Authorship of the Bible

This article is about modern scholarly approaches to the composition of the biblical texts. For traditional teachings, see Biblical inspiration.

The books of the Bible represent the culmination of intricate literary processes spanning multiple generations, with numerous unnamed scribes, compilers, and revisers contributing layers of material over extended periods, contrasting sharply with traditional attributions to singular prophetic or apostolic figures.

Contemporary biblical studies reveals how these texts evolved from communal oral performance through sophisticated scribal workshops of the Second Temple era, subsequently transmitted via manuscript copying networks, transformed by print technology, and refined through modern scholarly editions.

Archaeological discoveries including the Dead Sea Scrolls alongside extensive documentation of textual variation, encompassing hundreds of thousands of divergent readings preserved in manuscript collections worldwide, illuminate a dynamic, fluid compositional landscape where discrete literary fragments coalesced into comprehensive biblical books.

Divine authorship

See also: Biblical inspiration and Prophet

The rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud held that God wrote the Torah in heaven in letters of black fire on parchment of white fire before the world was created, and that Moses received it by divine dictation. The early Church Fathers agreed that the scriptures were inspired or dictated by God, but not on which writings were scriptural: as a result, the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches treat some books (the Apocrypha) as inspired, but the Protestant tradition does not.

In the 20th century, the vast majority of Catholic and Protestant theologians moved away from the divine dictation model and emphasized the role of the human authors. Many conservative scholars now accept, for example, that the Book of Isaiah has multiple authors and that 2 Corinthians is two letters joined. Nevertheless, both Dei Filius, the First Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, and Dei verbum, the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, retain the form of wording which states that the scriptures "have God as their author", with the latter text adding that

In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him they made use of their powers and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted.

Historical authorship

Modern scholarship recognizes that biblical texts typically emerged through complex processes involving multiple unknown authors, editors, and redactors working across centuries, rather than single-author composition. These anonymous scribes and compilers, distinct from the traditionally attributed prophets and figures like Moses, Isaiah, or David, worked to combine earlier sources, add editorial layers, and facilitate communal transmission, with most books showing evidence of this collaborative process rather than composition by the famous biblical personalities to whom they are traditionally ascribed.

Historical authorship and textual transmission progressed from oral tradition and scribal copying to print standardization and modern critical editions that underwrite contemporary American English Bibles such as the New International Version and English Standard Version. Textual critics document hundreds of thousands of non-spelling variant readings (500k+ in 2020) across roughly six thousand Greek New Testament manuscripts and thousands of Hebrew Bible witnesses.

Many differences are orthographic or word order, yet a substantial set comprises added, omitted, or relocated lines, verses, and longer passages. Notable examples include the longer ending of Mark 16:9–20, the pericope adulterae in John 7:53–8:11, the Comma Johanneum in 1 John 5:7–8, and shorter or longer readings such as Luke 22:43–44 and 23:34a. The Hebrew Bible shows comparable phenomena, including the shorter Greek form of Jeremiah relative to the Masoretic Text, divergences in 1 Samuel 17–18, and readings such as Deuteronomy 32:8 supported by the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Ancient scribal practices

Biblical writings moved from oral performance to written artifacts produced by professional scribes during the Second Temple period (c. 6th century BCE–1st century CE), using ruled columns on papyrus or animal skin parchment and vellum. The Judean Desert corpus (c. 3rd century BCE–2nd century CE) shows standardized technical routines, including pricking and ruling, column width conventions, orthographic choices, and correction practices such as erasure, interlinear insertion, and marginal annotation. Hebrew biblical scrolls from the Judean Desert (c. 3rd century BCE–2nd century CE) were written overwhelmingly on parchment, with only a small minority on papyrus, and they display paratext features such as ketiv qere and proto-Masoretic diacritic guidance that later culminated in full Tiberian systems (c. 7th–10th centuries CE). Early Greek Christian manuscripts (c. 2nd–4th centuries CE) exhibit nomina sacra and rapid transition to the codex format, which functioned as material signals of scriptural status and reading use.

Copying followed exemplars with local error control. Scribes counted lines or checked column totals, compared exemplar and copy visually, and annotated corrections inline or in margins. Colophons in some traditions recorded scribe, place, and date, and the Masorah later recorded variant readings and accents as a meta-textual quality system. Redaction and compilation produced larger literary units. Tradents combined sources, inserted headings and transitional sentences, harmonized parallels, and excerpted anthologies such as psalm and prophetic collections. The resulting textual families are described in the standard typology used by Hebrew Bible textual critics, with proto-Masoretic, pre-Samaritan, texts close to the Hebrew hyparchetype behind the Septuagint, and non-aligned forms all attested at Qumran.

