"Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it" (2 Kings 22:8).
In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah gave orders that the temple of the Lord be repaired. While it was being repaired, the high priest Hilkiah found a copy of the “Book of the Law.” He gave it to Shaphan to read (in those days not everyone was trained in reading) and Shaphan read it. He realized what it was and brought it to Josiah’s attention. Convicted by it, Josiah reformed the nation.
What was this book? Historically it has been understood to include the books of Moses. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, unbelieving secular critics formulated the notion that Deuteronomy had been written by Hilkiah and Shaphan, and thus it was a hoax. Within the liberal branches of the church, this notion was adopted and became the standard liberal line.
Educated Christians need to know more about this erroneous belief and why it arose. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the idea of biological evolution influenced nearly all areas of thought. In religion, it was held that human culture evolved from primitive animism (the worship of rocks and trees), through polytheism (many gods), then to henotheism (one god over all the rest), and finally to monotheism (only one God). There is no evidence, however, for this development and the Bible flatly contradicts it, but evolutionists hold tenaciously to it.
Liberals said the “books of Moses” were actually crude compilations put together by the priests centuries after Moses. Supposedly they find in Moses a “J” document (using the word Jahveh for God), an “E” document (using the word Elohim for God), a “D” document (written by the Deuteronomist), and a “P” document (written by priests). They contend Hilkiah and Shaphan actually wrote Deuteronomy in Josiah’s time, making sure that the priests and Levites came out heroes, in order to bolster the Jerusalem priesthood.
Not one shred of evidence exists to support this, and it has repeatedly been refuted by conservative scholars. As we study the book of Deuteronomy, written by Moses, we shall look at the coherent literary structure and style of that book.
Liberals may have reached their conclusions to vitiate the authority of the Law. I affirm the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Yet, after fighting to uphold its authority, Christians often find means to escape or ignore obeying it. Try to seek to give the Law the full commitment and study it as it deserves as the Word of God.
