The Logical Proof of Sinai: Why the Torah Could Not Be Fabricated

There are many proofs that the Torah is a divine book that could not have been written by human hands. In this essay, however, we will focus on the logical proof of the revelation at Mount Sinai, as demonstrated from the verses of the Torah itself.

All religions in the world that claim a divine revelation began with a single individual who said that God revealed Himself to him — such as Christianity with Jesus, or Islam with Muhammad. Judaism is the only religion that claims a divine revelation witnessed by an entire nation of around three million people, the generation of the Exodus.

The Torah itself contains verses that speak directly to that generation, addressing them as eyewitnesses who stood at Mount Sinai and experienced God’s revelation.

If someone wanted to “plant” or fabricate a national legend that never actually happened, what would be more reasonable? To claim that he alone had a private vision (as the founders of other religions did), or to claim that an entire nation had a collective revelation — when the supposed audience itself knows it never happened? Clearly, the second approach would immediately destroy credibility. No person would believe a book that says you yourself saw and heard these events if, in fact, nothing like that had ever taken place — especially when that same book demands obedience to numerous commandments and obligations. Anyone trying to “insert” such a text would certainly not have written verses telling the recipients that they personally saw what they knew they never saw.

This is precisely why no other religion in the world claims a national revelation. Such an event cannot be fabricated. Only the Torah of Israel describes miraculous events on a national scale, written to the people in second-person present tense, right near the time of the events themselves. This makes forgery impossible.

Following are some examples of verses in which the Torah directly testifies to the people’s presence at Sinai:

• “You are all standing today before the Lord your God… to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, and into His oath which the Lord your God is making with you today.” (Deuteronomy 29:9–11)

• “You yourselves saw that I spoke to you from heaven.” (Exodus 20:19)

• “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants, and to all his land.” (Deuteronomy 29:1)

• “It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, we who are here today, all of us alive. Face to face the Lord spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire.” (Deuteronomy 5:3–4)

• “You were shown to know that the Lord is God; there is none else besides Him. From heaven He let you hear His voice to discipline you, and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.” (Deuteronomy 4:35–36)

• “Only be careful and guard yourself very well, lest you forget the things your eyes saw… the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me: Gather the people for Me, and I will let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on earth, and that they may teach their children.” (Deuteronomy 4:9–10)

• “For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?” (Deuteronomy 5:22)

• “This day we have seen that God speaks with man, and he lives.” (Deuteronomy 5:24)

These verses are repeated because the Torah has no fear of being contradicted. They serve as a built-in proof that those who received the Torah were indeed present at such a unique revelation.

One might still argue that perhaps the “planter” of the Torah claimed that the audience’s ignorance of such an event was no proof, since it had happened to their distant ancestors and the tradition had been forgotten. He could claim that he alone had preserved the truth, and now was returning people to the “ancient ways” that had been lost.

This claim too is refuted by the Torah itself. For within the Torah there is a clear promise that the book would never be forgotten:
“This song [i.e., the Torah] shall testify before them as a witness, for it shall never be forgotten from the mouth of their descendants.” (Deuteronomy 31:21)

If the Torah had truly been forgotten for generations, then this promise would have been false. And if even a single promise in the Torah is false, then the entire claim of divine origin collapses.

The very fact that the Torah contains verses stating that its recipients personally experienced the events — and also promises that the Torah will never be forgotten, eliminates any possibility that it was fabricated by human hands.