A Study in Three Parts:  1. The Antiquity of Genesis;  2. Flood Traditions from around the World and  3. The Genesis Flood Tablet.

Book Review:  Authenticity of the Book of Genesis, by Bill Cooper, Chinese-English Edition.  A Study in Three Parts:  1. The Antiquity of Genesis;  2. Flood Traditions from around the World and  3. The Genesis Flood Tablet

Book Summary:  This Chinese-English version of Bill Cooper’s book has been published with the target audience of the University-educated citizens of China.  The goal of the book is to provide overwhelming factual evidence to skeptical readers of the Bible Genesis text as real and accurate history.  The emphasis of the book is Genesis 1 - 11.  The book compares the skeptic’s criticism of Genesis versus the earliest historical evidence.  The honest reader will discover that the Genesis events, people, and places are true, early and original history.  Also, Bible searchers and Christians will find facts for disputing Bible skeptic claims of a late writing time and also a fabricated Bible Genesis account.

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(Book Review)

This book series was recommended to me by Ryan Bitikofer (missionary to China) with the comment: “Look this over and see if you can make a teen Bible class lesson from this.”  He said that this Chinese-English version has been published with the target audience of the University-educated citizens of the Chinese Golden Triangle, the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan.  He said that the author’s goal is to provide overwhelming factual evidence to skeptical readers of the Bible Genesis's history.  And he said that the only way one cannot believe the historical facts in this book is if one “chooses” not to believe.

I read all three book parts to gain this understanding.  Each page of the book is formatted in two columns: an English section and a Chinese section.  So the joke I tell is that actually I only read half the book since I only read the English sections.  The book series covers many topics and so it is not easy to summarize and condense.  In the end, three lessons were prepared and presented (one from each part) to a teen Bible class.

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Though each book is about early historical evidence that supports the Bible, yet within all three books are discussions of the Bible critic’s counter claims.  Bill Cooper explains that the critics claim that most of the Bible Old Testament books were written very late, by the Jews, during the Babylonian or Persian captivity time period.  And they claim that the Bible book of Genesis, Chapters 1 through 11, is fiction inspired by the Sumerian and Babylonian myth stories.  The critical justification is that they claim the Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest story of early world events.  The critics say that the Bible book of Genesis is a myth plagiarized (and modified) from the Gilgamesh myth.  Then they claim that the Genesis events, people, and places are made-up.  However, throughout the book, Bill Cooper provides overwhelming evidence of even earlier historical facts (prior to Gilgamesh) that are consistent with the Bible.  He also explains that the Bible critics have known of the supporting facts for a very long time, but have been willfully ignoring the early evidence.

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Book Part 1, “The Antiquity of Genesis” answers the questions: Are the events recorded in the book of Genesis (Chapters 1 through 11) actually as old as they claim?  Was the Bible Genesis account the original creation and early history?  Or, did the Bible writers just copy and adapt later from other Sumerian and Babylonian myth accounts?

Book Part 1 answers that the events, people, and places match the earliest evidence.  Bill Cooper provides non-Biblical evidence for the Temptation and Fall of Man, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, the confusion of languages, the scattering of people, the early Hebrew written language, the events in Canaan, the events in Egypt, and the original Hebrew people.  He also provides non-Biblical evidence for the persons Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, Abram (Abraham), Joseph, and others.  He explains the Bible critic’s claims against these and shows that they are false.

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Book Part 2, “Flood Traditions from around the World” answers the questions:  Was there a global flood?  Do people from all places on the earth have flood accounts that are consistent with Genesis?  Or, did the Bible writers just copy and adapt later from other Sumerian and Babylonian myth flood accounts?

Book Part 2 answers that there was a global flood that has been independently remembered by people all around the world through their early, individual traditional stories.  These individual flood stories are from a time prior to any influence by Christians.  The memories are shown to not be from reading the Bible or being told of the Bible story.  Bill Cooper explains that due to a long time since the flood, it is well expected that the stories would drift from the original.  But he notes basic consistencies in the stories.  He then discusses that the Bible critics claim that the Bible is not original, but fiction, since they say it tells of a flood account copied later from the Sumerian and Babylonian myth accounts.  (Book Part 3 further discusses which non-Biblical flood account is the earliest.)

