Who actually wrote the bible, the torah, the quran

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riv6672
...and who supposedly wrote these religious texts?
In reality all were written by people, of course.
Pretty sure i know the bible press release, but not up on the others.

Marywasasl*t
schizophrenics, mad men and civil servants.

Bentley
Rabbinic tradition says that some of the books in the Torah were written by Moises, I think Ecclesiastes is among those but my recollection of it is quite poor. I think the tradition should also name without too much issue the books about the exile from Babylon, since it's quite modern in the rabbinic timeline as far as the Old Testament goes.

Who actually wrote them? Nameless ascetic men, probably the few rabbis that actually had notions of written language and decided to compile tales that were mostly expressed by oral tradition. Between those speeches there were likely engravings in wood or a variety of visual cues that guided storytellers through the process. Translating and rewriting was an unforgiving task so they were likely minor figures from their respective eras.

The rest of the Bible was also recollected by relatively unknown names, but at least we have pseudonyms for a few of them. Paul did write his letters and he was a roman citizen that lived and had decent education, the letters for the other apostles are not so clear in that regard, a couple of them might be legit and others made afterwards from previous documents or later transmissions. Each text from the New Testament is attached to a particular figure so the assumed author is implied.

I'm no expert in the Quran, but it's much more recent and the Middle East was pretty enlightened at the time (much more so than Europe at that point), so their historical accounts on the book should be rather reliable. One way or another, the Prophet must've written at least a part of it although tradition has it that the text is an aspect of Allah, so technically it always existed.

riv6672
Nice info, thank you, Bentley. thumb up

dyajeep
the first five in the Bible, chapter 90 onwards of Psalms - Moises...

Paul wrote most of the epistles in NT...

majority of Psalms - David...
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Songs - Solomon...
Lamentations - Jeremiah...

epistle to the Hebrews - unnamed but the style of writing is strikingly similar to Paul's, considering the author did mention Timothy, plus the salutations parallel that of the letter to the Romans:

"You should understand that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon."
Hebrews 13:23

Bentley
Yes, I had forgotten about David and Salomon as authors according to the tradition, good one dyajeep.

dyajeep
thumb up

it's also good to note that some authors have other people write for them in a particular time...

for example, Silvanus wrote for Peter:

"By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God; stand fast in it."
I Peter 5:12

and Tertius wrote for Paul:

"I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord."
Romans 16:22

riv6672
Ghost writers in the bible. huh

dyajeep
Originally posted by riv6672
Ghost writers in the bible. huh

not really "ghosts" since they are revealed and was written there for several years... smile

riv6672
True, just a typical RIVsponse on my part...wink

Mindship
I remember this from a Bible-as-literature course I took in college (back in the Hyborian Age):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis

riv6672
Appreciate that...thumb up

Shakyamunison
Originally posted by riv6672
...and who supposedly wrote these religious texts?
In reality all were written by people, of course.
Pretty sure i know the bible press release, but not up on the others.

It depends on what part of the bible.

Here is a site that explains.

http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/bible-faqs/who-wrote-the-bible/

Genesis-Soldier
what about sensorship? didnt the vatican censor verses, chapters and so on from the bible (which was made 40 years after Jesus' death)

Shakyamunison
Originally posted by Genesis-Soldier
what about sensorship? didnt the vatican censor verses, chapters and so on from the bible (which was made 40 years after Jesus' death)

The Council of Nicea chose what would be in the bible, and what was left out. That sounds like censorship to me.

riv6672
Editing. smokin'

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