The Text Of The Moses Scroll – Episode #6 – Ross K Nichols
The Pentateuch contains several sections that purportedly describe the travel itinerary of the Children of Israel in their wilderness journeys. Sorting the route has proven most difficult due to inconsistencies between books, conflicting place names in the various sources, confused geographical references, and occasional references from later scribes. Numbers 33:1-2 informs us in the third person that Moses wrote a travel itinerary. The Moses Scroll presents a travel itinerary that is consistent with geography and lacking any signs of a later hand. Is this the source text for the travel itinerary of Children of Israel?
I was wondering if y’all were aware that the Rabbis have long said that the Torah is not composed as a chronologically ordered document, which would partly explain why the travels through the Midbar as listed in the Torah are not in a logical order, as well as other portions. The Torah is said to be organized more by theme, if I remember correctly the references which I cannot recall by name.