The Clay Tablet Theory

The Clay Tablet Theory posits that the bulk of the contents of the Book of Genesis was developed as Moses compiled the contents of several extant clay tablets.

Wikipedia explains the concept as the Wiseman Hypothesis, so named for its original advocate who offered this in his 1936 book.  The Wikipedia explanation leaves the reader with the impression that this hypothesis has largely been abandoned due to unresolved challenges.

R.K. Harrison kept the concept alive, elucidating it in his 1969 volume, Introduction to the Old Testament.

In 2001, Curt Sewell published an article that is repeated on trueorgin.org here and is commented on at TalkGenesis.org here.  Both articles are fairly succinct and easy to follow, especially if you are familiar with Genesis.

What Curt Sewell accomplished was to provide analysis and resolution to the challenges lingering from Wiseman's original work, namely:

1. Jacob's genealogy appears to be written by rival Esau and Esau's by Jacob, but rather, Sewell proposes that it is included as an embedded sub-Tablet within Jacob's genealogy.
2. Isaac's genealogy appears to be written by rival Ishmael and Ishmael's by Isaac, but similarly, Sewell proposes that Ishmael's genealogy is included as an embedded sub-Tablet within Isaac's genealogy.
3. Joseph authored his own account which was appended to the others, and due to a change in either writing style or materials (such as papyri instead of clay tablets), the format is changed.

With these three issues addressed, the Clay Tablet Theory appears robust in the face of the historical criticisms and appears to rise above competing explanations.

Here then, are the divisions Curt Sewell proposes, which he individually justifies in his post:

Tablet	Starting Verse	Ending Verse	Owner or  Writer
1	Genesis 1:1	Genesis 2:4a	God Himself (?)
2	Genesis 2:4b	Genesis 5:1a	Adam
3	Genesis 5:1b	Genesis 6:9a	Noah
4	Genesis 6:9b	Genesis 10:1a	Shem, Ham & Japheth
5	Genesis 10:1b	Genesis 11:10a	Shem
6	Genesis 11:10b	Genesis 11:27a	Terah
7	Genesis 11:27b	Genesis 25:19a	Isaac
8	Genesis 25:12	Genesis 25:18	Ishmael, through Isaac
9	Genesis 25:19b	Genesis 37:2a	Jacob
10	Genesis 36:1	Genesis 36:43	Esau, through Jacob
11	Genesis 37:2b	Exodus 1:6	Jacob’s 12 sons

Under his discussion of Tablet #1, Sewell states:

I should say here that the following discussion is based on a firm belief that the six days of creation are literal 24-hour days, as the clear phraseology of the Bible states.

I would like to point out that nothing in the Tablet Theory itself is dependent upon taking the day-phraseology as literal days as opposed to days used as metaphors for ages.

In response, Ages of Joy is based on the firm belief that the seven days of creation invoke the metaphor of normal days to represent seven literal ages, each with a definitive period of transition for which evening (night) and morning are the most appropriate comparison, and the seventh of which we are currently living in.  The authorship of Tablet 1 by God Himself would indicate strongly to keep in mind Moses' admonition from Psalm 90:4 "For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night."

That said, there are some implications of the Ages of Joy view.  The first implication is that each Day-Age is at least 1000 years in duration.  This amplifies the view that God is the Author of Tablet #1.  The second implication is that Ages of Joy takes a realistic and encompassing view toward the chronology of human history and the emergence of writing.

Ages of Joy speculatively pins the time frame of Adam and Eve to near that of the Toba supervolcanic eruption which may mark the night of Day 6 and corresponds to the approximate time of emergence of fully modern human beings as distinguished from other hominins, including archaic homo sapiens.

After Toba, from a location near the Persian Gulf, humans eventually migrated all over the world.  In this global expansion, it appears that humans took with them a complex understanding of astronomy and a universal set of symbols, but evidence for a written language is still lacking.

Therefore, Tablets 2 may have been originally communicated either orally or in some combination of oral tradition with a limited symbolic representation, perhaps in the form of a mnemonic aid.  Tablet 3, assume to be authored by Noah could have been written at any time up to 350 years after the Flood.  That means, people could have begun migrating around the globe prior to the advent of a writing system that might have been developed by Noah himself toward the end of his life.  While this is very speculative, it could offer an explanation for how Noah's line would have a writing system, but writing in general was not a wide-spread capability.

