Who edited Genesis?

[Tcg]

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Some discuss the authorship of Genesis, but I am curious who edited the book. It appears that the first two creation stories for instance were written by two different authors. The first story refers to God as Elohim and the second as Yahweh Elohim. Some claim Moses was the author, but that seems rather unlikely given the above.

Who decided what content was included in Genesis?

What was their intention especially by including the two different versions of creation?

It doesn't seem that their goal was to provide an accurate representation of a literal event. What could it have been?


Tcg

[Difflugia]

If the editor/s thought there was some important truth to be learned from these stories, what was it?

My guess (since "what were they thinking" is always a guess) is that rather than teaching anything in particular, the important point to the redactor is that both stories are Scripture. The redactor that combined JE, P, and D seems to have felt free to add words when necessary, but not remove, reorder, or change words from the individual sources. Since J and P each had a creation story, Genesis has two. I earlier mentioned the Joseph kidnapping and sale pericope in Genesis 37, which makes for a perfect illustration of this principle. If the goal of the redactor was to tell a coherent story that incorporated details from both stories, that would have been easy with few modifications. That's not what the redactor did, though. The redactor took two independent stories and quite expertly interleaved them, sometimes in the middle of a thought or sentence, in a way that made as much sense as possible. Even so, the sense of the story was subordinate to the actual words.

To further speculate, if we can take the story of Ezra at face value, we have a Yahwist community in exile that had become subject to the Persian empire after a few intermediate conquests. This community included both Judahites and Israelites, preserving a similar, but not identical set of scriptures. Ezra's job was to create a unified set of scriptures acceptable to both cultural traditions for a combined post-exile resettlement of Jerusalem. Even if the intention was somewhat cynical, it appears that Ezra was a devout Yahwist and considered both sets of scripture to be holy writ of Yahweh. A unified document was important, but the holiness of the words themselves was inviolable.

An interesting parallel can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some of the texts appear in multiple versions and seem to have been copied without apparent preference. It would appear that the Qumran community considered each of the different versions to be worthy of preservation and study in its own right. The Masoretes of the early middle ages insisted on preserving a single tradition and eliminated alternates, but in other times, Jewish thought allowed for multiple, often contradictory traditions coexisting as holy Scripture.

[1213]

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Well, no. The first chapter of Genesis makes no mention of Yahweh. Yes, there are two creation stories. One attributed to the actions of Elohim and another to Yahweh Elohim.

Besides that, you didn't answer my question. Who edited the book of Genesis?

I don't know who edited it, if it even was edited. I believe it was written by person who knows well and later maybe some translations have slightly been edited.

And Elohim can be just short version of Yahweh Elohim, doesn't necessary mean they are different persons.

[Tcg]

...
Well, no. The first chapter of Genesis makes no mention of Yahweh. Yes, there are two creation stories. One attributed to the actions of Elohim and another to Yahweh Elohim.

Besides that, you didn't answer my question. Who edited the book of Genesis?

I don't know who edited it, if it even was edited. I believe it was written by person who knows well and later maybe some translations have slightly been edited.

And Elohim can be just short version of Yahweh Elohim, doesn't necessary mean they are different persons.

Earlier you stated this, "Genesis tells how Yahweh planted and formed things..." The author of Genesis 1 doesn't mention Yahweh, so no Genesis doesn't tell that. Some sections of Genesis may tell that, but Genesis as a whole most definitely doesn't.


Tcg

[earl]

Was Genesis an edited story?
Not really.
Genesis is a created story originating from authors who compiled and wrote a creation story where by it's origin is detected from the creation days in Genesis in that has connectivity with Babylonian creation story roots from " Babylonian Genesis",Enuma Elish.
The tell tail evidence is light before the sun and stars and photosynthesis before the sun appeared.
A statement in the book of Job which is Sumerian rooted ,not Hebrew or Jewish,clarifies this reason of photosynthesis before the sun appearance.
This results in a mix of both Hebrew and Sumerian history as the authors remembered it and or contributed to creating and or modifying a history of the beginning of creation stated in Genesis 1.

[TRANSPONDER]

[Replying to earl in post #14]

Would you like to point up the connection of Job to Mesopotamian text? I had never noticed that.

[christian001]

The difference in style in the different portions of Genesis does not necessarily mean they are written by two different authors. Writers use different styles when they write materials for different purposes. https://www.explainchristianity.com/do- ... ach-other/

[Tcg]

The difference in style in the different portions of Genesis does not necessarily mean they are written by two different authors. Writers use different styles when they write materials for different purposes. https://www.explainchristianity.com/do- ... ach-other/

What then was the different purposes of the first creation story and the second? Perhaps more importantly, what did the editor/s of the book intend to teach by including them given that neither are accurate?


Tcg