Who Wrote the Book of Genesis?

Who Wrote the Book of Genesis?

Question Answered!

In Deuteronomy 31:19-21 Moses was given a song to teach the people, and was specifically commanded to write it down so that it would not be forgotten. Obviously God had little faith in oral transmission. The Bible is not written in that way. He told Isaiah to "Take thee a great roll, and write..."(8:1). "Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:" (30:8). He told Jeremiah also to "Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book" (30:2).

So did Moses borrow from the ancient pagan stories of the creation and the flood? From all the evidence that we have seen, the answer is an absolute NO! If anything, the pagans knowing the original story, but as time went on, got corrupted in the telling, and we have the creation and flood myths Babylon, Assyria etc... The book of Genesis is the ORIGINAL AND EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY TO WHAT REALLY HAPPENED!

Norman Geisler writes: "In the ancient Near East, the rule is that simple accounts or traditions may give rise (by accretion and embellishment) to elaborated legends, BUT NOT VICE VERSA. In the ancient Orient, legends WERE NOT SIMPLIFIED or turned into pseudo-history (historicized) as have been assumed for early Genesis...The recent discoveries of Creation accounts at Elba confirm this. The library of more than 17, 000 clay tablets pre-dates the Babylonian account by about 600 years. The creation tablet is STRIKINGLY CLOSE TO GENESIS...This shows that the BIBLE CONTAINS THE ANCIENT, LESS EMBELLISHED VERSION OF THE STORY and transmits the facts without the corruption of the mythological rendering" (When Skeptics Ask, p.182, emphasis mine). You see, as the stories get OLDER, they more and more RESEMBLE THE BOOK OF GENESIS, so the book of Genesis had to be the original account, and as Geisler says it was NEVER THE OTHER WAY AROUND! We have the true version of what happened by the people who actually WITNESSED IT! Thank God for the preservation of his word!

Preservation-There is also an indication in the book of Genesis, that the people of God were preserving the knowledge of the word of God, on these clay tablets in the book of Genesis itself. Speaking of Noah they wrote: "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which YHWH hath cursed" (Genesis 5:29). Notice their "work" AND the "toil of our hands." Its NOT their work COMMA, the toil of their hands. It is talking about two different things. Since these were men of God, they were preserving the knowledge of the word of God on tablets. THIS WAS THEIR "WORK."

FROM A PORTION QUOTED ABOVE:

Who wrote Genesis 1:1-2:4? Adam could not have written about his own creation, or the creation of the universe. The creation myths from Egypt and Mesopotamia can hardly be set alongside Genesis 1 as a parallel in any meaningful sense. Moses communed DIRECTLY WITH GOD, and he gave him the revelation of the origin of the Universe! So Moses must have wriiten this creation account at Sinai on clay tablets along with the the ten commandments God wrote on stone, since, "Moses wrote all the words of the LORD," (Exodus 24:4).

http://www.british-israel.ca/Genesis.htm

The Tablet Theory of Genesis Authorship

During his tour of duty in Mesopotamia, where much of the earliest Bible activity took place, Air Commodore P.J. Wiseman became interested in the archaeology of that area, and especially in the many ancient clay tablets that had been dated to long before the time of Abraham. He recognized that they held the key to the original writings of the early Bible, and especially to the Book of Genesis. He published his book in 1936. More recently his son, Professor of Assyriology D.J. Wiseman, updated and revised his father’s book: P.J. Wiseman, “Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis” (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1985)

He found that most of the old clay tablets had “colophon phrases” at the end; these named the writer or owner of the tablet; they had words to identify the subject, and often some sort of dating phrase. If multiple tablets were involved, there were also “catch-lines” to connect a tablet to its next in sequence. Many of these old records related to family histories and origins, which were evidently highly important to those ancient people. Wiseman noticed the similarity of many of these to the sections of the book of Genesis.

http://www.trueorigin.org/tablet.asp

These videos give the answer:

YouTube

YouTube

Originally posted by RJHinds
Who Wrote the Book of Genesis?