Ages of Joy is contributing the following updated version of the Tablet Theory structural arrangement.

Section	Tablet	Content	Colophon	Owner or  Writer
1	1	1:1-2:3	2:4	Melchizedek?
2	2	2:5-4:26	5:1-2	Adam (orally)
3	3	5:3-6:8	6:9-10	Noah
4	4	6:11-9:29	10:1	Shem, Ham &  Japheth
5	5a	10:2-10:31	10:32	Clans (compilation)
6	5b	11:1-9	11:10a	Shem
7	6	11:10b-11:26	11:27a	Terah
8	7	11:27b-25:11		Isaac
	(8)		25:12	by Ishmael, for Isaac
		25:12-18
	7		25:19a	Isaac
9	9	25:19b-35:29		Jacob
	(10)		36:1	by Esau, for Jacob
		36:2-43
	9		37:1-2a	Jacob
10	scroll	37:2b-50:21		Joseph
			50:22-26	Chiastic epitaph by Ephraim?
All reference from the Book of Genesis

Traditionally, Genesis is viewed as being internally divided into ten sections, which has some symbolic appeal to it.  While my divisions differ from the traditional view, I still find that there are a total of ten logical sections to the Book of Genesis.

Section 1: I propose that this section originated in the form of a tablet with a colophon revealed to Melchizedek by God and presented by him to Abraham as legitimizing his priesthood to God Most High, possessor of Heaven and Earth.  Written as a polemic argument against the seven Sumerian gods by invoking a "true history" instead of the cosmogony of the Sumerian religion.  A cosmogony is a "birth story", typically consisting of the births of various aspects of the created order through the actions of  several gods and goddesses.  Instead of appealing to various gods, Genesis 1-2:3 details a genealogy of the Heavens and the Earth as a series of "births".  Each night-morning occurrence should be thought of in the symbolic sense of a "night of distress followed by a morning of bright joy", invoking a "birth" narrative.  Between each night-morning is an "age" during which God creates.  There are six creative ages and a seventh age of rest.  This pattern of seven contrasts to the seven creator gods of Sumerian religion.  Unlike the "just-so-story" of Sumerian cosmogony, the Genesis 1:1-2:3 account details the actual historical stages of creation as testified to by scientific research.  Although the ancient reader may not have fully appreciated it, they were reading the actual history of planet Earth in a simplified, stylized format.  Viewed this way, Genesis 1:1-2:3 functions as a polemic argument relevant for all ages of human history, including our own scientific age.

Section 2: The oral contents of this story, passed down orally from Adam and finally written down.

Sections 2-7:  Collated into the "Book of the History Starting with Adam", comprised of a written version of Adam's story and the Tablets by Noah, his sons, their clans, Shem, and Terah.  Six works collected into one book.  This could be thought of as the first "Bible".

Sections 8, 9, and 10:  Written by Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, primarily, with contributions from Ishmael and Esau regarding their genealogy.

The Tablet of Melchizedek, the Book of Adam, and the accounts of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are handed down and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, compiled by Moses into what we call, the Book of Genesis.  At least, this is the theory.  It's easy to justify, impossible to prove.

Toward An Historical Timeline for Genesis 2 through 11

In the Biblical book of Genesis, chapters 2 through 11 record the history of mankind from Adam and Eve to Abraham.  Establishing an historical timeline for this bit of history continues to be a significant and unmet challenge.  Here at Ages of Joy, we are trying to narrow in on what happened when.  Now, a newly published article on Science Daily provides more insight into a horrific cataclysm that occurred at pivotal time deep in human history.

Younger Dryas onset and the Prophecy of Enoch

Headlined as The Day the World Burned and alternately as Major Cosmic Impact 12800 Years Ago, new research detailing evidence from South America lends support to the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis.  This hypothesis states that just as the Earth was emerging from the last Glacial Cycle, a fragmenting comet or astroid struct the earth, simultaneously at multiple locations.

Imagine a swarm of meteorites from a disintegrating comet raining down on the Earth, setting most of the forests of North America on fire, destroying North American megafauna and people groups, striking numerous European locations and plunging the Earth back into an ice age cycle for 1200 years known as The Younger Dryas.

