Who else could have written the first five books of the Bible?

Answer 1

By "who else", I assume that the question refers to the tradition that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books of The Bible, but also indicates an awareness that this is no longer a position held by biblical scholars. The tradition that Moses wrote the Book of Genesis is said to have originated with Philo of Alexandria, but the tradition that Moses wrote the other four books appears to be somewhat older.

The Pentateuch was written over a period of some centuries by several anonymous authors, the important ones of which are now known as the Elohist, the Yahwist, the Deuteronomist and the Priestly source. Each had his own distinctive style, and can even be identified by the use of archaic or modern Hebrew. Each had his own way of referring to God and his own sectoral and regional interests. Many of the stories in the first five books of the Bible are written in duplicate, known as doublets, with significant differences between one version and the other, reflecting the different views or theology of each author.