Numbers 12 · a question people ask
If Moses wrote Numbers, how could he write that he was the most humble man on earth?
The verse reads, "Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth" (12:3). Numbers says Moses wrote down the journeys (33:2), and Deuteronomy says, "Moses wrote this law" (Deuteronomy 31:9). Numbers speaks of Moses by name all the way through, as in "The LORD spoke to Moses" (1:1). Readers answer in two main ways. Both take the verse as true, and both note that in this chapter it is the LORD, not Moses, who speaks up for him (12:6-8).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Moses wrote it
Some hold that Moses wrote the verse himself. He is named, not "I", all through the book (1:1), and the verse states what the story needs to be understood: it comes just before the LORD speaks for him (12:4-8). The LORD himself says more of Moses than this: "He is faithful in all my house" (12:7).
Numbers 1:1 · Numbers 12:4-8 · Numbers 12:7
A later writer added it
Others hold that a later writer added a few lines like this one, in the way they read the account of Moses' death (Deuteronomy 34:5-6), which looks back on him: "Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face" (Deuteronomy 34:10).
Deuteronomy 34:5-6 · Deuteronomy 34:10
The verses
“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth.”
“Moses wrote the starting points of their journeys by the commandment of the LORD. These are their journeys according to their starting points.”
“Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the LORD’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.”
“The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,”