Hello, welcome to the podcast, Bible Wisdom Today. My name is Stan Watkins.

The Bible has always been an important foundation for my personal faith, leading me to complete a Bible degree and enter Christian ministry, ultimately going with my wife and family to Europe for 6 years. There I served in the areas of Bible teaching and music. Since returning to the states, I have supported my local church as I have had opportunity, but now I would like a more regular outlet for teaching God’s word.

Understanding the Bible is not simply a matter of belief that it is God’s word. The Bible was written long ago, in a foreign language, within an alien culture, using unfamiliar literary styles. Today’s Bible student must overcome each of these obstacles. This podcast is for those willing to think deeply to discover God's wisdom for life today.

With this episode we begin a new series of studies in the Book of Genesis, which is the first book in both the Jewish and Christian scripture. The Hebrew name for the book is the first word, which means “In the beginning.” The Jews commonly named the books of the Bible by their first word. The fact that the book of Genesis is about beginnings is only coincidental. When Jews in Alexandria translated the Old Testament into Greek, they chose to give Genesis a new title, taken from a key word found first in chapter 2 verse 4, then repeated at the head of each new section throughout the book. This Hebrew word, “toledot,” has commonly been translated into English as “generation”. Here is Genesis 2:4, in the King James version of the Bible:

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth
 Genesis 2:4 (KJV)

Latin and English translations continue to call this first book “Genesis.”

Genesis is the second-longest book of the Bible, only slightly shorter than the prophecy of Jeremiah. It is full of well-known stories that we remember from childhood, such as the creation of the world, the garden of Eden, and Noah and the ark. Many students of Genesis divide the book into two parts, chapters 1-11, the portion we will cover in this season, which relate stories from Primeval history, and chapters 12-50, which we will return to in a later season. This second portion relates the Patriarchal history of Abraham and his descendants and is much longer. This highly uneven division of the book highlights the author’s main focus on the lineage of Abraham, the father of Israel by nature and by faith. Genesis, in other words, is the long prequel to the story of a new nation who was recently delivered from slavery in Egypt. It is not only the Jewish nation who may benefit from studying Genesis, but all of us may meet here the God who creates, discover his ultimate purpose for humanity, and find our own place in his story.

Authorship of Genesis

Who wrote the Book of Genesis? It is anonymous, so we could end the question of authorship right there, but there are many reasons why we might like to consider it further. If we knew who wrote Genesis, and even more importantly why they wrote it and to whom, then we could come closer to interpreting the book as it was intended. If we don’t know any of that information, then we are interpreting in a vacuum without any frame of reference.

The traditional view of both Jews and Christians is that Moses wrote Genesis, along with Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. He wrote these five books, collectively called the Pentateuch, while the nation of Israel journeyed from Egypt to Canaan. The Pentateuch itself records Moses writing some of the story of Israel while they were in the wilderness. For example, in Exodus 17:14, God tells Moses to record Israel’s first battle with the Amalekites…

 Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it
 Exodus 17:14

In Numbers 33 we read,

At the LORD’s command Moses recorded the stages in their journey.
 Numbers 33:2

And again in Deuteronomy 31 we are told,

After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.”
 Deuteronomy 31:24-26

Moses’ servant, Joshua, became the leader of Israel after Moses’ death. Twice in the book of Joshua, which records his conquest of Canaan, Joshua follows the instructions of the law of Moses or is reminded to do so.

The New Testament also refers to Moses’ authorship (John 1:17; Rom. 10:5) including statements by Jesus himself. For example, in Luke 24, Jesus explains to two men walking to Emmaus that all of scripture ultimately points to him and to the recent events of his crucifixion and resurrection. 

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.
 Luke 24:44

To these specific statements of Moses as a writer, we can add these points of support. Moses was a qualified author. He was raised as a prince in the household of Pharaoh’s daughter, trained in all the wisdom and knowledge of Egypt. He was an eyewitness to most of the story of the Pentateuch and had access to source documents for the stories of Genesis. While the people of Israel camped in the wilderness for 40 years, he certainly had time to take on this writing task. In addition, other early writers outside the Bible also referred to Moses as the author of the first five books of Hebrew scripture, such as the Jewish historian Josephus and the Jewish philosopher and scripture commentator, Philo of Alexandria.