Early textual traditions and the codex revolution

See also: Development of the Old Testament canon and Development of the New Testament canon

Transmission proceeded through distinct textual traditions across multiple centuries. The Hebrew stream crystallized as the Masoretic Text with Tiberian vocalization, accents, and masoretic notes (c. 7th–10th centuries CE). Ancient versions attest earlier textual states and exegetical translation strategies, including the Greek Septuagint (c. 3rd century BCE–2nd century CE), the Aramaic Targums (c. 1st–8th centuries CE), the Peshitta (c. 2nd–5th centuries CE), the Latin Vulgate (c. 382–405 CE), and the Coptic translations (c. 3rd–7th centuries CE). Surveys of early Christian translation activity appear at Early translations of the New Testament. For the later history of vernaculars see Bible translations and Modern English Bible translations.

The shift from scroll to codex altered production and use during the first through fourth centuries CE. Literary rolls remained common in the wider Greco-Roman world into the fourth century, yet the surviving Christian evidence shows a strong preference for codices by the second and third centuries, especially for writings treated as scripture. This format enabled binding of multiple works, durable reuse, and dense cross-referencing. Major parchment codices from the fourth and fifth centuries CE preserve extensive biblical corpora, including Codex Sinaiticus (c. 330–360 CE), Codex Vaticanus (c. 300–325 CE), and Codex Alexandrinus (c. 400–440 CE). Eusebian canon tables (c. 320s CE) and later chapter systems simplified navigation, and the modern reference system with Chapters and verses of the Bible.

Printing revolution and critical editions

The printing press moved transmission from manuscript to mass production and then to critical standardization. The Complutensian Polyglot Bible contains the editio princeps of the Septuagint and the first printed Greek New Testament, with the New Testament colophon dated 10 January 1514, although publication lagged until papal approval and market conditions allowed broader release. Erasmus issued the first published Greek New Testament in 1516, which quickly shaped scholarly and vernacular work. Robert Estienne introduced verse numbers for the New Testament in his 1551 Greek-Latin edition, a reference technology adopted across languages and later extended to full Bibles.

Modern critical scholarship

Modern critical baselines are Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and Biblia Hebraica Quinta on the Hebrew side and Novum Testamentum Graece (NA28) with the UBS Greek New Testament (UBS5) on the Greek side, each with a selective critical apparatus that documents major variants and witnesses. The mainstream scholarly consensus on New Testament textual criticism methodology has been established with the comprehensive handbooks by Kurt and Barbara Aland's The Text of the New Testament, along with Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman's The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration.

Dead Sea Scrolls, composition and combination evidence

Qumran yielded twenty-one Isaiah manuscripts. Two came from Cave 1, eighteen from Cave 4, and one from Cave 5. A further copy of Isaiah was discovered south of Qumran at Wadi Murabba'at, bringing the Judean Desert total to twenty-two. The Great Isaiah Scroll 1QIsaa preserves all sixty-six chapters across fifty-four columns and is physically bisected at roughly chapters 33–34, a feature sometimes used to discuss internal book divisions, yet the fragmentary Cave 4 witnesses span passages from both early and late chapters, so a simple first-half versus second-half count is not meaningful. The number and distribution of Isaiah witnesses at Qumran, together with pesher commentaries, indicate intensive community use and an open textual environment consistent with broader Judean Desert pluriformity described by Tov and Ulrich.

Evidence for combining previously separate prophetic writings into larger scrolls is direct. Multiple Qumran copies of the Book of the Twelve are transmitted as single scrolls that already combine the twelve Minor Prophets. Outside Qumran, the Greek Minor Prophets Scroll 8HevXIIgr from Nahal Hever transmits the Twelve in one Greek scroll and preserves book order data used in composition research. The existence of single-scroll Twelve manuscripts, alongside multiple Isaiah copies with overlapping coverage across early and late chapters, documents a scribal practice in which smaller units could be copied and later combined into larger literary wholes.

Medieval to modern texts

See also: Bible translations, Early translations of the New Testament, and Modern English Bible translations

The Complutensian and Erasmus editions initiated a print era in which multicolumn comparison and editorial notes became normal. Verse numbering by Estienne created a fixed reference grid for quick reference. Modern critical projects continue that workflow by documenting variants across witnesses in a controlled apparatus.

Today's biblical scholars and translators rely on carefully maintained reference editions that serve as the foundation for academic study and modern Bible translations. The Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft (German Bible Society) publishes two of the most important critical editions: the BHQ for the Hebrew Bible (with completion expected by 2032) and the NA28 for the Greek New Testament, which forms the basis for the UBS6 text (2025). These represent centuries of scholarly work comparing thousands of ancient manuscripts, providing translators and researchers reliable reconstructions of the original biblical texts.

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, is the collection of scriptures making up the Bible used by Judaism. The same books, in a slightly different order, also make up the Protestant version of the Old Testament. The order used here follows the divisions used in Jewish Bibles.

