Changes

Citing Moses as the author does not preclude him using older documents as sources, and a related view is that Genesis was compiled by Moses from documents that dated back to the persons whose history they describe.  In this view, Genesis 1:1 to 2:3 could have been written by God Himself (as there were no other eyewitnesses), and Genesis 2:4 to the end of chapter 4 would have been written by Adam.  These documents would have been handed down generation after generation, until coming into the possession of Moses as leader of the Israelites at his time.

Citing Moses as the author does not preclude him using older documents as sources, and a related view is that Genesis was compiled by Moses from documents that dated back to the persons whose history they describe.  In this view, Genesis 1:1 to 2:3 could have been written by God Himself (as there were no other eyewitnesses), and Genesis 2:4 to the end of chapter 4 would have been written by Adam.  These documents would have been handed down generation after generation, until coming into the possession of Moses as leader of the Israelites at his time.

In 1886 [[Julius Wellhausen]] promoted the idea that the the Pentateuch was written by a number of different but unknown authors at a later time than Moses.  This "[[Documentary Hypothesis]]", as it has become known, is widely accepted and taught by more-liberal colleges.

In 1886 [[Julius Wellhausen]] promoted the idea that the the Pentateuch was written by a number of different but unknown authors at a later time than Moses.  This "[[Documentary Hypothesis]]", as it has become known, is widely accepted and taught by more-liberal colleges. Conservative Biblical scholars such as [[Kenneth Kitchen]] and [[Gleason Archer]] state various arguments on why the Documentary Hypothesis is invalid. <ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/moses.html<ref><ref>http://www.christian-thinktank.com/aec2.html</ref><ref>http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/moses.htm</ref><ref>http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/apologetics/AP0404W3.htm</ref><ref>http://answering-islam.org.uk/Campbell/s3c1.html</ref>.  Dr. Yohanan Aharoni, argues that archaeological discoveries show that later authors or editors could not have put together or invented the Torah stories hundreds of years after they happened. <ref>http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/bible_criticism.htm</ref>

According to this theory, the creation account is a combination of two different and inconsistent original accounts.  Supporters of the theory point to what they see as discrepancies, such as Genesis 2:19 being worded as though God created animals and birds after Adam, whereas Genesis 1 indicates that man was created after the birds and animals.  Opponents of the Documentary Hypothesis say that Genesis 2 is not intended as a chronological account, and should be read in the context of the preceding narrative, thus reading Genesis 2:19 the way that the NIV translates it:  "Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air."<ref>As well as derivatives of the NIV, the [[English Standard Version]] includes this translation in a footnote, and Darby's translation also uses this wording.</ref>

According to the documentary hypothesis, the creation account is a combination of two different and inconsistent original accounts.  Supporters of the theory point to what they see as discrepancies, such as Genesis 2:19 being worded as though God created animals and birds after Adam, whereas Genesis 1 indicates that man was created after the birds and animals.  Opponents of the Documentary Hypothesis say that Genesis 2 is not intended as a chronological account, and should be read in the context of the preceding narrative, thus reading Genesis 2:19 the way that the NIV translates it:  "Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air."<ref>As well as derivatives of the NIV, the [[English Standard Version]] includes this translation in a footnote, and Darby's translation also uses this wording.</ref>

== References ==

== References ==