Unknown to Moses

  

From the Torah’s own narrative, we can derive certain facts about the scope of Torah Law, and who were the true successors to Moses.  Of course, any Tom, Dick, or Harry can claim to be the heir to Moses’ Torah, and also to have in possession some books or laws unknown to Moses himself.

We see in Deut 31 some very precise statements regarding the scope of the Torah law, and its rightful guardians:

9 And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, that bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.

10 And Moses commanded them, saying: 'At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,

11 when all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which He shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

12 Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;

13 and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over the Jordan to possess it.'

V.9 Is a clear and pure disproof of any claims to additional legal works, be they the Mishnah, the New Testament, or the Koran.  Moses wrote this Torah in question.  If there was a dual or parallel part of the Torah, the oral law, as claimed by the rabbis, why is not mentioned here? And why is it not mentioned that he handed it to certain successors in oral form?   Furthermore, we see that the Law was entrusted to the Kohanim and the Levites.  This is quite an embarrassment for the Rabbis, since they opposed both the Kohanim and the Levites, who upheld the Written Law. 
See http://tanakhemet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/destruction-of-levites-rationale-of.html

V.11-12 teach us the Hakhel gathering, every 7 years, when the whole written Torah is read.   The people will learn from this to fear God and also to keep the Torah.  It specifically states “and observe to do all the words of this law”.    In other words, the purpose of the Hakhel is to bring people to observe the Written law, as it is written, not anything other than this. The oral law is contradictory to the written law.   When I raised this point to an Orthodox rabbi he claimed this is only to get people to fear God.  This is necessary, but not sufficient, since the  Torah says it is specifically to observe the written law.

We see further on, again, that the Torah was completed in writing:

24 And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,

25 that Moses commanded the Levites, that bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying

26 'Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

Again, no additional law could exist or be separate from this law.  The witness function of the Torah will reject something that is not Torah – and the oral law is outside of the Torah.

As already said, anyone can claim that Moses also gave another law to another group of people, but this is fictional, and precluded by these verses.   The oral law was unknown to Moses.  The rabbis themselves hint at this, in one of their fantasy stories about  rabbi Akiva (Menachot 29b), who allegedly was foreseen by Moses, teaching things that Moses did not know.  This single aspect of the myth is in accordance with my analysis above – namely that the oral law was unknown to Moses.