Most of the Hebrew Bible was written between the late 8th century BCE and early 6th century BCE. Biblical texts were written by scribes (Hebrew: sofer), the literate class of bureaucrats in a mostly non-literate, oral culture. The question of biblical authorship was not important until Hellenization in the 4th century BCE, long after most biblical books had been written. Ancient Greeks believed that a text's authority depended on its author, and Jewish tradition was pressured to identify authors for its writings.

Torah

Main article: Composition of the Torah

A Sefer Torah

The first division of the Jewish Bible is the Torah, meaning 'Instruction' or 'Law'. In scholarly literature, it is frequently called by its Greek name, the Pentateuch ('five scrolls'). It is the group of five books made up of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and stands first in all versions of the Christian Old Testament.

There is a tradition within Judaism and Christianity that Moses wrote the Torah. The Torah itself attributes certain sections to Mosaic authorship. In later biblical texts, such as Daniel 9:11 and Ezra 3:2, it is called the "Torah of Moses". According to Rabbinic tradition, the five books of the Torah were written by Moses, with the exception of the last eight verses of Deuteronomy which describe his death.

Moses would have lived in the 2nd millennium BCE, before the development of Hebrew writing. Scholars date the Torah to the 1st millennium BCE. The Torah may, however, incorporate older oral traditions, such as proverbs, stories, and songs. Most Jews and Christians believed in Mosaic authorship until the 17th century. Today, the majority of scholars agree that the Pentateuch does not have a single author and that its composition took place over centuries.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers

The rise of historical criticism in the 19th century led scholars to conclude that multiple authors wrote the Pentateuch over a long period. By the mid-20th century, the documentary hypothesis had gained nearly universal consensus among scholars. According to the documentary hypothesis, the Pentateuch was created by combining four originally independent documents. The Jahwist source (c. 10th – c. 9th century BCE) and the Elohist source (c. 8th century BCE) were the first to be combined into one document. In the 7th century BCE, the Deuteronomist produced Deuteronomy, which was later added to the combined document. In the post-exilic period, the Pentateuch reached its final form with the addition of the Priestly source (c. 5th century BCE).

The consensus around the documentary hypothesis began to break down in the 1970s, and this approach has since seen various revisions. While the identification of distinctive Deuteronomistic and Priestly theologies and vocabularies remains widespread, they are used to form new approaches suggesting that the books were combined gradually over time by the slow accumulation of "fragments" of text, or that a basic text was "supplemented" by later authors/editors. At the same time there has been a tendency to bring the origins of the Pentateuch further forward in time, and the most recent proposals place it in 5th century BCE Judah under the Persian empire.

Deuteronomy

See also: Deuteronomist § Deuteronomistic history

Deuteronomy is treated separately from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. Its place in the documentary hypothesis is anomalous, as it, unlike the other four, consists of a single "source". The process of its formation probably took several hundred years, from the 8th century to the 6th, and its authors have been variously identified as prophetic circles (because the concerns of Deuteronomy mirror those of the prophets, especially Hosea), Levitical priestly circles (because it stresses the role of the Levites), and wisdom and scribal circles (because it esteems wisdom, and because the treaty-form in which it is written would be best known to scribes). Deuteronomy was later used as the introduction to the comprehensive history of Israel written in the early part of the 6th century, and later still it was detached from the history and used to round off the Pentateuch.

Prophets

Main article: Nevi'im

Former prophets

See also: Book of Joshua § Composition, Book of Judges § Composition, Books of Samuel § Composition, and Books of Kings § Composition

The Former Prophets (נביאים ראשונים, Nevi'im Rishonim), make up the first part of the second division of the Hebrew Bible, the Nevi'im, which translates as "Prophets". In Christian Bibles the Book of Ruth, which belongs in the final section of the Hebrew Bible, is inserted between Judges and Samuel.

According to Jewish tradition dating from at least the 2nd century CE, the Book of Joshua was by Joshua, the Book of Judges and the Books of Samuel were by the prophet Samuel (with some passages by the prophets Gad and Nathan), while the two Books of Kings were by Jeremiah. Since 1943 most scholars have accepted Martin Noth's argument that Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings make up a single work, the so-called "Deuteronomistic history." Noth believed that the history was the work of a single author writing in the time of the Babylonian exile (586–539 BCE). This author/editor took as his starting point an early version of the book of Deuteronomy, which had already been composed during the reign of Josiah (last quarter of the 7th century), selecting, editing and composing it to produce a coherent work. Frank Moore Cross later proposed that an earlier version of the history was composed in Jerusalem in Josiah's time; this first version, Dtr1, was then revised and expanded to create Noth's second edition, or Dtr2. Still later scholars have discovered further layers and further author-editors. In the 1990s some scholars began to question the existence of a Deuteronomistic history and the question of the origin of these books continues to be debated.

