What is the history of The Book of Genesis?

Answer 1

A:The Book of Genesis is commonly supposed to have been written just as we have it today, by Moses during the fifteenth-century-BCE Exodus from Egypt.

In fact, scholars say the Book of Genesis has a long history, spanning many centuries in the first millennium BCE and was written by three main authors, largely based on oral myths and legends passed down by storytellers.

The three main sources for Genesis were all anonymous but are now known to scholars as the 'J Source' or Yahwist, the 'E Source' or Elohist, and the 'P Source' or Priestly Source. J wrote around 900 BCE from the perspective of the southern Hebrew kingdom of Judah. E wrote more than a century later, from the perspective of the Israelites in the northern kingdom. Some time after 700 BCE, the two sources were combined by a redactor into a common source document known to scholars as 'JE'. This was amended and added to during the Babylonian Exile by P. Finally, a Redactor finished the work, producing the Book of Genesis more or less as we know it today.