Despite this strong tradition of Mosaic authorship, there are indications within the Bible itself that Moses was not the sole author. Some comments within the Pentateuch seem to come from a time after Moses, such as place names which did not exist until later. The most obvious post-mosaic text is the last chapter of Deuteronomy, which recounts Moses’ death. 

In addition to post-Mosaic text, the manuscript also seems to reference pre-existing sources. For example, Genesis 5:1 says

This is the written account of Adam’s family line.
 Genesis 5:1

This is the second occurrence of the key Hebrew word “toledot” which I mentioned before is repeated as a heading throughout Genesis, “This is the account of Noah…this is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth,” and so on. Many believe that this is an ancient citation system, which seems quite probable. Abraham came from the city of Ur, in southern Babylon. This was the birth-culture of cuneiform script written on clay tablets. These family histories likely became source documents for Genesis.

Following the Enlightenment, as scholars began to examine the biblical text focusing on human authorship, historical context, and literary development, they found that the Pentateuch was more fragmentary than one would expect from a single author. They began to hypothesize a long editorial process. Some believed that the Pentateuch was formed by stringing together many short sources. Others believed that the Pentateuch had grown more like a snowball. It began as one document, but additional material was added over the centuries by various editors from other sources as well as their own writing to fill in the details.

In 1878, Julius Wellhausen presented a unified theory in his book, “History of Israel.” He proposed that the sources of the Pentateuch were relatively long documents that were combined over the centuries by a series of editors who did not add their own contributions but simply wove the existing documents together. According to this proposal, called the documentary hypothesis, four distinct sources, which originated between the time of Solomon and Ezra, were combined during the time of the restoration from the exile in the 5th century BC. The oldest document became known as the J document because of its preference for using the name, “Jehovah,” to refer to God. According to this theory, the J document contributed about half of Genesis. A second document which preferred to denote God using the more generic reference “Elohim” was called the E document. A third document, D for Deuteronomy was not a contributor to Genesis. Finally, the P document, so called because of its interest in priestly functions, focused on the sacrificial systems, laws, and genealogies. This documentary hypothesis is also often known by the  short names of the documents, JEDP.

In addition to the names used for deity, Wellhausen distinguished these sources by duplicate stories, and differences in vocabulary, theology, and writing style. His hypothesis became the dominant explanation for the origin of the Pentateuch for nearly 100 years, but its sway over biblical scholarship diminished substantially after the 1970s. Some of his presuppositions, that early humans could not write, for instance, have been proven wrong, as entire libraries of clay tablets dating from before Abraham have been discovered. Other suppositions have been reevaluated. Why should we expect that the biblical editors simply combined preexisting documents, rather than exerting their own editorial influence by rearranging the material or adding their own comments?

Most importantly, recent scholarship seeks to appreciate the version we have in front of us as good literature in its own right, not as a composite text. We study its structure and literary devices as a coherent work based in a specific historical time, not as disjointed imagined sources which preceded it. The final text is the inspired text, accepted by the community of saints into the canon of scripture, and providing the basis for meditation and the model for our lives. 

What conclusion should we draw from this discussion of Genesis’ authorship? The tradition of Moses’ authorship is historic and strong, but many scholars have suggested multiple sources. We might just throw up our hands and say, “Oh well. It’s anonymous anyway,” but we need some working theory to interpret the meaning of the text. In this podcast, we will approach the text with the following hypothesis. Moses was the substantial author of the first five books of the Bible, but he used existing sources to construct the text of Genesis, and other writers continued editing his work until the Hebrew scriptures came into their final form after the return of Israel from exile. This viewpoint accepts the Biblical affirmations of Moses’ authorship, while also acknowledging that Moses was not the sole author.

If Moses was the primary author of the Pentateuch, then he must have written it after the exodus of Israel from Egypt and during their time of wilderness wandering. This would place its composition between 1400 and 1250 BC. With this understanding, we can ask ourselves throughout our study, “What might this story from Genesis have meant to an ancient Israelite as they made their journey toward Canaan?” We then can ask, what does this story mean to me in my own life situation?