Latter prophets

A fragment of the Book of Isaiah found among the Dead Sea Scrolls

Isaiah

Main article: Book of Isaiah § Composition

Modern scholars divide the Book of Isaiah into three parts, each with a different origin: "First Isaiah", chapters 1–39, containing the words of the historical 8th century BCE prophet Isaiah and later expansions by his disciples; "Deutero-Isaiah" (chapters 40–55), by an anonymous Jewish author in Babylon near the end of the Babylonian captivity; and "Trito-Isaiah" (chapters 56–66), by anonymous disciples of Deutero-Isaiah in Jerusalem immediately after the return from Babylon (although some scholars suggest that chapters 55–66 were written by Deutero-Isaiah after the fall of Babylon). This orderly sequence of pre-exilic, exilic and post-exilic material is somewhat misleading, as some scholars note that significant editing appears to have taken place in all three parts.

Jeremiah

Main article: Book of Jeremiah § Composition

Jeremiah lived in the late 7th and early 6th centuries BCE. The Book of Jeremiah presents Baruch ben Neriah as the prophet's companion who writes his words on several occasions, and there has accordingly been much speculation that Baruch could have composed an early edition of the book. In the early 20th century Sigmund Mowinckel identified three types of material in the book, Jeremiah 1–25 (Type A) being the words of Jeremiah himself, the biographic prose material (Type B) by an admirer writing c. 580–480 BCE, and the remainder (Type C) from later periods. There has been considerable debate over Mowinckel's ideas, notably the extent of the Jeremiah material and the role of Baruch, who may have been the author of the Type B material. It is generally agreed that the book has strong connections with the Deuteronomistic layers from the Former Prophets, recapitulating in modern terms the traditional idea that Jeremiah wrote both his own book and the Books of Kings.

Ezekiel

Main article: Book of Ezekiel § Composition

The Book of Ezekiel describes itself as the words of Ezekiel ben-Buzi, a priest living in exile in the city of Babylon between 593 and 571 BCE. The various manuscripts, however, differ markedly from each other, and it is clear that the book has been subjected to extensive editing. While Ezekiel himself may have been responsible for some of this revision, there is general agreement that the book as we have it today is the product of a highly educated priestly circle that owed allegiance to the historical Ezekiel and was closely associated with the Temple.

Minor Prophets or Book of the Twelve

See also: Book of Hosea, Book of Joel, Book of Amos, Book of Obadiah, Book of Jonah, Book of Micah, Book of Nahum, Book of Habakkuk, Book of Zephaniah, Book of Haggai, Book of Zechariah, and Book of Malachi

The Minor Prophets are one book in the Hebrew Bible, and many (though not all) modern scholars agree that the Book of the Twelve underwent a process of editing which resulted in a coherent collection. This process is believed to have reached its final form in the Persian period (538–332 BCE), although there is disagreement over whether this was early or late. For the individual books, scholars usually assume that there exists an original core of prophetic tradition which can be attributed to the figure after whom the book is named. The noteworthy exception is the Book of Jonah, an anonymous work containing no prophetic oracles, probably composed in the Hellenistic period (332–167 BCE).

Writings

See also: Ketuvim

Naomi entreating Ruth and Orpah to return to the land of Moab by William Blake, 1795

Psalms

Main article: Psalms § Composition

While a number of the Psalms bear headings which seem to identify their authors, these are probably the result of the need to find a significant identification in tradition. The individual psalms come from widely different periods: "some ... presuppose a reigning king and an established cult in the Temple; others clearly presuppose and mention the events of the Exile."

Job

Main article: Book of Job § Composition

The unknown author of the Book of Job is unlikely to have written earlier than the 6th century BCE, and the cumulative evidence suggests a post-Exilic date. It contains some 1,000 lines, of which about 750 form the original core.

Proverbs

Main article: Book of Proverbs § Authorship

The Book of Proverbs consists of several collections taken from various sources. Chapters 10:1–22:16 are probably the oldest section, with chapters 1–9 being composed as a prologue – there is some question whether this happened before or after the Exile (587 BCE). The remaining collections are probably later, with the book reaching its final form around the 3rd century BCE.

Ruth

Main article: Book of Ruth § Authorship and date

The Talmud refers to Samuel as the author of Ruth, but this conflicts with several details inside the book. It has been proposed that the anonymous author was a woman, or if a man then one who took women's issues seriously. The book is largely a unity, although the genealogy of David appears to be a later addition.

Song of Songs (Song of Solomon)

Main article: Song of Songs § Authorship

The Song of Songs was traditionally attributed to Solomon, but modern scholars date it around the 3rd century BCE. Scholars still debate whether it is a single unified work (and therefore from a single author), or more in the nature of an anthology.

Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes

Main article: Book of Ecclesiastes § Authorship and historical context

The Book of Ecclesiastes is usually dated to the mid-3rd century BCE. A provenance in Jerusalem is considered likely. The book's claim of Solomon as author is a literary fiction; the author also identifies himself as "Qoheleth", a word of obscure meaning which critics have understood variously as a personal name, a nom de plume, an acronym, and a function; a final self-identification is as "shepherd", a title usually implying royalty.

