“The Case For Genesis”Ancient Hebrew Writings

June 3, 2018Rev. Rick Dietzman

Bible believing Christians attest that Moses wrote the majority of the Torah (which includes Genesis, Exodus and three other books) either around 1450 B.C. or 1250 B.C. depending on how we date the Exodus from Egypt.

I covered some of this topic in May 2017 during our class “The case for God and the Bible” – which I’ll repost with this lesson, but today I’m going to reveal evidence so new and important that none of the published material defending “first hand historical accounts” written at the time of Moses includes it yet! A movie about it will be released this Fall.

The bias against miracles drives the assumption that the accounts in the Torah were not firsthand but were composed centuries later.

This is the liberal/critical view which denies that Moses wrote Genesis to Deuteronomy. It teaches that various anonymous authors compiled these five books (plus other portions of the Old Testament) from centuries of oral tradition, up to 900 years after Moses lived (if, in this view, he even existed).

Evidence in favor of this view:

If the Exodus date is 1250 BC at the time of Rameses II, several things support the “loose oral tradition” view. According to the story, the Israelite slaves were supposedly building a city in Rameses’ name (Exodus 1:11). There is no archeological evidence of a conquest in Canaan in 1200 B.C. – In fact the cities were settled with Semitic people at that time. The tales of the Judges, king David and Solomon are compressed time wise and don’t fit a realistic calendar so they must be legendary in nature. But most significant of all, there’s no evidence for the written Hebrew language before 1000 B.C. and it appears to be derived from Phoenician! Later we know that during the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities the Aramaic alphabet was adopted for the Hebrew characters we see today. The script of the Samaritans is the same as the Phoenician one. The dead sea scrolls are written in the Aramaic Script (Modern Hebrew) with the name for God YHWH left in the Phoenician/Samaritan script.

In this view, given that there was no Hebrew alphabet until 1000 B.C., it is laughable to say Moses wrote the Bible. Archeological evidence and Egyptian history gives no credit to a mass exodus in 1250 B.C. or a conquest in 1200 B.C. Therefore the most logical explanation is something like this….

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. J (standing for what the documentary hypothesists would term Jahwist) supposedly lived about 900–850 BC. He/she/they allegedly gathered the myths and legends of Babylon and other nations, and added them to the ‘camp-fire stories’ of the Hebrews, producing those biblical passages where the Hebrew letters YHWH (‘Jehovah’) are used as the name of God.

. E (standing for Elohist) supposedly lived about 750–700 BC in the northern kingdom (Israel), and wrote those passages where ’Elohim is used as the word for God.

. D supposedly wrote most of Deuteronomy, probably the book found in the temple in Jerusalem in 621 BC. (2 Kings 22:8).

. P supposedly represents a Priest (or priests) who lived during the exile in Babylon and allegedly composed a code of holiness for the people.

. Various editors R (from German Redakteur) supposedly put it all together. In the 600’s B.C.

Conservative and Evangelical scholars don’t dispute that there was editing and compiling of the early texts of the Bible. Instead, they make the case that the material which was gathered was from the periods described by Moses and other early authors. The Case for Genesis rests on this belief.

There’s a reference in Genesis 12:6 that says “at that time the Canaanites were in the land” which would indicate an editorial comment inserted at a date around the time of the Judges (1300 BC). So the five Books of Moses may have been compiled as a unit as early as 150 years after the time of Moses. Other books were added as history unfolded.

The earliest known alphabetic (or "proto-alphabetic") inscriptions are the so-called Proto-

Sinaitic (or Proto-Canaanite) script sporadically attested in the Sinai and in Canaan in the late Middle and Late Bronze Age. (1800-1400 B.C.) Most archeologists believe this is an early Semitic language but are very hesitant to associate it with Hebrew, and they have not “broken the code” as to what it is. We will look at this in depth today!

The problem has always been very scant evidence that there was in fact an early Hebrew Alphabet and text that was in use in the 1800-1400 B.C. time period. (Assuming the Exodus was in 1446 B.C. when there is a lot more archeological evidence). Moses could have theoretically used this form of writing but it would mean that Joseph and/or his sons would have had to invent the Alphabet from the Egyptian hieroglyphics and develop a system of writing. Until 2016-17, no one has shown any proof for this theory, so it has not been talked about widely, and only in broad theoretical terms. When I did the series in 2017 it was not noted in any of the material I reviewed, and in fact the history of the Hebrew language has never been addressed adequately until this year! Yet first hand authorship of Moses and others in ancient times is an essential we stand on.

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Before going into the story of what happened in the writing discovery. Let me tell you there is substantive evidence that a time shift from 1250 BC for the Exodus to 1446 BC, solves most or even all of the problems for the history part. I’ve devoted numerous classes in the past to this subject. The language development piece now puts a nail in the coffin of the skeptical linguists. It ties it all together by showing that there was a Hebrew alphabet in 1800 B.C. (near the time of Joseph) and that in fact the Phoenician script came from it and not the other way around!

Egyptian hieroglyphics are considered to be one of the first writing systems, with the earliest coherent texts from around 2600 B.C. A potentially earlier system is called Sumerian cuneiform and was used in Mesopotamia. It has text dated as old as 3200 BC. They both used symbolic characters which told stories and in some cases were spelled out phonetically.