Genre of Genesis

Now that we have discussed the authorship of Genesis, what can we say about its genre? In other words, what kind of writing is it? Our answer to this question has a great effect on our understanding of the text. In our day-to-day life, we understand genre instinctively, even if we do not even know the word. We interpret a news article differently from a novel and a poem differently from a science textbook. It is possible for the same word or phrase to mean radically different things depending on the type of writing it is. 

Our idea of genre combines the elements of style and content. People tend to think that certain styles of writing match certain types of content, but such expectations are not universal across cultures. For example, the modern western world would expect scientific writing to be carried out in prose, but Ancient Greeks were perfectly happy to discuss their observations and scientific theories in poetry. In the Hebrew Scriptures, prophetic writing is almost always in poetry, but there is no inherent reason why prophecy could not be communicated in prose. When we read history, we expect a straightforward just-the-facts presentation, but this has not always been the expected ideal. Would it be possible to write history that included literary elements such as symbolism, foreshadowing, and word play? Undoubtedly so.

When we come to the earliest chapters of Genesis, we meet this issue of genre expectation head on. The primary writing style is narrative prose, the writing style for stories of all kinds. It implies a forward movement in time, so narrative prose is commonly used for history, imaginary stories, parables, and genealogy. The overarching genre of Genesis could be described as expanded genealogy. Genealogy forms the backbone of the book, giving it structure and forward movement, but at strategic moments the author will expand it with an introduction, short story, or biography. Sometimes these expansions can be many chapters long. These stories were written to give the nation of Israel an origin story and help all readers understand the grand purpose of God and our relationship with him. All Genesis’ stories are couched in narrative prose, but when we read a story of God forming man from dust as an artist, describing a garden as an archetypal ideal state and using nakedness as a symbol of innocence or shame, we understand that these stories are more than straight-forward history. They are designed as theological stories.

Genesis and Ancient Near Eastern literature

How does the book of Genesis relate to other ancient near eastern literature? Until recently, Bible interpreters did not reference any comparable literature of the time, because there wasn’t any. That all changed in 1849 when the English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard found fragments of a Babylonian creation epic, in the ruins of Nineveh in modern Iraq.[1]  It is named for its first words, Enuma Elish. Later, even older ancient near eastern stories of creation and flood were discovered. Soon after these discoveries, Bible scholars began to compare Genesis to other ancient near eastern literature in order to enrich our understanding. Initially some thought that the author of Genesis may have copied elements from the literature of the surrounding peoples, while others suggested that the borrowing went the other direction. Many scholars now settle on a mediating position that both Genesis and other ancient literature were produced by people who shared similar understandings but did not directly borrow from each other. 

Among the similarities between biblical and other ancient near eastern literature are a common conception of the universe. The ancients believed that the dry land floated on an underground sea. At places this sea was visible surrounding the land, as in the oceans. At other places the underground sea bubbled up in springs. Above the land was a solid translucent dome which was blue because it held back an upper sea. These upper waters occasionally leaked through in the form of rain or snow. The sun, moon, and stars were suspended from the sky-dome and moved about in observable patterns. Genesis does not offer any challenge to this conception of the universe but simply affirms that God made it all.

Another similarity between Genesis and ancient near eastern thought is a common outline of primeval history. The basic outline of the early chapters of Genesis is creation, judgment, flood, and this also matches the basic plot of other ancient origin stories. Additionally, the biblical flood story shares specific details with similar flood stories, including the assurance that such a great flood will not recur.

Most significantly, all ancient near eastern literature, including Genesis, shares a common spiritual outlook. It presumes the existence of a supernatural world, including personal gods who can speak to humans. For their part, humans are more than material but also have a spiritual dimension. The act of creation is also widely understood as an act of bringing order to chaos, rather than bringing into existence that which did not exist before.

Though there are similarities, there also are profound differences between the Bible and comparative literature of the time. Most obviously, other cultures believed in many gods, who were somewhat fickle and impotent, whereas the author of Genesis presents only one God who is just and powerful. The gods of the ancient pantheon exploited mankind, in some stories creating humans to do the menial work that they did not want to do. In Genesis, in contrast, God forms humans with dignity in his image. The surrounding cultures believed that primeval man was wise, and the human situation was getting better and better. Genesis presents the sinful disobedience of humanity and teaches that the world is becoming continually worse through personal sin. In many ways, Genesis is written as a direct challenge to the common assumptions of the surrounding culture.

