GENESIS: A STORY OF STORIES
I
remember sitting in the first day of Hebrew class in seminary, not knowing what
to expect. Our professor walked in, opened his copy of the Hebrew Bible, and
read the words above: bereshit bara
elohim ha’shamayim va ha’erets.[1] I was hooked. The sounds,
the cadence, a language so ancient (thousands of years old as compared to our
own 500 year old Modern English) – I was captivated by the sound…and was later
captivated anew by the stories found in those Hebrew Scriptures.
As
I come back to these words today, years after seminary and after years in
Christian ministry, I can imagine Jesus as a child sitting with the family at
the close of day. The chores are done, the evening meal behind, and a single
oil lamp burns gently as the day comes to an end. Joseph contemplates the work
for tomorrow—"...Finish the door for
the widow Miriam, fix the hinge on the window for Mary,"…and Mary
announces that it is bedtime. A chorus of voices goes up, “Papa, Papa—tell us a
story!” Joseph, happy to oblige, thinks for a moment and picks a story that all
Jewish children needed to know. He begins, “In
the beginning….”
Whether
Jewish children in the 1st Century first heard this story at home or
at Hebrew school, we may never know. That they heard this story and the rest of
the stories found in Genesis, of that we are certain. Abraham heard them, and
told them to Isaac. Isaac passed the stories on to Jacob. Jacob told his
children and grandchildren. Throughout the sojourn in Egypt, the stories were
repeated again and again. Moses had heard the stories…and shared them with his
people as they crossed the wilderness to the ‘Promised Land.’ Either during that
journey (if Moses wrote them down) or in the land of promise (if others wrote
them down), the stories were written and told and passed on to each successive
generation of Jewish boys and girls. Saul and David heard the stories. Isaiah
and Jeremiah, Hosea and Amos…all of them heard the stories. John the Baptizer
heard the stories…as did Peter, James, and John. Jesus heard the stories…and
Paul and the other Jewish Christians. The stories were then shared with the new
Gentile converts—completely new stories to their ears. And they told the
stories to their friends and family. And the today, those ancient Jewish
stories are very much a part of our Christian story. In fact, they are
foundational to our story.
We
have often characterized the book of Genesis as a book about beginnings,
origins. However, we will find that this is more than simply a book of origins.
Many
have set out to determine exactly where the book of Genesis comes from. As many
if not most histories and commentaries will point out, "Jewish and early
Christian traditions (as well as the rest of the Torah) ascribed the
composition of Genesis to Moses."[2] For over 2000 years, most
adherents to the Jewish and Christian faiths were content to trust that
Genesis, as well as the rest of the Pentateuch, was penned by Moses.
Scholars are unsure as to
when Moses lived. More traditional dating, using Scripture itself which dates
the Exodus at 480 years before Solomon's fourth year (see I Kings 6:1), would
put Moses on the scene in the early 1400's BC.[3] However, archeology has
turned up other evidence to indicate that the Exodus (the most significant
event in the life of Jews that might possibly be distilled from the cauldron of
history) should be dated around 1430BC (Bimson) or even 1300 BC (Albright, Wright
and others).[4]
These studies, then, confirm that Moses lived somewhere between the 14th and
12th Centuries BC.
If
Moses lived between the 14th and 12th Centuries BC, we should be able to say
that Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch was written between the 14th and
12th Centuries BC. However, by the beginning the 16th Century AD, scholars
began applying their newly developed scientific methods and literary critical
approaches to Scripture and came up with other ideas. They decided that the
different styles of writing, varied vocabulary and other factors (at least in
Genesis) pointed not to one author but to at least three different sources that
were identified as "Yahwistic" (J)..."Elohistic (E)"...and
"postexilic Priestly (P)" sources.[5] Not only were there at
least these three identified sources by the mid-to-late 1800's, but these
various sources had been 'dated': J to 9th Century BC; E to 8th Century BC; and
P was 5th Century BC—all of these long after Moses lived and died.[6] [Source criticism brings
in yet another source for the book of Deuteronomy, but that book is outside our
parameters of investigation—see Brueggemann's treatment of Deuteronomy (2001)
for more on this topic.] In fact, for the last two centuries, the
historical-critical camp has suggested (and it has been widely accepted in many
circles) that the Pentateuch—comprised of these various sources (J,E,P & D)—was
compiled into the form we now know in the post-exilic period (after 540 BC),
giving the works the "narrative structure" that we know today.[7] So, literary criticism
indicates multiple authors over a span of four hundred years or more, all long
after the life of Moses.
According
to what is presented above, if we ascribe to the historical-critical approach,
we do not know for sure when Moses lived, or if he even wrote the Pentateuch.
It may be that these first books of the Old Testament were penned across several
centuries. Yet, sources and dating are, in the end, not terribly important to the
study of Genesis—nor really to the faith—because Genesis and the other four
books are now part of our canon, part of Scripture. As we move forward, we join
Brueggemann in his assessment that in coming to Genesis, "questions of
historical location have not required settlement. That is not because
historical issues are unimportant, nor are the materials treated as
history-less; but with some few exceptions, it has seemed sufficient to deal
with the claims of the text itself and the presuppositions of the
story-teller."[8]
While knowing the author(s) could be helpful, while knowing the precise time of
composition might be useful, the fact remains that Genesis is incredibly
important for us in the understanding of all of Scripture, in the formation of
worldview and even in the formation of our theology. As Louth reminds us,
"the early chapters of Genesis had arguably a greater influence on the
development of Christian theology than did any other part of the Old
Testament."[9]
One
of the most intriguing if not most interesting approaches to these questions of
source and dating is found in the seminal work of John H. Sailhamer’s The Pentateuch as Narrative (1992).
