Sorry if this has been brought up before...it's just a concept I have always pondered. I mean, Christian people take the Bible as if it's law, but who made these laws? Who wrote all that stuff, and why do you consider them credible?

And then the Genesis part has always confused me...there's detailed description of how 'God' created the earth and such, yet no humans existed until the 7th day. So then how did we know how 'God' created the earth?

So you can see, to me it seems very unlikely that the Bible could have been written by anything but a group of whimsical humans who made it all up. So come on, Christians, prove me wrong.

People please answer this, I've thought about the same question lots of times. Like, maybe God told the authors of the Bible what to write, and what happened and stuff. Or maybe a few people just got together and made up a bunch of stories, and someone found it so everybody has been going by what they said forever. I could make up some damn good stories too, you know. And who compiled all the books of the Bible into one big book? I'm glad this question was asked, because I was going to ask it myself anyway.

Not too long ago the History Channel had a three hour special called, ta daa! Who wrote the Bible?! They will no doubt repeat it, a very long and complex question & since I hate to type I'll be brief, The Old Testament was compiled around 100 BC by a group of Jewish Priests, like the New Testament (compiled at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD) they voted on what books to include, the first 5 books were a given because tradition states they were written by Moses, though this is debateable.
Speculation by scholars is that Baruch wrote the book of Deuteronomy after the reign of Solomon when the Israelites were backsliding into idol worship.
At the time of Solomon there were 2 high priests, Solomon fired one who moved North, each preist is said to have written his own version of the first 4 books.
By analyzing the styles of writing, words, phrasing etc. most historians claim many people had their fingers in the varous books that make up the OT. Search this web site for more details & discussions on this, way too much for one post.

Why isn't anyone else answering this one? Come on guys, don't let me down here!

I asked that question to a Christian and he told me that God revealed it to Moses and he wrote it. So that means it was wrote after it hapened.

You aren't getting many answers because the Bible is an anthology of books written by many different authors. Many of these authors are completely unknown to us, such as the author of Genesis, although traditionally, Moses is the supposed author. Some authors are probably who they say they are, like Jeremiah or Nehemiah. Others were very likely written anachronistically in the name of an ancient authority to give them more weight, like Daniel.

There's a much-respected book on the subject by Richard Elliott Friedman. See it on Amazon.com here.

[This message has been edited by smugg (edited April 17, 2001).]

Oops...

[This message has been edited by smugg (edited April 17, 2001).]

Maybe if we narrow down the books to open dialogue, that would help. I claim that Moses couldn’t possible have written Leviticus because he was a married man yet the author created a sin that all married men violate without intention. That of having sex with their wife at the beginning of her menstrual cycle. Any married man knows that we usually start the cycle off when having sex with our wife. The only way to prevent it would be by not having sex for at least 2 weeks out of the month to allow for a safety measure. But since the punishment is so great, why take the chance that your wife will tell you, or remember in the heat of the moment. Since this sin is right there next to the other most Abominable sins such as sex with your neighbor’s wife, etc and the punishment is to be cut off from the people forever, only an ignorant man or a single man would write such a thing.

If Moses being a married man was not ignorant, then someone else had to write this book and most likely the other books attributed to Moses.

PS And of course, God would know this happens to all men and would never have made it such a serious sin. So we can first rule out Lev. being the inspired word of God.


[This message has been edited by critical thinking made ez (edited April 17, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by critical thinking made ez (edited April 17, 2001).]

Smugg is right that this is a huge and controversial topic.

To limit the scope to the New Testament, I can give you a quick rundown.

There are 7 of Paul's letters that are "undisputed." All scholars accept them as being written by his hand: Romans, 1 Cor., 2 Cor., Philemon, 1 Thess., Phillipians & Galatians.

Perhaps a majority of scholars also attribute 2 Thess.(?), Colossians and Ephesians to Paul.

The majority of scholars believe that 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus were written by disciples of Paul, rather than Paul himself. Some conservative scholars attribute them to Paul.

God only knows who wrote Hebrews.

The following is just my opinion as to the other New Testament books:

Matthew-Unknown. Probably a Jewish Christian in Antioch.

Mark-Mark, companion of Peter. Written in Rome.

Luke/Acts-Luke, companion of Paul. Not sure where it was written. Rome often cited.

John-Either John, the Son of Zebedee or another disciple of Jesus named John (not one of the twelve). I'm leaning towards the latter.

1 Peter-Peter.

2 Peter-Not sure. Perhaps Peter.

James-haven't given it much thought.

1,2,3 John-Author of the Gospel of John.

Jude-haven't given it much thought.

Revelation-haven't given it much thought.



[This message has been edited by Layman (edited April 17, 2001).]

Layman, who do you think wrote Leviticus?