The Origins of "Genesis," or "Bereshit" in Ancient Hebrew

[MineralMan]

When was Genesis written and by whom? Excellent questions, both of them.

There's quite a good article on this on Wikipedia at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Genesis

First, it's not as old as you might think, at least in its written form. Current scholarship believes it was first written in the 6th Century BC. Who wrote it? Well, the tradition says that Moses did, but that's not the current thinking. It's really a mish-mash of multiple authorship, collected together and edited to become what it is now.

Second, the name of the first book of the Bible comes from the first word on its first page, in ancient Hebrew: bereshit, which the Greeks later translated into Genesis. I'm not sure how to pronounce bereshit, and will not attempt to offer a pronunciation guide. I know nothing of ancient Hebrew. However, you can hear the word pronounced at the link below:

https://www.howtopronounce.com/bereshit/

For an alternative pronunciation, listen to:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bereshit.ogg

Third, why it was created is an interesting question. Some scholars think it was created on order of the Persians, in exchange for giving the Hebrews control of Jerusalem, following the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, which is linked to the claim that it was first assembled in the 6th Century BC.

Anyhow, there's lots more interesting information in the Wikipedia article about this long-lived work of tribal nomads that has had such an impact on the world.