Lamentations

Main article: Book of Lamentations § Authorship

Lamentations is assigned by tradition to the Prophet Jeremiah; linguistic and theological evidence point to its origin as a distinct book in the 3rd or 2nd century BCE, with the contents having their origin in special mourning observances in Exilic and post-Exilic Jewish communities.

Esther

Main article: Book of Esther § Authorship and date

The Book of Esther was composed in the late 4th or early 3rd century BCE among the Jews of the eastern diaspora. The genre of the book is the novella or short story, and it draws on the themes of wisdom literature; its sources are still unresolved.

Daniel

Main article: Book of Daniel § Dating and content

The Book of Daniel presents itself as the work of a prophet named Daniel who lived during the 6th century BCE; the overwhelming majority of modern scholars date it to the 2nd century BCE. The author, writing in the time of the Maccabees to assure his fellow-Jews that their persecution by the Syrians would come to an end and see them victorious, seems to have constructed his book around the legendary Daniel mentioned in Ezekiel, a figure ranked with Noah and Job for his wisdom and righteousness.

Ezra-Nehemiah

Main articles: Book of Ezra § Structure, composition and date; and Book of Nehemiah § Composition and date

The Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah were originally one work, Ezra-Nehemiah. H.G.M Williamson (1987) proposed three basic stages leading to the final work: (1) composition of the various lists and Persian documents, which he accepts as authentic and therefore the earliest parts of the book; (2) composition of the "Ezra memoir" and "Nehemiah memoir", about 400 BCE; and (3) composition of Ezra 1–6 as the final editor's introduction to the combined earlier texts, about 300 BCE. Lester Grabbe (2003) puts the combination of the two texts Ezra and Nehemiah, with some final editing, somewhat later, in the Ptolemaic period, c. 300–200 BCE.

Chronicles

Main article: Book of Chronicles § Authorship and composition

Chronicles is an anonymous work from Levitical circles in Jerusalem, probably composed in the late 4th century BCE. Although the book is divided into two parts (1st and 2nd Chronicles), the majority of studies propose a single underlying text with lengthy later additions and amendments to underline certain interests such as the cult or the priesthood.

Deuterocanonicals/Biblical apocrypha

See also: Development of the Old Testament canon, Deuterocanonical books, and Biblical Apocrypha

Tobias, Raphael and the fish (Pieter Lastman: illustration to the Book of Tobias)

The Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches include some or all of the following books in their Bibles.

Additions to Daniel

Main article: Prayer of Azariah § Texts and Origin

The Greek text of the Book of Daniel contains additions not found in the Hebrew/Aramaic version. All are anonymous. The Prayer of Azariah (one of Daniel's companions) was probably composed around 169/8–165/4, when Antiochus IV was oppressing the Jews. The Song of the Three Holy Children (i.e., the three thrown into the furnace) may have been composed by priestly circles in Jerusalem. Susanna may have been composed around 170–130 BCE in the context of the Hellenisation struggle. Bel and the Dragon is difficult to date, but the late 6th century is possible.

1 & 2 Esdras

Main articles: 1 Esdras § Author and criticism, and 2 Esdras § Author and criticism

Jerome's translation of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate) contained four books of Esdras (i.e. Ezra); Jerome's 1 and 2 Esdras were eventually renamed Ezra and Nehemiah; the remaining books each moved up two places in most versions, but the numbering system remains highly confused. The present 1 Esdras takes material from the Book of Chronicles and the Book of Ezra, but ignores Nehemiah entirely; it was probably composed in the period 200–100 BCE. 2 Esdras has no connection with the other Esdras books beyond taking Ezra as its central character. It was probably written soon after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE.

Book of Baruch

The author of the Book of Baruch is traditionally held to be Baruch the companion of Jeremiah, but this is considered unlikely. Some scholars propose that it was written during or shortly after the period of the Maccabees.

1, 2, 3 & 4 Maccabees

Main articles: 1 Maccabees § Transmission.2C language and author, 2 Maccabees § Author, 3 Maccabees § Authorship and historicity, and 4 Maccabees § Authorship and criticism

The anonymous author of 1 Maccabees was an educated Jew and a serious historian; a date around 100 BCE is most likely. 2 Maccabees is a revised and condensed version of a work by an otherwise unknown author called Jason of Cyrene, plus passages by the anonymous editor who made the condensation (called "the Epitomist"). Jason most probably wrote in the mid to late 2nd century BCE, and the Epitomist before 63 BCE. 3 Maccabees concerns itself with the Jewish community in Egypt a half-century before the revolt, suggesting that the author was an Egyptian Jew, and probably a native of Alexandria. A date of c. 100–75 BCE is "very probable". 4 Maccabees was probably composed in the middle half of the 1st century CE, by a Jew living in Syria or Asia Minor.