The Amarna letters (1404-1340 B.C) are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are mostly written in cuneiform, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia, rather than that of ancient Egypt. They depict a conquest of several cites in Canaan with evidence like the fall of Jerico’s walls in 1400 B.C. to add to their credibility.

The earliest known inscription to YHWH is found on a pillar in the temple of Amenhotep III in upper Egypt dated 1396-1358 BC. It is in hieroglyphics spelled phonetically. “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after you. I have planned this in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army. After this the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD!” Exodus 14:4

Both of these discoveries point to an exodus in 1446 B.C. which become key to dating the origin of the Hebrew Alphabet.

We begin with some archeological evidence for Joseph in the 1850’s in Egypt.

The writings in question were actually discovered in 1905, but early attempts to understand them were limited to only a couple of words. About the archeologist who deciphered the text in 2015

Douglas Petrovich (Ph.D., M.A., Th.M., M.Div.) teaches on Ancient Egypt at Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada). He formerly was the academic dean and a professor at Novosibirsk Biblical-Theological Seminary (Russia), as well as at Shepherds Theological Seminary (U.S.A.). He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, with a major in Syro-Palestinian Archaeology, a first minor in ancient Egyptian language, and a second minor in ancient Near Eastern religions.

The breakthrough as to the question of the origins of the alphabet represented in this volume is the fruit of the author's intensive and extensive research and fastidious attention to detail. His acclaimed expertise in epigraphy, paleography, lexicography, and comparative linguistics and literature has led him to the conviction that of all options one can currently advance as to the ultimate origins of the alphabet, the identification of proto-Hebrew is the very best candidate." --Eugene H. Merrill, Distinguished Professor of Old Testament Studies (Emeritus), Dallas Theological Seminary

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Petrovich explains that other Semitic languages do not result in sensible renderings for these inscriptions, which is why they have never been interpreted before. And few have thought the Israelites were this early, so Hebrew was not considered an option. This earliest version of Hebrew could be thought of as “Hebrew 1.0,” and according to Petrovich it alone works at translating the Egyptian inscriptions.

Petrovich continued, “My discoveries are so controversial because if correct, they will rewrite the history books and undermine much of the assumptions and misconceptions about the ancient Hebrew people and the Bible that have become commonly accepted in the scholarly world and taught as factual in the world’s leading universities.”

“Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness.” Psalm 48:10

The cow god Baalath - Dated 1390–1352 B.C. From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes Porphyritic diorite (type of stone)

Dated around 1450 BC. “Our bound servitude had lingered. Moses then provoked astonishment. It is the year of astonishment because of Baalath (“the lady”)

Evidence for Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch

The evidence that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, often referred to in the Bible as ‘the Law’ (Hebrew torah), is overwhelming: (This does not mean that Moses or the editors did not use other written sources available to them - such as creation accounts and flood accounts, that there were a few editorial comments added later, or that Moses wrote the last few verses of Deuteronomy 34 that record his death. Talmudic (Rabbinic Jewish) tradition has always been that these were added by Joshua.)

1. Contrary to the views of Wellhausen and others, archaeological research has established that writing was indeed well known in Moses’ day. The JEDP hypothesis falsely assumes that the Israelites waited until many centuries after the foundation of their nation before committing any of their history or laws to written form, even though their neighbors kept written records of their own history and religion from before the time of Moses.

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2.The author is obviously an eyewitness of the Exodus from Egypt, familiar with the geography, flora and fauna of the region he uses several Egyptian words, and refers to customs that go back to the second millennium BC.

3.The Pentateuch claims in many places that Moses was the writer, e.g. Exodus 17:14; 24:4–7; 34:27; Numbers 33:2; Deuteronomy 31:9, 22, 24.

Examples:

The LORD instructed Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder…

Moses carefully wrote down all the LORD’s instructions…

At the LORD’s command Moses recorded the stages in their journey...

Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests…

Moses finished writing in a book (scroll) the words of this law from beginning to end…

4. Many times in the rest of the Old Testament, Moses is said to have been the writer, e.g. Joshua 1:7–8; 8:32–34; Judges 3:4; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6; 21:8; 2 Chronicles 25:4; Ezra 6:18; Nehemiah 8:1; 13:1; Daniel 9:11–13.

5. In the New Testament, Jesus frequently spoke of Moses’ writings or the Law of Moses, e.g. Matthew 8:4; 19:7–8; Mark 7:10; 12:26; Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:46–47; 7:19. Jesus said that those who ‘hear not [i.e. reject] Moses’ would not be persuaded ‘though one rose from the dead’ (Luke 16:31). Thus we see that those churches and seminaries which reject the historicity of Moses’ writings often also reject the literal bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Other New Testament speakers/writers said the same thing, e.g. John 1:17; Acts 6:14; 13:39; 15:5; 1 Corinthians 9:9; 2 Corinthians 3:15; Hebrews 10:28.

Adapted from:http://creation.com/did-moses-really-write-genesis by Russell Grigg Creation Ministries international. See article for more information including credited sources.

Coming up: June 10 – Ancient History RevisitedJune 17 – Day Age (old earth) viewJune 24 – Creation stories, theology, and time

Watch the talk and download notes for: CFG part 1: Ancient Hebrew Writings at https://vimeo.com/273318511CFG part 2: Ancient History Revisited at https://vimeo.com/274269180

The audio and notes are available at http://sequimcommunitychurch.org/downloads/

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