-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."
