Authorship of the Bible

[3] In the 20th century the vast majority of theologians, both Catholic and Protestant, moved away from the divine dictation model and emphasised the role of the human authors.

[4] As a result, even many conservative scholars now accept, for example, that the Book of Isaiah has multiple authors and that 2 Corinthians is two letters joined.

Biblical texts were written by scribes (Hebrew: sofer), the literate class of bureaucrats in a mostly non-literate, oral culture.

It is the group of five books made up of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and stands first in all versions of the Christian Old Testament.

[10] The rise of historical criticism in the 19th century led scholars to conclude that multiple authors wrote the Pentateuch over a long period.

In the post-exilic period, the Pentateuch reached its final form with the addition of the Priestly source (c. 5th century BCE).

[20] Since 1943 most scholars have accepted Martin Noth's argument that Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings make up a single work, the so-called "Deuteronomistic history.

[27] This orderly sequence of pre-exilic, exilic and post-exilic material is somewhat misleading, as some scholars note that significant editing appears to have taken place in all three parts.

[35] The noteworthy exception is the Book of Jonah, an anonymous work containing no prophetic oracles, probably composed in the Hellenistic period (332–167 BCE).

[36] While a number of the Psalms bear headings which seem to identify their authors, these are probably the result of the need to find a significant identification in tradition.

"[38] The unknown author of the Book of Job is unlikely to have written earlier than the 6th century BCE, and the cumulative evidence suggests a post-Exilic date.

The book's claim of Solomon as author is a literary fiction; the author also identifies himself as "Qoheleth", a word of obscure meaning which critics have understood variously as a personal name, a nom de plume, an acronym, and a function; a final self-identification is as "shepherd", a title usually implying royalty.

[51] The author, writing in the time of the Maccabees to assure his fellow-Jews that their persecution by the Syrians would come to an end and see them victorious, seems to have constructed his book around the legendary Daniel mentioned in Ezekiel, a figure ranked with Noah and Job for his wisdom and righteousness.

[53] Lester Grabbe (2003) puts the combination of the two texts Ezra and Nehemiah, with some final editing, somewhat later, in the Ptolemaic period, c. 300–200 BCE.

[55] Although the book is divided into two parts (1st and 2nd Chronicles), the majority of studies propose a single underlying text with lengthy later additions and amendments to underline certain interests such as the cult or the priesthood.

[61] 3 Maccabees concerns itself with the Jewish community in Egypt a half-century before the revolt, suggesting that the author was an Egyptian Jew, and probably a native of Alexandria.

[62] 4 Maccabees was probably composed in the middle half of the 1st century CE, by a Jew living in Syria or Asia Minor.

Its self-attribution to Solomon was questioned even in the medieval period, and it shows affinities with the Egyptian Jewish community and with Pharisee teachings.

Justin Martyr in his First Apology explicitly refers to the apostles as "uneducated" or "illiterate" (Acts 4:13), which has led scholars to question their ability to write the sophisticated Greek texts of the New Testament.

Bart Ehrman, a leading New Testament scholar, supports this view, explaining that the socio-economic background of Jesus' disciples—many of whom were fishermen or peasants—makes it unlikely that they could have authored these works.

[74] Ehrman also notes that literacy rates in first-century Palestine were extremely low, particularly in rural areas like Galilee, where most of the disciples lived.

There is general agreement among scholars that the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) show a high level of cross-reference.

In addition, most scholars agree that the author of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles, making Luke-Acts two halves of a single work.

[77][78][79][80][81] According to tradition and early church fathers, first attested by Papias of Hierapolis, the author is Mark the Evangelist, the companion of the apostle Peter.

[84] Early Christian tradition, first attested by Papias of Hierapolis, held that the apostle Matthew, the tax-collector and disciple of Jesus, had written a Gospel in "Hebrew" (Aramaic, the language of Judea).

[85] Modern scholars interpret the tradition to mean that Papias, writing about 125–150 CE, believed that Matthew had made a collection of the sayings of Jesus.

[91] There is general acceptance that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles originated as a two-volume work by a single author addressed to an otherwise unknown individual named Theophilus.

[93] According to tradition, first attested by Irenaeus, the author was Luke the Evangelist, the companion of the Apostle Paul, but many modern scholars have expressed doubt and opinion on the subject is evenly divided.

[100] The Epistle to the Romans, First Corinthians and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and the Epistle to Philemon are almost universally accepted as the work of Paul – the superscripts to all except Romans and Galatians identify these as coming from Paul and at least one other person, a practice which was not usual in letters of the period, and it is not clear what role these other persons had in their composition.

Others, however, have argued that the author could have been John the Elder of Ephesus, a view which depends on whether a tradition cited by Eusebius was referring to someone other than the apostle.