Wick Stick
Active Member
When God laid the foundations of the earth, and made the clouds its garments, and when the morning stars sang together (Job 38)...
Moses wasn't there.
When Noah brought the animals into the ark 2-by-2, and the door was shut and the fountains of the deep broke forth...
Moses wasn't sitting in the crow's nest taking notes.
And when Abraham met the LORD of all creation and cut a covenant in which he was promised to become a father of nations...
Moses was absent.
But Moses writes about ALL these things. How did he know? He must have had source material. Where'd he get his source material from?
It could have come from Egypt, where Moses was educated as a prince. But it probably didn't. We have the Egyptians stories, and they don't look like the stories in Genesis.
It could have come from his natural parents. But Moses mostly wasn't raised in his parents' home, having been adopted by Pharoah's daughter from his birth.
God could have told him all about it. But the Bible is usually careful to tell us when God is speaking, (thus saith the Lord), and... it doesn't tell us that God gave Moses the stories of Genesis. It doesn't even hint at it.
There's a theory called the Kenite Hypothesis that supposes that Moses got information about all the things that happened BEFORE he lived from his father-in-law, Jethro. Jethro is called a Kenite in Scripture (Judges 1), hence the name Kenite Hypothesis.
Exodus 3:1 tells us that Moses married the daughter of Jethro, who was "The Priest of Midian." 1Ch 2:55 tells us that Jethro's descendants included 3 clans of scribes. It seems likely that a clan of scribes had written records. And Moses, as the son-in-law of the priest... he had access. He lived as part of their tribe for 40 years.
When Moses encountered God on Mt Horeb, it was in Midianite territory. When he was sent back to Egypt to liberate his people... it was as a priest, like his father-in-law. Once the Israelites come out of Egypt, Moses marches them straight back to that same mountain, and before they met God... they met Jethro. Upon the meeting, Moses himself says, "the God of my father was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh." (Exodus 18) It seems that the father in question was Jethro, and so the God in question is the God of Jethro.
The rest of Exodus 18 is worth a read. Moses does obeisance to Jethro. Jethro blesses Moses. Jethro offers sacrifices for Moses and Aaron (who won't be anointed priest for about 12 more chapters). Jethro gives Moses the Israelites whole system of judges, and...
Exodus 18:14 - So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.
And this continues with the later Kenites. They allied themselves to Israel in the wilderness (Judges 1). When each tribe of Israel sent a spy into the Promised Land (Numbers 13), the representative for Judah... Caleb... was actually a Kenite (Judges 1). When Judah had been conquered, Caleb and his family were allotted cities alongside the Jews, including Hebron, which became the first capital of Judah. The first Judge of Israel in the book of Judges, Othniel, was a Kenite (Judges 3).
I say all this to ask a few questions...
If the stories that Moses delivered to Israel came from the Kenites, Midianites, and Edomites, can they still be the history of Israel?
If the hierarchy of priests and prescription of sacrifices that Moses gave Israel is patterned after the priests of Midian, was it also ordained of God?
Moses wasn't there.
When Noah brought the animals into the ark 2-by-2, and the door was shut and the fountains of the deep broke forth...
Moses wasn't sitting in the crow's nest taking notes.
And when Abraham met the LORD of all creation and cut a covenant in which he was promised to become a father of nations...
Moses was absent.
But Moses writes about ALL these things. How did he know? He must have had source material. Where'd he get his source material from?
It could have come from Egypt, where Moses was educated as a prince. But it probably didn't. We have the Egyptians stories, and they don't look like the stories in Genesis.
It could have come from his natural parents. But Moses mostly wasn't raised in his parents' home, having been adopted by Pharoah's daughter from his birth.
God could have told him all about it. But the Bible is usually careful to tell us when God is speaking, (thus saith the Lord), and... it doesn't tell us that God gave Moses the stories of Genesis. It doesn't even hint at it.
There's a theory called the Kenite Hypothesis that supposes that Moses got information about all the things that happened BEFORE he lived from his father-in-law, Jethro. Jethro is called a Kenite in Scripture (Judges 1), hence the name Kenite Hypothesis.
Exodus 3:1 tells us that Moses married the daughter of Jethro, who was "The Priest of Midian." 1Ch 2:55 tells us that Jethro's descendants included 3 clans of scribes. It seems likely that a clan of scribes had written records. And Moses, as the son-in-law of the priest... he had access. He lived as part of their tribe for 40 years.
When Moses encountered God on Mt Horeb, it was in Midianite territory. When he was sent back to Egypt to liberate his people... it was as a priest, like his father-in-law. Once the Israelites come out of Egypt, Moses marches them straight back to that same mountain, and before they met God... they met Jethro. Upon the meeting, Moses himself says, "the God of my father was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh." (Exodus 18) It seems that the father in question was Jethro, and so the God in question is the God of Jethro.
The rest of Exodus 18 is worth a read. Moses does obeisance to Jethro. Jethro blesses Moses. Jethro offers sacrifices for Moses and Aaron (who won't be anointed priest for about 12 more chapters). Jethro gives Moses the Israelites whole system of judges, and...
Exodus 18:14 - So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.
And this continues with the later Kenites. They allied themselves to Israel in the wilderness (Judges 1). When each tribe of Israel sent a spy into the Promised Land (Numbers 13), the representative for Judah... Caleb... was actually a Kenite (Judges 1). When Judah had been conquered, Caleb and his family were allotted cities alongside the Jews, including Hebron, which became the first capital of Judah. The first Judge of Israel in the book of Judges, Othniel, was a Kenite (Judges 3).
I say all this to ask a few questions...
If the stories that Moses delivered to Israel came from the Kenites, Midianites, and Edomites, can they still be the history of Israel?
If the hierarchy of priests and prescription of sacrifices that Moses gave Israel is patterned after the priests of Midian, was it also ordained of God?
