Who wrote Genesis? Why it matters what you think.

Who wrote Genesis? Does it really matter who wrote Genesis? If you’re not Jewish or Christian, maybe not to you. But if you are, it matters a whole lot.

Here’s the thing. Consider the old man in the adjacent image.

He’s standing at a table. There’s a bunch of scrolls. The one he’s working on in the image is Genesis. Or maybe it’s Exodus. Or Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy.

Is that Moses? Or is it someone else?

Maybe your answer is, “Who cares”?

If you’re Jewish or Christian, you should care.

Believe it or not, your very soul may depend on it.

Of course, this site is mostly about Christianity. And while I do go back into Jewish culture and the Hebrew language, it’s to show enough of it to make a point to Christians. Therefore, I don’t have the knowledge or the desire to get into the implications for Jewish people. I’ll just say it seems that it should be important to you, for many of the same reasons it’s important to me, as a Christian.

Summary:

Who wrote Genesis? In this article, I explore the question of who wrote the first book of the Bible, and why it matters for Christians and Jews.

Moses vs JEDP theory: I argue that Moses is the sole writer of Genesis, as well as the other four books of the Pentateuch, and reject the JEDP theory that proposes multiple authors based on different names for God.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit: I cite Jesus’ words in John 5:45-47, where he affirms that Moses wrote about him, and the role of the Holy Spirit in inspiring Moses to record the events and message of Genesis.

Conclusion: I conclude that it is important to remember that God is the main writer of Genesis and the rest of the Bible, and that Moses wrote as he was instructed by God. I warn against questioning the authorship of Genesis or any other book in the Bible, as it could lead to doubting the truth and authority of God’s word.

Who wrote Genesis?

The authorship of many, if not most, or even all, of the books in the Bible seems to be widely questioned these days. Having worked in a university environment for more than 35 years, I can offer some comments about why.

Publish, publish, publish, is the biggest thing, at least in universities that offer Masters and PhD degrees.

One way to get published is to essentially write something that compiles/repeats a whole bunch of stuff that other people already wrote about. And then you update a few things here and there to make it “yours”. Except it isn’t always really “yours”.

I was on the administrative side of the house. But I was asked by a VP to write a chapter for “his” book. Why? Because the book was about computer technology. And I was the lead technical person on his staff.

My point is this. Publishers don’t want the same thing, over and over. There’s just no money in it. If you’re trying to make a name for yourself, you need to either do something new or find a problem with something old.

It’s no different in publishing books about the Bible. Maybe it’s a change in historical “knowledge”. Maybe it’s a “fresh” view of a book in the Bible.

I’m not saying they’re all like that. However, when something new comes out, we do need to use what Christians refer to as discernment when evaluating it. That also means we should evaluate, rather than just accept something new.