — The book names the occasion when Moses wrote the words down at Sinai, and from that point "It is written" became the standard of faith.
- Witness — Jesus called it "the book of Moses," and the New Testament quotes Exodus around twenty-five times, so its date and its inspiration stand or fall together.
- Stakes — A book claiming Moses but produced centuries after him would be a fraud; that is why the date is contested and why the writers defend it.