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-How could Moses have written Genesis when writing was unknown in his day?

From.The Bible Has the Answer.by Dr. Henry Morris:
"This is an ancient criticism which is still voiced frequently today. The answer is, first, that writing was known and widely used long before Moses' time and second, that he quite possibly compiled and edited the book of Genesis, rather than writing it himself. 

"There is no doubt whatever that writing was practiced long before Moses was born. For example, archaeologists have unEarthed an ancient library in the city of Ur containing thousands of stone 'books'. It will be recalled that Ur of the Chaldees was Abraham's home before he migrated to Canaan and these stone books were written even before Abraham's day. Many of them constituted records of a most mundane sort, which indicates that not only scholars but also ordinary tradesmen could read and write. 

"Whether writing was invented by the Sumerians, as many scholars believe or by still earlier peoples, it is quite certain that Moses, educated in the palace of the Egyptian emperor as he was, was fully competent to write the Pentateuch.(the first five books of the Bible). It is significant that Christ Himself accepted and confirmed the universal belief of the Jews that Moses was responsible for these books, frequently quoting from them as of Mosaic authority. In fact, He taught that belief in the divine authority of Moses' writings was prerequisite to recognition of His own authority.."If you believe not his.(Moses').writings", said He."how shall you believe my words?"....John 5:47. Those who profess.allegiance to Christ, while denying the reliability and historicity of the book of Genesis, for example, would do well to ponder such statements as these. 

"But now an interesting fact appears. Although the New Testament writers quoted from Genesis at least 60 times and include it under the general category of the Mosaic writings, they never cite any of these quotations as of specific Mosaic authorship. Moses is referred to at least 80 times, however, but in connection with references or quotations from the other four books of what is now called the Pentateuch

"This circumstance is best explained by the assumption that Moses edited the writings that now constitute the book of Genesis, rather than authoring them himself.

"He then brought them together in a collection with his own writings.(Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).to formulate the Torah.(these four books at the first part of the Old Testament), meaning, the 'Law' of God.(*). This explanation is also consistent with the fact that the events in Genesis all took place before Moses was born, whereas those in the other four books start with his birth and end with his death.(the last chapter of Deuteronomy, describing Moses' death, was probably written by Joshua, although Moses, could have written it prophetically)

"The question then arises as to who originally wrote the book of Genesis. By far the most plausible answer to this is that many different men wrote it, each narrating those events which he himself had seen or investigated. This type of origin is implicit in the very structure of Genesis, which breaks down naturally into the ten divisions marked off by the recurring phrase: "These are the generations of...." 

"It has been noted by archaeologists that ancient records, especially in Babylonia, were kept on stone tablets, which were commonly identified by the author's name as a subscript.(written beneath).at the end of the narrative on the tablet. 

"This fact provides an exciting key to the probable origin of the original documents of Genesis.  Each division can be understood as terminating with the subscript of its author. "These are the generations.(that is, 'records of the generations').of.(author's name)". It is significant to note that the actual events thus recorded in each division occurred within the lifetime of the individual so named and thus were directly accessible to his observation or interrogation. The importance of this recurring formula is indicated by the fact that the very name "Genesis" was derived from the Greek word used to translate the Hebrew word for "generations" in the ancient Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. 

"Thus, the division from Genesis 2:4 to Genesis 5:1 ends with the statement:."This is the book of the generations of Adam.".(note that it was a 'book', therefore it refers to an actual written document of some kind). This division narrates those events with which Adam and only Adam, could have been familiar—the description of the garden of Eden, the manner of his own creation, as well as that of Eve, the temptation and fall, God's curse on him and his dominion, the expulsion from Eden and the history of Cain.(Adam's bad son).and Abel.(Adam's good son)

"A similar analysis could be made of each of the other divisions.  All of this leads to the significant conclusion that the events of the very earliest ages of the history of man and his world were written by eyewitnesses of the events! We are not at all dependent upon age long traditions, handed down with continuing embellishment by word of mouth, but rather on direct, first hand observations and reliable records, recorded originally on stone tablets by the ancient patriarchs themselves. These were transmitted down through the line of patriarchs from Adam to Noah, then to Shem, Abraham and finally to Moses. The latter then brought them all together with appropriate editorial transitions and explanations into the book of Genesis as we now have it. And, of course, assuring the absolute accuracy and integrity of the entire work was the guiding inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 

"It is noteworthy that the very first of the divisions.(Genesis 1:1,2; chapter 3).describing the work of the six days of creation, does not name a human author in its subscript. Instead it says:."These are the generations of the heavens and the Earth, when they were created"....Genesis 2:4. Obviously no human writer, not even Adam, was present to observe most of the great events of the six days. This record could only have come by direct revelation from God Himself, who was the only one there. Perhaps it was even written on stone by the very."finger of God", as was later true with the commandments:.Exodus 31:18. In either case, this marvelous first chapter of the Bible was written in a more direct way by God Himself than probably any other portion of Scripture."
 


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