What I would like to do in this series of studies is to look at Genesis primarily from the perspective of the Israelites who first received the book, from the hands of Moses. Who was the original audience for the book of Genesis and what did the original author intend for his first audience to understand from his writings?
The NT writers believed Genesis was a book for the church. Based on a list from the UBS Greek NT, there are 34 quotations of Genesis in the NT. To that number might be added as many as 203 allusions.
Before the book of Gen was a “Bible” for the early church, it was a “Bible” for the Jewish nation. The first five books of the OT are called the “Pentateuch,” which means a five-volume book but, it might be better to think of them as five chapters in a single book. The Jews referred to the Pentateuch as the torah, a word often translated “law,” but with a broader connotation as “instruction” (see Pro 1:8), and, as we know from Gen, Exo, Num, and Deut, is set within a historical framework.
The torah is often referred to as the “law of Moses,” a phrase found 23 times in the Bible (NASV): cf. Matt 5:17; Luke 16:17; Acts 7:53; 1 Cor 9:8. The “law of Moses” was give high authority by the Jews, at least faithful Jews, especially following the Babylonian exile (Neh 8:8).
The question arises: Who wrote the book of Genesis? Genesis, like most of the biblical books, is anonymous. Associated, as it is, with the “law,” it is, then, presumed to have been put into written form by the author of the law, that is, Moses.
There is positive evidence for Moses as an author:
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1. He was told to write the law: Exo 17:14; 24:4; 34:27f; Num 33:2; Deut 31:22.
2. Books written after the exile (Chr, Ezra, Neh, Dan) refer to the law in a written form and the phrase “book of Moses” is found for the first time (2 Chro 25:4).
3. In the books written before the exile, we have references to Moses writing. Some suggest these references are to the book of Deut but that is not always clear.
We believe that the bulk of Genesis, as it currently exists, was written by Moses. What I have led us up to is this: The book of Genesis, “The Book of the Fathers,” was, in some form (oral or written), the Bible for the generation of Israelites living in Egypt when the book of Exodus opens.
Scholars have long recognized eleven sections in Genesis, distinguished by the phrase: “This is the account of” (cf. 2:4). The Jews, as was their practice, referred to Genesis by its initial word: “In the beginning” (1:1). “Genesis” comes to us from the LXX of 2:4: “account/generations” (ESV). So, when Exodus opens, Israel has been in Egypt for several centuries and the culture has turned against them (1:11). When they cry out to God (2:23-25), what about the nature and plans of God would/could they have known from the book of Genesis? That will be our study on Tuesdays for the next three months. I hope you enjoy the trip.
Paul Holland
