EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 



and to apprehend the degree of historical value to be assigned 

 to their narratives. 



The Book of Genesis is the first of the five books forming 

 the Pentateuch. Because one of the oral traditions embodied 

 therein has its roots in the Mosaic era, and because the great 

 Legislator stamped his genius on the work, Moses is regarded 

 as the author of the Pentateuch. A large part of its production 

 is due to him, and he exercised a deep influence on its ultimate 

 form. The book was first composed in Arabia in the fifteenth 

 or thirteenth century B.C., according to the date assigned to 

 Moses. Later adaptations required by the changing times were 

 made in line with the spirit of Moses and claim his authority. 

 The final author who set down the primitive history in its 

 definitive redaction was an anonymous Hebrew writer who 

 probably lived during the period immediately following the 

 Babylonian exile, in the sixth century B.C. 



In his task of composition the sacred author was assisted 

 by the divine charism of inspiration, that is, the action by 

 which God, principal author of Scripture, utilizes men as His 

 instruments, illuminating their minds, moving them to write, 

 and assisting them while they write, that they may conceive 

 clearly and express infallibly all that He wishes to com- 

 municate. The supernatural illumination of the writer's mind 

 does not necessarily suppose that previously unknown truths 

 were made known to him by way of revelation. Though 

 inspiration and revelation may be given simultaneously, or- 

 dinarily they are given separately. In the latter case, intellec- 

 tual enlightenment is conferred, not that the human author 

 may be enriched with new ideas, but that he may judge with 

 certainty the divine truth of information already acquired. 

 Thus the inspired writer may transmit data derived from the 

 environment in which he lives, and his work may involve 

 recourse to oral or written sources currently available. But if, 

 in the early chapters of Genesis, the author drew on popular 

 stories for some of his material, as he assuredly did, he was 

 aided by divine inspiration which kept him from all error in 

 the choice and evaluation of such documents and traditions. 



Accordingly the biblical account of our origins, written 

 under inspiration, reports without error those truths which 

 God wishes to have conveyed, that is, facts of the economy 



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