Where Moses Got The Genesis Account?

WHERE MOSES GOT THE GENESIS ACCOUNT?

Gen. 11:10-27

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. A preacher had to get his teeth pulled and the dentist fitted him with dentures. The first Sunday afterward, he preached 10 minutes. The second, he preached 20 minutes and the third, he preached 1½ hours!

2. Some members of the congregation asked about the different amounts of time. The preacher said, "The first Sunday my gums were so sore I could barely talk. The second Sunday, my dentures were causing medium pain. The third Sunday, I grabbed my wife's dentures and could not stop talking."

B. THE IMPORTANCE OF EYEWITNESSES

1. Most of my life channel 13 in Houston Texas has had a nightly news broadcast called “Eyewitness News.”

2. An eyewitness is “a person who actually sees some act, occurrence, or thing and can give a firsthand account of it.” It means “to view with one's own eyes.” Many times there are no eyewitnesses to important events.

3. Eyewitnesses are required, both in the Bible and in civil courtrooms, to establish the facts and to prove the criminality of persons for their actions.

C. THESIS

1. Tonight we’re looking at the verification of the Bible, specifically, how the Genesis account is actually the record of eyewitnesses. The liberal, destructive critics of the Bible have conveniently overlooked this astounding fact.

2. Let’s look at the details of how Shem was a link to both the preflood world and the events that followed, and how he passed those details to his descendants. The title of this message is “Where Moses Got the Genesis Account?”

I. THE BIBLE IS AN EYEWITNESS DOCUMENT

A. THERE WERE EYEWITNESSES TO JESUS

The Apostles called themselves witnesses of Christ, especially of His resurrection. “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty” 2 Peter 1:16. “...eyewitnesses and servants of the word” Luke 1:2.

B. THE N.T. MANUSCRIPTS ARE EYEWITNESSES

1. Carsten Theide, in his book, “Eyewitness to Jesus” told that 7 manuscripts of the N.T. were penned during the lifetimes of the Apostles (P64, 7Q5, 7Q4, P67, P4, P46, and P1).

2. Theide, a world renowned papyrologist, discovered special marks that only occurred in the first century, making these documents eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus and the early Church.

C. EYEWITNESSES OF THE GENESIS ACCOUNT OF CREATION

1. Where did Abraham’s descendants get the details of the Genesis account? Of course, God revealed them to Moses, but another unrecognized source were the eye-witnesses themselves who lived until the time of Abraham.

2. CONTEMPORARIES. By studying the timelines, we see Adam lived until Noah’s father Lamech was 56 years old. Noah’s son Shem, who had been on the Ark, lived during 150 years of Abraham’s life. Also, they lived in the same area.

3. NEIGHBORS. Abraham was Shem’s grandchild of the 9th generation. Noah’s father touched Adam and Noah’s son touched Abraham. Quite a connection.

4. RELATIVES. They were all family and went to the same family reunions. Abraham could talk to Shem about the Genesis creation narrative, the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and the Tower of Babel. Shem could describe how the waters fell and came out of the earth; of how the animals came by themselves. Of how much food stuffs they stored in the ark and how they made their way down Mt. Ararat. And about the first rainbow. Wow!

II. PRE & POST-FLOOD CIVILIZATION

https://www.conformingtojesus.com/images/webpages/chronology_chart_from_adam_to_abraham.jpg

A. NOAH’S/SHEM’S AGES AFTER THE FLOOD

Read Gen. 11:10-27. Shem lived 600 years (he was 100 years old when the flood came).

Noah’s Age....When Shem was...

600...............100 years old, Arphaxad was born

635...............135 years old, Shelah was born

665...............165 years old, Eber was born

699...............199 years old, Peleg was born

729...............229 years old, Reu was born

761...............261 years old, Serug was born

791...............291 years old, Nahor was born

820...............320 years old, Terah was born

890...............390 years old, Abram was born

Noah Died at 950, 60 yrs after Abram born

.....................490 years old, Isaac was born

.....................550 years old, Jacob was born

Shem lived for 50 years after Jacob was born. So Noah & Shem were alive when Abram was born and Noah’s father, Lamech, was alive when Adam was still alive!

B. WHERE DID PREFLOOD PEOPLE LIVE?

1. Genesis 2:14 says the Garden of Eden was between the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers. Archeologists have long placed the origin of humans in the Fertile Crescent, i.e., lower Mesopotamia.

2. Archeologist Juris Zarins (Smithsonian 18:2 (1987): 132) believes the location of the Garden of Eden was in lower Mesopotamia, near the convergence of the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun, and the Wadi Batin.

3. When Adam, Eve, and their family were expelled from the Garden, they probably lived nearby, in the Fertile Crescent of lower Mesopotamia.