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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 unique

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. The Babylonians were destroyed by the 

              Persians, who usher in an era of peace. Many 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 - 70 BCE: the Maccabean period: following an uprising, civil war and war of 

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


In each of these periods, the Biblical writers were concenrned 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?

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

Greatest Work: Joseph

Traits: all-time great, emotional, tender


Scholarly Name: "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

Greatest Work: Baby Moses

Traits: clever, witty, class-conscious


Scholarly Name: "E source" of Exodus

Ezekiel

The "Nehelamite" Writer

Ezra the Priest-Scribe

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


When: 593-570 BCE

Greatest Work: The Plagues

Traits: anxious, desperate, copywriter


Scholarly Name: Most "J source" of Exodus

Ezra the Priest-Scribe

Alexandrian Hebrew writers

Ezra the Priest-Scribe

In Persian times, 100 years after Ezekiel, Ezra wrote, edited and issued the first canon, focusing on the pact with God. 


When: 490-450 BCE

Greatest Work: The Creation

Traits: meticulous, obsessive, ideologue


Scholarly Name: "P source" of Genesis/Exodus

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

Greatest Work: Samson

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

Greatest Work: Upgrading Exodus

Traits: revolutionary, egalitarian, violent


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

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