Authors of the Bible? Any books, resource, or information on who and why the bible was written?

Question

I am interested in RESEARCHING the HISTORY of who wrote certain sections of the bible, and what their real motivations might have been.

Please list any books, or research sources, that have original theories on all, or any, of the books of the bible. Give a short review/summary of the theories presented from the source you are listing, if you would.

Thank you for your answers.

Answer 1

Moses lived circa 1500 BCE, and is credited with writing the first 5 Books of the Old Testament (The Torah), which includes the "Creation". However, Job came before Moses, but his book comes in later sequential order, because these "Books" were passed on by oral tradition, at least from year one in the Jewish Calendar (ca.3751 BCE), until they were written down during the Babylon captivity of the Jews (ca.600 BCE)...

That's over 3,000 year of "word of mouth". Not only that, but after they were written in Hebrew, they were translated into Latin (ca.3rd Century AD), and finally again into English by King James (ca.1600 AD)...

Do you think there could be some errors, or misunderstandings, over time, and between the various languages? I would think so...

These were epic poems, like Homer's Odyssey, meant to be sung, and if it rhymed in one language, and a word or two had to be altered, then it probably was altered, to make the song sound better...

Rather than the pure "Word" of God, the Bible is a declaration of a cultural history lasting appx. 5760 years...

The Old and New Testament have close to 50 different authors. Mostly martyrs, Saints and prophets...

Abraham lived about 2000 BCE, and his family was from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur.

Joseph was in captivity in Egypt in 1750 BCE.

Ezekiel was a prophet, born in the 7th Century BCE.

Peter, the first Pope, who was crucified upside-down in 66 AD, was a disciple of Jesus, while Paul, beheaded the same year, and was the foremost promoter of Christianity, never met Jesus...These are to name a few!

Even in Buddhism, as in most religions, the man Gautama the Buddha, lived in the 5th Century BCE, but his words weren't written down until the 1st Century BCE...That's 400 years!

Answer 2

my history teacher said it was 3 saints (maybe john, luke...and someone else) and they were inspired by god, but they put in some of their own interpretations. did you know that in the bible, it says that women should obey their husbands as slaves obey their master??????

Answer 3

Go and do your own bloody research.

Answer 4

The Bible is more of a collection of writings by different authors; a compliation of texts if you wish.

Many of the texts are so old, that the writers are lost to us.  Moses is credited in Judaism with writing the first 5 books of the Torah/Old Testament.  But most of the Hebrew Torah/Old Testament came from an Oral Tradition, much like the Homeric Epics of the Iliad and Odyssey.  We don't know if Homer was a real person, or just the name for a bard.  But we know that there were many other versions; and just because he put pen to parchment doesn't mean he wrote them.

As per the New Testament, teh Council of Nicea in the time of COnstantine voted on which to include, and they include the 4 Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; each likely penned by someone of that name- in the century following Jesus' life; so they aren't likely first hand stories (but might be).  There are many letters from Paul to people; Acts I think was written by the same Paul- but its been a while since I studied this sort of thing.  can't recall who wrote Revelations either; but I feel it was someone who wrote another section too.  

The simple reality is this: Whomever originally wrote the parts, THOUSANDS of people had hands in copying, recopying, etc those.  And like with any copy of a copy written by imperfect beings (humans) is likely to have mistakes, typos, their own views coloring interpretations; mis translations {Bible was likely in Hebrew and Greek, or Aramaic first}; in other words- as much as some might treat the Bible as infallable; the thousands of years since the original writings alone have shown many mistakes.  The Dead Sea scrolls had copies of Isaiah which differed slightly from the modern versions, a verse here missing, or inserted, etc.  

So the bible, like any book that old has to be taken with a grain of salt.  It cannot be 100% true and accurate, though elements are likely to be true and accurate.