Who wrote the book of Genesis?

[TEXASBULL]

Who was it that knew " God created the heavens and earth in 6 days" and passed the eyewitness testimony down?

Who is the author or eyewitness to the Genesis events?

 

[Meow Mix]

IT WAS ME! *flex*

 

[strikeviperMKII]

Actually, the book of Genesis is accredited to Moses.

 

[Eliot Wild]

Well, I can tell you who it wasn't . . . It wasn't Chris Rock, although he would have probably given it a more impressive representation.

I mean, hearing in your mind Chris Rock say 'let there be light," . . . Does that even sound like Genesis? And who knows what madcap narration he'd give to the talking snake.

Somebody call Disney right now. I got something we should sell 'em.

 

[Smoke]

Documentary hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[TEXASBULL]

Documentary hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thank you

Very interesting. I like this part- A few rabbis and philosophers asked how Moses could have described his own death (Deuteronomy 34:5–10), or given a list of the kings of edom before those kings ever lived (Genesis 36:31–43)

 

[linwood]

Thank you

Very interesting. I like this part- A few rabbis and philosophers asked how Moses could have described his own death (Deuteronomy 34:5–10), or given a list of the kings of edom before those kings ever lived (Genesis 36:31–43)

Yeah, it's interesting how only a "few" think it's a problem for the theory that Moses was the author.
Talk about ghost writing.

 

[Skepsis2]

To make a long story short. In ancient times there were professional story tellers like the Bards in western culture. These story tellers made a circuit of the tribes in a certain area. They used stories to help preserve the history of their culture. The storyteller would speak to the tribe, usually at night. The stories might go on for hours and be continued for several days. This was the way people, including children, learned about the culture of their people and current events. Because the storyteller was on a circuit he would necessarily add color and additional events to a story to hold the audience’s attention when retelling the story on a future visit.
The author you are looking for would have been the first person to have actually recorded an oral tradition. The book of Genesis consists of many recorded oral traditions. They were eventually combined into a book form and later canonized into the Bible. If you can verify a signed author of Genesis I would be anxious to hear about it.

 

[Riverwolf]

Who was it that knew " God created the heavens and earth in 6 days" and passed the eyewitness testimony down?

Who is the author or eyewitness to the Genesis events?

The author of the first chapter and first three (or four, depending on who you talk to) verses of chapter two come from the Priestly source, if you accept the documentary hypothesis.

That means, it's highly likely that that passage was written by a priest, possibly with the motivation of establishing God as the Supreme Lord of the world.

Genesis, much like the rest of the Bible, is a compilation of stories and texts, not a single text on its own.

 

[Nadia Faiazova]

Hello! 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. The objection once raised by some skeptics that writing was not known in Moses’ day is today generally discounted. In his book New Discoveries in Babylonia About Genesis (1949, p.*35), P.*J. Wiseman points out that archaeological research gives ample proof that “the art of writing began in the earliest historical times known to man.” Virtually all modern scholars acknowledge the existence of writing long before the time of Moses (in the second millennium*B.C.E.). Expressions such as that found in Exodus 17:14, “Write this as a memorial in the book,” substantiate the fact that writing was in common use in Moses’ day. Adam must have had the ability to devise a form of writing, God having given him, as a perfect man, a language, with the ability to handle it perfectly, even to the extent of composing poetry.—Ge 2:19, 23.

 

[openyourmind]

What if the begening was written incorrectly. A man has the tablets to go compile them together and drops them. I he doesn't know the order so just takes a guess and gets it wrong.

 

[outhouse]

Who was it that knew " God created the heavens and earth in 6 days" and passed the eyewitness testimony down?

Who is the author or eyewitness to the Genesis events?

genesis is fiction written by ancient jews FOR ancient jews. Jews will tell you to read this allegorically

it was never ment to be read litterally ever.

there are 5 different unknown authors and a compilation of a few different books. most was compiled 500BC ish allthough the original books may have gone back to 1000ish BC. The original books were based off oral tradition and these fables were told around campfires for 300-500 years before being written down.

