I think you need a better model of text maintenance and transmission. The second law of thermodynamics (the unceasing increase of entropy (i.e. disorder) applies not just to physical systems, but also to systems for transmission of information. Without mechanisms (institutions) to monitor, preserve, and copy texts, they are subject to entropy -- insects, mold, water, fire destroy texts. A prime example is the role of monasteries in transmitting the texts of the classical and biblical worlds to modern western Europe.
I think the example of Deuteronomy does not prove your point. I have always understood that it was written later than the first four books of the Pentateuch as a pseudepigrapha and that it was said to have been found in order to give it authority. A more recent example of this process is Zohar which purports to be the work of Shimon bar Yochai, but was in fact written in Spain a millennium later.
I think you need a better model of text maintenance and transmission. The second law of thermodynamics (the unceasing increase of entropy (i.e. disorder) applies not just to physical systems, but also to systems for transmission of information. Without mechanisms (institutions) to monitor, preserve, and copy texts, they are subject to entropy -- insects, mold, water, fire destroy texts. A prime example is the role of monasteries in transmitting the texts of the classical and biblical worlds to modern western Europe.
I think the example of Deuteronomy does not prove your point. I have always understood that it was written later than the first four books of the Pentateuch as a pseudepigrapha and that it was said to have been found in order to give it authority. A more recent example of this process is Zohar which purports to be the work of Shimon bar Yochai, but was in fact written in Spain a millennium later.