35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. Jewish historian Josephus, just after the time of Christ, says: "When Abram heard of their calamity, he was at once afraid for Lot his kinsman, and pitied the Sodomites, his friends and neighbours; and thinking it proper to afford them assistance, he did not delay it, but marched hastily, and the fifth night attacked the Assyrians, near Dan, for that is the name of the other spring of Jordan; and before they could arm themselves, he slew some as they were in their beds, before they could suspect any harm; and others, who were not yet gone to sleep, but were so drunk they could not fight, ran away."20. . But the Fathers did not explain how Moses wrote it, other than to assert that he was inspired by God. If you knew me, you would know my Father also. The fact that these adversaries do not know Jesusdo not perceive his deity or Messiahship or his role as the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53) shows that they dont know God. Other New Testament speakers/writers said the same thing, e.g. For many, the answer to this question is a matter of orthodoxy, and debates quickly become passionate. Galatians 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. But how do we know this? Long-age geology, big bang cosmology, secular archaeology, liberal theology, and philosophical attacks on miracles in the Bible have deceived many people to believe that the Bible is not true and therefore cannot be trusted. From the base of peran; properly, through, i.e. The postmosaica indicate that there were also editorial additions. From here, the door flew open to profess that other portions of the Law were not written by Moses. These postmosaica establish a principle that later inspired editors/redactors can contribute to the writing of the Pentateuch. First, we can analyze extra-biblical texts such as the works of the historian Josephus. Please check errors and resubmit. Genesis 1:27 "So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created . We think it very likely that Moses was working with written documents because the second toledoth (Genesis 5:1) reads "this is the book of the generations of Adam" where "book" is a translation of the normal Hebrew word meaning a written document. . The death of Moses is recorded in Deuteronomy 34:512. But in later editions he apparently conceded the view of others that the J-E division could be applied to the whole of the Pentateuch which was written after Moses.9. The Tablet Model is based on the Hebrew word toledoth, which appears eleven times in Genesis (Genesis 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10; 11:27; 25:12; 25:19; 36:1; 36:9; 37:2) and helps to tie the whole book together as a single history. So a witness is ordinarily one who has seen something and can witness to what he has seen. Moses was a Hebrew. In John 8:19, Jesus adversaries, who claimed to know God, said, Where is your Father? And Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my Father. In addition, when the heavens . Many modern scholars like to attack the authorship of Genesis. In John 1:34, John the Baptist says, I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. In John 3:11, Jesus says, We speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen. John 3:32 says, He bears witness to what he has seen and heard. And John 19:35 says, He who saw it has borne witness.. Many of his writings confirm the events in Genesis, writes Dr. Lisle for the Biblical Science Institute. He will have so shaped your mind and heart that when he comes in the flesh, there will be no discord, no dissonance, no contradiction between the God you know from the Old Testament and the appearance of God in Jesus. Theirs was a "pick and choose" approach to studying the Bible, which is hardly honest scholarship in pursuit of truth. As Paul says in Romans 3:4,"Let God be true and every man a liar.". . The Gospel states Moses wrote about Jesus: . Proof that Moses wrote the Torah: (Gen - Deut) 1. . 18:43 - 2 - Moses wrote of prophesies that were to be fulfilled by Christ. Then Jesus said to them, "You foolish people! Not only was there a J-document, E-document and D-document, but then it was argued that Leviticus and some other portions of the Pentateuch were the work of Jewish priests, hence the P-documents. There are postmosaica in the book of Genesis as well. . 5:50. