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Who wrote the Bible?

You’d think for a book as widely known, studied, and distributed as the Bible, the question of authorship would have been sorted out by now. But the question is more complex (and fascinating) than it seems. Why? Because asking it is to challenge everything we might assume about the Bible’s identity as a book, about what “writing” and “authorship” really mean, and about how a written text could become sacred to Jews and Christians, both in the ancient world and today. 

In Writing the Bible: Origins of the Old Testament, we will work through these fascinating questions (and their related assumptions). As we chase down answers, you’ll travel back in time to explore how oral traditions — ancient songs and stories — shaped the identity of an emerging nation, Israel, and how those traditions came to be written down, reinterpreted, and gathered into a collection of books that resonate with us even now. 

Series Outline:

Introduction (author’s bio)

1. Did Moses Write the Bible?

2. A Book That Is Not a Book

3. In Search of the Bible’s Earliest Traditions

4. Scribes as the Bible’s First Writers

5. King Josiah and the Book of Deuteronomy

6. Who Are the Bible’s Historians

7. The Babylonian Exile and Prophetic Books

8. Ezra & the Pentateuch

9. How Translations “Write” the Bible

10. From Books to Bibles

For more information on many of the topics discussed in this series, check out Bible Odyssey and theTorah.com.

I am grateful for the assistance of Allison Hurst, Helen Byler Buckwalter, and Rebecca Bultman in preparing Writing The Bible and this website.

What Bible do I use and why? 

My preference is for the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), which makes good use of our developing knowledge of biblical Hebrew and the insights from archaeological discoveries that help us to better translate biblical Hebrew; it also attempts, wherever possible, to use inclusive language. The HarperCollins Study Bible (ed. Harold W. Attridge; HarperOne, 2006) and the New Oxford Annotated Bible (ed. Michael D. Coogan; Oxford University Press, 2018) are two good editions of the NRSV that also have helpful notes at the bottom of the page. If you are looking for additional aids, The Jewish Study Bible (ed. Adele Berlin and Mark Zvi Brettler; Oxford University Press, 2014) has very good and informative essays to guide your reading.

For more on the different translations of the Bible, see here.

Why do I use the term “Hebrew Bible” instead of “Old Testament”?

“Old Testament” implies a Christian framework for reading this text, but my focus here is on the history of the development of this material before it became part of the Christian canon and, indeed, before Christianity even existed.

See here for more information on the different names that are used for the Hebrew Bible.

What’s the difference between B.C.E. and C.E. versus B.C. and A.D.?

In this series, you’ll notice I use B.C.E. and C.E., which is standard in academic settings, instead of B.C. and A.D. To learn more about why, see here.

What is Written and Oral Torah?

In this course I will refer to “the Torah,” but within Judaism there is a distinction between the “Written Torah” (which is our topic) and the “Oral Torah.” Both are considered authoritative in Jewish tradition; the Oral Torah comprises teachings thought to have been communicated to Moses alongside and at the same time as the Written Torah and passed down orally by the sages through the centuries. It wasn’t until the Mishnah was put together (around 200 C.E.) that the Oral Torah was finally written down.