• Home
  • the podcast
  • Who Wrote the Bible?
  • About
  • join the tribe
  • More
    • Home
    • the podcast
    • Who Wrote the Bible?
    • About
    • join the tribe
  • Home
  • the podcast
  • Who Wrote the Bible?
  • About
  • join the tribe

How Can We Know Who Wrote the Bible?

Biblical writers are just like any other writers

People are people and writers are writers. Whether they lived in 500 BCE or today. There is nothing magical or mysterious about the writing process. Once we accept that empirical fact and treat the stories as stories written by humans like us, we can glean a lot of information about the writers and the world they inhabited when they wrote their biblical stories.

Writers have their own unique style and perspective

Each writer, biblical or otherwise, writes in their own way. Everytime they write, they can only do so from their own perspective, inner world and the reality around them, using preferred words and expressions. There is no other way to write. Once we identify the style, perspective and favorite expressions that appear in a particular story, we can find real actual biblical writers that we know existed, and see if there is one with an identical style, perspective and word choice.

Each historical period is distinct

Just like films made in the 1930s are different from films made in the 1990s or today, so are biblical stories. Stories reflect a perspective on what is going on in the world at that time. This is true in stories set in the past, present or future, if they're realistic stories or include magic - they're always a perspective on the reality at the time of writing.


Here are the important periods in Hebrew history, which are all distinct and generate distinctly different stories (I rounded out the dates for convenience):


         1. 900 BCE - 600 BCE: the Assyrian period. The kingdom of Israel was destroyed and 

              Israelites immigrated to Judea.


         2. 600 BCE - 550 BCE: the Babylonian period. Judea and Jerusalem are destroyed and 

             thousands are taken captive to Babylonia, while others immigrate en masse to Egypt.


         3. 550 BCE - 320 BCE: the Persian period. After chaotic centuries, the Persians usher in

             an era of peace and harmony. Thousands of Hebrews return home to Judea.


         4. 320 BCE - 170 BCE: the Hellenistic period: Alexander the Great conquers the ancient 

              world, and Hellenism becomes widespread and popular.


         5. 170 BCE - 63 BCE: the Maccabean period: following an uprising, a civil war and a war of 

              independence, Judea is its own state again. Until the Romans come in.


In each of these periods, the Biblical writers were concerned with different things and had different values. Hebrew culture, like all cultures, never ceased to evolve and adapt to its time.

The Documentary Hypothesis

Around 150 years ago, scholars were able to identify the different layers in the first biblical books. These layers were sown together in editing to form the Bible we have today. Scholars named this finding the Documentary Hypothesis, and it allows us to read each of those layers in its own succesion, as it was written before the final editing. 


This allows us to know, for example, that the person who wrote about God sealing a pact with Abraham in Genesis is the same person who wrote about God reaffirming the pact with Moses in Exodus.


Below you can see which writers we have definitively identified so far.

Who Wrote the Bible?

Babylonian Times

Baruch the Scribe

The "Nehelamite" Writer

The "Nehelamite" Writer

After immigrating to Egypt following the destruction of Jerusalem, Baruch authored most of the stories of Genesis


When: 590-550 BCE

Where: mostly in Egypt


Greatest Works:: Joseph, Most of the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob stories


Traits: all-time great, emotional, tender


Scholarly Name: most of the "E+J sources" of Genesis

The "Nehelamite" Writer

The "Nehelamite" Writer

The "Nehelamite" Writer

In the early Babylonian exile, the anonymous "Nehelamite" wrote Exodus stories that will be canonized only 500 years later


When: 597-587 BCE

Where: in the Babylonian captivity


Greatest Works: Baby Moses, Moses the Judge, most of Isaiah ch. 41-43


Traits: clever, witty, class-conscious


Scholarly Name: the "E source" of Exodus, most of "Second Isaiah"

Ezekiel

The "Nehelamite" Writer

Ezekiel

Throughout the Babylonian exile, before and after the destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel authored most of the stories of Exodus


When: 593-570 BCE

Where: in the Babylonian captivity


Greatest Works: The Plagues (the original), the Burning Bush, Wilderness stories


Traits: anxious, desperate, copywriter


Scholarly Name: Most of the "J source" of Exodus

Persian Times

Yeshua the High Priest

Yeshua the High Priest

Yeshua the High Priest

He was the High Priest during the Return to Zion, and the first High Priest of the rebuilt temple. Formulated a new covenant


When: 538-510 BCE

Where: Persia and Judea


Greatest Works: the first rules of Passover, worship rules of holidays


Traits: led the Hebrews to Promised Land


Scholarly Name: parts of the religious holiday rules in Exodus

The Poet Priest

Yeshua the High Priest

Yeshua the High Priest

When Cyrus conquers Babylonia and frees the Hebrews, the Hebrews see it as salvation brought on by Yahweh


When: 538 BCE

Where: Persia and Judea


Greatest Works: the Pillars of Cloud and Fire, Isaiah 52


Traits: joyous, elated, euphoric 


Scholarly Name: Parts of "Third Isaiah"

Ezra the Priest-Scribe

Yeshua the High Priest

Ezra the Priest-Scribe

In Persia, 100 years after the Return, Ezra wrote, edited and issued the first biblical canon, focusing on the covenant with God


When: 490-450 BCE

Where: Persia and Judea


Greatest Works: the editing of the Pentateuch, the Creation, Story


Traits: meticulous, obsessive, ideologue


Scholarly Name: parts of the "P source" of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers

Hellenistic Times

Alexandrian Hebrew writers

Alexandrian Hebrew writers

Alexandrian Hebrew writers

Writers from the Hebrew community in Alexadria produced folk stories that are now in the books of Judges and Samuel


When: around 200 BCE

Where: Hellenistic Egypt


Greatest Works: Samson, large parts of the books of Samuel


Traits: light-hearted, absurdist, comedic


Scholarly Name: Unnamed

Maccabean Editors

Alexandrian Hebrew writers

Alexandrian Hebrew writers

Once Judea is independent again, the Maccabees have Pharisee scribes issue an expanded revised Bible


When: around 140 BCE

Where: Jerusalem


Greatest Work: Upgrading Exodus, books of Samuel and Kings


Traits: revolutionary, reformer, violent


Scholarly Name: Parts of "J source" of Exodus (with newer Hebrew)

The Maccabean Poet

Maccabean Zealot Priests

Maccabean Zealot Priests

The poet writes about the grief felt throughout Judea alongside with the celebrations of Hebrew freedom. The civil war left its mark


When: 140 BCE

Where: Judea


Greatest Works: The Plague of the Firstborn, Psalms 119


Traits: tragic, Hellenized, bitter


Scholarly Name: none

Maccabean Zealot Priests

Maccabean Zealot Priests

Maccabean Zealot Priests

Once the original priestly caste is deposed, it is replaced by zealot priests looking to persecute their political enemies


When: around 140 BCE

Where: Jerusalem


Greatest Work: the New Rules of Passover, harsh religious rules


Traits: zealot, power-hungry, xenophobic


Scholarly Name: Parts of "P source" of Exodus (worship rules and harsh laws)

Listen everywhere!

Copyright © 2023 podcast of biblical proportions - All Rights Reserved.

Powered by GoDaddy