Who Wrote the BIBLE and when? | different scholarly theories

The Bible is the most popular and possibly the most influential book in human history. It is not only the most frequently published but also the most translated and quoted book in the world. But what do we really know about this book? In this video, I share what modern scholars think about the authorship of the Bible: who wrote it, when, and why. My presentation is based on the works of contemporary scholars as well as the lectures of Professors Christine Hayes and Joel Baden at Yale University. While I highly recommend watching their lectures, if you don’t have over 40 hours of free time, I am glad to summarize the basics of modern biblical scholarship for you in a relatively short presentation.
Link to my playlist on Christianity: • Historical background ...
Link to Joel Baden's course: • Hebrew Bible Interpret...
Christine Hayes Old Testament Yale Courses • Lecture 1. The Parts o...
Please, support Religiolog through a one-time donation: www.paypal.com/paypalme/relig...
Or become my Patron: / 4religiolog
#bible
#torah
#who_wrote_the_bible #religious_studies #flood #noah #christianity #religiolog #church_history
Bibliography:
Christine Hayes. 2012. Introduction to the Bible (Open Yale Courses) Yale University Press.
Joel S. Baden. 2012. The Composition of the Pentateuch Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis. Yale University Press.
Friedman, Richard Elliott. Who Wrote the Bible? Harper San Francisco, 1997.
Friedman, Richard Elliot. The Bible with Sources Revealed, HarperOne, 2009.
Collins, John J. 2014. Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: Second Edition. Fortress Press.
Barry L. Bandstra 2009. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Fourth Edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Stephen L. Harris Robert L. Platzner. The Old Testament An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible 2nd Edition
Cohn, Norman (1999). Noah's Flood: The Genesis Story in Western Thought. Yale University Press.
Fagan, Brian M., and Charlotte Beck, The Oxford Companion to Archeology, entry on the "Dead sea scrolls", Oxford University Press, 1996.
Ehrman, Bart The Bible- A Historical and Literary Introduction. Second Edition, Oxford University Press 2017
Habel, Norman C. (1988). "Two Flood Myths". In Dundes, Alan (ed.). The Flood Myth. University of California Press.
Sandra L. Gravett Karla G. Bohmbach. An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible a Thematic Approach
Min, Kyung-Jin, 2004. The Levitical authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah. T&T Clarke
Wright Robert, 2009. The Evolution of God
Stephen B. Chapman & Marvin A. Sweeney, 2016. The Cambridge Companion to The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Cambridge University Press.
Lee Martin McDonald - The Formation of the Biblical Canon_ Volume 1_ The Old Testament_ Its Authority and Canonicity-T&T Clark (2017)
Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973]
Timecodes:
3:08 - content of the video
5:12 - CHAPTER 1 - What is the Bible
6:47 - the oldest complete text of the Hebrew Bible
10:31 - who were ancient Israelites that produced these texts
15:48 - CHAPTER 2 - Who wrote the first books of the Bible and when?
16:52 - 2 creation stories
19:30 - What is the Documentary hypothesis
25:19 - 2 flood stories
30:04 - J, E, P, and D sources in the Torah
31:26 - 2.1. JAHWIST / YAHWIST source
33:30 - 2.2. ELOHIST source
37:28 - 2.3. PRIESTLY source
44:55 - CHAPTER 3 - DEUTERONOMY source
49:22 - “book of the law” or Torah found in 621 BCE and king Josiah’s reform
54:30 - polytheism and monolatry of ancient Israelites and their connection to Canaanites
1:01:21 - a civil war between Yahweh-only Israelites and polytheistic Israelites
1:02:54 - other features of the D source
1:13:07 - BRIEF SUMMARY
1:14:58 - CHAPTER 4 - The Torah Appears
1:19:23 - CHAPTER 5 - Deuteronomistic history
1:24:22 - CHAPTER 6 - Prophets and Ketuvim (The Writings)
1:25:04 - The Book of Daniel / The Son of Man
1:28:09 - CHAPTER 7 - CONCLUSION

[@religiologEng]

Thank you for your likes and comments! Link to my playlist on Christianity: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bICmfmuBqb2aaZo Please, support Religiolog through a one-time donation: www.paypal.com/paypalme/religiolog Or become my Patron: www.patreon.com/4religiolog

[@shriggs55]

I have not come across such a thorough and concise documentation of what the scholars say about who wrote the Bible-ever.Keep up the good work!

[@religiologEng]

Thank you! Will do! Please, support by helping to spread the word. Thank you!

[@MythVisionPodcast]

This was fantastic! I shared it out my friend.

[@religiologEng]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing it, Derek!

[@daletpave4123]

Hello Derek. Hope you don't mind me taking advantage of the occasion to thank you and applaud you once again for all the amazing work of your own channel! 👍❤

[@religiolog]

Thanks Dalet! I hope Darek will see your message here.

