Who authored the Bible?

Question

No really, who wrote it. Don't give me your "(w)hol(e)y spirit" nonsense either.

Many informative tidbits here...thanks people!

Answer 1

Probably many authors over a period of many years. Interesting thing is that some parts were written when people worshiped many gods, and other parts were written after those gods were "consolidated" in to one god, the one we hear of today. I am sure alot of backwards editing had to be done to make sure people knew that this one "god" was around from the beginning and was not just a component of a polytheistic mindset.

Answer 2

The Bible (with 66 books in its typical version) is compiled from many various sources, with many different authors. Different parts of the Bible are representative of different types of literature: History, poetry, law, prophecy, revelation, encouragement, church life, practical living, secular wisdom (i.e., Proverbs), etc.

While the Pentateuch, the first five books (Genesis, etc.), were written down after a certain point, originally they were passed along orally.

[Nomadic cultures have a much better oral tradition than our urban cultures, since writing and maintaining records is expensive and time-consuming. If you look the original language and the structure of the prose, it's written in a way that makes it easy to remember. Our culture doesn't have much experience with true oral tradition, because we haven't had to rely on it for anything.]

Books in the old testament are attributed to some of the prophets; books in the new testament have been attributed to disciples or various people living at the time of Christ. People still debate whether these attributions are authentic or simply tagged to the document to give it more authenticity -- but the identity of the writer still doesn't determine the reliability of the content, which must be judged on its own.

Anyway, the authorship of these books (from Genesis up through the New Testament in the first two century or so after Christ) spans a great deal of time, maybe 1500 years (?).

There have been some cynical comments here busting on the selected canon, as well as the accuracy of the transmission process over centuries. While it's good to maintain a healthy skepticism, most of these complaints show a lack of basic knowledge of history.

To be very brief, the obsessive and tedious level of accuracy demanded by each scribe when making copies of documents is well-documented. Also, the canon was less decided by the pope and the council in the 300's AD and more simply validating what books were already widely accepted as the "official" scriptures by the church at large, based on their internal theological consistency, their origin, and so forth -- no real "DaVinci" like conspiracy here at all.

Your question is a good one and there's not much room for anything here except for a brief overview... so those are the key points, I think. A great deal of further research is possible, though, considering the wealth of books out there on the topic. Good luck!

Answer 3

The Bible is a collection of some translation or another from very old scrolls. First translated and assembled by the Catholic Church between 300 - 400 AD. The Church decided what "books" to include, and what not to include...those books that did not fit their agenda did not get put into "the Bible." Those that did were translated and included. Hence, because most of these scrolls are still readable to some extent, later translations always vary...and each translation has an agenda of some kind or another. Many of the old testament books are utter nonsense, no more than explanations of superstition and how man saw his surroundings with limited science at his disposal. Recently, new scrolls were found...the "Judas Scrolls" that have a very different slant on the new testament than has been given to Christians by the Catholic Church. We won't hear a lot about them, for they contridict much of Christianity's views. These scrolls implicate Christ and Judas as having planned the entire "martyrdom" deal. Many Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 50's , have been translated, but again, they do not fit the modern Christians agenda, so have been suppressed. Truth be known, the entire Bible is suspect. There is no proof as to who wrote what scrolls, damaged pieces have been filled in to the best of translators ability, for no scroll is complete due to rot and aging. At best, the Bible is a good story book. At worst, it is a pack of lies. Somewhere in the middle, the truth lies...who knows where. Fundamentalists argue that the Bible is real, in real time....how foolish! Many Christians struggle to provide proof by arithmetic calculations and proof by numbers....ridiculous. So many Christains base hate for this and that on really stupid books, Leviticus, in particular...this 'man' hated everything that had to do with sex...law after law laid down...of course, we hear little to none of this..shell fish are forbidden, sex with this, with that, when this, when that are by and large, ignored..except the anti Gay stuff. Again, agenda! I believe nothing in the Bible, for it is a translation built on a translation built on a translation to the point of having little or no bearing on what may have been. In fact, the Church held homosexuality as special until the 13th century...when they found that it did not make money. So..... Well, enough about this and that. None of this has in any way been a denial of Christianity, an endorsement of any lifestyle...it is just how it is. Too bad that so few are willing to tell the truth. The truth really isn't bad at all. The only Church order who is willing to discuss ALL of the scrolls, all of the meanings, without coloration, are the Jesuits, an order of the Catholic Church who call it as they see it...and as they see it changes with new knowledge. To those who say the Bible was written by God through man...I say, "Hog wash....nice line, certainly sounds good, but get a life...stop falling for every tale your minister tells you. IF that were the case, then "God's word" changes with the season and the translator. Good luck

