Who wrote the book of Genesis?

Question

for that fact...do we know the authors of most of the old testament?

Answer 1

We don't know the author of any Old Testament book. But what would it mean if we did? If you knew that Genesis was written by a man named "Josiah," would that give you any greater insight into the meaning of the text?

Most of Genesis started out as two separate books called "E" and "J." One was written in Israel, the other in Judah, both after the reign of Roboam. They were probably compiled into a single narrative during the Babylonian Captivity.

Answer 2

Tradition says that Moses wrote Genesis, and this tradition has been around at least since Genesis was translated into Greek (a couple hundred years before Christ) -- which means that people have believed Moses wrote Genesis for at least 2200 or 2300 years. But the Book of Genesis itself does not claim a particular author -- it is only tradition that assigns authorship to Moses.

Remember that before printing presses (that is, before about 1450 A.D.), people copied books by hand. There was no such thing as "copyright law" - because it just wasn't easy to reproduce books. And, while people did want accurate copies, the "fixed text" we assume has to be in a book (because of mechanical printing) was unknown. They had a somewhat less rigid concept of how to reproduce a book than we do today - the text was sometimes changed, or interesting things added, particularly if the copyist thought it might help make the book better.

The oldest complete manuscripts of Genesis that we have today were copied in the Middle Ages (around approximately 1000 A.D.) -- although there are fragments (particularly from the Dead Sea Scrolls) that are as old as 100 or 200 A.D.

Scholars, as they look at the Book of Genesis today often think that the text we see might have been written by more than one person -- and merged together at some point. They may argue about whether there were two or three or four manuscripts by different authors, but they all agree that the text appears to have been written from more than one viewpoint within the ancient Jewish tradition.

So . . . we have to decide for ourselves whether the ancient tradition of Moses' authorship is correct (even thought it's not mentioned in the Book of Genesis itself), or if perhaps we have more than one ancient author who helped create the Book we know today.

Answer 3

God the holy Spirit is the author of Genesis and the rest of the Bible and Holy Mosaic and Apostolic Oral Teaching that shaped and gave birth to the Bible. Genesis is ascribed to Moses but that is a tradition.
The human authors seem to have been at least 4,but it is more likely that there were many more who passed down the oral stories and teachings that became Genesis. The different literary strands are usually labeled J.E and P.
J is a southern tradition that makes God very human-sounding(He regrets,gets mad,etc) calls God by His personal Name (henceJ) and a major redactor/author may have been a woman. E is a northern tradition,calling God El or Elohim (hence E) and was written down a little later than J( some say in after the split between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms) which may have been around the Solomonic Period. P is a Priestly tradition complied later and the peotr of Gen! is priestly(Cohenic).
JEDP a theory drawn up from literary analysis of the texts. D is for Deuteronomic. Other OT books ,like Isaiah,were authored or passed down by prophetic schools perhaps.

Answer 4

The Pentateuch is a collection of 5 books in the Old Testament that was written by Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are the first 5 books of the Bible and they make up the Pentateuch. This set of books is often referred to as the Law of Moses and is mentioned numerous times throughout the New Testament. Moses is believed to have written these books because scriptures support his authorship. Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy have direct passages that tell of Moses writing down the law of God. (Ex.17:14,Deut.31:9 etc.)

It is assumed that Joshua was written by himself, but is never stated clearly. Joshua 24:26 says, “And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God.” Though Joshua probably wrote this book, he didn’t write passages such as the Sermon on the Mount, which was directly from Jesus Christ. He obviously didn’t write the passage on his death; that section is believed to have been penned by Aaron’s son Eleazar.

Judges to Job have unidentified authors except for Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra was a priest who wrote the book after which he was named and Nehemiah was the cupbearer to a Persian king. Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book in the Hebrew Bible but were later separated into two.

Various people wrote the book of Psalms. Moses is responsible for Psalm 90 which is more like a prayer than a song. Asaph was the author of two psalms, Solomon and Ezra each wrote two, and David wrote at least 73. The remaining psalms have anonymous authors and Ezra may have been the one who actually compiled the psalms to form the book of Psalms.

Proverbs is a book full of wisdom and short sayings and was probably written by Solomon, though there may have been other authors as well. Solomon also wrote Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. Each of these books falls under the poetic category of the Old Testament. Solomon was a king who had extraordinary wisdom and that wisdom is apparent throughout the books he wrote.

The remaining 17 books of the Old Testament were written by their title’s name and each one was specifically chosen to write exactly what God desired. Though men physically wrote each book of the Bible, God inspired every word and thought.

Answer 5

Moses wrote the book of Genesis.
It was written 1450-1410 B.C.

It was written during Israel's wanderings, somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula.

God's Word, the Bible is inspired by God Himself, but we are told who the author's were of most of the books in the Bible.

Answer 6

Moses wrote the first 5 books called Pentateuch or the Law.

Answer 7

Moses wrote the first five books of the old testament.

Answer 8

Moses (or his scribe, being dictated to by Moses) wrote part of the Book of Genesis. Somebody else wrote the rest. I'm not sure who.

Answer 9

No it was held for a long time that Moses wrote Genesis, however, its true author and date of composition are largely unknown.

Answer 10

God (through Moses). Moses penned the first five books of the Bible, including Genesis.