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Title of the book
Genesis, meaning 'origin' or 'beginning', was the name given when the OT was translated into Greek. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the title is 'In the beginning', from the first word of the Hebrew text.
Authorship
Within biblical scholarship, there is a great debate over the authorship of the Pentateuch. Most liberal scholars deny that Moses was the author, claiming that the books were collected from different sources, and only came into their final form after the exile in Babylon. Most evangelical scholars would accept that Moses was the author of the five books.
There is strong internal evidence that Moses wrote Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which is supported by numerous quotations in the New Testament. Among conservative scholars, the normal belief is that Moses wrote Genesis also. However nowhere in the Bible does it actually say that Moses wrote Genesis, when Genesis is quoted in the NT, it does not refer to Moses as the author.
Because the events of Genesis happened long before Moses was born, there are three possible ways the book of Genesis could have been compiled. One is that Moses received the information by direct revelation from God, and wrote it down. This is perfectly possible. The second is that Moses used material passed down the generations by oral tradition. This would be possible, but unreliable. The third is that Moses compiled Genesis using earlier written documents.
In the nineteenth century, many scholars attacked the reliability of Genesis because they believed that writing only began around the time of David (1000 BC), so no portion of Genesis (or any other Scripture) could have been written before that time. This has now been proved to be very wrong, as many items of cuneiform writing dating back to earlier than 2000 BC have been found. In the early empires of Sumeria, Babylonia and Assyria, writing was readily available through professional scribes. These nations recorded even the smallest business transactions on written documents.
The first reference to writing is in Gen 5:1, "This is the written account of Adam's history". This suggests that the ability to write is as old as the human race. Even though this may seem surprising, there is no reason why God could not have given Adam this skill, considering that Adam had the linguistic skill both to listen and to speak an intelligible language. It has been suggested that Hebrew was the original language, before the scattering after the tower of Babel.
In these ancient Mesopotamian empires, written documents were written in cuneiform on clay tablets. Cuneiform is a system of writing achieved by making wedge shaped impressions on soft clay, rather than being a specific language. The clay came from the Euphrates valley, and when baked hard in the sun became almost imperishable. In Egypt, writing was normally on papyrus.
Compilation
The phrase 'these are the generations of' (Heb. toledot), occurs ten times in Genesis. The translators of the Septuagint (LXX) named the book after this word, as the Hebrew word 'toledot' translates into 'Genesis' in Greek. This phrase is found in the following places in Genesis: the heavens and the earth (2:4), Adam (5:1), Noah (6:9), Noah’s sons (10:1,32), Shem (11:10), Terah (11:27), Ishmael (25:12-13), Isaac (25:19), Esau (Edom) (36:1,9), and Jacob (37:2).
Does the toledot mark the end, or the beginning of a section?
Scholars often assumed that the toledot phrase was an introduction to the section that followed, because several of these were followed with lists of genealogies. However the person named in the toledot often does not appear in the narrative that follows. So the word has often been taken to mean 'descendants'.
However, in Hebrew, the word 'toledot' means family history, or origins, which would suggest that the toledot refers back to ancestors in the preceding narrative, rather than to descendants in the following narrative. This is shown clearly in the first toledot, "these are the generations of the heavens and the earth" (Gen 2:4). There is no reference to the heavens and the earth after Gen 2:4, so it must refer back.
In ancient writings in Mesopotamia, at the end of a clay tablet was a colophon. This gave a title or description of the contents of the tablet, the date or reason for the writing, and the name of the owner or writer of the tablet. If the owner could not write, then he would employ a scribe to write the tablet, but the scribe would include the name of the owner in the colophon, rather than his own name. So in Gen 5:1, "this is the written account of Adam's ancestry" indicates that this tablet was a written account owned by Adam, or written by Adam, rather than being a written account about Adam.
So each toledot probably functions as a colophon, or inscription placed at the end of a series of narratives. Genesis could well have been compiled (by Moses) from a collection of separate documents, which were originally written on clay tablets in cuneiform.
The last section, following the last toledot at Gen 37:2a, describes the life of Joseph in Egypt. The section has a very strong Egyptian flavour, and was probably written by Joseph on papyrus or leather, so it is without a colophon, unless the colophon is preserved in Ex 1:1.
This suggestion is supported by the fact that each tablet ends shortly before the death of the writer: Adam (5:1), died (5:5); Noah (6:9), died (9:29); Noah’s sons (10:1), died ch 10; Shem (11:10), died ch 11; Terah (11:27), died (11:32); Isaac (25:19), died (35:29); Jacob (37:2), died (49:33).
