Instead, says Baden, they see a much more gradual process, in which material from numerous smaller sources was layered together over a longer period of time. Other scholars don't agree on two complete sources for the non-priestly material. The stories using the name Elohim are classified as “E,” while the others are called “J” (for Jawhe, the German translation of Yahweh). “The two of them are not really related to each other in any significant way,” Baden explains, “except that they're both giving laws and telling a story of Israel's early history.”Īccording to some scholars, including Baden, the third major block of source material in the Torah can be divided into two different, equally coherent schools, named for the word that each uses for God: Yahweh and Elohim. Of the three major blocks of source material that scholars agree comprise the Bible’s first five books, the first was believed to have been written by a group of priests, or priestly authors, whose work scholars designate as “P.” A second block of source material is known as “D”-for Deuteronomist, meaning the author(s) of the vast majority of the book of Deuteronomy. Starting around the 7th century B.C., different groups, or schools, of authors wrote them down at different times, before they were at some point ( probably during the first century B.C.) combined into the single, multi-layered work we know today. To explain the Bible’s contradictions, repetitions and general idiosyncrasies, most scholars today agree that the stories and laws it contains were communicated orally, through prose and poetry, over centuries. That single author was believed to be Moses, the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and guided them across the Red Sea toward the Promised Land.ĥ Ways Christianity Spread Through Ancient Rome The Old Testament: Various Schools of Authors
For at least 1,000 years, both Jewish and Christian tradition held that a single author wrote the first five books of the Bible-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy-which together are known as the Torah (Hebrew for “instruction”) and the Pentateuch (Greek for “five scrolls”). The Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, narrates the history of the people of Israel over about a millennium, beginning with God’s creation of the world and humankind, and contains the stories, laws and moral lessons that form the basis of religious life for both Jews and Christians. What Other Proof Exists? Old Testament: The Single Author Theory
READ MORE: The Bible Says Jesus Was Real. Even after nearly 2,000 years of its existence, and centuries of investigation by biblical scholars, we still don’t know with certainty who wrote its various texts, when they were written or under what circumstances. But despite the Bible’s undeniable influence, mysteries continue to linger over its origins.
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