Early Church on the Authorship of Genesis

[Guest]

Paidion,

I thought you would probably know what the opinion of the early church fathers was about whom the author of Genesis was. Could you tell me what you know about this?

Someone I am having an ongoing dicussion with has a very strong opinion that Moses is not the author. I do not have any strong opinion on the matter. I was wondering if the early church fathers might have attributed the authorship to Moses. If so, perhaps we can conclude that such a teaching might have been passed down from Jesus and/or the Apostles.

Thanks
Peter

[Guest]

From Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho Chapter 20 (Note the bolded words)

“Moreover, you were commanded to abstain from certain kinds of food, in
order that you might keep God before your eyes while you ate and drank,
seeing that you were prone and very ready to depart from His knowledge,
as Moses also affirms: ‘The people ate and drank, and rose up to play.’
And again: ‘Jacob ate, and was satisfied, and waxed fat; and he who was
beloved kicked: he waxed fat, he grew thick, he was enlarged, and he
forsook God who had made him.’ For it was told you by Moses in the
book of Genesis, that God granted to Noah, being a just man, to eat of
every animal, but not of flesh with the blood, which is dead.” And as he
was ready to say, “as the green herbs,” I anticipated him: “Why do you
not receive this statement, ‘as the green herbs,’ in the sense in which it was given by God, to wit, that just as God has granted the herbs for sustenance of man, even so has He given the animals for the diet of flesh?

[Guest]

Thanks again Paidion
Peter