Who is to say who created the Bible?

Answer 1

Ever since the early days of Judaism, it seems that efforts have been made to prove the antiquity of the scriptures. This means that scriptures often had to be written anonymously or pseudepigraphically so that others would believe them to be ancient and perhaps the work of great men or eyewitnesses.

The first five books of The Bible, known to Christians as the Pentateuch, are traditionally credited to Moses in the fifteenth century BCE, but scholars have established that the Pentateuch was written and improved on by several authors over a period of centuries in the middle of the first millennium BCE. The first book to be written is considered to be the Book of Deuteronomy, the book of Law supposedly found in the Temple during renovations in the reign of King Josiah.

The next book in the Bible is Joshua, supposedly written by Joshua himself, but scholars say that the Hebrew language was too modern for such an early date. They also say that the style matches the Books of Judges, Samuel and Kings, and that they form a well integrated history that matches the style and language of Deuteronomy. Joshua forms part of what is now recognised as a set of books written during the reign of Josiah and known as the Deuteronomic History.

An interesting Old Testament book is Daniel, considered important by both Jews and Christians. Although written in the third person, it is traditionally believed to have been written by the principal character, Daniel. Once again, this is clearly a case of piety triumphing over evidence, because it was clearly written centuries after the period it seeks to portray.

Apart from the Book of Revelation and some of the epistles attributed to Paul, all the books of the New Testament were either anonymous or pseudepigraphical. Revelation was signed by a person called John, but there is no reason to believe that this person was either the disciple John or the person who wrote John's Gospel.

The gospels were anonymous until later in the second century, when the Church Fathers attributed them to the disciples whose names they now bear.