Where Did the Genesis Creation Accounts Come From?

How did the biblical authors receive the creation narratives? Was there a written or oral tradition passed down from the time of Adam and Eve? Dr. Craig responds!

DR. CRAIG: I have been really shocked at the number of people who think that these traditions go back to Adam, and that that's how the Pentateuchal author got them. I've never believed that, but maybe that's because I'm not a Young Earth Creationist who thinks that Adam lived around 10,000 years ago. I just always assumed that these were revealed by God to the Pentateuchal author, and that his use of sources is no more incompatible with their being divine revelation than Luke's using sources is incompatible with the Gospel of Luke's being inspired and divine revelation. The doctrine of inspiration states not that the authors are inspired, but that the text is inspired. All Scripture is inspired by God, and therefore profitable, etc. It is the text that we have before us, the canonical text, that is God-breathed, and that's perfectly consistent, as I say, with the Pentateuchal author’s drawing upon a multiplicity of oral and literary sources to compose his inspired text.