For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
Romans 15:4
In part 1, we began answering a student’s questions regarding what was being taught in her college class about Moses and the Bible’s history. She informed us that the “professor has mentioned several times that those pieces of the Bible may not be historically accurate, but are just told to depict a characteristic of God.” We addressed the most serious implications of this in Part 1; it would mean Jesus and the entire New Testament were in serious error when they referred to Moses and the Pentateuch as legitimate history. The Old and New Testaments are both predicated on the fact that Genesis through Deuteronomy are perfectly inspired and divinely recorded history.
Regarding the historical accuracy of the Old Testament, having done my undergraduate and graduate work in history, I can tell you with full assurance that there is nothing like it in antiquity. No other literary source has the record of transmission from generation to generation, nor the authenticity of manuscripts, nor the confirmation of historical details like the Old Testament. The ONLY ancient literature that rivals it in those categories is the New Testament.
On the CTF Genesis Timeline below (available at creationtruth.com/store), you will see the overlap of the Genesis patriarchs. This is important regarding the passing of family records from one generation to the next. Throughout Genesis, one will find the phrase, “This is the book of the generations of…” The Hebrew word for these records is toledoth; it is used 13 times. This means Genesis is a compilation of 13 divinely inspired family records. I personally believe the first one (Genesis 1:1-2:4a) is God’s record/toledoth, probably given to Moses sometime at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 20:8-11). Moses then compiled these inspired and divinely preserved records into one book – Genesis.
How faithful was the transmission of those records to Moses? Look at the overlap of the lifespans of the Genesis patriarchs. The records up to Noah would have to be preserved through the Flood. Noah could have known 6 ancestors who personally knew Adam, providing incredible confirmation of the family record. Then, to get them and the history that followed to Abraham, everyone from Noah’s son Shem to Abraham’s dad Terah could have known Noah. Additionally, everyone from Arpachshad through Isaac (10 generations) could have known Shem, who lived through the Flood! Or consider it this way: from Adam to Lamech is one direct connection, then Shem (who knew Lamech) to Isaac is just the second link in faithfully passing along the Genesis record! There is no record of antiquity like this!
From Isaac, the record passed to Jacob, who then passed it to his sons for preservation. To get to Moses, we then go from Jacob’s son Levi, to his son Kohath, to his son Amram, to his son Moses. Kohath would’ve known Jacob, and Jacob would have known Abraham, so we can cut out two more in the direct links. Therefore, we can have the Genesis record of over 2,500 years of history faithfully (and divinely) passed down to Moses by the inspired eyewitnesses in just 7 links:
Adam → Lamech → Shem → Isaac → Jacob → Kohath → Amram → Moses
In the scheme of history, that is an incredibly short gap from Adam to Moses, which only strengthens the reliability of the Genesis account, Mosaic authorship, and the inspiration of the Scriptures.
One of the weakest arguments against the Genesis record is that there are somehow gaps in the genealogies. Those making the argument can never point to where the gap is or who is missing. Rather, the Bible confirms the Genesis genealogies in I Chronicles 1:1-24 and Luke 3:33-38. In fact,
the Bible specifically tells us in Jude 14 that there are no gaps; the genealogies are complete,
“It was also about these that
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied”.
Rather, the Genesis genealogies and the lifespans recorded within them demand a historical, not a mythical, origin. How else can one explain the exponential decay curve in the lifespans? Who, when composing these “legends,” would think up an exponential decay curve? The entire notion is preposterous and not worthy of serious academic debate.
Regarding the preservation of manuscripts and their faithful transmission, please consult our articles “Divinely Dependable” and “Why These Books?” on our website:
https://www.creationtruth.com/divinely-dependable
https://www.creationtruth.com/why-these-books
The volume of archaeological discoveries that confirm the accuracy of Old Testament history, including the Torah, is massive. If you need a great resource, we highly recommend Evidence for the Bible available in the CTF bookstore (www.creationtruth.com/store).
Praise God for His overwhelming preservation of evidence to confirm forevermore that “Thy Word is Truth”! (John 17:17)