Question Answered!

In Deuteronomy 31:19-21 Moses was given a song to teach the people, and was specifically commanded to write it down so that it would not be forgotten. Obviously God had little faith in oral transmission. The Bible is not written in that way. He told Isaiah to "Take thee a great roll, and write..."(8:1 ...[text shortened]... r:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV-UhrrttAI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLzRDKDcJ_E

This thread should be 'who ripped off the book of Genesis' since the whole 6 day thing is ancient Egyptian far older than Judaism.

Originally posted by sonhouse
This thread should be 'who ripped off the book of Genesis' since the whole 6 day thing is ancient Egyptian far older than Judaism.

That is irrelevant. Obviously Egypt existed before Moses. Obviously the story of creation existed in writings more ancient than the Pentateuch, since the story was common knowledge passed down from the beginning.

The difference is that Moses got the facts strait from God without error or human fault. The story of creation as it was described by Moses is entirely reliable as though you heard it from God Himself.

Can you show us what is said in the Egyptian writing concerning the first seven days of creation? I'd like to see for myself how it is worded in comparison to the Biblical account. You say Moses 'ripped off'. Prove it!

Originally posted by josephw
That is irrelevant. Obviously Egypt existed before Moses. Obviously the story of creation existed in writings more ancient than the Pentateuch, since the story was common knowledge passed down from the beginning.

The difference is that Moses got the facts strait from God without error or human fault. The story of creation as it was described by Moses is ...[text shortened]... lf how it is worded in comparison to the Biblical account. You say Moses 'ripped off'. Prove it!

Be glad to. BTW, I first was turned on to this at the Cairo Museum, where we were on vacation, I worked in Israel for 4 years so we took off to Egypt. It turned out our tour guide was none other than Zawi hawass, now the chief of antiquities for all of Egypt, he had a rough ride up and down and back up politically but he is back on top now. He had some kind of TV special, maybe HBO, forget now. Anyway, he showed me the Egyptian version carved into stone something like 4000 years old. It is far older than Judaism.

Anyway here is a side by side:

http://www.aldokkan.com/religion/creation.htm

BTW, there is also on that site the Norse legends of the creation of the universe. Fascinating stuff.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Be glad to. BTW, I first was turned on to this at the Cairo Museum, where we were on vacation, I worked in Israel for 4 years so we took off to Egypt. It turned out our tour guide was none other than Zawi hawass, now the chief of antiquities for all of Egypt, he had a rough ride up and down and back up politically but he is back on top now. He had some kind ...[text shortened]... there is also on that site the Norse legends of the creation of the universe. Fascinating stuff.

Just what I thought.

There's really no comparison at all. Some words are the same. The idea that Moses 'ripped off' the Egyptian text is pure conjecture and ignors the authenticity of the writings of Moses which cannot be debunked by anyone.

Originally posted by josephw
Just what I thought.

There's really no comparison at all. Some words are the same. The idea that Moses 'ripped off' the Egyptian text is pure conjecture and ignors the authenticity of the writings of Moses which cannot be debunked by anyone.

The names were changed to protect the innocent but they are strikingly similar and it was a 6 day creation story in Egypt. You can't get around that fact, rationalize it all you want, the tales are very close. Obviously Jews wouldn't use Egyptian deities, they would invent their own. Which is exactly what they did.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Be glad to. BTW, I first was turned on to this at the Cairo Museum, where we were on vacation, I worked in Israel for 4 years so we took off to Egypt. It turned out our tour guide was none other than Zawi hawass, now the chief of antiquities for all of Egypt, he had a rough ride up and down and back up politically but he is back on top now. He had some kind ...[text shortened]... there is also on that site the Norse legends of the creation of the universe. Fascinating stuff.

