Who wrote the Bible?

In Genesis 3 verse 1 the serpent comes to the woman and the first 6 words recorded that he spoke were, “Is it true that God said”, and that tactic has never changed. From the very beginning, there has been a continuing effort to cast doubt upon what God has really said.  It is the most strategic assault if your desire is to bring down Christianity. The Christian faith is a word based faith, destroy confidence in that word, and you have effectively brought Christianity to its knees, no pun intended. In this series of posts, we will address a number of these accusations and see if there is any merit to their challenge. We will take each accusation from the documentary point by point.  

Accusation #1 “The Bible is often spoken of as though it dropped from the sky, perfect and complete. Yet, the reality of who actually wrote it is far more complicated and far less divine than most people realize.” 

Answer #1 In their first statement, their dishonesty becomes evident. They begin by creating a false narrative, by which they can then begin breaking it down. I have never heard the bible spoken of as if it dropped from the sky, perfect and complete, and I've been around the Christian community a long time. The exact opposite of their statement is where you find the truth. Christians are very concerned about whether they can trust the text or not. So much so, a whole discipline of study exist for the purpose of determining what the text says and where it came from. (see Textual Criticism) 

The remainder of their statement is necessarily a half-truth to fit the narrative they are wanting to present. It is true, Textual Criticism is a very complex and tedious work, but whether it is less divine than most people realize is subjective reasoning based on opinion not research or textual evidence. 

Accusation #2 “The story of the Bible's creation is messy. It's a patchwork of voices stitched together over centuries by people with agendas, political pressures, cultural biases, and evolving ideas about the world. Far from being a single-unified book, the Bible is more like a library, a collection of writings from different authors spanning hundreds of years, each reflecting the time and society in which they lived.” 

Answer #2 One has to wonder if there is an agenda with bias in this documentary? In accusation #2 we have another patch work of half-truths and statements as they continue to build their false narrative. It is true, the writings of scripture come from 40 different authors over a period of 1,500 years. However, a study of the text itself is anything but messy patchwork. It amazingly flows together, revealing the story of redemption through historical record, poetry, laws and rules, songs, wisdom sayings & proverbs, and in the context of simple letter writing. 

The Bible exhibits through all these forms of writing a consistent theme of redemption, where both the Old and New Testaments point to Jesus Christ as the solution to sin. For instance, the promise of a Savior in Genesis 3:15 is fulfilled in the New Testament through the life and work of Jesus, illustrating a cohesive narrative throughout the scriptures. 

The Bible presents a unified theme centered on the problem of sin and the solution found in Jesus Christ. Key examples are found in Genesis, which introduces sin through Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15). Then in Exodus, Christ can be seen in the Passover lamb (Exodus 12). Revelation then concludes with the promise of a new heaven and earth, restoring what was lost in Genesis (Revelation 21:4). The Bible also uses patterns and types to connect stories across different books. For instance, Joseph's Story is repeated in the lives of Mordecai and Daniel, illustrating themes of suffering and redemption. Jesus as the Second Adam fulfills the role of the first Adam.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Many passages in the Bible reference earlier texts, creating a web of connections. For example, Isaiah foretells the coming of Jesus and the inclusion of Gentiles in God's plan (Isaiah 49:6). New Testament Apostles often quote Old Testament scriptures to affirm Jesus' fulfillment of these prophecies. You have to ask yourself how difficult would it be to get 40 different authors to write 66 different books over 1,500 years and have them maintain a constant united theme? We know it happened once, we'll have to wait a long time to see if it ever happens again.

Accusation #3 The earliest parts of the Hebrew Bible, what many call the Old Testament, were not written by eyewitnesses or even by people who lived anywhere close to the events they describe. The first five books, known as the Torah or the Pentetuk, were traditionally said to be written by Moses. Yet, historians and scholars have long shown that's impossible. 

Answer #3 Another false statement around half-truths. A more accurate statement would have read, “liberal scholars have in recent times cast doubt upon the traditional belief that Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Old Testament.” For a comprehensive look at this view, see (First Five Books) 

These scholars argue that Moses could not have written the first five books of the Old Testament due to historical and textual evidence. Their main points suggest that the texts reflect a later historical context that would not align with Moses' time. They point out that Moses could not have written about his own death in Deuteronomy 34, which raises questions about his authorship and some propose that these books were written by multiple authors over time, rather than a single individual. However, there is no definitive proof that disproves his authorship.  For certain, Moses did not record his own death, obviously that was added to the writing after the fact, but that does little to prove he did not write the previous accounts. And certainly the accounts of creation and events that occurred before his time he would have to have copied from earlier writings. That is a given, but shouldn't be offered as evidence he did not catalog the first five books. 

The traditional view upholding Mosaic authorship has much support on its side. It draws its conclusions from various area's of study. You can get a comprehensive view of the subject by following the link above, “First Five Books”. So as not to leave you in this post without examples, we will look at the archaeological findings, which provide explicit and direct evidence that supports many of the events, characters, and settings described in the Bible. 

For instance, the ziggurat at Uruk (Erech) was found to have been constructed using clay and bitumen, in harmony with the materials described in the Bible. The Egyptian names and titles in the book of Exodus match Egyptian inscriptions, and archaeological evidence supports the Hebrew people’s separation from the Egyptians while living in Egypt, consistent with Biblical accounts, which contradict the view of the liberal scholars. Moreover, Egyptian magicians, mentioned in the account of Moses, are confirmed by historical records as being a part of Egyptian life at the time. Further archaeological evidence includes bricks made with and without straw, discovered in Egypt, corroborating the Biblical narrative of the Israelites being forced to make bricks with less straw under oppressive labor conditions (Exodus 5:6). 

The Papyri Anastasi, ancient Egyptian documents, mention the scarcity of straw, mirroring the Biblical description. The letter gives examples of what a scribe was supposed to be able to do: calculating the number of rations which have to be doled out to a certain number of soldiers digging a lake, or the quantity of bricks needed to erect a ramp of given dimensions.
 

It is important to historians and Bible scholars above all for the information it supplies about towns in Syria and Canaan during the New Kingdom. There is a long list of towns which run along the northern border of the djadi or watershed of the Jordan in Canaan, which bound Lebanon along the Litani River and upper retnu and Syria along the Orontes. The border lands of Egypt's province of Canaan with Kadesh are also defined in the document. There is a vast amount of evidence such as this found in the field of archaeology that lend support to the Mosaic authorship, not to mention all the other fields of study. 

Is there absolute proof that Moses is the author of the first five books? Certainly not, we are talking about writings thousands of years old. However, with the vast amount of support from various fields of study, to make the statement concerning Moses authorship, “historians and scholars have long shown that's impossible” is more than misleading, it's an outright falsehood. Sure, the liberal scholars have their arguments, and that's perfectly fine. Those should be heard and debated. But to make documentary statements of fact leading one to think all scholars have come to this conclusion is dishonest.  

Thanks for reading, we will look at a few more accusations in the next post.

David