Answer 4

Depends on which version? Most of them are compiled translations, so finding who wrote the original of any given book won't be easy and rarely accurate. The King James Version was compiled by (as the title says) King James, I think of England, but could be wrong.

The books contained in the bible were selected by the Nicean Council around 312 AD. This council also determined that Jesus was God and Man equally (there was great debate among Christians up to that point which he truly was) and a number of other things. The other "gospels" were then dubbed Apocrypha (aka heresy), largely because they didn't support their decision to make Jesus both.

The old testament books, especially the Torah, were originally handed down in oral traditions, so the actual author is lost to time. As far as the Gospels go in the new testament. Matthew was a Hebrew Christian that wrote his around 20 years or so after Jesus died. Mark and Luke wrote their's around 50 or so years after Jesus' death and based what they wrote largely off of Matthew and an, as yet not found, "Q" document. John wrote his about 100 years after the Crucifiction. There is some debate over whether this is the same John that wrote the Apocalypse too, but most scholars think it was not.

The Epistles (letters) were written largely by Paul as actual letters to the various churches during his time. The others were written as attributed.

Answer 5

Many different people wrote the original scrolls of each book in the Bible, and then those were translated or copied by many people, and then those got translated and copied, and then finally the Roman Catholics got a group of people together to translated it and make more copies. So, I'm sure there have been at least hundreds of people that have written the Bible and put there own spin on interpretations.

Answer 6

paul wrote 14 books of new testament,

and several people wrote books of bible.

some of them even did not met with Jesus,

Nowhere does the bible says it is from God, infact the word bible is not in the bible.

Moses and joshoa who claimed to be the author of bible wrote their own obituary in their books. e.g
MOSES WRITES HIS OWN OBITUARY?

"So Moses . . . DIED . . . And he (God Almighty) BURIED HIM (Moses) ... he was 120 years old when he DIED ... And there arose not a prophet SINCE in Israel like unto Moses …" (Deut. 34:5-10).

Could Moses had been a contributor to his own obituary before his demise? For sure, Moses pbuh is not the author of this verse.



Similarly, Joshua too speaks in detail about his own death in Joshua 24:29-33.

"And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, DIED, … And they BURIED HIM … And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel ….(Joshua 24:29-33)"

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hope that answers

Answer 7

It's not nonsense, dear. The bible is a collection of 66 books written by 40 different men, all who were inspired by the holy spirit in what they wrote.

Answer 8

No one really knows. All we know is that the bible was compiled by a council authorized & supervised by Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 CE.

It took nearly one hundred more years (397) before it was officially adopted (canonized) by the newly invented Roman Universal Church.

Prophecies are specific and not subject to interpretation. Obviously, there are no valid prophecies in the bible.

Answer 9

Really---Prophets and anointed Christians wrote God's Word. God, YHWH, IS the Author of the Holy Scriptures. 2 Timothy 3:16

Answer 10

The 66 books of the Bible were written:
1. On three continents.
2. In three languages.
3. By about 40 different people (kings, shepherds, scientists, attorneys, an army general, fishermen, priests, and a physician).
4. Over a period of about 1,500 years.
5. On the most controversial subjects.
6. By people who, in most cases, had never met.
7. By authors whose education and background varied greatly.

Yet, though it seems totally inconceivable,
1. The 66 books maintain harmony with each other.
2. Often new concepts on a subject are expressed, but these concepts do not undermine what other Bible writers say on the same subject.