[@daletpave4123]

@@religiolog I actually wrote a very long direct comment on your video... 🤔 but somehow it disappeared entirely. Maybe it was simply too long, or it is because of the "mysterious glitch" some fellow FB debaters made me aware of. I'll try to repost later (I will recompose it in word first to not have to start over a third time, but will take a while as I have to replace my expired MS Office). Anyway, hope hereby to convey my admiration, appreciation and gratitude for your video. Great job! [PS: I reacted to your post in the FB chat group as Isa Lahat]

[@religiologEng]

Thank you. Maybe your comment had something inappropriate for KZbin's policy. In this case it may automatically delete your comment.

[@ahickey]

Listening to the woman speak 57 minutes in, it clicked for me that Siegel wrote Superman to be coming from the gods.... the house of el.

[@religiologEng]

Oh, I'm glad you found that connection :)

[@religiologEng]

Timecodes: 3:08 - content of the video 5:12 - CHAPTER 1 - What is the Bible 6:47 - the oldest complete text of the Hebrew Bible 10:31 - who were ancient Israelites that produced these texts 15:48 - CHAPTER 2 - Who wrote the first books of the Bible and when? 16:52 - 2 creation stories 19:30 - What is the Documentary hypothesis 25:19 - 2 flood stories 30:04 - J, E, P, and D sources in the Torah 31:26 - 2.1. JAHWIST / YAHWIST source 33:30 - 2.2. ELOHIST source 37:28 - 2.3. PRIESTLY source 44:55 - CHAPTER 3 - DEUTERONOMY source 49:22 - “book of the law” or Torah found in 621 BCE and king Josiah’s reform 54:30 - polytheism and monolatry of ancient Israelites and their connection to Canaanites 1:01:21 - a civil war between Yahweh-only Israelites and polytheistic Israelites 1:02:54 - other features of the D source 1:13:07 - BRIEF SUMMARY 1:14:58 - CHAPTER 4 - The Torah Appears 1:19:23 - CHAPTER 5 - Deuteronomistic history 1:24:22 - CHAPTER 6 - Prophets and Ketuvim (The Writings) 1:25:04 - The Book of Daniel / The Son of Man 1:28:09 - CHAPTER 7 - CONCLUSION

[@PepperLim]

Good stuff!

[@religiologEng]

Thanks, Pepper!

[@call_me-jo]

Love the video .. can you do a video on the new testament authership, I know most are anonymous, but to get a survey on how many Christian scholars still think they are written by the traditional authors and how many don't would be very interesting know how. Also it would be intersting to know if any non christian scholars agree on the traditional authoship of the gospels

[@religiologEng]

Thank you for your request. Here is my video on the New Testament - kzbin.info/www/bejne/gp2ZYnmbhdt8hpY

[@call_me-jo]

Thank u appreciate it

[@call_me-jo]

@@religiologEng i saw the video but it's more of a comparison and about the books themselves.. As my first comment suggested , could you do a survey of scholarship which think the Gospels are anonymous or any non Christian scholars think they are not anonymous.. authorship battle is a big thing now You could see paulogia and testify fighting it out

[@religiologEng]

@@call_me-jothank you for a suggestion, great idea. I'll add it into my list

[@call_me-jo]

@@religiologEng yes please :) i am really hoping for that video . i have already some resources on this if your interested. i wonder if you have an email or discord i can join, to share it with you ??

[@boblyle8121]

Such a thoughtful and informative overview of the Hebrew bible! Thanks so much for putting the time and effort in gathering the scholarship from various sources and schools of thought. I look forward to reading (and re-reading) many of the texts you recommend. Well Done!!!!

[@religiologEng]

Glad you enjoyed it! Please check out my channel, I have other interesting videos there. Best!

[@Dabordi]

I always find it a bit painful watching a long video like this, that has constant cuts and visual supplements every few seconds, imagining how much work went into making it so information-dense. The visuals really do help put stuff into perspective though, in particular showing the differences between the different sources. As for things I found interesting to learn here... 1. It's fascinating that the Old and New Testaments both have authors trying to reframe events in light of a more transcendent vs anthropomorphic god. I would argue even some very basic religious assumptions/rituals can look strange from the other viewpoint. Why does an infinite, transcendent creator need or care about sacrifices? Or why does a personal, anthropomorphic deity who used to all-but-walk alongside his followers now hide himself from the masses? 2. The transition from "Yahweh is our foremost patron god" to "Yahweh is the only god that ever existed" is a curious one. I always knew that such a change happened at some point, but never really pondered how before. 3. I never really knew about the differences between old Israel, Judah and such - a lot of these things just blurred together in my mind as "early Jewish people" without thought to how they would've had their own histories and factions pushing and pulling in favor of various historical figures and viewpoints.