Book Part 2, Chapters 2, 3, and 4 document the archeological process of discovering and translating the ancient Assyrian clay cuneiform tablets that support the Bible.  In chapter 5, he pens two principles that confound critics of the Bible.  The second principle is a critic’s dilemma:  “Rash claims that archaeology does not support the Bible in any particular matter are always followed by archaeological discoveries which do support the Bible.”

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Within the reading of book Parts 1 and 2 there are comments as to what the Bible skeptics say.  But it is not until book Part 3 is read that the reader fully understands the skeptic’s claims.

Book Part 3: “The Genesis Flood Tablet” answers the questions:  What are the earliest non-Biblical flood accounts that have been found and are they consistent with the Bible Genesis account?  What do the Bible skeptics claim about the Biblical flood and the various worldwide flood tradition accounts?

Book Part 3 answers that the early flood tablet fragment account matches the earliest historical evidence and matches the Bible Genesis account.  He provides flood accounts older than the Gilgamesh myth story that is claimed by the critics.

But critics claim that the earliest flood account is from Tablet 11 of the Epic of Gilgamesh.  Bill Cooper provides evidence that not only is the Epic of Gilgamesh, not an original account, but that it is itself adapted and complied from multiple, older sources.  Previously, I had read the book “Myths From Mesopotamia – Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh and Others” as translated by Stephanie Dalley.  This is referenced in the Bill Cooper book.  Within that book is Tablet 11 of the Epic of Gilgamesh.  The Gilgamesh flood account seems like a fiction “tall tale” that is not plausible.

The oldest flood account that has been found, outside of the Bible, is from a fragment of a cuneiform clay tablet.  Bill Cooper provides the translation of the tablet.  That brief text is very similar to the Bible Genesis flood account.

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The four best sections of the book series in my opinion are:

1.  Book Part 1, Chapter 1, discussion of Bible critics:  Bill Cooper says that the goal of the Bible Critics is to take a Christian down small steps of doubt to become an Atheist.  Their goal is to put doubt into your mind.  He explains that the most common Bible attacks begin at the foundation –the Book of Genesis.  He says that the war is first waged here because, if there is no creation and no Fall of Man, then there is no Savior and no salvation.

2.  Book Part 1, Chapter 2, more discussion of Bible critics:  Bill Cooper says that Bible critics assert a very late writing date of the book of Genesis. They claim it was written as a fiction story by Jewish scribes while they were captives in Babylon or even later during the Persian Period.  The critics say that none of the Bible events prior to the Babylonian captivity are correct.  Bill Cooper wrote the whole book series to refute those claims.  This is an important section of the book series since it defines what the critics claim.

3.  Book Part 2, Chapter 15, flood account from the ancient Toltec people in Mexico.  He relates that the Toltec people vanished from history long before any Spanish missionaries arrived in the area of Mexico.  The Toltecs left written records of their history.  The written records contain an independent flood, tower, language confusion, and scattering accounts very similar to the Bible Genesis account.  It is clear that they did not get this from reading the Bible.  Bill Copper says that critics cannot say the Toltecs heard these traditions from Spanish missionaries since the Toltecs had been long gone before missionaries arrived.

4.  Book Part 3, Chapter 5, the Flood Tablet fragment text:  The text is a separate, partial, historical document that very briefly provides a flood account that is consistent with the Bible Genesis account.  This clay fragment is the oldest historical flood account that has been found.

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The oddest part of the book comes from Book Part 2, Chapter 2 which is a reference source of historical information that is then used over and over as Bible supporting evidence.  It is the book series “Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend, and Law.” It is written by Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941).  This source is often cited by Bill Cooper.  But Frazer is a critic that unintentionally provides supporting evidence for the Bible's history.  (And one can download this old Frazer three-part book series from the internet as three .pdf documents.)  It is unexpected that a Bible critic source would be used as support for Bible history.

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Bill Cooper explained throughout this book series that modern critics and skeptics want you to doubt the Bible book of Genesis events, people, and places.  However, those Bible critics are wrong.  In contrast, the book series clearly shows there is older evidence of the ancient Genesis people, places, and events as original from the beginning of time as recorded in the Bible.  Honest, but skeptical, non-Christians can study this and weigh the evidence.  Also, Christians can use historical evidence to build their faith in the Bible as correct history.

— Andy