Thank you for the question of the authorship of Genesis and Exodus, “Was Exodus written by the same authors as Genesis?”
In the last 100 years or more, the authorship of the Torah has been questioned by scholars. There are scholars who teaches the JEDP of four or more authors in the writing of the Torah or the Pentateuch while other scholars hold to the authorship of Moses.
As I am reading through the Bible and my view doesn’t represent any other Christian, churches or denomination, I would suggest for one’s consideration that Moses was commanded by God to write down the Laws given by God to him. The words spoken by Moses are recorded within the Pentateuch. I may or sound heretical for saying this but I do believe that Moses wrote and or someone wrote down what he heard from Moses. That person was a living witness, if I may use that term, of the events and words that occured in the Exodus.
Exodus 24 says this, “When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do.” 4 Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said” (A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages). Citations are from the New International Version.
Exodus 31 says this, “When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God” (NIV).
Exodus 35 says this, “Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, “These are the things the LORD has commanded you to do: 2 For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death. 3 Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.” 4 Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the LORD has commanded: 5 From what you have, take an offering for the LORD. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver and bronze; 6 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; 7 ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; 8 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 9 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece…“(NIV).
As one reads the ending of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, the writer bridges with Jacob and Joseph coming into Egypt and the descendants of Jacob’s in Egypt. It is as if the author is writing another chapter of the descendants of Jacob. In Hebrew, the first word are this, “And these are…” There is a conjunction, “and” which would reflect a continuous account which the NIV translator does not include in the first word of Exodus. This is an important point that should not be overlooked. The writer has given the history of Israel and now he is writing the recent present history of Israel to Mount Sinai where the Israelites worshiped God and built the Tent of Meeting. In Exodus 40, the writer points out that Cloud by Day and the Pillar of Fire was with the Israelites in all their travels. At this point, Israel has not really travel anywhere. It is in Numbers that the journey begins. This is a stopping point of Israel’s history of how the Israelites left Egypt and built the Tent of Meeting. Moses is the central figure who communicates the words of the LORD to the Israelites.
The question for me is what words did Moses write down in Exodus 24:4. There was a written scroll by Moses of all that God told him. The priesthood were entrusted with the verbal and or written Law. Is the content of that scroll reflected in Genesis and at least in Exodus. That’s my opinion. Were there other things that God told Moses that is not recorded in Exodus? One would think so as he went into the Tent of the Meeting to seek God’s answer, those answers were not recorded except for the inheritance of daughters when a parent has no sons. Did Moses asked God about the history of the Israelites beside what he heard from Israelites or from the Egyptians? Moses took the coffin of Joseph and brought it out of Egypt. One would think so if there is a birth of a new nation, then there must be a verbal or written record of that nation. Thus for me the narrative is a continuous one by one author and not a series of authors.
Joshua 1 records this, “So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Then Moses commanded them: “At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. 12 Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. 13 Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess ” (NIV).
Moses wrote down the Law in Deuteronomy for the new generation of Israelites beside the Laws at Mount Sinai. Thus the Biblical text states that Moses wrote the Laws down and that future kings were even to make a copy of that Law and to meditate on it day and night so as to obey it to be blessed or cursed depending on their obedience to it.
It has been suggested that a writer Jehovist wrote Genesis and Elohist wrote Exodus. That view implies that the Israelites didn’t know their history until the reign of Solomon when Genesis was written with other books written later. There are even scholars doubt that Solomon and the Temple never existed which would mean that the Torah was written during the Babylonian captivity. It is not reasonable in my opinion to think that the exiled Jews had no history of their own and that it was fabricated during the Babylonian captivity. A meager group of Jews would adopt a monotheistic worship of God when the Babylonians were polytheistic to rebuild a temple and later the walls of Jerusalem does not seem plausible. I do not accept the revisionist view of Israel history.
The text states that Moses verbalized and wrote the Law for the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai and at the renewal of the covenant for the Israelites before his death. In my opinion and it is a conjecture, that Joshua completed Deuteronomy since he was a living witness and leader of Israel. As Moses’ assistant, he witnesses and heard from Moses. Thus in my own conclusion and it is a tentative one that Moses and Joshua wrote what is now called the Torah.
SUMMARY: It is not credible that the exiled Jews had no previous history of their own and to accept a fabricate one from Babylon. It would be paramount for them to lie about their history and to ask the Jews not to lie at all. That would be the paramount of hypocrisy and deception.
For more perspectives:
https://www.quora.com/Was-Exodus-written-by-the-same-authors-as-Genesis