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Who is the author of holy bible?

Question #18899. Asked by bchajela.

tented
Answer has 1 vote
tented

Answer has 1 vote.
Although the authors of much of the New Testament are known most of it dates back to what some might describe as Jewish folk tales. There is no answer as such to this question.

May 08 2002, 4:16 AM
Jack Flash
Answer has 2 votes
Jack Flash

Answer has 2 votes.
This is a very difficult question to answer. The first five books of the Old Testament (ie Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) are generally attributed to Moses, whilst the authors of Joshua, Judges and Ruth are uncertain although Samuel may have written Ruth. Nobody knows who wrote Samuel I and II, or Kings I and II. Ezra may have written Chronicles I and II. Ezra wrote Ezra, and Nehemiah wrote Nehemiah. Esther may have been written by Mordecai and the Book of Job almost certainly was written by Job himself. Of the 150 Psalms in the Book of Psalms, 100 have the author's name inscribed. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon were all written by Solomon. Isaiah and Jeremiah are the respective authors of those two Books and Lamentations is generally attributed to Jeremiah also. The remaining Books, from Ezekiel to Malachi, all bear the name of their respective authors.

Tradition ascribes the first four books of the New Testament to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke. The next 13 Books (ie down to and including Philemon) are all by St Paul. Hebrews may also be by Paul although there is some dispute about this. James is by James, the half-brother of Jesus, and Peter I and II are by St Peter himself. John I, II and II were written by St John in his old age. Jude was written by Jude, brother of Jesus. The last Book, Revelations, is by St John.

I'm glad you didn't ask about The Apocrypha.

An excellent reference source is 'The Bible Book By Book' by G Coleman Luck (a paperback published by Moody Press, Chicago).

May 08 2002, 4:43 AM
JALewis
Answer has 1 vote
JALewis

Answer has 1 vote.
With regard to the Hebrew Bible, most scolars agree that it is a composite work consisting of texts by different authors, put together about 440 B.C.E. by a master editor known as The Redactor or R. The oldest of the text, covering portions of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers was probably written by a chronicler of the Solomonic court, named J in the 10th century B.C.E. The Book of J by Rosenberg and Bloom

May 08 2002, 11:32 AM
Arpeggionist star
Answer has 1 vote
Arpeggionist star
20 year member
2173 replies

Answer has 1 vote.
Well, linguistic evidence points to the possibility that some OT books may have had more than one author (Job, for instance, seems to have been written in stages, with the first two and last chapters having been added onto the body of the book proper). Certainly the Books of Moses were not penned entirely in sequence by a single author (though the degree to which different authors wrote the books will probably forever be a subject of dispute). Solomon also certainly did not write Ecclesiastes (the book in Hebrew employs a vocabulary quite different from that of Solomon's, which he used in the other two attributed to him).

As for the books of Kings, my educated guess would be that they were compiled from texts of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Shafan, and the minor prophets of the northern tribes of Israel. Chronicles seems to be a more chronological account of the history of the kings of Judah, but Kings were written from a more religio-centric perspective, with a solid focus on the worship of the god of Israel and following the law of Moses - thus the kings of Judah could each have their own scribes add to an already existing of the book of Chronicles, but the prophets retained control over their own records in Kings.

The book of Esther is named for its main author - Esther, daughter of Avichayil. Her authorship is identified by name in chapter 9. Ruth, however, is not named for its author. My guess is that it was written by David, who wrote it as a piece of his family history (and thus identified himself and his family at the ending). That David is mentioned at the book's close but none of his brothers are certainly leads me to believe that they were excluded for a reason (all of David's brothers are identified elsewhere). In Jewish orthodox tradition, Judges is usually attributed to Samuel.

Mar 02 2009, 8:52 PM
mrp1017
Answer has 1 vote
mrp1017

Answer has 1 vote.
Man. And the life experiences he's had.

Jun 11 2009, 11:36 PM
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