Genesis 1-11 was written during the Babylonian exile

[Jonathan_Burke (Jon)]

@Jo_Helen_Cox

It seems this whole thread was intent on discrediting the bases of the Israelites as a people.

No. It is intent on reading the Bible accurately. This provides greater support for the Israelites as people, not less.

@Jo_Helen_Cox

Not mentioning “history” stories does not mean history stories did not exist.

I agree. But it is significant negative evidence. Where is the evidence that such stories did exist? There isn’t any.

1. The complete lack of any reference to those events in pre-exilic books, combined with the fact that reference to those events suddenly appears and is introduced only in exilic or post-exilic books, is strong evidence that those living in pre-exilic times knew nothing about those events.

2. No one from Genesis 12 to the end of 2 Kings shows any knowledge of Adam whatsoever. This is particularly curious given the amount of time the Law of Moses spends talking about sin. But Adam is never mentioned at all. The word is only used as a generic term for humans, or as a place name.

3. The post-exilic 1 Chronicles opens with a reference to Adam, with whom the reader is assumed to be familiar. The missing link is Genesis 1, which introduces who Adam is, and in the case of Genesis 1-11 the evidence is overwhelming that these chapters were only written in the exilic era at the earliest, and that the specific people and events in these chapters were not known to people before the exile.

There is no need to introduce people if the audience already knows them. So we find Adam first introduced in Genesis 1-11, which is exilic. The reader is given an explanation of where he came from, and his position in human history. This was clearly necessary because no one knew this before. But in the post-exilic era, 1 Chronicles opens with a reference to Adam which is expected to be understood by the reader; the reader already knows about Adam because Genesis 1-11 had been written earlier, during the exilic era.

@Jo_Helen_Cox

Most of the books in your list convey “recent history.” Why would you require them to mention “ancient history” just to verify that those were ancient?

I don’t require them to mention ancient history just to verify that the history is ancient. The point is that this ancient history is actually mentioned in the most recent books. Adam appears in 1 Chronicles, which is very clearly not describing “recent history” from the point of view of its writer. However, most of the books on my list also convey “ancient history”; Genesis 12 to the end of 2 Samuel all convey “ancient history”. Yet they make no mention of any of the people or events in Genesis 1-11. Why is it that those people and events only appear in later books, not earlier books?

@Jo_Helen_Cox

On the other hand, the Psalms does mention Gen 1 several times.

Which psalms?

@Jo_Helen_Cox

Your comments to support your “post-exile” theory are not enough to base a belief that the exodus from Egypt never happened.

I agree. I believe the exodus from Egypt did happen. I even started a thread in which I presented my argument that it did happen.

@Jo_Helen_Cox

Mostly you have words and places used from Babylonian times. We know the books were compiled after the exile, but that is not enough evidence to insist every story, or any of the stories, originated at that time.

I am not arguing that every story originated at that time. I am arguing Genesis 1-11 was written during the exile. The evidence we have is not that these accounts already existed and then had words and places from Babylonian times added to them. The evidence is that they were actually written in Babylon.