Creation Station
Anthropology and Archaeology
Why It Matters! What is the Oldest Written Record?
So often in programs about the past the question is often brought up about what is the oldest written record in the world? Most people deal with this subject, including some Christians and Jews, make the mistake of dating all of Genesis to the time of Moses. In fact Genesis was written over a period of 3000 years by at least 12 different authors. The book is divided into 10 separate sections each one signed by its author or authors. What Moses did was to take these ancient records and edited them into a single book, Genesis.
So what is the oldest written record in the world? At the very least the first 11 chapters of Genesis are and possibly several chapters after that. Are any of the stories in Genesis copied from similar types of pagan stories? No, the similarity in pagan stories to Biblical stories is due to common experiences for the human race, particularly the common experiences of the Genesis Flood and the Tower of Babel. Biblical records are the oldest ones on Earth, they just weren’t made public until the time of Moses.