Genesis and science

The first two chapters of Genesis tell of God’s creation of the world. How should we relate this message to the teachings of modern science? When I was in high school and Bible college in the 1970s, the primary way my specific Christian tradition related science and the Bible was conflict. The creation of the world in six days could not be compatible with a world that had evolved over a long time. Since both could not be correct, science must be wrong. We accepted by faith that the Bible was God’s inspired word.

I have had plenty of time to mature in my understanding since then and no longer draw such sharp, red-lined categories. In this podcast I will not engage with the creation vs. evolution debate. The basic premise I now hold is that God speaks to us from His written word and God also speaks from the natural world. These two voices do not conflict. Indeed, they cannot conflict, since they both speak from God. If it seems that these two voices speak a different message, then the problem must be our interpretation.

The idea that the word of God comes to us from two voices is not a radical new idea. As far back as the ancient Hebrew writers, the Psalmist says in Psalm 19,

The heavens declare the glory of God; 
 the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 
 Day after day they pour forth speech;
 night after night they reveal knowledge. 
 They have no speech, they use no words;
 no sound is heard from them.
 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
 their words to the ends of the world. 
 Psalm 19: 1-4

The Apostle Paul also said in Romans 1, that…

since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 
 Rom. 1:21

We live in the best time for interpreting the story of Genesis. Because we have discovered and translated such a large library of ancient near eastern texts, we can now understand Genesis in a way that is closer to the original audience. They would not have read Genesis like a science textbook nor expected it to speak as straightforward history. They would have appreciated its worship couched in literary artistry and understood its theology communicated through story. Rightly understood, we will not find conflict between science and Genesis, nor should we expect it.

In the beginning…

After considering these introductory questions, let’s look briefly at the first two verses of Genesis itself before we end our time, today. Genesis begins with a majestic hymn to the creator. In our modern Bibles, this encompasses all the first chapter and the first three verses of chapter 2. It introduces the two main subjects of scripture, God the creator and mankind, his creature, and sets the scene for their relationship.

Let me read the first two verses of Genesis 1 from the New International Version.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
 Genesis 1:1-2

These two verses describe the situation before God brought order to this world; it was a chaotic mess. In our next episode, we will discuss the remainder of chapter one, which describes how God brought order to the world, and in the following episode we will examine Genesis 2:1-3, which tell us what God did after he brought order. He rested.

Genesis begins with “In the beginning.” This generally refers to the beginning of a certain period of time, such as the beginning of the year or the beginning of the reign of king so and so, but the context here implies the beginning of time itself. The reference to beginning also implies that there will be an end.

In Isaiah 46, the prophet quotes God as saying,

I make known the end from the beginning, 
 from ancient times, what is still to come. 
 I say, ‘My purpose will stand, 
 and I will do all that I please.’
 Isaiah 46:10

The word translated “God” is the ordinary Hebrew word for God, Elohim. It is a plural word but has a singular meaning. Some see the plural as indicating honor or majesty.[2] It is not a reference to trinity. It also is not a personal name but almost acts as one in English. “Elohim” is a generic name which can be used for any deity. In Hebrew Scripture, Elohim is commonly used with reference to God’s greatness and the power of his spoken word; in contrast, his personal name, “Yahweh,” is usually associated with his covenant with Israel.

We read, “God created the heavens and the earth.” It is common, in many languages, to describe the totality of something by reference to the extremes. For example, we might refer to someone as fit from head to toe. That is what the author does here. By themselves the term “heaven” means “sky,” the abode of God, and “the earth,” means the abode of Man, but together they mean “the universe.” We might reasonably translate this first sentence, then, as “In the beginning, God created everything.”

The verb, “create,” may sometimes mean to create out of nothing, but not always. For example, in Isaiah 43, God says,

I am the LORD, your Holy One,
 Israel’s Creator, your King. ”
 Isaiah 43:15

In that case God created a nation out of people, but in Genesis 1 there is no object given as the source material of creation. Orthodox Christian theology states that God created the world out of nothing. This is based firmly on what we read in the book of Hebrews, where the author says,

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Heb. 11:3)

The author of Genesis, however, describes creation using the imagery common in the ancient near east as bringing order out of chaos. Genesis does not seek to change that image, but to say that it was the work of the one and only God, not a many-God pantheon. It was not a contest between rival powers, but the demonstration of God’s almighty word.

