Questions about the book of Genesis

[jmsgirl]

JMJ

Hello, everyone!

Some questions were brought to me yesterday about the book of Genesis. I am studying Church history and I’ve always understood that Genesis was written after the rest of the Pentateuch, possibly around the time of the Babylonian captivity.

Someone asked me to support that with sources, but other than my Catholic bible and my history teacher, I don’t have anything to give them. Could someone suggest a good source on the history of the book of Genesis?

Thank you!

jmsgirl

 

[DOShea]

Honestly, there are about 5 or 6 different theories out there, with about 3 of those being the predominant ones in Biblical scholarship circles. But before going there, just realize this; what we have as copies to refer to are mainly four: the copy from Codex Sinaiticus, the copy from the Codex Vaticanus (both of them in Greek and dated to the 4th century AD, the Masoretic Text in Hebrew dated around 950-1050 AD, and a couple dozen odd fragments from the Dead Sea scrolls, in Hebrew, dated 100-200BC. From those, to try and put together any kind of serious chronology is impossible based only on the text itself.

That’s where the different schools of thought come in. Some try to use the writing style as their compass, others try to use a blend of textural study linked to historical accounts and anthropology as a means to go back to the beginning. There really is no way to judge them outside of which version seems to make the most sense to the reader.

Add to this question the idea that we can’t really be sure if it was written at one time - as one “book” - or if it is a sort of compiling of other shorter writings into a sort of “complete history.” There are sound arguments to be made by each school of thought, and it’s really hard to argue against it when even the best argument works on “facts” we have to suppose rather than know and examine. It’s guesswork, no matter how scholarly the effort is.

Some of the supporting evidences for many of the early books like the Pentateuch come from written accounts in Jewish rabbinical literature. These are written accounts of something passed down through oral tradition for hundreds of years prior to being recorded in text. Aside from the question of how accurately does the writing reflect the origin of the oral record, there are other things in those writings (such as fiction and acknowledged myth) that make it hard to determine what those early rabbis were saying is factual and what is legend. So any evidence coming from those sources has to first past the test of “was it real or not,” which adds to the confusion. Imagine someone 3000 years from now coming across Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October. There really is a submarine called the USS Dallas, there really are torpedos and Russian Alpha submarines… but there is no real Red October. The person 3000 years from now would have to sort out which information is real and what isn’t in order to try and get some truth out of it.

It’s kind of like trying to answer the question of early man making a fire. Did he hold one stick stationary and rub the other stick against it, or did he move them both against each other? How can we really know other than a best guess with whatever evidence we can muster?

The value of the book of Genesis is not in when it was made or how; the value is in what it reveals to us about God and our relationship to Him. Personally, I consider all the scholarly attempts to fit Genesis into one box as just an academic exercise.

 

[twinc]

The most succint answer is that Genesis is quoted or referred to in most of the other books of the Bible - twinc

 

[Alan55]

Many leading OT scholars think that much of the bible was compiled, edited, redacted, etc. at the time of the Babylonian Exile, including Genesis. See, for example, the commentary on Genesis by Walter Brueggemann in the Interpretation series. That does not mean that all of the stories in Genesis come from that late time period, of course.

 

[edwest2]

I suggest you get a copy of How We Got The Bible by Henry Graham.

Peace,
Ed

 

[rdscheirer]

Every year the archeologitsts seem to discover one more artifact. The Bible is not a history but a salvation history that confirms-David’s Kingdom- happening in the Bible I really have come to view the Bible as true for some of the history presented.

 

[jmsgirl]

Thank you so much for your replies! I appreciate that tip off to “Where We Got the Bible”, but I need to ask further because I still ahven’t found what I am looking for…

I know there is Catholic scholarship out there that states that Genesis was most likely compiled into written form during the Babylonian Exile, I just need someone to point me to that research. It is mentioned in my St. Joseph’s edition Catholic Bible in the summary of Genesis, and it was taught in Biblical History class at one of the most revered, orthodox Catholic seminaries in the nation. I think it’s a legitimate avenue of study, I just need to know where to locate a summary of that study.

I’m sorry if I wasn’t more clear earlier )

Thank you so much for all of your effort in responding to my question!!!

God bless!

JMsgirl

 

[Alan55]

Thank you so much for your replies! I appreciate that tip off to “Where We Got the Bible”, but I need to ask further because I still ahven’t found what I am looking for…

I know there is Catholic scholarship out there that states that Genesis was most likely compiled into written form during the Babylonian Exile, I just need someone to point me to that research. It is mentioned in my St. Joseph’s edition Catholic Bible in the summary of Genesis, and it was taught in Biblical History class at one of the most revered, orthodox Catholic seminaries in the nation. I think it’s a legitimate avenue of study, I just need to know where to locate a summary of that study.

I’m sorry if I wasn’t more clear earlier )

Thank you so much for all of your effort in responding to my question!!!

God bless!

JMsgirl

Aside from the commentary on Genesis by Walter Brueggemann in the Interpretation Commentary Series, the leading book on the Babylonian Exile and its literature is probably “Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E.” by Rainer Albertz. I’d suggest Brueggemann’s commentary – very readable, solid scholarship, accessible. By the way, Brueggemann is not Catholic – he taught for many years at Columbia Seminary, a Reformed seminary – but he teaches summers at Notre Dame University in their summer M.A. program. I took his course on OT Theology, which was great.