Letter of Jeremiah

Main article: Letter of Jeremiah § Author

The Letter of Jeremiah is not by Jeremiah; the author apparently appropriated the name of the prophet to lend authority to his composition. Nor is it by Jeremiah's secretary Baruch, although it appears as the last chapter of Baruch in the Catholic Bible and the KJV. Internal evidence points to a date around 317 BCE, with the author possibly a Jew in Palestine addressing Jews of the diaspora.

Prayer of Manasseh

The Prayer of Manasseh presents itself as a prayer from the wicked, but now penitent, king Manasseh (or Manassas) from his exile in Babylon. The actual author is unknown, and the date of composition is probably the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE.

Wisdom of Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon

Main articles: Wisdom of Sirach § Author, and Wisdom of Solomon § Composition

Sirach names its author as Jesus ben Sirach. He was probably a scribe, offering instruction to the youth of Jerusalem. His grandson's preface to the Greek translation helps date the work to the first quarter of the 2nd century BCE, probably between 196 BCE and the beginning of the oppression of the Jews by Antiochus IV, who reigned 175–164 BCE. The Wisdom of Solomon is unlikely to be earlier than the 2nd century BCE, and probably dates from 100 to 50 BCE. Its self-attribution to Solomon was questioned even in the medieval period, and it shows affinities with the Egyptian Jewish community and with Pharisee teachings.

Additions to Esther

Main article: Book of Esther § Additions to Esther

The Book of Esther itself was composed probably around 400 BCE by Jews living in the eastern provinces of the Persian empire and reached its final form by the 2nd century BCE; concerns over the legitimacy of certain passages in the Hebrew text led to the identification of the additions to Esther in the Greek translation of Esther of the late 2nd or early 1st century BCE.

Tobit

Main article: Book of Tobit § Date of composition

Tobit is set in the 8th century BCE and is named after its central character, a pious Jew in exile. The generally recognised date of composition is the early 2nd century BCE.

Judith

The Book of Judith is set in Israel in the time of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Assyria. It has strong Persian elements, which suggests a 4th-century BCE date; it also has strong parallels with the Hasmonean period, which suggests a 2nd-century date. It is typically labeled Pharisaic, but an origin in Sadducee circles has also been suggested.

Additional Psalms

Main article: Psalms § Other psalms

The canonical Psalms contains 150 entries. Psalm 151 is found in most Greek translations, and the Hebrew version was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Psalms 152–155 are part of the Syriac Peshitta Bible, some of which were found at Qumran.

New Testament

See also: Development of the New Testament canon

De evangelist Matteüs en de engel by Rembrandt

Gospels and Acts

The gospels (and Acts) are anonymous, in that none of them provide the name of the author within their text. While the Gospel of John might be considered something of an exception, because the author refers to himself as "the disciple Jesus loved" and claims to be a member of Jesus' inner circle, most scholars today consider this passage to be a later addition (see below).

Many scholars argue that the Gospels were written by anonymous figures rather than the disciples traditionally associated with them. Justin Martyr in his First Apology explicitly refers to the apostles as "uneducated" or "illiterate" (Acts 4:13), which has led scholars to question their ability to write the sophisticated Greek texts of the New Testament. Bart Ehrman, a leading New Testament scholar, supports this view, explaining that the socio-economic background of Jesus' disciples—many of whom were fishermen or peasants—makes it unlikely that they could have authored these works. Ehrman also notes that literacy rates in first-century Palestine were extremely low, particularly in rural areas like Galilee, where most of the disciples lived. This is further supported by Catherine Hezser's research on Jewish literacy in Roman Palestine, which highlights the rarity of literacy among common people during this period. Therefore, it is widely accepted among scholars that the Gospels were likely written by anonymous authors rather than the disciples themselves.

There is general agreement among scholars that the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) show a high level of cross-reference. The usual explanation, the two-source hypothesis, is that Mark was written first and that the authors of Matthew and Luke relied on Mark and the hypothetical Q document. Scholars agree that the Gospel of John was written last, using a different tradition and body of testimony. In addition, most scholars agree that the author of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles, making Luke–Acts two halves of a single work.

Mark

According to tradition and early church fathers, first attested by Papias of Hierapolis, the author is Mark the Evangelist, the companion of the apostle Peter. Theissen writes that the gospel appears to rely on several underlying sources, varying in form and in theology, which tells against the tradition that the gospel was based on Peter's preaching, while Elder argues that Mark is an oral work involving both a speaker and a writer who composed the text, which coheres with the patristic testimony. Various elements within the gospel, including the importance of the authority of Peter and the broadness of the basic theology, suggest that the author wrote in Syria or Palestine for a non-Jewish Christian community which had earlier absorbed the influence of pre-Pauline beliefs and then developed them further independent of Paul.