That was just an interpreation by someone who is trying to make it look like it is close to the Genesis account. There is nothing said about the days of creation at all in the Egyptian version. Here is a better representation of what it actually says:

THE EGYPTIAN CREATION MYTH

YouTube

There were actually several versions of the creation myth as can be seen here:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/creation.htm

What did Moses write the bible on? The 10 commandments were cast in stone, twice. But the tribes of Israel were wandering around in a desert and Moses was not allowed into the promised land (which always struck me as a little harsh). So where did he get the paper from to write on?

The Bible was first written down in 500 B.C.. Moses may have started an oral tradition, but that is a rather different thing.

Originally posted by DeepThought
What did Moses write the bible on? The 10 commandments were cast in stone, twice. But the tribes of Israel were wandering around in a desert and Moses was not allowed into the promised land (which always struck me as a little harsh). So where did he get the paper from to write on?

The Bible was first written down in 500 B.C.. Moses may have started an oral tradition, but that is a rather different thing.

I believe all the questions you asked are answered by my first post and the referenced sources. Moses probably wrote his portion of the history on tablets of clay for only God wrote on stone. I don't believe even they had good enough memory to remember the genealogy back to Adam and wait to 500 B.C. to write it down.

Originally posted by RJHinds
That was just an interpreation by someone who is trying to make it look like it is close to the Genesis account. There is nothing said about the days of creation at all in the Egyptian version. Here is a better representation of what it actually says:

THE EGYPTIAN CREATION MYTH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTy49JlgJZE

There were actually severa ...[text shortened]... f the creation myth as can be seen here:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/creation.htm

There are indeed a lot of Egyptian creation myths but the one I saw with my own three eyes was in the Cairo museum and was exactly that, 6 days creation story.

You just want to create diversion from the fact there is a 6 day Egyptian creation story and just point out others from that long lived civilization.

There were Pharaohs who decided to make their own god and change the state religion, which only lasted maybe 50 years.

But there were a lot of different creation myths in the 6000 years of Egyptian civilization.

Originally posted by sonhouse
There are indeed a lot of Egyptian creation myths but the one I saw with my own three eyes was in the Cairo museum and was exactly that, 6 days creation story.

You just want to create diversion from the fact there is a 6 day Egyptian creation story and just point out others from that long lived civilization.

There were Pharaohs who decided to make th ...[text shortened]...

But there were a lot of different creation myths in the 6000 years of Egyptian civilization.

Don't think for a moment that I'm agreeing with the pants-on-head version of beginnings being peddled here, but...

... if two genesis myths have a lot of detail in common, it may be that the later has ripped off the earlier, but shouldn't one also allow the possibility that they both reflect the same events? Perhaps from different sources?

I would have expected one of the god-botherers to have come up with this argument already, frankly.

Originally posted by sonhouse
This thread should be 'who ripped off the book of Genesis' since the whole 6 day thing is ancient Egyptian far older than Judaism.

Sumerian.

http://www.livius.org/fa-fn/flood/flood2-t.html

Originally posted by avalanchethecat
I would have expected one of the god-botherers to have come up with this argument already, frankly.

Josephw did.

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
Sumerian.

http://www.livius.org/fa-fn/flood/flood2-t.html

Abraham was from Mesopotamia i.e. Sumeria i.e. Iraq

Genesis 11:28

Originally posted by sonhouse
There are indeed a lot of Egyptian creation myths but the one I saw with my own three eyes was in the Cairo museum and was exactly that, 6 days creation story.

You just want to create diversion from the fact there is a 6 day Egyptian creation story and just point out others from that long lived civilization.

There were Pharaohs who decided to make th ...[text shortened]...

But there were a lot of different creation myths in the 6000 years of Egyptian civilization.

It is obvious to anyone with even common sense that the Genesis creation account is the real one. The others, like those of the Egyptians, are rip-offs and distortions that don't make common sense. That is the same with all the flood stories that are rip-offs and distortions of the Genesis account.