For background information on the structure of Genesis 1, see the following posts:
Genesis 1:1-2:4 The Whole StoryThe Clay Tablet Theory
Structure of Genesis: Colophon Examples
The Tablet Theory posits that the Book of Genesis was composed by Moses under inspiration from the Holy Spirit. It is posited that Moses' source material was based on accounts that were written by earlier authors. Most of these authors were eye-witnesses to the events about which the accounts concern, with exceptions as noted below. Presumably, the original accounts were written on clay tablets and were brought to Egypt by Jacob or his sons when Joseph arranged for them to live in the land of Goshen within Egypt. The Bible records in Genesis 5:24-25 that Joseph passed on a lasting degree that his bones would be brought up out of Egypt when God visited the Israelites and led them back to Canaan. Exodus 13:19 records Moses fulfilling this command. Therefore, the argument goes, Moses knew of Joseph and his command and, having access to his bones, would have had access to any artifacts that Joseph had passed down. According to the Tablet Theory, this included clay tablets recording the accounts of the Patriarchs. While it would have resolved controversy if the text of Exodus explicitly referred to source tablets, this is not the case. Like many books of the Bible, the precise origin of the content ,and even in some cases the identity of the author, remains either a mystery or an educated guess. The Tablet Theory is based on a few fundamental concepts:
1) Much of the content of Genesis is most reasonably thought of as accounts written by the people involved, based on the deeply personal nature of the accounts.
2) Genesis as a whole has a unique structure that appears to be the product of joining together multiple source documents, each identified by with the phrase, "this is the account of", or a minor variation of this.
3) Clay tablets are the most likely medium for the original accounts to have been written down on.
4) The phrase "this is the account of" can reasonably be thought of a as typical colophon of the type used to identify the contents of clay tablets during the era of authorship.
There are noteable exceptions to eye-witness authorship. The first is the account of the creation of the heavens and the Earth in Genesis 1:1-2:3 and identified by the colophon in Genesis 2:4. Since this account documents the creation beginning prior to human beings, it must have been revealed by God in some manner. This content could have been revealed directly to Moses as a prelude for his compilation of the other accounts, or it could have been revealed to an earlier author and passed down with the other accounts. On this blog, I will try to argue that the creation account was revealed at an early time and passed on to Moses.
The second exception regards the story of Adam and his immediate offspring. Those ascribing to a very recent historical existence of Adam (c. 4000 BC) often assert that Adam had the capacity to write and thus recorded his own account. However, other Tablet Theory proponents argue that Adam predated writing. In contrast, writer and theologian John H. Walton argues that the account of Adam was revealed by God, or otherwise composed under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, rather than being passed down from Adam, either orally or in writing. In that case, Moses again could have been the original author. On this blog, I will try to argue that the account was faithfully passed down orally from Adam for many generations before bing written down.
Understanding the Tablet Theory hinges on the understanding the concept of a colophon. A label for the content of each tablet, called a colophon, was engraved on the side, or sometimes at the bottom or on the back, of each tablet as such: "This is the historical record of the heavens and the earth", "This is the book of the historical records of Adam", "These are the historical records of Noah", etc. When multiple tablets are required, the colophon may include a sequencing number. When the original tablets were complied into a single work, the colophons were placed in the text at the end of each section to which they pertained. Some commentators suggest that Joseph may have played a role in preserving and transmitting the original documents, or a translation of them, to Moses.
Here is an example of a colophon on written on the edge of a tablet as shown below:
See comments below this chart for additional implications and essential elements.
Key
- The rows with light grey background highlight the portions of each tablet that seem most likely to be content belonging to the original tablets.
- The rows with white background represent a variety of content sources: possible original content, embedded content from another source, editorial contribution, original content that may be part of an expanded colophon; original content that may belong to an adjacent table.
This chart is my own division based on the Tablet Theory but differing in some ways to how other advocates of this theory have identified each section. My motivating principle is that the structure of Genesis and the evidence for tablet source material are most clearly apparent when simple rules regarding the use of the colophons are utilized.
Essential elements of this view:
1. Genesis is a highly structured document artfully composed by Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, into one book with these implications:
a) The injection of editorial content by Moses binds the document together with the potential effect of somewhat obscuring the original divisions of the source materials.
b) The original content was probably not written in Hebrew and was thus translated into Hebrew.
2. The content of Genesis is sourced primarily from eye-witness accounts that were preserved on clay tablets with these three clarifications:
a) The eye-witness of the creation account in Genesis 1:1-2:4a was God Himself who revealed this account to a priest or prophet. See also that the heavens bear witness, Psalm 19:1-2.
b) The "written account" or "book" of Adam may allude to an original oral tradition that was subsequently written down. This may explain the slight variation in the phraseology "this is the book of the <toldot> of Adam".
c) The final section pertaining to Joseph was composed by Joseph possibly following Egyptian practices and therefore not necessarily styled like the preceding documents, which are thought to be composed under Sumerian practices. Therefore Joseph's section does not end with a "colophon" or statement declaring "these are the records of Joseph"; instead they end with a post-humous epitaph.
3. The clay tablets are assumed, after the common manner of Sumerian tablets, to contain a colophon on the bottom or edge with this formulae: "these are the records of X", where X is the author/possessor/subject of the content. The colophons mark the end of a section, not the beginning.
Observations afforded by this view:
1. The recorded content always pertains to the point of view of the author/possessor identified in the toldot phrase that terminates the content.
2. The death of the author/possessor is never recorded in the content.
3. The genealogical records always pertains to the past ancestors of the author/possessor, and often include their immediate descendants who are born before their own death.
4. The recorded accounts by Jacob and by Isaac have a very similar structures, with Jacob's account embedding the genealogy of Esau and Isaac's account embedding the genealogy of Ishmael.
5. Joseph's content does not end with a toldot phrase indicating that it likely was not authored on a clay tablet; which is consistent with an Egyptian vs Sumerian documentation style.
A Few Links to Tablet Theory Articles
An excellent external write up on the Tablet Theory can be found on creationwiki.org.
Wiseman hypothesis, Wikipedia
The Origins of Genesis Reconsidered by Bryan W. Ball, Avondale College of Higher Education
Genesis Tablet Theory, Remnant Report.com
The Tablet Theory of Genesis Authorship, Curt Sewell
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