Matthew

Early Christian tradition, first attested by Papias of Hierapolis, held that the apostle Matthew, the tax-collector and disciple of Jesus, had written a Gospel in "Hebrew" (Aramaic, the language of Judea). Modern scholars interpret the tradition to mean that Papias, writing about 125–150 CE, believed that Matthew had made a collection of the sayings of Jesus. However, Papias's description does not correspond well with the Gospel of Matthew: it was most probably written in Greek, not Aramaic or Hebrew; it depends on the Greek Gospel of Mark and on the hypothetical Q document; it is not a collection of sayings; and it is unlikely to have been written by an eyewitness.

Although the identity of the author of our Gospel of Matthew is unknown, the internal evidence of the Gospel suggests that he was an ethnic Jewish male scribe from a Hellenised city, possibly Antioch in Syria, and that he wrote between 70 and 100 CE using a variety of oral traditions and written sources about Jesus.

Luke and Acts

Main article: Authorship of Luke-Acts

There is general acceptance that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles originated as a two-volume work by a single author addressed to an otherwise unknown individual named Theophilus. This author was an "amateur Hellenistic historian" versed in Greek rhetoric, that being the standard training for historians in the ancient world.

According to tradition, first attested by Irenaeus, the author was Luke the Evangelist, the companion of the Apostle Paul, but many modern scholars have expressed doubt and opinion on the subject is evenly divided. Instead, they believe Luke–Acts was written by an anonymous Christian author who may not have been an eyewitness to any of the events recorded within the text. Some of the evidence cited comes from the text of Luke–Acts itself. In the preface to Luke, the author refers to having eyewitness testimony "handed down to us" and to having undertaken a "careful investigation", but the author does not mention his own name or explicitly claim to be an eyewitness to any of the events, except for the we passages. And in the we passages, the narrative is written in the first person plural—the author never refers to himself as "I" or "me". To those who are skeptical of an eyewitness author, the we passages are usually regarded as fragments of a second document, part of some earlier account, which was later incorporated into Acts by the later author of Luke–Acts, or simply a Greek rhetorical device used for sea voyages.

John

John 21:24 identifies the source of the Gospel of John as "the beloved disciple," and from the late 2nd century tradition, first attested by Irenaeus, this figure, unnamed in the Gospel itself, was identified with John the son of Zebedee. Today, however, most scholars agree that John 21 is an appendix to the Gospel, which originally ended at John 20:30–31, though a growing minority view the passage as part of the original text. However, there is considerable debate about how and when the appendix was added, and by whom. For example, several scholars argue it was added after "the beloved disciple" had died. The majority of scholars date the Gospel of John to c. 80–95, and propose that the author made use of two major sources, a "Signs" source (a collection of seven miracle stories) and a "Discourse" source, though recent scholarship has tended to turn against positing hypothetical sources for John.

Epistles

Pauline epistles

Main article: Authorship of the Pauline epistles

Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, 16th-century painting. Most scholars think Paul actually dictated his letters to a secretary, for example Romans 16:22 cites a scribe named Tertius.

The Epistle to the Romans, First Corinthians and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and the Epistle to Philemon are almost universally accepted as the work of Paul – the superscripts to all except Romans and Galatians identify these as coming from Paul and at least one other person, a practice which was not usual in letters of the period, and it is not clear what role these other persons had in their composition. There is some support for Paul's authorship of the three "Deutero-Pauline Epistles," Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians. The three Pastoral epistles – First and Second Timothy and Titus, are probably all from one author, but most historical-critical scholars regard them as the work of someone other than Paul.

Letter to the Hebrews

The Church included the Letter to the Hebrews as the fourteenth letter of Paul until the Reformation. Pauline authorship is now generally rejected, and the real author is unknown.

General epistles

See also: General epistles, Epistle of James, First Epistle of Peter, Second Epistle of Peter, First Epistle of John, Second Epistle of John, Third Epistle of John, and Epistle of Jude

The traditional authors are unknown and the names were attributed to them arbitrarily to make it seem more credible: Peter the apostle (First and Second Peter); the author of the Gospel of John (First, Second and Third John), writing in advanced age; "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James" (Epistle of Jude); and James the Just, "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (James). In fact 1 John is anonymous, and 2 and 3 John identify their author only as "the Elder." Though 2 Peter states its author as "Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ", most scholars today regard this as pseudonymous, and many hold the same opinion of James, 1 Peter and Jude.

Revelation

Main article: Book of Revelation § Authorship

The author of the Book of Revelation was traditionally believed to be the same person as both John, the apostle of Jesus and John the Evangelist, the traditional author of the Fourth Gospel – the tradition can be traced to Justin Martyr, writing in the early 2nd century. Most biblical scholars now believe that these were separate individuals. The name "John" suggests that the author was a Christian of Jewish descent, and although he never explicitly identifies himself as a prophet it is likely that he belonged to a group of Christian prophets and was known as such to members of the churches in Asia Minor. Since the 2nd century the author has been identified with one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. This is commonly linked with an assumption that the same author wrote the Gospel of John. Others, however, have argued that the author could have been John the Elder of Ephesus, a view which depends on whether a tradition cited by Eusebius was referring to someone other than the apostle. The precise identity of "John" therefore remains unknown.