The jews stole the original story of creation and noah and other parts from the sumarians who had writing. sumarians use adamu instead of adam and worshiped pagan gods.

it is fiction and it is obvious fiction.

 

[outhouse]

Hello! 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. The objection once raised by some skeptics that writing was not known in Moses’ day is today generally discounted. In his book New Discoveries in Babylonia About Genesis (1949, p.*35), P.*J. Wiseman points out that archaeological research gives ample proof that “the art of writing began in the earliest historical times known to man.” Virtually all modern scholars acknowledge the existence of writing long before the time of Moses (in the second millennium*B.C.E.). Expressions such as that found in Exodus 17:14, “Write this as a memorial in the book,” substantiate the fact that writing was in common use in Moses’ day. Adam must have had the ability to devise a form of writing, God having given him, as a perfect man, a language, with the ability to handle it perfectly, even to the extent of composing poetry.—Ge 2:19, 23.

This is all false, nice imagination though

 

[gnostic]

genesis is fiction written by ancient jews FOR ancient jews. Jews will tell you to read this allegorically

it was never ment to be read litterally ever.

there are 5 different unknown authors and a compilation of a few different books. most was compiled 500BC ish allthough the original books may have gone back to 1000ish BC. The original books were based off oral tradition and these fables were told around campfires for 300-500 years before being written down.

The jews stole the original story of creation and noah and other parts from the sumarians who had writing. sumarians use adamu instead of adam and worshiped pagan gods.

it is fiction and it is obvious fiction.

From what I remember of the Sumerian literature, the Sumerian deities didn't just create one man and one woman (like the Genesis, Adam and Eve), they created a group of people, of different classes. As indicated by the myth of Enki and Ninmah, Eridu Genesis, Song of the Hoe.

The later Akkadian myth (eg. epic of Atrahasis, Enuma Elish) also have the gods creating people instead of one man and one woman.

Even the Egyptian myth of Atum (or the later Ra), people were created from Atum or Ra's tears, instead of a couple.

 

[diosangpastol]

My idea is the Genesis was accredited to Moses since during the older times there were no knowledge of writing. Moses learn writing in Egypt when all the during the slavery of Israelites. GOd tells everything to Moses what he will write in the wilderness. Even God uses thunder to write the commandments on the rock during Moses times.

 

[gnostic]

Even God uses thunder to write the commandments on the rock during Moses times.

Yes, they (Israelites) saw lightnings, fire and smoke around Mt Sinai and heard thunders, but no where in the Exodus does it say that God wrote the commandments with lightning or thunder. I think that you are confusing the Charles Heston's movie with the Exodus.

I would suggest that you re-read Exodus 19 & 20.

 

[outhouse]

From what I remember of the Sumerian literature, the Sumerian deities didn't just create one man and one woman (like the Genesis, Adam and Eve), they created a group of people, of different classes. As indicated by the myth of Enki and Ninmah, Eridu Genesis, Song of the Hoe.

The later Akkadian myth (eg. epic of Atrahasis, Enuma Elish) also have the gods creating people instead of one man and one woman.

Even the Egyptian myth of Atum (or the later Ra), people were created from Atum or Ra's tears, instead of a couple.

I was basing my take on one of there many myths. Adamu predates the biblical adam and you can clearly see how the jewish tribes stole there creation myth and twisted it to meet there own needs.

key word "creation myth"

Sumerian

In Sumerian and Babylonian mythology, Adamu was the first man. The gods tricked Adamu and his descendants out of immortality - not wanting man to be immortal like the gods - by telling him that the magic food of eternal life was poisonous to him, and as such Adamu didn't eat it and so didn't become immortal.

