The penteteuch is considered to be written by Moses. If this is so, then there is evidence of later redaction by others.

M:)RGANITE

I think much of the redaction is by Moses himself, although Joshua may well have completed the book. Most of Genesis 1 -11 would have been handed down from one generation to the next having been chronicled by those present at the events. Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, and so on. Thus, we have a very accurate history from the book of beginnings (especially since God was in complete control of it all.)

Phil Debenham

I agree with you Morganite and Phil... Abraham really couldn't have written Genesis. In fact, it's even questionable whether he knew how to read and write at all. He came from a nomadic tribal people, who shared their stories orally. The pentateuch was written considerably later, probably by Moses and others, as you've said.

It's because apes are on a different evolutionary path than humans. Humans did not evolve from apes according to evolution. Both apes and humans evolved from a common ancestor, but went in different evolutionary directions after that. And as far as not seeing them evolve goes, it's because not enough time has passed. According to evolution it takes millions of years for noticeable changes to occur. The apes that we know haven't been around that long.

I'm not making a case for evolution here; it's just that your statement is not correct as far as the theories of evolution go, and I wanted to point that out.

Oh, I am sorry. I did remember it wrong. I'm looking at a Women's Devotional Bible NIV right now & it says Moses writes Genesis. But what about the dinosaurs I mentioned?

So my argument against evolution is that I don't believe that a bunch of elements came together to yield a living thing. It had to be given a life force, a spark. Scientists cannot create life, they can only replicate it from a source that is living. The intricacies of the human body, the awsomeness of a bird's feathers, the detail, too incredible for me to believe this world created itself.

Apes are not evolving into humans because evolution is not true. Evolution says that one "kind" evolves into another "kind." That is not possible and has never been observed in real science.

In Genesis 1 God tells us that He created the heavens and the earth in six days. He used the common word for day. He means a literal day. On day (not age) six he created the land animals and man. The dinosaurs were created the same day man was. God was there. He did the creating. He has told us how he did it. Why did God have to distroy the dinosaurs in order to create man? Genesis tells us that prior to the flood all animals, dinosaurs too, were vegetarians.

Genesis is a history book written by God through the agency of selected men. It should be accepted the way in which God wrote it.

Standing for the athority of the Scripture,

Phil Debenham

It is obvious that Moses did not perform the redactions. The internal evidence of sources and later historical references and ideas that were wrutten back into the texts show that not to have been possible.

Another wrote that Abraham probably couldn't write. While not denying a strong oral tradition, there is ample evidence that literacy was common among the Near eastern peoples from earliest days. The idea that the Bible was remembered sufficiently without it being in written form is not viable.

Even allowing for the good faith and care of all those who might have been involved in oral transmission over a period greater than one thousand years the likelihood that the narrative would survive intact is highly improbable.

It is obvious that especially some Bible books have material in them from different and variant traditions that are evident in textual comparison exercises, and if they were reliant on oral and mnemonic sources the present variations would be enormous wide, and in many cases would resemble each other in few particulars.

M:)RGANITE

Some believe that each creative day was seven thousand years long and that the rest day would be that long as well.


In any case, the Bible tells us that God might choose to look upon a day as a thousand years as he did with Adam who died on the very day he sinned as God had promised.

Genesis 2
16The LORD God (Q)commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it (R)you will surely die."

2 Peter 3:8
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Genesis 5 (New American Standard Bible)
5So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.

Evolution?

If by evolution is meant changes caused by the survival of the fittest within an environment, then yes. If by evolution is meant that one creature will eventually transform itself into another, crossing the boundaries mentioned in Genesis, via the mutation process, then no.

BTW

Some scholars see a difference between the creation of the universe mentioned in Genesis 1:1 and the earth-human-habitation-preparation days mentioned later. This viewpoint allows for the billions of years which scientists tell us about.