See also

• Authorship of the Johannine works
• Authorship of the Petrine epistles
• Books of the Bible
• Dating the Bible

References

Bibliography

• Barton, John; Muddiman, John, eds. (2001). Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198755005.
• Brueggemann, Walter, "Reverberations of faith: a theological handbook of Old Testament themes" (Westminster John Knox, 2002)
• Cohn-Sherbok, Dan (1996). The Hebrew Bible. A&C Black. ISBN 9780304337033.
• Davies, William David; Katz, Steven T.; and Finkelstein, Louis; "The Cambridge History of Judaism: The late Roman-Rabbinic period" (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
• Dunn, James D. G.; Rogerson, John William, eds. (2003). Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802837110.
• Ehrman, Bart D. (February 2011). Forged: Writing in the Name of God—Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062078636.
• Graham, M.P, and McKenzie, Steven L., "The Hebrew Bible today: an introduction to critical issues" (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998)
• Heschel, Abraham Joshua (2005). Heavenly Torah: As Refracted Through the Generations. A&C Black. ISBN 9780826408020.
• Jacobs, Louis (1995). The Jewish religion: a companion. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198264637.
• Mays, James Luther, Petersen, David L., Richards, Kent Harold, "Old Testament Interpretation" (T&T Clark, 1995)
• Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Mercer University Press. 1991. ISBN 9780865543737.
• Olson, Roger E. (2016). The Mosaic of Christian Belief. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 9780830899708.
• Perdue, Leo G., ed. (2001). The Blackwell companion to the Hebrew Bible. Blackwell. ISBN 9780631210719.
• Rabin, Elliott (2006). Understanding the Hebrew Bible: a reader's guide. KTAV Publishing House. ISBN 9780881258714.
• Schmid, Konrad; Schröter, Jens (2021). The Making of the Bible: From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture. Translated by Lewis, Peter. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674269392.
• Schniedewind, William M. (2004). How the Bible Became a Book: The Textualization of Ancient Israel. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511499135. ISBN 978-0-521-53622-6.
• Van Seters, John (1997). In search of history: historiography in the ancient world and the origins of biblical history. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-013-2.
• Wiseman, D.J. (1970). "Books in the Ancient Near East and in the Old Testament". In Ackroyd, P.R.; Evans, C.F. (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Bible: From the Beginnings to Jerome. Vol. I. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521099738.

Pentateuch

• McDermott, John J. (2002). Reading the Pentateuch: A Historical Introduction. Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-4082-4.
• Miller, Patrick D. (1990). Deuteronomy. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-23737-0.
• Ska, Jean Louis (2006). Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-122-1.
• Van Seters, John (1998). "The Pentateuch". In Steven L. McKenzie, Matt Patrick Graham (ed.). The Hebrew Bible Today: An Introduction to Critical Issues. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-25652-4.
• Van Seters, John (2004). The Pentateuch: a social-science commentary. T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-08088-2.
• Wenham, Gordon (October 1996). "Pentateuchal Studies Today" (PDF). Themelios. 22 (1): 3–13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 June 2024.

Deuteronomistic history

• de Moor, Johannes Cornelis, and Van Rooy, H. F. (eds), "Past, present, future: the Deuteronomistic history and the prophets" (Brill, 2000)
• Albertz, Rainer (ed) "Israel in exile: the history and literature of the sixth century B.C.E." (Society of Biblical Literature, 2003)
• Romer, Thomas, "The Future of the Deuteronomistic History" (Leuven University Press, 2000)
• Marttila, Marko, "Collective reinterpretation in the Psalms" (Mohr Siebeck, 2006)

Prophets and writings

• Miller, Patrick D. and Peter W. Flint, (eds) "The book of Psalms: composition and reception" (Brill, 2005)
• Blenkinsopp, Joseph, "A history of prophecy in Israel" (Westminster John Knox, 1996)
• Clemets, R.E., "Jeremiah" (John Knox Press, 1988)
• Allen, Leslie C., "Jeremiah: a commentary" (Westminster John Knox Press, 2008)
• Sweeney, Marvin, "The Twelve Prophets" vol.1 (Liturgical Press, 2000)
• Sweeney, Marvin, "The Twelve Prophets" vol.2 (Liturgical Press, 2000)

New Testament

• Burkett, Delbert Royce, "An introduction to the New Testament and the origins of Christianity" (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• Aune, David E., (ed) "The Blackwell companion to the New Testament" (Blackwell Publishing, 2010)
• Mitchell, Margaret Mary, and Young, Frances Margaret, "Cambridge History of Christianity: Origins to Constantine" (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Further reading

• List of Old and New Testament Authors by Tradition and Conjecture
• Helms, Ronald McCraw (1996?). Who Wrote the Gospels? First ed. Millennium Press. ISBN 0-9655047-2-7