 

[outhouse]

Returning to Eden - Ancient Roots

this page has some great history

Adamu” is the name in Sumerian mythology for the first man, created by “Enki”, the creator god and inventor of civilization. Adam is Hebrew for “man”, and adamah is a Hebrew word signifying dust and earth, and in Aramaic signifying blood. Havva — Hebrew for “Eve” — in Hebrew signifies life.
In the Sumerian myth, magical food is the source of immortality, not the source of its downfall, and Adamu is tricked to not eat it (the gods tell him it is poisonous), and thereby remains mortal. The Hebrew biblical account also describes such a life-giving magical food — the food of the “tree of life”, distinct from the forbidden “tree of knowledge of good and evil” — and it is chiefly to deprive them of the immortality bestowed by the fruit of the tree of life, that God exiles Adam and Eve from the garden. The tale of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-16) parallels tales in Sumerian mythology of rivalries between farmer and herder gods.
Genesis 11:26-31 and 17:5-8 teach that Abraham himself, vaunted father of nations, is a native of the Sumerian city Ur (southeast Iraq, near the ancient mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates) under Chaldean suzerainty, growing up there some time in the second millenium BCE, and departing for Canaan (Israel and environs). Abraham's father Terah adhered to the Sumerian mythology, and was a maker and seller of idols, but Abraham rejected polytheism and his father's idols, and managed a remarkable escape from the Chaldean king's sentence of death for his heresy. Joshua 24:2 records the break: “And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.” In any case, the similarity of the Torah's cosmogony to the Sumerian epic may be evidence that the biblical tales of Abraham are at least partially historical.
Monotheism was first consolidated in the nation of Judah by King Josiah (reigned ca. 641-609 BCE). But soon thereafter, the Chaldeans sacked Jerusalem and forced the Hebrews into exile in Babylon (597-538 BCE), under king Nebuchadrezzar II (605-562 BCE) and his successors. This captivity culminated in the syncretion of proto-Judaism with the Zoroastrianism of their Persian liberator, and the commitment of the Torah to writing. Zoroastrianism, founded ca. 750 BCE, is incidentally but one representative of the descendents of a common prehistoric Indo-European religion; among the other representative mythologies are Hindu, Norse, Greek, and Roman. Zoroastrianism contributes to the Eden myth the very word “paradise”, deriving from the Avestan (Old Persian) pairidaēza. This was the term used in Zoroastrian Persia to refer to the king's enclosed garden parks. The Hebrew in Genesis 2:8 for “garden of Eden” is gan-be'Eden — gan signifies not just a garden, but a walled garden, and Eden is not just a proper name, but a Hebrew term for “delight”. The garden motif even draws direct inspiration from Nebuchadrezzar II, who (according to legend) built “hanging gardens” in Babylon to please his homesick wife Amyitis, daughter of Median king Cyaxares (625-585 BCE). The Medes commanded a vast and verdant pre-Persian, partly Zoroastrian empire east of Chaldea, and the marriage cemented an alliance of the two empires. In fact the Old Persian pairidaēza is believed to have its root in the Mede language, which was in any case quite similar to Old Persian and the other Indo-Iranian languages of the region.
It seems inescapable that, to arrive at the creation mythology articulated by the postexilic authors of Genesis, the Hebrews conflated their ancestral Sumerian cosmogony and cultural inheritance, tales of the Zoroastrian king's idyllic garden in the east, and the Zoroastrian doctrine that the world created by Ahura Mazda was a paradise, spoiled by the evil Ahriman, but to be restored to its paradisiacal condition in the eschaton, as prophesied by Zoroaster. Before this syncretion, neither Satan nor the divine messiah (nor a great many other key doctrines) existed in the Judaic canon — all supernatural acts and promises were attributed directly to the covenant god Yahweh (or, before Josiah's monotheistic edicts, to any number of gods in a heterodox pantheon).

