Who wrote the historical books in the Bible?

Answer 1

A:

The first group of historical books in The Bible is called the Deuteronomic History, because the author was anonymous but appears to have been the same person as the author of the Book of Deuteronomy. They clearly form a unified set of books written by a common author who is believed to have lived during the seventh-century-BCE reign of King Josiah, although we do not know the author's identity. The books of the Deuteronomic History are the Books of Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings.

The Books of 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles were written anonymously during or shortly after the Babylonian Exile. The Books of Nehemiah and Ezra probably had a common author, traditionally thought to be Ezra or Nehemiah.

Although the Books of Esther and Daniel purport to contain historical material, they were actually novels written during the second century BCE and are not considered by scholars to be historical in their content.

The Acts of the Apostles is traditionally considered to be a very reliable history of the early Christian Church, bu modern scholars have modified that view and now consider much of the content to be unhistorical. It is traditionally attributed to Luke, the companion of Paul, but as it was written anonymously this attribution is not necessarily true. Contradictions between Acts and Paul's epistles are suggested as evidence that the author could not have been Luke. Moreover, the introduction to Luke's Gospel, by the same author, suggests that the author could not really have known Paul. Thus, the author of Acts must remain uncertain.