It's easy to think of the Bible as one long book, but the truth is it's more like a whole library,
representing topics ranging from history to poetry to law.
But who are the real people who contributed to the Bible's authorship?
As is sometimes the case, historical scholarship and religious teachings don't always match up
precisely, and this is true in the case of the question of who wrote the Bible.
Centuries of scholarship have investigated and explored this topic,
and there's still some debate over it to this day.
For some Christians and some Conservative Jews, the matter of who wrote the first five
books of the Bible is simple and straightforward: Moses. According to them, he is behind Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which are together known as the "Pentateuch."
"God has set before you this day his laws of life and good and death."
In the 18th and 19th centuries, however, German researchers began to take a critical look at the
texts, and found that they could not have been written by the same man. There were differences
in style and language, for example, and differing accounts of the same event told in different ways.
Very simply put, the texts had been compiled by different editors and redactors over the years;
men whose names have largely been lost to history. It was these writings that
were eventually gathered and compiled into the Pentateuch.
After the Pentateuch, the next major section of the Old Testament is its 12 books of history,
beginning with Joshua and concluding with Esther. These works cover a centuries-long period,
starting out with an insight into God's relationship with his people following
their return from captivity in Egypt. They then progress through the height of Israel's strength
as a regional power, followed by its decline and the eventual captivity of the Israelites.
Four of the major books from this section are those of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings,
believed for centuries to have been written by Joshua and Samuel themselves. However,
the language in those texts bears similarity to that of Deuteronomy,
leading some Bible scholars to conclude that they were written by the same person.
It's also likely that they could have been compiled by Jewish priests serving during
the Israelites' captivity in Babylon in the middle of the 5th century BCE.
The Old Testament's section on history is followed by one more section: the Prophets,
which is sometimes divided into Major and Minor. While tradition and some teachings
hold that they were written by the men whose names they bear,
history has come up with a less-straightforward explanation.
For example, consider the major prophet Isaiah, whose name is counted among the
major prophets. The first part of his book may very well have been written by the man himself.
The second part, however, represents a stark tonal shift, and may have been compiled by
later editors. The third section bears linguistic similarity to Deuteronomy,
and could have been written by the author of that text.
For the prophet Jeremiah, ascribing authorship is even more complicated. It could have been
Jeremiah himself, it could have been a man he mentions as having been one of his scribes,
or it could have been one of the Pentateuch’s authors. That said, linguistic analysis points
to these books having been written or compiled by people other than those assumed by dogma.
"What is his name?" "...Jesus."
While the Old Testament covers a period of hundreds of years,
with an authorship traditionally attributed to over a dozen men, the New Testament is
apparently more straightforward. It only covers around a single century, and its authorship
has been historically and dogmatically attributed to only a handful of writers.
Tradition claims that the Gospels were written by the men for whom they were named,
including Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These were contemporaries of Jesus who lived and
ministered alongside him, from circa 4 BCE to circa 30 CE. However, this is likely untrue.
The Gospels weren't written until around 70 CE, a solid four decades after the death of Jesus.
In his book Jesus, Interrupted, Bible scholar Bart Ehrman claims that the Gospels were compiled
from oral tradition. He also suggests that the editors who compiled them attached the names of
Jesus' disciples in order to inform readers as to the supposed authority behind each gospel.
One of the most important figures in the New Testament is the Apostle Paul. The Jewish teacher
who converted to Christianity traditionally wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament,
all of them letters to various churches throughout the Mediterranean region. The narrative of these
works provides much of the basis of Christian practice and doctrine two millennia later.
But did Paul actually write the epistles, as tradition and dogma hold? Well… kind of. He
likely wrote seven of them, with the remaining six having been assigned his name by later editors,
who probably wanted to lend authenticity to their writings by attaching Paul's name to
them. The "Pauline Epistles" believed to be almost certainly written by him are Romans,
1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians,
and Philemon. The rest are believed to have been written by others.
Outside of the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles are three more sections of the New Testament:
History, General Epistles, and Prophecy.
"History" here refers to the book of Acts, which describes the activities of Jesus' disciples in
the decades immediately after his death. The author of this section claims to be Luke,
the same man as the purported author of the Gospel bearing his name.
It was indeed likely to be written by the same man.
The term 'General Epistles' refers to epistles not written by Paul. Purportedly written by
Jesus' disciples, these books were almost certainly compiled or written by others,
in some cases decades or even centuries after their supposed writers' deaths.
The New Testament's one book of prophecy is Revelation. Tradition holds that it was written
by Jesus' disciple, John. However, it was more likely written by John the Elder, a Christian
who lived much later, and was quite possibly the 1st-century equivalent of a circuit preacher.
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