Cyrus the Great


The Hebrews were surely inclined to sympathy with the Zoroastrian worldview, because it was the Zoroastrian king Cyrus the Great (reigned ca. 546 to 529 BCE), imperial uniter of the Medes and Persians, who delivered them from their Chaldean captivity, and instigated construction of the second Temple in Jerusalem. Isaiah 44:28-45:1 records a sympathy so great it smacks of open kinship: “That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him”. In 538 BCE, Cyrus commissioned the Judaic prince Sheshbazzar to lead the return to Jerusalem, and carry back the sacred vessels confiscated by the Chaldean empire at the start of the exile. As told in the first chapter of the Book of Ezra, the universal god of the Israelites and the universal god of Cyrus are the same god: “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD [“Yahweh”] God [“Elohim”] of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” Under the patronage of the ardently Zoroastrian king Darius (reigned 521 to 485 BCE), Zorobabel (also transliterated Zerubbabel, as in the Book of Haggai) in ca. 520 BCE led another company of Babylonian Hebrews back to Jerusalem, assumed governorship of the city under royal dispensation, and completed the second Temple. Zorobabel is mentioned in Matthew 1:12-13 as a 29[SIZE=-1]th[/SIZE] generation lineal descendent of Abraham, and a tenth generation lineal ancestor of Joseph (husband of Mary, mother of Jesus of Nazareth), though this account is immediately suspect because it requires fifty year generations between Zorobabel and Joseph. In any case, in the immediate postexilic period, there is no clear boundary, either political or religious, between the Zoroastrian establishment and the tribes of Israel. It was during this period that the Torah was committed to writing. Moreover, the “wise men from the east” of Matthew 2:1, the pilgrims come to Israel to pay homage to the infant Jesus, are in fact emissaries of the Zoroastrian court of Persia (magi), come to honor the child they believe is the Zoroastrian messiah. Regardless of the historicity, this account continues the biblical pattern that considers messianic Judaism and Zoroastrianism to be the same religion. While it might be coincidental, the Star of David, now the centerpiece of the national flag of Israel, was an important symbol in Zoroastrian astrology.

At its mythological root paradise was almost certainly believed to be in the celestial heavens, coming to prehistoric earth only through narrative modification. The words for heaven and for paradise are the same in a great many euroasiatic languages, including the Indo-European languages, Hebrew, and Korean.
As Islamic scholars understand it, the Qur'an places Eden itself in heaven, so that it can only be reached through death (particularly, by martyrdom). Correspondingly, Islamic doctrine holds that the forbidden fruit of Eden was in fact ineffectual, and it was the devil who tempted a mortal Adam to eat it, telling him falsely that it would give him immortality, whereas his betrayal of god simply led god to eject him from paradise.
Thus there are three principal permutations of the myth. In the first, the Sumerian version, a mortal Adam is in an earthly Eden, and a life-giving fruit is not eaten, due to divine trickery. In the Judeo-Christian version, an immortal Adam is in an earthly Eden with two fruit trees, one giving the immortal life of a god, the other a forbidden one giving the vision of a god, eaten at the instigation of a diabolical serpent (divine trickery). In the Islamic version, a mortal Adam is in an ethereal Eden, and a false fruit is eaten at the instigation of the devil. The confusion of earthly and heavenly paradise recurs within and between the extant religious canons (including the Indic canons), facilitating acceptance of the Edenic movement's promise of earthly paradise. For example, in America, some radicalized Muslims are explicit Edenists (this is the Taliyah movement, broached below in the Keeping Eden Green chapter). Though for utopians frank introspection and circumspection is generally alien, they stand to learn a great deal about their movement from an appreciation that in most of the world, for most of history, paradise has been associated with death, and in particular, with the end of life.

 

[diosangpastol]

Yes, they (Israelites) saw lightnings, fire and smoke around Mt Sinai and heard thunders, but no where in the Exodus does it say that God wrote the commandments with lightning or thunder. I think that you are confusing the Charles Heston's movie with the Exodus.

I would suggest that you re-read Exodus 19 & 20.

Thanks for the correction. But how about my qoute about Moises was accredited on Genesis writing ? Is it also correct as our preachers have thought ?

 

[outhouse]

Thanks for the correction. But how about my qoute about Moises was accredited on Genesis writing ? Is it also correct as our preachers have thought ?

no moses was assigned as a author much later during the greko roman period in which they assigned unauthored works to who they thought it should be assigned to.

there are a few different books involved as well as 4 differnt authors and a redactor making it 5 unknown authors.

by a scholar, some of the writings are said to be from moses but not directly sinse he pre dates writing by hundreds of years

http://mb-soft.com/believe/txs/genesis.htm

this will explain teh 5 authors better