whose the author of the old testament?

Question

Im doing a works cited page

Answer 1

these were books handed down in folklore, nobody knows, the same way nobody can prove the authenticity's of what they contain, although having said that, I did go to Egypt last year, and I saw the burning bush (thankfully still in tack lol) and the carved calf in the mountain, so must be some truth there, but at the end of the day, its folklore, for the better, mind you, but I don't think there is a definitive answer to your question

Answer 2

Come on people, can we stop with the parrot behaviour and start thinking for ourselves ?

There is absolutely no evidence that the Israelites had any written history before the Captivity in Babylon ( early 5th century bc ). The only extant texts were probably the basis of the 'Law' that Moses supposedly took down from YHWH on Mt. 'Sinai' ( it is not certain that the Mt. Sinai referred to in Exodus is the one known by that name today ). There were originally supposed to be the two tablets of stone, on which YHWH had enscribed the 'Ten Commandments' with his own fair hand, but Moses smashed these to the ground when he discoverd that his brother Aaron and the rest had been busy making a 'Golden Calf' ( idol of the Canaanite 'God' Baal ) while he had been chatting with YHWH.

It must be remembered that there was no Hebrew script at that time, strictly speaking there weren't any 'hebrews' either, they were called 'Habiru' by the Egyptians, and they were asiatic semitics. The name 'Jew' was a contortion of Jebusite, which was the name of the pre-Exodus occupants and builders of Jerusalem, who definitely weren't either Habiru or Israelite, but some other semitic line.

So .... the most probable solution to the provenance of the collection of works known as the Old 'Testament' was the considerable amount of work that was done during the Captivity, there were 70 years in which the scribes didn't have much else to do. The Israelites were fairly astonished by the richness and splendour of Babylon, compared to which Jerusalem was a pokey little pig-sty, even the muc vaunted 'Temple of Solomon' was a paltry affair compared to Solomon's palace, and that was an outhouse compared to the Great Ziggurat of Babylon.

So ... shamed by the comparisons with their culture, and the ignominy of not having a written history of their own, the Israelites set about burgling and plagiarising the records of Sumer, Egypt and Assyria, and many others. Thus the majority of the stories of the Pentateuch are not even of Habiru origin, Noah's ark being a classic, this was lifted from the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the original 'Noah' was Utnapishtim.

So who was/were the original authors ?

That information is lost in the mists of 'time', but it certainly wasn't one single person, and it most assuredly wasn't Moses.

I would suggest that an honest and true answer would be, for the most part, multiple unknown authors.

Answer 3

There are different authors. The Old Testament is a collection of "books". Moses is credited to be the author of the first 5 books.
There is a way to cite the Bible as a source. here is a link.

http://hbl.gcc.edu/citingBIBLE.htm

Answer 4

Their were several authors of the old testament. Remember that it is a collection of letters and scrolls that were put together by the Roman Catholic Church and later revised and translated by King James. The first four books of the bible also called the Torah is believed by monotheist to be written by Moses, but evidence now suggest that the Torah was actually written by monks in a monastary close to what is modern day Isreal. Check out some good sources at discovery's web site and National Geographics web site. As we are able to decipher more of the dead sea scrolls we may see new books added in the future.

Answer 5

The so called "Old Testament" is from the 5 books of Moses, which G-d told Moses as the Hebrews wandered the desert for 40 years. The christian old testament is a paraphrase of the books with changes made by the church to justify certain actions
Later refer ed to in the "New Testament"

Answer 6

The Old Testament is composed of 39 books - 17 historical, 5 poetic, 17 prophetic. Their order, relative size, and authors are:

Historical (47% of the Old Testament)

Genesis - 50 chapters, Moses
Exodus - 40 chapters, Moses
Leviticus - 27 chapters, Moses
Numbers - 36 chapters, Moses
Deuteronomy - 34 chapters, Moses
Joshua - 24 chapters, author not identified
Judges - 21 chapters, author not identified
Ruth - 4 chapters, author not identified
1 Samuel - 31 chapters, author not identified
2 Samuel - 24 chapters, author not identified
1 Kings - 22 chapters, author not identified
2 Kings - 25 chapters, author not identified
1 Chronicles - 29 chapters, author not identified, possibly Ezra
2 Chronicles - 36 chapters, author not identified, possibly Ezra
Ezra - 10 chapters, Ezra
Nehemiah - 13 chapters, author not identified, possibly Nehemiah or Ezra
Esther - 10 chapters, author not identified

Poetic (22% of the Old Testament)

Job - 42 chapters, author not identified
Psalms - 150 chapters, various authors including David, Asaph, Solomon, the sons of Korah, and Ethan
Proverbs - 31 chapters, at least partly by Solomon
Ecclesiastes - 12 chapters, Solomon
Song Of Songs - 8 chapters, Solomon

Prophetic (31% of the Old Testament)

Isaiah - 66 chapters, Isaiah
Jeremiah - 52 chapters, Jeremiah
Lamentations - 5 chapters, Jeremiah
Ezekiel - 48 chapters, Ezekiel
Daniel - 12 chapters, Daniel
Hosea - 14 chapters, Hosea
Joel - 3 chapters, Joel
Amos - 9 chapters, Amos
Obadiah - 1 chapter, Obadiah
Jonah - 4 chapters, Jonah
Micah - 7 chapters, Micah
Nahum - 3 chapters, Nahum
Habakkuk - 3 chapters, Habakkuk
Zephaniah - 3 chapters, Zephaniah
Haggai - 2 chapters, Haggai
Zechariah - 14 chapters, Zechariah
Malachi - 4 chapters, Malachi

The first 5 books of the Old Testament known as The Pentateuch

Answer 7

Good question! The Torah(Old Testament) was copy from the Enuma Elish and the Gilgamesh Epic. If you do some research you will see your flood story(Noah Ark)in these writting which pre-date the Torah by 1000's of years. And if you read the Torah very closely you will see that the author is talking in the 3rd person. The books of the Torah are written by men.

Answer 8

There were different authors to different books, even different authors within a same book. The 1st five books are generally attributed to Moses. The prophetic books usually bear the name of their author. Most of the Psalms are believed to have been written by David, but each chapter stands alone, and some were written by others. Some of the books no one has any idea.

Answer 9

You need to look at the Old Testament book that you're using. There are quite a few authors in the Old Testament.

Answer 10

The number of authors are endless. The books were first put together about 500 BC. The Jews, at the time, were enslaved in Babylon. Adam and Eve and the story of Noah's Ark are probably adapted from Babylonian Myths. The Babylonian's, or maybe Syrian's, Noah was named Gilgamesh.