A Question of Authorship

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
—Genesis 2:4a

Who wrote Genesis 1:1?

Don’t respond too quickly. The answer may be more important than you think.

What we believe about the first eleven chapters is the foundation of our understanding of everything that follows them. If we believe that those chapters are less than accurate and reliable, then that calls into question the entirety of the Scriptures. But if we believe they represent real, witnessed history, then we can approach the rest with confidence.

But before we can consider the content in chapters two through eleven, we must come to terms with chapter one. And why concern ourselves with verses two through thirty-one, before we embrace Genesis 1:1?

So, that becomes maybe the most significant question we will face. Who wrote Genesis 1:1?

One of the most discussed ideas is that the first eleven chapters of Genesis were based on Babylonian myths that were passed down orally until they were finally included by Moses in his history of the birth of the Israelite nation. This interpretation would reduce this portion of Genesis to ideas made up in the imaginations of men who were attempting to understand how they came to be. That does not create a particularly firm foundation.

Maybe the most popular explanation among conservative Christians is that Moses authored the history under divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is far more satisfying and provides a reliable foundation for our continued study of the Scriptures. After all, that is exactly how we understand that the rest of the Bible came to us.

However, as scholarship and archaeology have progressed, we are learning more about the ancient languages that the original authors used, as well as how their original readers would have understood what was written. This has opened new doors for understanding the original text and the sometimes subtle inferences that the writing contained.

Which brings us to today’s text.

Warning. A short technical discussion follows:

These are the generations of is a translation of the Hebrew Eleh toledot.

Toledot literally means “things generated,” and Eleh points to whatever preceded it.

That makes These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created a colophon — an inscription placed at the end of a manuscript or document identifying the scribe, the owner, or the origin of the text. These are common in ancient Near Eastern tablet literature. They function as a closing signature rather than an introduction.

Similar colophons appear eleven times in the Book of Genesis:

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. —Genesis 2:4a This is the book of the generations of Adam —Genesis 5:1
These are the generations of Noah —Genesis 6:9
These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth —Genesis 10:1
These are the generations of Shem —Genesis 11:10
Now these are the generations of Terah —Genesis 11:27
These are the generations of Ishmael —Genesis 25:12
These are the generations of Isaac —Genesis 25:19
These are the generations of Esau (that is, Edom) —Genesis 36:1
These are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir —Genesis 36:9
These are the generations of Jacob —Genesis 37:2

The generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth would have been collected and included by Shem. The generations of Ishmael would have been collected and included by Isaac. And the generations of Esau would have been collected and included by Jacob. (Each being inserted to complete the physical genealogies.) Thus leaving seven original authors of the historical text: Adam, Noah, Shem, Terah, Isaac, and Jacob, plus whoever wrote the first chapter. With each author being an actual eye witness and participant in the account attributed to them.

A couple observations:

Noah ended his account in humility, But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. —Genesis 6:8 The sons of Noah (most likely Shem) began theirs with, Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. —Genesis 6:9 Noah, looking back near the end of a long life, summed up his view of himself in light of Who he knew God to be. Shem, on the other hand, was proudly writing about his dad. Separating those two summations we find the colophon. These are the generations of Noah. —Genesis 6:9

Genesis 2:4 contains two phrases (or sentences in some versions).

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. —Genesis 2:4

It is beneficial to remember that punctuation and verse and chapter divisions were added long after the original text was recorded. Reading the first phrase as verse 4 and the second phrase as the beginning of verse 5 is much more natural in Hebrew.

These physical documents were handed down from patriarch to patriarch until Moses collected and compiled them to present Israel with the history of their being God's Chosen People.

This marks the conclusion of the short technical discussion.

Using this information, we can identify exactly who originally wrote the entirety of the book following Genesis 2:4a.

But that does not answer our first question: Who wrote Genesis 1:1?

If each occurrence of these are the generations of identifies the eye witness of the previous section, then who was present to witness the first act of creation? (Maybe a better way to present the question is Who was present?)

The only option available to us is God Himself.

Let that sit for a beat.

If God was the witness who wrote the account and handed it to Adam — as both a history and a template — then Genesis 1 isn't Moses reconstructing origins from oral tradition or divine dictation centuries later — it's a firsthand account by the only witness present.

That bears on the precision of Genesis 1. The measured cadence, the repeated formulas, the evening and morning structure — it reads like a document composed with intention, not a story told around a fire and written down later. Which is exactly what you'd expect if the Author was present for every word of it.