The Role of Moses
Genesis therefore consists of a compilation of nine to eleven independent tablets, which were handed down the generations of the patriarchs. Noah would have preserved them by taking them on the ark, as family histories are considered as most precious and worthy of careful preservation. Because Moses was brought up in the court of Egypt, he would have been able to read the cuneiform tablets, as well as the Egyptian language.
Moses would have three distinct tasks to perform:
Firstly, he organised these earlier documents into the book of Genesis. By including the colophons, he clearly indicated his sources of information, just as a modern scholar includes his sources of information.
Secondly, he translated the cuneiform tablets, and the Egyptian records of Joseph into Hebrew, if necessary.
Thirdly, he updated the place names in Canaan for the Israelites at the time of the Exodus. We can see this in the account of the war of the kings (14:2,3,7,8,15,17). Many of the place names had changed in the four centuries between Abraham and Moses. He left the old names in place, and added the new names as an explanatory note. For example, Hebron is identified in (Gen 23:2,19), and Bethlehem in (Gen 35:19), which would indicate that Moses wrote these additions before the entry to the Promised Land, otherwise they would have been unnecessary. Also, in (Gen 16:14) he says that the well to which Hagar fled is still there, as an explanation.
This means that Genesis, rather than being an unreliable and mythical account of human origins, written after the time of David, is in reality a transcript of the oldest series of written records in human history. Therefore we can rely on their accuracy, and be confident in the truth of their accounts. This would also show that the accounts of creation and the flood were original accounts written soon after the event, and were not derived from polytheistic Babylonian accounts. Also, it supports the fact that monotheism was the original religious belief, and not an evolutionary development of an original polytheism. Instead, polytheism was a degradation of the original pure knowledge of the one true God.
The suggested tablets are as follows
1. The generations of the heavens and the earth (1:1 - 2:4a)
Describes the six days of creation. No human author is given, because no man was present to record what happened. It was either written directly by God himself, and given to Adam, or otherwise given by revelation to Adam, who then recorded it.
2. The book of the generations of Adam (2:4b - 5:1)
Written by Adam to describe the Garden of Eden, the temptation, the fall, and the life of Cain and Abel.
3. The generations of Noah (5:2 1b - 6:9a)
Written by Noah, before the flood, to record the patriarchs before the flood. According to Genesis chapter five, Lamech (Noah's father) was contemporary with all the patriarchs. Noah had known all of them except Adam, Seth and Enoch. Noah recorded the rapid degeneration of the people of his time, and God's decision to destroy them. For a diagram of the lifespans of the patriarchs see the Long lives of the patriarchs page.
4. The generations of the sons of Noah (6:9b - 10:1)
Written by Sham, Ham and Japheth, who recorded the building of the ark, and the flood, and some events after the flood, including Noah's prophecy about themselves, and Noah's death.
5. The generations of Shem (10:2 - 11:10a)
After Noah's death and the dispersion at Babel, the three sons of Noah were separated, and Shem took the responsibility of keeping the records. So he wrote about the confusion of languages at Babel, and the scattering of the families in the table of the nations.
6. The generations of Terah (11:10b-27a)
This is a brief document containing the genealogies in the line from Shem to Terah.
7. The generations of Isaac 11:27b - 25:19a)
This is a much longer document, written by Isaac, containing the life of Abraham, from his call by God, until his death, including events in Isaac's life before the death of his father. He probably included 'the generations of Ishmael' (25:13-19a), the record of the family of Ishmael, which he could have obtained from Ishmael when Ishmael returned home to help Isaac bury his father (25:9).
8. The generations of Jacob (25:19b - 37:1a)
Another longer document, written by Jacob, giving the later events of the life of Isaac, as well as his own life, including the twenty years in service to Laban, and his return to Canaan, with the death of Rachel and Isaac. In the same way Isaac included the records of Ishmael, Jacob also included two documents from his brother Esau (ch 36), when Esau joined Jacob to bury his father Isaac (35:29).
9. The generations of the sons of Jacob (37:2b - Ex 1:1)
The wording of Ex 1:1 is very similar to the other colophons, without the word 'toledot'. The story of Joseph could only be recorded by him and his brothers. These were probably written down in Egypt, probably on papyrus, and finally included by Moses.
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