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. . But what about the first book of the Bible? . Does this mean that Moses wrote Genesis without reference to any previous information? But, perhaps the most convincing passage of all is found in John 5:46-47 where Jesus said: "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. There is a literary invention of Moses 700 years after he supposedly lived. The Book of Genesis (from Greek , Gnesis; Hebrew: Bret, "In [the] beginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. "He . At most Jesus admits that through Moses came this com-mandment. And besides all these explicit quotes from Scripture, Johns Gospel is strewn with indirect allusions to Scripture. The Old Testament mentions him 767 times, making him one of the most prominent people in the Old Testament. The majority of biblical scholars have attributed the authorship of Genesis to Moses, but this has not gone without contest, especially from documentary hypothesis theorists . In other words, this book talks about the beginning of the world, the beginning of God's nation . The Genesis course, taught by Tremper Longman III, illuminates the book of Genesis in light of the Bibles grand story. Nowhere in the Pentateuch is an author named, not Moses or any other person. Abraham was promised by God that his seed would bless all nations. He says, I know it happened, I saw it. Jesus Christ was greater than Moses. All the manuscript evidence we have is for the first five books of the Bible just as we have them today. This means we have verses in the Bible that attribute the authorship to him such as Numbers 33:1-2. On the contrary, we embrace it as the word of God in preparation for Messiah Jesus, and as the word of God in the ongoing illumination of the meaning of Jesus and his work. [1] Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, How Do We Know the Bible is True: Volume 1 (Master Books, 2011), p.89. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Lord, it is good that we are here. - New American Standard Version (1995) For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. 33:15 - 3 - Moses showed us others who were longing for Christ. So the real question is: did Moses write Genesis, or not? .. In 1805, Wilhelm De Wette contended that none of the Pentateuch was written before King David and that Deuteronomy was written at the time of King Josiah. And then explains it in terms of being personally taught by the Father. He answers for himself, and reproves them, showing by the testimony of his Father, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, NT Gospels: John 5:46 For if you believed Moses you would (Jhn Jo Jn). 500 BC). 103:7). Perhaps the most astonishing statements about the Scriptures in the Gospel of John is John 12:3741 where John quotes Isaiah 6 (verse 10) which has in it the famous vision of God: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! (Isaiah 6:3). The majority of biblical scholars have attributed the authorship of Genesis to Moses, but this has not gone without contest, especially from documentary hypothesis theorists. Astruc basically questioned, as others had before him, how Moses knew what happened prior to his own life, (i.e., the history recorded in Genesis). Getting a story is about more than merely enjoying it. Hope Bolingeris an acquisitions editor at End Game Press, and the author 21+ books. 1 In addition, the New Testament authors, the early church fathers, as well as Jesus himself, all credited Moses with writing the Pentateuch. But secondly, it could also be a comment added by a later editor working under divine inspiration. Jesus Himself confirmed the fact that He is in the Old Testament. Here Jesus tacitly disapproves of an act of Moses, but he utters no positive teaching as to the authorship of the Penta-teuch." For Moses said, honor thy father and mother." Mark 7 :10o. Because in them you come to know God for who he really is, and that means coming to know Jesus. Verse Concepts. [2] Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, How Do We Know the Bible is True: Volume 1 (Master Books, 2011), p.90-93. "Philip found Nathana-el, and said to him, 'We have . The Documentary Hypothesis: Moses, Genesis, and the JEDP? Exactly when Genesis was written down is not known. Mosaic authorship is the Judeo-Christian tradition that the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, were dictated by God to Moses. Instructor: Genesis, or otherwise known as Bereshith, means "in the beginning.". In other words, where did Moses get information on the patriarchs? We are still an immigrant people journeying somewhere better. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? In Genesis, the narrative speaks of events that take place long before the birth of Moses. The obituary in no way nullifies the claim that the author wrote the book.18. How was Moses able to read pre-Tower of Babel texts? Privacy Policy and And there are others that would simply be awkward for Moses to write, which are referred to as amosaica (such as Numbers 12:4). The Mosaic Law: A Preparatory Gospel Answer (1 of 6): Ok so we have seen that Moses could have written Exodus through Deuteronomy based upon his own eyewitness . As yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead (John 20:9=Psalm 16:10). The Old Testament is precious to Christians because its a book about Gods work with Israel in preparation for the Messiah who would come not only to save Israel but to save the world from the power and punishment of sin. The verse states that all Scripture is God-breathed, and this includes