At the end of this period, the earth passed through a phase of rapidly warming climates to emerge into an era with phenomenally more stable global temperatures and seasonal variations.  This in turn empowered the nascent agricultural revolution to rapidly emerge, changing the course of human history.

c. 10850 BCE    Comet Impact triggers Younger Dryas
c.   9650 BCE    End of the Younger Dryas Ice Age brings climate stability (1200 years)
c.   9600 BCE    Jericho established as a seasonal camp
c.   9500 BCE    Jericho begins to support a pre-pottery, agricultural culture with sedentary dwellings
c.   9400 BCE    Jericho town has more than 70 dwellings
c.   9130 BCE    Oldest date measurements of Gobekli Tepe Sanctuary built with stone (1720 years since comet)

Biblical chronology:

Enoch was 65 when he became the father of Methuselah; lived 365 years
Methuselah was 187 when he became the father of Lamech; lived 969 years
Lamech was 182 when he became the father of Noah; lived 777 years
Noah lived 600 years before the flood and 350 years after it
2 years after the Flood, Shem was 100 and then lived 500 more years

Sequence:
0 - Enoch born
65 - Methuselah born to Enoch
252 (65+187) - Lamech born to Methuselah
365 - Enoch was no more
434 (65+187+182) - Noah born to Lamech
934 - Noah becomes father of Shem, Ham, Japheth
1029 - Lamech died
1034 - Flood, Methuselah died, 669 years since Enoch's death
1384 - Noah died
1536 - Shem died (Flood + 502 years)

Enoch (comet impact)  - Judgment from the sky, thousands of fireballs devastate the Earth

Jude 14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Noah (promise of climate stability)

Genesis 8:22 
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

From the time Enoch was born to when Noah died was a span of at least 1384 years.  From the comet strike to the stabilized climate was approximately 1200 years.  Therefore, it is possible that Enoch prophesied the Younger Dryas comet and Noah, before his death, was witness to a stabilized climate and received God's promise regarding seedtime and harvest.

Let's call YD 0 the year of the Comet which starts the Younger Dryas

YD 0 - Comet strike witnessed by Enoch (assumed age of 65 years old, year of Methuselah's birth)
YD 969 - Flood (year of Methuselah's death)
YD 1200 - End of the Younger Dryas (Noah, age 831, receives a promise of a better climate)
YD 1250 - Founding of Jericho
YD 1319 - Noah's death at age 950 years old
YD 1350 - Jericho has agricultural culture (enabled by better climate)
YD 1450 - Jericho has at least 70 dwellings
YD 1471 - Shem's death at age 600 years old
YD 1720 - Gobekli Tepe founded commemorating comet strike prophesied by Enoch.

It is likely that gaps are present in the genealogy recorded in Genesis.  We also do no know whether Enoch's prophesy corresponds to the comet strike that started the Younger Dryas or whether he witnessed the event himself.  We also do not have reason to believe that Shem ever lived in or visited Jericho, but we should expect Jericho, the oldest known city in the world, is a post-Flood city.  This interesting exercise shows that it is at least theoretically possible to line up a portion of the Biblical historical record with some of the most pivotal and dramatic events in human history.

The site at Gobekli Tepe is only 5% excavated, so it is possible that many more details will emerge regarding this pivotal point in human history.

Building the Ark of Noah

The building of Gobekli Tepe continues to be a marvel of ancient accomplishment.  From wikipedia,

"It remains unknown how a population large enough to construct, augment, and maintain such a substantial complex was mobilized and compensated or fed in the conditions of pre-sedentary society."

The construction of Gobekli Tepe, some 6,000 years before other similar architectures in the world, indicates that the similarly amazing feat of building Noah's ark, although using different materials, must at least be considered plausible.  In fact, the building of the ark may have been the "moon shot" project that enable Noah and his sons to develop critical techniques for organizing and managing large-scale projects.  Those techniques may have been applied to Gobekli Tepe.

The Tower of Babel

After the flood, some people migrated east to the Mesopotamian region and built the Tower of Babel from baked bricks.  The oldest known use of baked bricks in antiquity is in the Indus Valley Civilization in India, dating as far back at 3200 BC (long after the Younger Dryas).  However, baked brick technology takes significant resources, including skilled laborers and specific natural resources.  In the Indus Valley Civilization, the technique was eventually abandoned.  Unlike Gobekli Tepe, which was made of stone, the Tower of Babel was made from baked bricks.  It may have been the first such structure in the world.  With the abandonment of the project, it may have been thousands of years before conditions were right to resume the use of baked bricks for construction, and the technology may have had to be re-invented, even if the memory of its use was preserved in the intervening time span.