Authorship of Genesis and the Historicity of Adam and Eve

Ultimately, Scripture is the word of God, so in the most fundamental sense God is the author of Genesis. In terms of human authorship, the traditional and, I believe, correct view is that Moses wrote Genesis as part of the Torah. He did so under inspiration, but apparently using earlier written sources that had been preserved and handed down.

Within Genesis there appears to be an internal structuring device marked by the recurring phrase "These are the generations of..." This formula occurs multiple times and serves as a transition point between sections. One plausible view is that these headings reflect individual records or tablets produced by key figures (for example, Adam, Noah, and others), later compiled under Moses’ hand. On this view, Moses did not invent the early history; rather, he received and organized inspired records, editing and shaping them—under God’s guidance—into the unified book we have.

The wider Old Testament and later books support Mosaic authorship of the Torah. For example, in Exodus 34:27 we read: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." The pattern of Moses writing God’s words is clear. Later, Joshua 8 refers to "the book of the law of Moses" and treats that book as a fixed, authoritative body of material. Historically and theologically, this has been understood as the five books we call the Pentateuch.

Thus, while there is room for discussion about the precise way earlier sources were incorporated, there is substantial reason to affirm Moses as the inspired author and compiler of Genesis.

Regarding Adam and Eve, I interpret them as literal, historical individuals. A biblical literalist approach recognizes figures of speech, poetry, and metaphor, but insists that the text means what the words in their context reasonably communicate. Figures of speech are still understood literally in the sense that we literally grasp their intended meaning.

In ordinary language, if one says, "It was raining cats and dogs," no one imagines animals falling from the sky; we all understand the idiom to mean that it was raining very heavily. The expression is a figure of speech, but its meaning is plain and is taken literally at the level of interpretation. The same hermeneutic applies to Scripture.

The narrative of Genesis presents Adam as the first man and Eve as the first woman, uniquely created by God and made in His image. There is no textual indication that they are mere symbols or mythic representations of humanity in general. They speak, act, receive commands and judgments, and are placed in genealogies and theological arguments throughout Scripture as real persons. To deny their historical reality undermines the coherence of later biblical theology, especially doctrines of sin, death, and redemption that are traced back to a literal first couple.

Accordingly, I affirm both Mosaic authorship of Genesis (employing earlier records under inspiration) and the straightforward historical reality of Adam and Eve as the first human pair, created by God as described in the early chapters of Genesis.

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