BIBLE: Online Home Study Courses BUSINESS & COMMUNITY VALUES: Value Added CHRISTIAN BOOKS: Catalogue CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: Class Education DOCTRINE: Westminster Heritage Centre NEW BOOK: Cosmic War Survival NEWS: NEWS - NEWS - NEWS ONLINE MAGAZINE: Ultimate Truth ORIGINS: Creation Lab RTC Reformed Theological College Curriculum RESEARCH: Online Encyclopedia WORSHIP: Psalms
In turning to the prophetic word we recognise that it has come down to us by repeated transcription. Between Moses and Christ such copying had already been taking place for over one thousand years. The first five books of the Hebrew canon are known as the Torah meaning 'the Law'. The human author was Moses and the Jews received these books as being divinely inspired and authoritative. Jehovah himself commended them to Joshua.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.6
David commended them to Solomon his son saying:
… keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgements, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses ...7
The prophets of Israel also made constant reference to the books of Moses. Professor E.J. Young comments on this testimony:
It will be seen, then, that upon the testimony of the only contemporary writings of ancient Israel, the Law of Moses was regarded from the earliest times as divinely inspired and authoritative. It was final. What it commanded was to be obeyed, and what it prohibited was not to be done. Such is the picture which the Old Testament itself presents, if it be accepted as its stands.8
Jesus and the New Testament endorsed this judgement. The Law of Moses is referred to by Luke as 'the law of the Lord'9 and he also tells us that with his two disciples on the Emmaus Road Jesus 'beginning at Moses and all the prophets, ... expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.'10 We can thus rightly approach the creation account of Moses with a sense of reverence and expectation. On the uniqueness of this account Professor E. J. Young comments:
We are not ... simply dealing with some document that happens to have come down to us from times of antiquity. The Babylonians had such a document. Other ancient peoples had such documents. We are not simply dealing with a cosmogony of the ancient Hebrews. We are dealing with a book that belongs to the Holy Scriptures; and the statement of the Apostle Paul, 'All scripture is given by inspiration of God', or 'All scripture is God-breathed', applies to the Book of Genesis just as much as it does to any other part of God's Book.11
The First Book of Moses records events from the beginning of time to the end of the life of Joseph. It tells of man's original fall, the great flood and the lives of Israel's nomadic forbears, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and his brethren.
Notes and References
6. Joshua 1.8
7. 1 Kings 2.3
8. Edward J. Young, An Introduction to the Old Testament (London: The Tyndale Press, 1966) p.34.
9. Luke 2.22-23
10. Luke 24.27
11. Edward J. Young, In the Beginning (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976) pp.11-12.