Question:  Dear Greg,

            My son has a book report that he is working on.  He is supposed to read a book in the Bible and answer questions.  He chose the book of Genesis.  The question that we are struggling with is “date written”.  Do you know when Moses wrote the book of Genesis?

            Thanks,           

            Robyn and Jason (son)

Answer:  Dear Robyn and Jason,

            The authorship of Genesis can become a complex issue (and is, in fact, the subject of one of the most storied controversies within Christian circles in the past few centuries), but I suspect those complexities would not be the depth to which your son is expected to research.  The New Testament generically attributes all of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) to Moses—even though the book of Deuteronomy reports on his death.  The early portion of Genesis, of course, would have involved Moses using sources (not discounting God’s inspiration, of course).

            Most conservative scholars agree that the Exodus was in the mid 1400’s BC.  Moses lived 120 years—with his age at the Exodus being 80 and his death being just before the end of the 40 years in the wilderness.  Many assume that Moses would have done most of his work of researching, compiling, writing and editing during the time of Israel ’s 40 years in the wilderness, which would have been very close to 1400 BC.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht