Why wrote the bible

In modern parlance, that is a lie, and a book written by someone who lies about his identity is a forgery. Most modern scholars of the Bible shy away from these terms, and for understandable reasons, some having to do with their clientele. Teaching in Christian seminaries, or to largely Christian undergraduate populations, who wants to denigrate the cherished texts of Scripture by calling them forgeries built on lies? And so scholars use a different term for this phenomenon and call such books "pseudepigrapha.

You will find this antiseptic term throughout the writings of modern scholars of the Bible. It's the term used in university classes on the New Testament, and in seminary courses, and in Ph.

What the people who use the term do not tell you is that it literally means "writing that is inscribed with a lie. And that's what such writings are.

Whoever wrote the New Testament book of 2 Peter claimed to be Peter. But scholars everywhere -- except for our friends among the fundamentalists -- will tell you that there is no way on God's green earth that Peter wrote the book. Someone else wrote it claiming to be Peter.

Scholars may also tell you that it was an acceptable practice in the ancient world for someone to write a book in the name of someone else.

But that is where they are wrong. If you look at what ancient people actually said about the practice, you'll see that they invariably called it lying and condemned it as a deceitful practice, even in Christian circles. But he didn't. Someone else did.

And that someone else lied about his identity. The same is true of many of the letters allegedly written by Paul. Most scholars will tell you that whereas seven of the 13 letters that go under Paul's name are his, the other six are not.

Their authors merely claimed to be Paul. In the ancient world, books like that were labeled as pseudoi -- lies. This may all seem like a bit of antiquarian curiosity, especially for people whose lives don't depend on the Bible or even people of faith for whom biblical matters are a peripheral interest at best. Who wrote it? And why? These findings may be incomplete and they may be highly contested, but they have helped historians paint a picture of how the Bible came to life.

Perhaps the best place to start the story is in Sun-baked northern Egypt, for it was here that the Bible and archaeology may, just may, first collide. For centuries, the Old Testament has been widely interpreted as a story of disaster and rescue — of the Israelites falling from grace before picking themselves up, dusting themselves down and finding redemption. In this podcast, biblical scholar John Barton considers the historical background to the most influential book in western culture, exploring its creation and how it fits into the histories of Judaism and Christianity:.

So what happened next? The Bible is in little doubt. It tells us that Moses led the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt whose population had been laid low by ten plagues inflicted on them by God before Joshua spearheaded a brilliant invasion of Canaan, the promised land. The historical sources, however, are far less forthcoming. Like all good autocrats, Merneptah, pharaoh of Egypt, loved to brag about his achievements. And when he led his armies on a successful war of conquest at the end of the 13th century BC, he wanted the world, and successive generations, to know all about it.

The medium on which the pharaoh chose to trumpet his martial prowess was a three-metre-high lump of carved granite, now known as the Merneptah Stele. But it is the final three lines of the inscription that has arguably excited most interest among historians. But the Israelites would survive. It would spawn what is surely the most influential book of all time: the Bible. If the early history of the Israelites is uncertain, so is the evolution of the book that would tell their story.

Catherine Nixey and Edith Hall discuss a pivotal moment in religious history, when Christianity became the dominant faith of the Roman empire:. Until the 17th century, received opinion had it that the first five books of the Bible — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — were the work of one author: Moses.

That theory has since been seriously challenged. Scholars now believe that the stories that would become the Bible were disseminated by word of mouth across the centuries, in the form of oral tales and poetry — perhaps as a means of forging a collective identity among the tribes of Israel. Eventually, these stories were collated and written down. The question is by whom, and when? A clue may lie in a limestone boulder discovered embedded in a stone wall in the town of Tel Zayit, 35 miles southwest of Jerusalem, in The boulder, now known as the Zayit Stone, contains what many historians believe to be the earliest full Hebrew alphabet ever discovered, dating to around BC.

The Zayit Stone does not in itself tell us when the Bible was written and collated, but it gives us our first glimpse of the language that produced it. And, by tracking the stylistic development of that language down the centuries, and cross-referencing it with biblical text, historians have been able to rule out the single-author hypotheses, concluding instead that it was written by waves of scribes during the first millennium BC.

Moses is the prophet who leads Israel from slavery in Egypt to the edge of the promised land. After killing an abusive Egyptian slave driver, Moses escapes the death penalty by running to the wilderness, where he marries and takes up life as a shepherd.

God commissions Moses: tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Moses does so, Pharaoh resists, God judges Egypt with 10 plagues, and the Israelites leave. Moses writes out the details of what that relationship looks like.

The first book, Genesis, sets the stage for the other four books. It explains where the Jewish people came from, and how they ended up in Egypt. Ezra is born long, long after Moses. But like the ancient prophet, Ezra leads a group of Israelites from exile in another nation back to the promised land. Ezra is a key player in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. If this is the case, it makes Ezra the second-most prolific author of the Bible.

Not bad for a guy you never hear about, right? Nehemiah is a cupbearer to the king of Persia when he gets some disturbing news: his countrymen back in Jerusalem are in dire straits, and the city is in shambles Neh Nehemiah then gets the go-ahead from King Artaxerxes to rebuild the city walls and gates, and takes off for Jerusalem.

Artaxerxes makes him the governor of Judah Neh , and Nehemiah uses this position to point the people to God. Plus, he teams up with Ezra to rededicate the people to God —39 and hold them to their promises — Nehemiah wrote the book that bears his name—and he wrote it in first person.

Nehemiah has a very transparent writing style, often breaking from his story to record a prayer he made to God ; David only wrote about half of the Psalms—73 out of all , to be precise though the Latin Vulgate and Septuagint credit a few more to him.

If you throw in the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament and Latin Vulgate credits, it brings the count as high as When Solomon succeeds his father David as king of all Israel, the Lord appears to him in a dream. Instead of asking for cash or the heads of his enemies, Solomon just asks God for wisdom. And boy, does God deliver:. Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore.

For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations. Solomon came up with 3, proverbs and 1, songs 1 Ki Lucky for us, a lot of that wisdom is part of our Bibles. Solomon is traditionally credited for authoring the books of Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

Solomon contributes to two more books of the Bible as well. Most of the first 29 chapters were written or curated by Solomon. W hen David commissions the temple in Jerusalem, he appoints Asaph and his family to lead worship 1 Ch He and his family must have been some awesome songwriters, because 12 of the Psalms are credited to him Ps 50; 73— The descendants of Korah wrote 11 psalms:.

Before anyone gets overly excited, no, a Masters of the Universe character did not author part of the Bible as far as I can tell. But the similarity in name is pretty funny. Heman was a wise man who co-authored the eighty-eighth psalm with the sons of Korah. He was wise enough to compare to Solomon, but not wiser 1 Ki Oh, look, another psalmist! Like his relative Heman, Ethan was one of the wisest men in the world. You know, besides Solomon 1 Ki He wrote Psalm Surely I am more stupid than any man, And I do not have the understanding of a man.

Pr —3. Again, the Bible tells us very little about this author. Lemuel was a king. Isaiah is the earliest,and arguably the most preeminent of the Major Prophets. His ministry spans the reign of four kings, and he seems to be responsible for some of the royal records 2 Ch ; Isaiah marries a prophetess Is and has two sons.

In addition to proclaiming the word of God to the nation, Isaiah gives personal advise to the kings of Judah. He reassures King Hezekiah that the Lord will protect Judah from Assyrian armies 2 Ki —7; Is —7 , but warns him that Jerusalem will one day be sacked by the Babylonians Is —7. And of course, the book of Isaiah is traditionally credited to him though his disciples seem to have contributed to the body of work overtime.

His prophecies cover the rise of Persian emperor Cyrus, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the coming kingdom of God. Jeremiah begins his prophetic ministry at a young age Jer , and spends most of his time warning the nation of Judah that judgment is coming. Jeremiah outlasts all the kings, though, and ends up offering counsel to the refugees of Jerusalem and the surrounding area. According to tradition, Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations, too. This book is a group of five acrostic poems that mourn the fall of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah also wrote a few more dirges when the good king Josiah died in battle 2 Ch Ezekiel is one of the many Jews taken captive to Babylon Ezek Ezekiel makes a lot of sacrifices in his ministry. He eats cakes cooked over poop — He lies on his side for days —6. But his prophecies are phenomenal. He sees the Lord enthroned above the cherubim —2.

He sees the temple of God destroyed and rebuilt. He sees dry bones growing ligaments and flesh. He becomes a chief government officer in both the Babylonian and Persian empires ; ; —3. Seriously, God has Hosea marry a prostitute and have a few kids Hos And Hosea does. When his wife takes up her old trade and starts sleeping with other men, God tells him to go bring her back home as his wife again. Because Israel has turned away from her relationship to God and chased idols instead.

Israel is going to deal with the consequences of her actions, but the Lord plans to bring her back to him, just like Hosea brings back his wife Joel writes a brief book of prophecy that explains two important phenomenon: the current plague of locusts and the coming day of the Lord. Amos is a shepherd from Tekoa, a little town in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Lord gives him visions and calls him to journey north to prophesy against the king of Israel.

As you can imagine, the false priests in Israel want to shut this Southerner down Am — Amos is an interesting character in that it seems he has no background in public ministry. But hey, if you love underdogs, you should check out his book. One of the more famous characters in the Bible albeit his is one of the least-read books. Jonah sails in the other direction instead, gets thrown overboard, and spends three days in the belly of a big fish. The fish spits him up, and Jonah is again called to preach in Nineveh.

This time, Jonah obeys. He is traditionally credited as the author of Jonah. Micah is a prophet from Moreshetch in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, but he preaches to both the people in both the North and the South Mic In fact, the people quote Micah to save Jeremiah from the death sentence. When Jeremiah prophesies that Jerusalem and the temple will be sacked, the priests and false prophets try to get him killed Jer , The third chapter of his book is a prayer-psalm, one of the only shiggaion examples in the Bible Hab Zephaniah has some royal blood in him.

He opens his tiny book of the Bible with his genealogy—which traces back to Hezekiah, the righteous king Zep Haggai writes a very brief account of his ministry in the Bible. He encourages the Jews to finish rebuilding the temple of God, and his ministry is noteworthy enough for the scribe Ezra to give him a nod Ezr —2. His recorded ministry spans about three months and 24 days Hag ; Haggai is the most specific of the Minor Prophets when it comes to dates: he gives the month and day of every message God sends him.

Way to clock in your hours, Haggai! Like Jeremiah, Zechariah begins delivering messages from God as a young man Zec He wrote down his visions and messages, giving us the book of Zechariah in the Bible. Malachi is the last of the prophets to contribute to the Old Testament. But when Jesus calls Matthew to follow him, Matthew closes his booth down to serve the true King of the Jews.

Then he brings Jesus over for dinner Mt — We first meet Mark in the book of Acts. Later, Paul and Barnabas bring Mark along on their missionary journey as a helper, but he leaves them and goes back to Jerusalem , Paul and Barnabas disagree so sharply that they split up: Barnabas takes Mark to Cyprus, and Paul starts a new missionary team — Mark matures, though. Luke is a physician who accompanies Paul through thick and thin Co ; 2 Ti His skills probably come in handy, because Paul takes a lot of beatings 2 Co 24ff.

Luke write more of the NT than anyone else yes, even more than Paul.