Tradition includes Genesis in that body of work often referred to as ‘the Book
of Moses’ or ‘the Books of Moses’, but Sailhamer argues rather convincingly
that what we call 'the Five Books of Moses are in fact one single narrative:
Though we often
think of the Pentateuch as a collection of five books, viz., Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, it was originally intended to be read as a
single book. References to the Pentateuch within the [Old Testament] itself
show that from the earliest times it was considered a single book...(2Ch 25:4;
35:12; Ezr 6:18; Ne 31:1)...the name "Pentateuch," which simply means
"five-part-book," came into use in the second century A.D.,
apparently as a translation of the Hebrew expression, "the five-fifths of
the Law."[10]
Such
an approach is very different from our traditional/contemporary tendency to
form 'silos' of each book of the Bible, to take each one independently and
individually. However, in taking Sailhamer's approach, we might find a
different and more helpful way of reading this part of our Bibles. Sailhamer,
therefore, has an idea about authorship that differs markedly from that of our
historical-critical and literary-critical friends. He points out that if this
is a single narrative, that implies "the fact that the Pentateuch...has an
author. Somebody wrote it. Furthermore, its author had a purpose in mind and
intended to accomplish that purpose by writing the Pentateuch."[11] Did Moses write it? Did
someone else write it? Did a community of faith write it together? Discussing
authorship, Sailhamer points out that "God is the author of
Scripture...the whole Bible, including the OT, had only one author—God. But
though God was the Author of Scripture as a whole, including the OT, we are
still faced with the reality that each book of the Bible also had a human
author."[12]
In his introduction, Sailhamer reveals his own take on the authorship of
Genesis/the Pentateuch—he holds to the traditional Mosaic authorship (see p.4-6
of his introduction.) Again, for the purposes of this study, certainty of
authorship is not as important. At the same time, this author is not
uncomfortable with the idea of Mosaic authorship, preferring to hold to the
tradition unless and until tradition is shown irrefutably to be incorrect.
Regarding
that part of the Pentateuch, that part of Genesis, in which we are most
interested—Genesis 1-12—Sailhamer has this to say: "[These chapters] form
an introduction to both the book of Genesis and the Pentateuch as a whole. One
should read these chapters with this dual purpose in mind. They set the stage
for the narratives of the patriarchs...."[13] In others words, if the
Pentateuch is one book as Sailhamer argues—and even if Genesis stands on its
own—Genesis 1-12 serves as the introduction, the first 'chapter,' if you will,
of this book (Genesis)...and of the Book, the Bible.
In the opening chapters
of Genesis, we have what we find in any good, well-crafted narrative—the
setting, the main characters and the conflict are all introduced. The setting
is our world. The characters are God and humanity. The conflicts—the great
conflicts of all time as expressed in all great literature—are all found here:
Man [sic] vs. God, Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society, and Man vs.
Himself [sic].
Genesis
is part of a greater body called the Pentateuch, a book or books written with a
specific purpose in mind. The first chapters of Genesis, especially those
chapters often referred to as ‘pre-history’ (Chapters 1-11), would serve as the
preface, an introduction to the greater work, laying the foundation for
understanding ‘the rest of the story.’ Whether Genesis is part of a greater
work or stands on its own, if we accept tradition, Genesis was penned or
dictated by Moses sometime in the 14th Century BC. Until we find a dated,
signed, original manuscript, this traditional dating serves as well for as any other.
And, since we affirm as Christians that all Scripture is ‘God-breathed,’ (II
Timothy 3:16) inspired, dating is not as important an issue. Regardless of who
wrote it and when it was written, Genesis has played, plays and will play a
very important part in our understanding of the Bible an in the formation of a
Biblical worldview.
[1]
Author’s transliteration.
[2]
R.K. Harrison. "Genesis." International Standard Bible Encyclopedia,
Vol. II. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982. p.432.
[3]
J.K. Hoffmeir. "Moses." International Standard Bible Encyclopedia,
Vol. III. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982.
p.416.
[4]
Ibid.
[5]
Harrison.
[6]
Harrison.
[7]
Andrew Louth, ed. Genesis 1-11. Ancient
Christian Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed. Thomas C. Oden. Downers Grove,
IL: Intervarsity Press, 2001. p.xlvi.
[8]
Walter Brueggermann. Genesis:
Interpretation: A Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Westminster John
Knox, 2010. p.5-6.
[9]
Andrew Louth, ed. Genesis 1-11. Ancient
Christian Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed. Thomas C. Oden. Downers Grove,
IL: Intervarsity Press, 2001. p.xxxix.
[10]
John H. Sailhamer, The
Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary. Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992. p.1-2.
[11]
John H. Sailhamer, The
Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary. Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992. p.3
[12]
John H. Sailhamer, The
Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary. Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992. p.3
[13]
John H. Sailhamer, The
Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary. Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992. p.81
