The Jewish sages began to compile the Talmud during the Babylonian exile. This was done due to the fear that the knowledge of the Oral Torah and other knowledge and records would be lost due to repeated persecution.
Additionally, the HafTorot were decided due to the Babylonian prohibition against studying the Torah. Although the use of the Torah was banned, study and use of the rest of the Tanach (Jewish Bible) was allowed. In response to this, the sages selected readings from the Neviìm (Prophets) section that corresponded with the Torah parshot that would have normally been read during prayer.
During the Babylonian Exile, the Jews updated and improved the Books of Genesis and Exodus, wrote Numbers and Leviticus, and added to the Book of Isaiah (the addition may originally have been in the form of a separate book which was only later added to Isaiah). They also began to write the psalms, which were completed around two hundred years later.
Although the most authoritative version of what became known as the 'oral law' is the Babylonian Talmud, this was not compiled during this period, but centuries later, around 300 CE.
During the Babylonian exile, the following books were written: Ezekiel, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah. Chronicles was written toward the end of the Babylonian exile or immediately after it; and Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi were written within a couple of decades after the exile had ended. At that time, the Hebrew Bible canon was sealed.
The other books (Genesis, Exodus, etc.) had existed for many centuries and were left as is.
See also:
Disproving the documentary hypothesis
The authorship of the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible Canon:
Our tradition is that from the time of the First Destruction, God's presence was no longer felt as clearly as before (see Deuteronomy 31:17-18). In addition, exile is not conducive to prophecy (Mechilta, parshat Bo). At that time, the last of the prophets realized that prophecy would soon cease; and that the dispersal of the Jewish people, plus the almost continuous tribulations from the First Destruction onward, made it imperative to seal the canon of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). The Sages of the time, including the last living prophets, convened a special synod for a couple of decades, which was called the Men of the Great Assembly (Mishna, Avot ch.1). This group, who functioned around 340 BCE, composed the blessings and the basic prayers of the siddur (prayerbook) and the early portions of the Passover Haggadah, made many of the Rabbinical decrees, and (most importantly) sealed the canon of the Tanakh. It was they, for example, who set the twelve Minor Prophets as (halakhically) a single book, and who set the books of the Tanakh in their traditional order (see Talmud, Bava Batra 14b). It was the Men of the Great Assembly whom Esther had to approach when she felt that the Divinely inspired Scroll of Esther should be included in the canon (see Talmud, Megilla 7a).
Since the sealing of the Tanakh, no Jewish sage has ever claimed prophecy.
No-one predicted the Babylonian Captivity. It was once thought that Isaiah did, because he wrote of the times of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, but then began to write of the Babylonian Exile. However, scholars now know that the Book of Isaiah was really written by two different people. Isaiah, known today as First Isaiah for convenience, wrote about the time of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, just as he outlined in the introduction to the Book. Another, anonymous author, living during the Babylonian Exile, added to the Book, based on his personal experiences during the Exile.
The Talmud is in part a documentation of the Oral Torah. Prior to the Babylonian exile, the Oral Torah was taught orally only. However, the sages at the time of the Babylonian exile were afraid that this information would be lost due to persecution so they began to write down the Oral Torah.
Biblical scholars say that the psalms were written anonymously over a period of more than two hundred years, during and after the sixth-century-BCE Babylonian Exile. They were a literary genre unknown at the time of King David.
The psalms were a genre that did not exist in the time of Asaph; they were written over a period of more than two hundred years, during and after the Babylonian Exile. Nevertheless, certain psalms are traditionally attributed to Asaph. These are: 50 and 73-83 inclusive.
Biblical tradition says that King David wrote many of the psalms. However, scholars say that the psalms were a genre unknown at the time attributed to David. They say that the psalms were really written much later, during the Babylonian Exile and up to two hundred years afterwards.
When you can never step foot in a country or place you are an exile.
Papyrus
A careful study of the Book of Isaiah reveals that it actually had three main authors: the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, who wrote from Jerusalem in the late eighth and early seventh centuries BCE, during the reigns of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah; an anonymous author now known as Second Isaiah, who lived during the Babylonian Exile; and another anonymous author, now known as Third Isaiah, who lived shortly after the Babylonian Exile. Each of the three prophets had a very different and distinctive literary style and wrote of different eras.
The answer to this depends on whether you believe the religious claims to its origin or the historical claims. The religious claims say that God spoke to a Prophet named Moses who proceeded to write down the first five books of the Bible or Torah around 1300-1200 B.C.E. The historical claim is that the Bible is a composite of four different works composed between 1000-500 B.C.E. with each of the works have a different author or group authorship. These four groups include a Davidic Scribe named the Yahwist (J), a later Judean Scribe named the Elohist (E), a Priest during the Babylonian Exile (P), and a Legal Expert during the Babylonian Exile responsible for much of Deuteronomy (D).
Most of the psalms are traditionally attributed to Kings David and Solomon, written in Jerusalem during the tenth century BCE. However, many scholars believe that the psalms were really written during and after the Babylonian Exile, not by David and Solomon at all. They were a literary genre that did not exist at the time attributed to King David. On this evidence, David did not write a psalm to Jonathan. While David wrote many Psalms, he did so to praise or express repentance to God, and did not write them to other humans. There is only a lament for Jonathan recorded in 2 Samuel 1.
A:The Old Testament gives us two famous examples of persons interpreting dreams. The Book of Genesis describes Joseph as interpreting dreams, after he was taken to Egypt.The Babylonian Exile has many genuine parallels to the Egyptian sojourn, so it is almost natural that someone would write a novel that drew on those parallels. The Book of Daniel is set in the Babylonian Exile and makes Daniel something of a latter-day Joseph. In this book, Daniel also interprets dreams.
A:Tradition has it that King Solomon wrote the Book of Proverbs, probably as wise counsel for the inhabitants ofthe kingdom. However, biblical scholars do not consider him to have written or contributed to the Book of Proverbs, which in the form we have today is a product of the Babylonian Exile or later.