When was Genesis written?
The Bible does not stamp Genesis with a date, so the question is really about its author and his lifetime — and commentators answer it with one name: Moses. That answer carries weight far beyond history, because it decides whether the opening book of the Bible is revelation from God or a much later invention.
Moses and his century
The traditional answer places the writing in the lifetime of the man whose name the five books carry. One writer sets out both the tradition and the century behind it:
Arend RemmersAccording to an old tradition, not only Genesis (also called the first book of Moses), but the whole Pentateuch were written by Moses. As far as Exodus to Deuteronomy is concerned, Moses was an eyewitness and partly even the main character. When writing Genesis, apart from direct revelations of God (for example the report on the creation of the world in Genesis 1-2), he could possibly have referred to documents from the time of the patriarchs. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit of God, Moses wrote everything down.
The same writer dates the man: "Moses lived around 1500-1400 BC." Another gives the round figure and sets it against other ancient literature:
Walter ScottOf the writings, the first was the Pentateuch, completed fifteen centuries before Christ — that is, 700 years before Rome was founded, and about 1000 years before the work of Herodotus, the first authentic history, was published — centuries, too, before the prince of Greek poets, Homer, flourished, or Hesiod, more ancient still, sang his verses. The Pentateuch and the book of Job are by far the oldest writings in existence.
The place and the labour
If Moses wrote it, the writing was done during the years Israel spent in the desert, and by hand:
A. J. PollockI thought of his writing the five books that bear his name — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy — in those dreary and desolate regions. Did he write the sacred writings in cuneiform characters on clay tablets? All we know is that the work must have been crude and laborious compared with our methods. The wonder is the books have been preserved, and have come down to the present time in their wonderful detail.
A book about events no author saw
Genesis differs from the other four books in one obvious way, and that shapes how it was written. Every event in it happened before Moses existed.
L. M. GrantThe writer of Genesis, who was no doubt Moses (Luke 24:27), could not get his information from anyone but God. People have supposed that he gathered material for this book from other human sources, but this is settled by 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is breathed out by God." Humans have imagined all kinds of silly answers to the question of origins, but none of these answers comes near to the majestic dignity and truth of what God has revealed in the book of Genesis.
Others allow that older records may have passed through his hands without touching the question of who wrote the book:
William KellyIf then God led Moses, in writing the book of Genesis, to make use of documents written (say) by Noah, Shem, the patriarchs, Joseph and any others, there could be no valid objection on that score. But the unity of style and plan, which runs through each part in the face of all that petty criticism has ever alleged to the contrary, does stand against any such theory. The essential condition is that God should inspire His chosen vehicle to convey to us the truth as He intended it for His own.
The rival dating
A very different date has been proposed — one that moves the writing nearly a thousand years later. Here is that theory in its own words, as quoted by one writer:
Numerical Bible NotesA comparatively large law-book was written (Deuteronomy, about B.C. 622); and this, in accordance with the ideas of the times, which demanded the authority of ancient sages and lawgivers, was ascribed to Moses… After various law-books had been written, they were all gathered up, sifted, and edited about the time of Ezra (B.C. 450), as one book. This is substantially our present Law, or Pentateuch.
The commentators reject it, and note how recent the doubt is: "Until the attacks of infidelity, no one ever thought of questioning the universally accepted belief that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch" (Samuel Ridout).
Why the date matters
For these writers the question is not academic, because Jesus Himself spoke to it:
The Bible TreasuryIt is not the soundness of human theories, but the character of our Lord Himself that is involved. For if Moses did not write the first five books of the Bible — "the law" — as our Lord asserted more than once, but which the advocates of "modern criticism" deny, then the Holy Son of God stands convicted of ignorance or error, if not deliberate deception.
Summary
- Author — The consistent answer is Moses, the writer of all five books that bear his name.
- Date — Moses is placed around 1500–1400 BC, which makes the Pentateuch, with Job, among the oldest writings in existence.
- Place — The work was done in the desert, slowly and by hand, long before printing.
- Source — Since Genesis records events before Moses was born, its content came by revelation; earlier records may have been used, but the book is one inspired whole.
- Stakes — Later dating schemes (Deuteronomy in 622 BC, edited under Ezra) are rejected, because Christ Himself named Moses as the writer.