Genesis 1 verse 2 describes, in three parallel clauses, the state of the earth before God began his creative work. First, we read “now the earth was formless and empty.” “Earth” in this context does not mean our planet, the third planet from the sun, but rather “land,” in distinction from the sea. Later in Genesis we will see God’s offer of land and blessing as a recurring motif in the patriarchal narratives of Abraham and his descendants. Already, in verse 2 of Genesis, we see land as God’s gift to his people to possess. The land, however, was not yet described as good but as “formless and empty.”

The author of Genesis draws the reader’s attention to the chaos from which God brought order by using two rhyming words, tohu vebohu. The rhyming pattern makes them stick out from the simple prose surrounding them. This is also a literary device called hendiadys found in many languages, both ancient and modern, where two words commonly combine to communicate one idea. Some examples in English are “flesh and blood,” “law and order,” or “try and get.” Used separately, the first word tohu, means waste or chaos. It is frequently used to describe a trackless desert. Moses uses this word in Deuteronomy 32, to describe God’s choice of Jacob,

In a desert land he found him,
 in a barren and howling waste. 
 Deuteronomy 32:10

Perhaps this description of the pre-ordered land as a trackless desert would have found special meaning for the Israelite nation in the wilderness. The second word, vebohu, is only used three times in Hebrew scripture and always as a pair with tohu. It is not possible, then, to give it a separate meaning. Rather, it highlights the dreadfulness of the chaotic situation before God brought order by his word. These rhymed words, tohu vebohu, drew attention to their meaning and served as memory anchors for the listener.

The second description of chaos is “darkness was over the surface of the deep.” The deep waters provide a strong contrast to the empty desert in the previous description. Darkness often symbolizes everything that is anti-God, and as such is a powerful image of disorder, and many ancient near eastern origin stories began with a primeval ocean that must be tamed by deity. The author of Genesis uses this same imagery.

The third description of the pre-ordered state continues the water theme, saying “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Hebrew uses the same word for both “spirit” and “wind,” so instead of “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters,” it could as accurately be translated “the wind of God was hovering over the waters.” You will see both possibilities in different translations. Even better might be “the spirit-wind of God was hovering over the waters.” “Hovering” implies motion. The movement of God’s spirit-wind hints at the possibility of change through God’s powerful presence. 

The children of Israel had already seen the force of God’s spirit-wind which dried up the Red Sea for their crossing. They had seen the creator God act personally on their behalf. He was not just one God among many, not just the best God, He was the only God. You and I can find meaning here as well. We may not stand at the edge of a mighty sea, but we do sometimes face problems that seem impossible to us. When we do, we remember that our God is the creator God. He still acts on our behalf, and nothing is impossible with Him.

Closing comments

I have really enjoyed spending time with you today, as we begin this new series of episodes on the early chapters of Genesis. Questions of authorship, genre, and the relationship of Genesis with ancient near eastern literature and science may seem unnecessary and unfamiliar but they help us get into the mind of the original author and audience so we can understand what it means to us. This book was not written yesterday by your next-door neighbor, so it requires this thoughtful approach.

In our next episode we will continue this careful methodology as we examine Genesis’ portrayal of God’s creation in six days. We will particularly take note of the author’s astounding literary artistry and the implications of that for our interpretation.

If you have found this podcast helpful, I would appreciate your help in expanding its reach. One of the best ways to assist is by recommending it to your friends. The easiest way to do this is to go to the podcast website, biblewisdomtoday.com, copy that link and then share it with your friend, along with your comment. Your personal recommendation is powerful. I look forward to spending time again with you, soon, along with your friends. Thank you for your help in growing this Bible Wisdom Today family.

[1] Wikimedia Foundation. (2025, November 7). Enūma Eliš. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En%C5%ABma_Eli%C5%A1

[2] Mathews, K. A. (1996). Genesis 1-11:26 (Vol. 1A). Broadman & Holman Publishers.