... on Identity of Hagiographers, Other answers and my replies to them (quora)

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Q

once again:

Who are the authors of the Bible?
https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-authors-of-the-Bible

I

Roy McLean Jr

studied Bible Truths at Theocratic Ministry School

Answered 5h ago

2 Timothy 3:16,17

Can Anyone Know Who Really Wrote the Bible? | Bible Questions
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/who-wrote-the-bible/

Hans-Georg Lundahl

4h ago

The problem is this is not a detailed going through of the 40 human authors, but thank you anyway!

II

Jane Upping

Full time everything. (1970-present)

Answered 5h ago

There were about 40 human writers of the books that make up the bible canon … but only ONE author.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

4h ago

I was asking about the human writers.

They were more or less also authors, St Luke for instance more than Isaias, and Moses more in Genesis than in the Exodus chapters beginning “and God spoke to Moses and said”.

My question was a copy of a similar question on French quora, where a Muslim had pretended there were two authors, Moses and Jesus, both of whom had had the texts distorted.

So, I wanted my own reply on this question, but since the Haydock online commentary is in English, I needed the answer in English.

Aside that, you are right, of course.

III

David Osofsky

works at IBM

Answered 5h ago

Since before the internet, one of the best sources for information has been The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams. Some questions can be quite trivial, such as “What university did Bullwinkle go to?”, while others are quite informative. In 2002, he assigned his elves a deeper question to research and that was “Who wrote the Bible?”.

They gave an excellent 5-part answer that you can find here:

Who wrote the Bible? (Part 1) This in turn links to parts 2–5.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1985/who-wrote-the-bible-part-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

[commenting on the link given]

4h ago

I am taking the traditional view.*

Here is a little mistake in it:

“Mosaic authorship would mean the five books were written around 1280 to 1250 BC, the most commonly accepted range of dates for the exodus from Egypt, give or take 30 years.”

Er, no. Exodus was in 1510 BC.

But I like the reading anyway, so thanks!

Hans-Georg Lundahl

4h ago

“ Religious tradition holds that this book was written mostly by Samuel, the last Judge, around 1000 BC. The scholarly view is that many of the stories are older”

I take it Samuel had to Judges a similar relation as Moses to Genesis : final redactor of a long collaborative and cumulative work, not unlike Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

4h ago

Here he is skipping the previous equilibrium between “traditionalist” and “scholarly”* view:

“The first generation of Christians didn't see any need for a permanent written record of the sayings and stories of Jesus. Jesus' return and the restoration of the Kingdom of God on earth were imminent — why bother preserving stories if the world was about to end?”

False.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

4h ago

Here we get to choice of books, to canon:

“Today, there is considerable disagreement about the importance of the rabbinic school at Jamnia in the canonization of the Hebrew Bible. The process certainly began long before, and there is no doubt that some sections (like most of Prophets) were closed and accepted as canonical by the second century BC — the writings of the grandson of Ben Sirah, around 130 BC, clearly mention the Law, Prophets, and other writings as the divisions of sacred text. The school at Jamnia may have done little more than formalize decisions made long before, rejecting "newer" books such as the Book of Maccabees, despite the popularity of the holiday of Hanukkah that it commemorated.

“Jamnia didn't settle matters once and for all. It's known that texts with slight variations persisted until the second century AD, such as the Septuagint and the Samaritan versions.”

I would say, first of all, Jamnia was not concerned with either Samaritan version, since it belonged to the Samaritan sect which rejected books after Torah, Joshua and Judges, nor with Septuagint which was accepted by Christians and rejected by those at Jamnia.

In other words, while Jamnia is decisive for Rabbinic Judaism, it is not so for Catholic Christianity. Protestantism is a mishmash between the two.

IV

Daz Lovegrove

Used to be a sunday school teacher now i have seen through monothiesm

Answered 6h ago

the Bible has multiple authors and has stolen from at least a dozen different civilizations. We all know however who edited it, and that was the Vatican via the Council of Nicea

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

You got exactly one thing right : humanly speaking, it has multiple authors.

The council of Nicea did not edit the Bible.

The Bible is not fiction under copyright from other civilisations.

The Vatican was not alone in deciding canon, but several local councils interacted.

The decision of canon was nothing like an editing of internal content of any one book.

Saverio Sciacca

5h ago

Greetings Daz,

Keeping it light:

Monotheism was achieved by the Canaanite Clergy, who became the Judaic Clergy, by dropping Canaanite Father EL, as in IsraEL & 69 of the Elohim Siblings anointing & giving Elohe YHWH; Yahweh the apotheosis after 456BC in Jerusalem, by non other than red hot zealot Ezra 480/440BC sequestering his few souls into their 1st Ghetto to rekindle Shem tribalism, with Semites only speaking only Hebrew worshiping only YHWH, he succeeded!

The 1st two books of Mose:

Genesis is thievery in its entirety from the Sumerian Eridu (Genesis) written c. 3350BC.

Exodus is taken from the exodus of Babylonian freedom in 536BC for those, who wanted to travel to Canaanite Shalim; not knowing it had been renamed by the Arameans in 550BC to Jerusalem; He casts Peace. It ain’t called Jerushalom, now is it? The Clergy set retroactively to 1250BC with Pharaoh Ramses II, solely for the drama & lime light of sharing space & carbon with the greatest of all Pharaohs!

The other 3 books of Mose? Who cares, with the 1st two as Chutzpah!

Nothing of whatever was written about was of a Judaic experience, all taken from the Sumerian, Akkad, Canaanite & Egyptian culture, religion & history!

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

How about Primeval Human experience, better preserved among Hebrews than among e g Sumerians?**

V

Emile De Favas

Answered 4h ago

Some palestinian shepherds, who collected the knowledge of their time. It then has been added with writing from many sources, and translated many times.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

Collected the knowledge of their time?

Where in the Bible do you find descriptions of how to forge a sword or to build a house or to even graze your flocks? Presumably that too was knowledge of their times.

Apart from that, your answer is fairly bland, except what can be guessed about what you really mean by certain phrases. (Like, “their knowledge” = perhaps = “not accurate” etc).

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

A bonus point for Palestinian, anyway!

Notes:

* Quoting Straight dope on part one, for "traditional" and "scholarly" views:

How did these books come to be written? There's a wide range of opinion. We'll only present the two most commonly held views — what we'll call the "traditional view" and the "scholarly view." This is perhaps misleading terminology, since there are many profound scholars on both sides. We use the term "scholarly" in the sense of "academic" or "scientific", although neither of those terms are right, either. Perhaps the best term is "documentarist", but that's cumbersome. So we shall stick to "traditional" and "scholarly", without implying lack of scholarship on the other side.

Thank you! Without implying lack of scholarship on the other side!

One could also have called the scholarly the "antitraditional". Since that is where that kind of scholarship goes to.

** Really, for today, I am tired and Saverio did more mistakes, but comments on these can be added tomorrow!