It is not known for certain who wrote the book of Genesis. Tradition says that Moses was the author of Genesis but other people believe it was written by several different people. Regardless of who has written, the true author of the book of Genesis is God.
The Bible does not clearly say who wrote the book of Genesis. The author did not identify himself in the book. However, the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) are known as the Law of Moses. Jesus himself called these books “the Law of Moses” ( Luke 24:44 ). It was Moses who wrote much of the text in the other four books, so it is believed that he also wrote Genesis.
If Moses wrote Genesis, he probably relied on older written or oral accounts of his ancestors. Another possibility is that parts of Genesis (such as the creation of the world) were transmitted by divine revelation. Anyway, the result was a coherent story, inspired by God.
Here is the story of Moses.
Other suggestions
For a long time, Moses’ authorship was accepted by everyone. However, today some people suggest that the book of Genesis was written by someone else later.
Opinions vary a lot about when Genesis was written. Some people suggest that it was only written after the exile, but several older books of the Bible show that the “Law of Moses” was known long before that ( Joshua 8:34 ; Psalm 103: 7 ). Some other suggestions are:
- Someone in the time of King Josiah– suggest that the Book of the Law was not found, it was invented in that time – 2 Kings 22: 8-10
- Someone in the time of the prophet Samuel– to unite the people of Israel and start a monarchy
- Someone in Joshua’s time– gathering and editing the work of Moses and other older sources of information
- Several people over several centuries– then someone put all the stories together
There is no solid evidence for any of these theories. The author / editor of the book of Genesis most likely remains Moses.