earlier sections of Genesis. (3) He wrote or compiled Genesis by using earlier written documents. InJohn 2:17 Jesus drives out the money changers in the Temple, and John quotes Psalm 69:9 and says, His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house will consume me.. This was essentially a divine research project and history book. But most scholars place the compilation of the book somewhere between 1445 BC or 1290 BC. A primary verb; to 'grave', especially to write; figuratively, to describe. Get updates from Zondervan Academic directly in your inbox. The chart below shows that the Pentateuch states that Moses wrote these books: We also have the witness of the rest of the Old Testament: The New Testament is also clear in its testimony: They assumed their conclusion. . 41:49 - What does Jesus mean, "Moses wrote of me". They assumed that Israel's religion was simply the invention of man, a product of evolution, as all other religions are. . When Moses came on the scene, God revealed to him what really happened, and this is what Moses wrote down. Ye build the tombs of the prophets, wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are children of them that killed the prophets. But again, even if "near Dan, for that is the name of the other spring of Jordan" was added by a later inspired editor, this would not mean that it was inaccurate to say the Moses wrote Genesis.21. According to Jesus, that sixth day of creation was "from the beginning," a phrase we hear a number of times in the New Testament. In essence, John is saying: Where God is manifest in the Old Testament, Jesus is manifest. In John 3:11, Jesus says, "We speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen.". He believed Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, but he unlocked the door for the skepticism of later scholars. Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. They arbitrarily assumed that the Hebrew authors were different from all other writers in history that the Hebrews were incapable of using more than one name for God, or more than one writing style regardless of the subject matter, or more than one of several possible synonyms for a single idea. First, Moses could have easily written this without knowing that the Canaanites would be removed after his death, because due to warring kingdoms or other factors, people groups did get removed from territories. There is also the fact that since the Israelites were never enslaved in Egypt and there was no Exodus, then there is no historical place for a Moses. The former violates the well-accepted concept known as Aristotle's dictum, which advises that the benefit of the doubt should be given to the document itself, rather than the critic. Who wrote Genesis? If these passages were added later, how do we know what Moses did and didnt write? Verse Concepts. Internet Explorer is no longer supported. Furthermore, we have testimony from Jesus himself that Moses wrote these books. Isaiah states that the Messiah would be "cut off from the land of the living" (Isaiah 53:8), that his death would be a sacrifice for our sins (Isaiah 53:5, 10-12) and afterward he would "prolong his days" (Isaiah 53:10). Jesus said, "He who hears My word, and . The German scholar Johann Eichhorn took the next step by applying Astruc's idea to the whole of Genesis. For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me. Moses wrote Genesis 4 and 5 to show them that they needed to follow the line of Seth, not the line of Cain. Only evolutionary thinking would lead us to conclude that Adam and his descendants could not write. The Israelites were proud of their history and made sure to spend meticulous efforts on getting every detail right. . Moses began writing about JESUS in Genesis 1:1. Genesis 14:1415"Now when Abram heard that his brother19 was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. . And studies of non-literate people groups have shown that they have much better memories for maintaining the accuracy of their oral traditions than people groups that rely primarily on written communication to learn and pass on information. The Book of Jasher is nearly an exact account of what Moses wrote in Genesis, except with more details. The following post is adapted from his series. Right from the start it is important to note that the Pentateuch is anonymous. Second, as mentioned in the Answers in Genesis article, not only does the Pentateuch confirm Moses authorship, but the rest of the Bible, including the New Testament does as well. Jesus shows up often in the Old Testamentnot by that name, and not in the same form as we see Him in the New Testament, but He is there nonetheless. After all, we dont want to dive into the New Earth vs. Old Earth debate. Considering he wrote these books thousands of years after the events, this bolsters the support for the veracity of Genesis. These are the three implications. Not to mention the events of Genesis ended about 300 years before Moses came into existence. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. For example, John 7:22 and Acts 15:1 refer to Moses giving the doctrine of circumcision. For a group that revered Scriptures so much and paid meticulous attention to the text when copying it, if Moses had not written the books, the Jewish people likely would not have held to such a strong tradition by saying he did. As this hypothesis was developed by a number of Jewish and theologically liberal Christian scholars in the late seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries, there were a number of different proposals of who wrote what and when. JESUS said, "For had you believed Moses, you would have believed ME: for he wrote of ME. Notice this in John 8:57-58. read more. 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. What Does Genesis 12:13 Mean, Why Does It Matter. One complaint about the Genesis account of creation is that the first five books of the Bible, known collectively as the Pentateuch ("five-volumed book"), could not possibly have been written by Moses. For other New Testament references see Mark 12:26; John 1:17, 5:46, 7:23. There is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of . - King James Version (1611) - View 1611 Bible Scan "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. Breakdown of the toledoth sections from Genesis 111. It will all be fulfilled. I have come in my Fathers name, and you do not receive me. How does Jesus know that they dont love God? 1. Genesis comprises narratives of historical events that occurred before Moses was born. Both Old Testament and New Testament. But much of the Bible was written from the eyewitness experience of the authors (e.g. If you claim to honor God today but reject Jesus as the divine Son of God and crucified and risen Savior and Messiah, your claim is false, and you do not honor God. Among the authors used by God were those who actually walked with Jesus (Matthew, Peter, and John) and had seen Jesus in His post-resurrection form (St. Paul). If You Believed Moses, You Would Believe Me, for He Wrote of Me, If You Believed Moses, You Would Believe Me, for He Wrote of Me (Excerpt), John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. Salem Media Group. Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet. Galatians 3:10,13,24 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, Galatians 4:21-31 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? However, most JEDP advocates would say that Moses had nothing to do with writing Genesis or the rest of the Pentateuch, which were written much later by many authors and editors. Hebrews 11 sums it up well when talking specifically about Abraham, Sarah, and their offspring: "All these people were still living by faith when they died. What about the cases where Genesis appears to be borrowing from Ancient world mythology? Around; figuratively with respect to; used in various applications, of place, cause or time. It was Moses who wrote where the allotments would be! In the New Testament, Jesus and the Apostles make the same claim that Moses wrote the stories of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (Matthew 19:8; Mark 12:26; Acts 3:22; Romans . Several lines of evidence should lead us to reject the documentary hypothesis as a fabrication of unbelievers. You know neither me nor my Father.. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Not the smallest teaching of Scripture will fall the ground. But based on the evidence available, its fair to attribute its origins to Moses. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Jewish leaders asked Jesus a question based on Deuteronomy 25:510 by saying, Teacher, they said, Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him (Matthew 22:24). While some people believe that Moses wrote everything in the Pentateuch except a handful of postmosaica, the postmosaica may only be the tip of the iceberg. John 12:3741 is an amazing window onto how Jesus viewed the Jewish Scriptures. Jimmy Akin 1/1/2013. And verse 46 says it again a little differently: If you believed Moses [the author of the first five books of the Old Testament] you would believe me; for he wrote of me. So verse 46 says that Moses wrote about Jesus, and verse 39 says that the Scriptures witness about Jesus. Matthew 16:21 indicates that Jesus knew . Of course, this question in itself can raise a number of disputes because people have not reached an agreement as to when Moses lived on earth. Several sources, or literary traditions, that the final redactor used in his composition are discernable. First, consider what the Bible itself says about the authorship of the Pentateuch. Exodus 17:14Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it . 35:02 - 4 - Moses wrote of Christ in types and prefigures. The letters stand for: Then around 400 BC some redactors (i.e., editors) supposedly combined these four independently written texts to form the Pentateuch as it was known in the time of Jesus and modern times.