OT Survey, Genesis
berē’šîṯ
Who Wrote It?
The traditional view that Genesis (and the Pentateuch) possesses unity and is the work of Moses has not been destroyed. On the contrary, the evidence points more and more to the antiquity and unity of the work. This is not to say that the present form of the book has not been edited by subsequent writers whose work was guided by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration; it does affirm that widespread reshaping of the accounts is unfounded and unnecessary. Any reshaping of the traditions of Genesis would have been done by Moses under divine inspiration, with the result that the book reports actual events and gives correct theological interpretations of them
Is Genesis History?
It is a theological interpretation of selected records of the ancestors of Israel. As with all histories, Genesis explains the causes behind the events—but its causes are divine as well as human. Because it is part of the revealed Word of God, and not merely human history comparable to ancient pagan mythologies, both the events and the explanations are true