[@religiologEng]

Hi Dabor, thanks for this informative comment. Do you think I'd rather break this long video into smaller thematic parts? I've been struggling over it and wanted to break it, at least, into two parts, but then decided to keep everything in one place. The second question is about those visual cuts. Do you think the visuals are changing too fast and I'd rather show one slide/picture for a longer time, or is it manageable watching it the way I did?

[@Dabordi]

@@religiologEng To answer your questions in order 1. Breaking up the video: I think this could easily be two videos - one talking about the documentary hypothesis as a whole, the nature of the early Israelites, and the J/E sources and the differences between them, then a second video going into later history, the traditions that made up the P/D sources and the various factions that had influences on later additions and the compiling of the books. I feel that the differences between J/E and how they manifest in the compilation of things like the creation or flood stories already say a lot about the early bible writing without the context of P/D necessary yet. All that said, I enjoy long videos and playlists, so I personally don't have a strong preference towards this being 1 big video vs 2-3 shorter ones. I'm just noting that I feel the most natural break-point would be around 35 minutes in, after you've established the basics and given clear examples, with a second video going into further detail and later developments. 2. I felt the pacing of the cuts was perfectly fine - for example, when you showed the full text of something you were going to quote a part of, I usually had enough time to comfortably skim the context and hear out your point.

[@religiologEng]

@@Dabordi great! thank you for your feedback, Dabor!

[@daletpave4123]

In my mysteriously disappeared comment I made a few detailed remarks about your choice of words that "the bible is the bedrock of Western civilization". I'll roughly limit my critique on that this time by saying that it may have been a "slightly poor choice of words". There's no denying that THROUGH Christianity the bible had a huge impact on Western civilization, but I'd argue that Western civilization had a huge impact on Christianity. I'm sure you didn't intend it to sound as such a one way street and that it was more like a crosspollination between multiple facets of the Greco-Roman world, of which Christianity - and with it the bible - was one. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed your video and applaud you for the work you put into it. Awesome job! I have shared your video on my FB-page and will include it in a future article on my blog (for whatever that's worth 😉). I also subscribed and look forward to your next ones. Thank you, and all the best. 👍

[@religiologEng]

Thank you so much, Dalet! I deeply appreciate your thoughtful comment and desire to help through sharing the video on your social media and blog. Best regards!

[@andrewgoldstein5633]

The vowels were known long before the time of the Leningrad codex and the agreed reading, known as the Masoretic text was certainly established by late 2nd Temple times.

[@religiologEng]

Thank you for the comment. Please check this lecture of Joel Baden and point exactly were he might be mistaken - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYusnpKbmbWtaJI

[@visionaryventures12]

I’m persuaded that the pentateuch was written by one team of Israelites around 270 BCE borrowing ideas from Plato, utilizing the Egyptiaca and Babyloniaca. I also believe that they incorporated a number of geometric designs into the text and its concepts of deity, which later became promulgated and passed down as Kabbalah. The pentateuch was written with certain phrases and repeating patterns to indicate how to rearrange the text of each book into units which form a matrix of rows and columns. Altogether, the five books form a vertical and horizontal which cross in the middle, Leviticus. This may be the wheel described in the first chapter of Ezekiel. I see this as clearly flying in the face of the Documentary Hypothesis. There are two names used. YHVH represents the singularity of deity. Elohim represents the plurality. Both form a sort of diagram akin to a black hole, the singularity and plurality combined. This is what is meant by the Jewish phrase: one day your name shall be one.

[@religiologEng]

Thanks for sharing these thoughts. are there peer-reviewed articles\sources that support such claims?

[@samueldani-gr6ge]

Ah , Hayes and jdep-er

[@religiologEng]

any problem with Hayes?

[@samueldani-gr6ge]

@@religiologEng nope, just want say that ... Is something wrong about my comment ?

[@religiologEng]

No, you're good. i simply didn't know how to interpret it :). I hope you enjoyed the video. It took over 3 months to produce it.

[@samueldani-gr6ge]

@@religiologEng maybe but any particular thing that suggest me to watch ur video rather Hayes video instead

[@religiologEng]

of course, because I present various perspectives based on several different biblical scholars. Some of them might disagree with Hayes or some ideas you simply won't find in her works. So its up to you whether to watch it or not. In addition, visuals help you to easier digest the material, also by getting a basic summary of the major arguments. Best regards

[@PaulaBean]

The bible is not the foundation of western civilisation and laws. The ancient Greeks and Romans, and the laws of Hammurabi are those foundations.

[@religiologEng]

At least this is how it was viewed for a long time in the Middle ages, don't you agree? And this is how it is perceived by millions of people today.

[@smergthedargon8974]

41:11 Eugh. Disgusting practice. Hate how having an interest in ancient religion means I get constantly reminded of how it perpetuates such a barbaric practice in the modern day.