Who wrote the Book of Genesis?

Answer 1

It is widely believed that Moses wrote the book of Genesis, but there are some who question who the author was. Here are some opinions:

Moses wrote the Book of Genesis, but he was sent the words for Genesis by God. If you go to a Christian book store and find a very good study Bible, then in the back it should have a list of all the authors of The Bible, even though the Word was sent to them from the Lord. Thus, we get the term "The Law of Moses" used even by Jesus.

The book of Genesis was evidently part of the one original writing (the Torah), and it was possibly completed by Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the year 1513 B.C.E. After Genesis 1:1,2 (relating to the creation of the heavens and the earth), the book evidently covers a span of thousands of years involved in the preparation of the earth for human habitation and thereafter it covers the period from man's creation on down to the year 1657 B.C.E., when Joseph died.

All the information contained in the book of Genesis relates to events that took place prior to Moses' birth.

1.It could have been received directly by divine revelation. It is obvious that someone had to receive the information relating to the events prior to man's creation in that way, whether Moses or someone prior to him. (Ge 1:1-27; 2:7,8)

2.This information and the remaining details, however, could have been transmitted to Moses by means of oral tradition. Because of the long life span of men of that period, the information could have been passed from Adam to Moses through just five human links, namely, Methuselah, Shem, Isaac, Levi, and Amram.

3.A third possibility is that Moses obtained much of the information for Genesis from already existing writings or documents. The Book of Enoch is quoted within Moses' writings. That was written pre - Noah's flood

Although the text of Genesis makes no claim about authorship, the traditional Jewish, and later Christian, belief was that the five books of the Torah were dictated by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. For a number of reasons this is no longer accepted by the majority of modern biblical scholars, and contemporary academic debate centres instead on the proposal known as the documentary hypothesis. This postulates that Genesis, together with the other four books, is a composite work assembled from various sources. These sources are:[82]

The oldest extant Masoretic (i.e. Hebrew) manuscripts of Genesis are the Aleppo Codex dated to ca. 920 AD, and the Westminster Leningrad Codex dated to 1008 AD. There are also fragments of unvocalized Hebrew Genesis texts preserved in some Dead Sea scrolls (2nd century BC to 1st century AD).

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: These first five books of the Bible are known as the "Pentateuch", and tradition ascribes these books to have been written by Moses. This is highly unlikely, since these books tell of the death of Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5)! In reality, these books are actually anonymous and composite works. In these books are two and different accounts of Creation, of the "flood", and of the plagues of Egypt. Scholars have overwhelming evidence that Genesis was compiled from several different sources. They also feel that Exodus and Leviticus were written by members of the priesthood in the 5th or 6th century BC.

Moses did not write Genesis (though the other 4 books of the Pentateuch, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, may well have been written by him). It is in fact becoming more and more widely believed by archeologists and scholars that Moses simply compiled the written eye-witness accounts of the characters within the texts of Genesis. Cuneiform tablets have been discovered that date all the way back to 3500 BC. Following the dates given in the Bible, Adam was still around back then. This suggests that he himself may have recorded his own autobiography, so to speak, or else one of his close relatives did. Similarly, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and even Joseph very well could have written their own accounts of things that happened, to be later recopied by Moses or even one of the other Israelites onto Papyrus scrolls. In this case, "The Law of Moses" would be referring to the commandments of Exodus, the laws of Leviticus, etc. These could have been, and likely were, written by Moses, as he was present for all but the last few verses of Deuteronomy, which could have been added by Joshua or another Israelite.

Tradition says Moses. Modern scholarship says a committee of priestly scribes likely compiled Genesis, from earlier sources.

I believe that Christian tradition holds that Moses wrote the book of Genesis. I would bet, however, that the actual evidence for this position is relatively weak.

God is the true author of Genesis, and for that matter, the entire Bible. However, Moses was the man who wrote down what God told him to.

Tradition says Moses. Modern scholarship says a committee of priestly scribes likely compiled Genesis, from earlier sources.
Tradition says Moses. Modern scholarship says a committee of priestly scribes likely compiled Genesis, from earlier sources.
I believe that Christian tradition holds that Moses wrote the book of Genesis. I would bet, however, that the actual evidence for this position is relatively weak.

Answer 2

Tradition, believed to have been started by Philo of Alexandria in the first century, holds that Moses wrote the Book of Genesis. There is certainly nothing in the Book that would lead to the conclusion that it was written by Moses, and the tradition relies only on the belief that God spoke to Moses and could therefore have told him what to write. As nearly all scholars believe that there was no biblical Exodus from Egypt, we are faced with the conclusion there was probably no Moses either.

Regardless of whether Moses existed, and even whether there was an Exodus from Egypt, scholars conclude there clearly were multiple authors of Genesis. They say that different parts of Genesis were written by anonymous sources now known as the Yahwist, the Elohist and the Priestly Source, during the early to middle centuries of the first millennium BCE.

Answer 3

Moses

Answer 4

Moses