Who Wrote the Bible?Armed with his training as a Bible scholar and a linguist, Professor Friedman combines his own understanding of the ancient world with recent archeological evidence and new methods of literary analysis to discover clues within the Bible itself that point to a solution to the puzzle of its authorship. Like a skilled detective on a difficult case, he carefully uncovers the identity of the writers: when and where they lived, their relationship to the events they described, whom they admired, whom they opposed, the political and religious motivations behind their works; and in three cases, he provides their names. He discovers that some of these writers knew each other and tells how this affected, in unexpected ways, the final form the Bible took. Finally, he explains why there are inconsistencies in the Bible, why certain stories came out the way they did and what their relationship was to the historical events they describe, why certain laws were laid down, and why God is portrayed in so many different and often contradictory ways.--From publisher description. |
Common terms and phrases
Aaron Aaronid Aaronid priests Abiram Abraham According altar Assyrians Babylonian Beth-El biblical world book of Jeremiah Books of Moses centralization century chapter cherubs Chronicles Commandments cubits deity Deut Deuteronomistic history Deuteronomistic writer documents Dtr¹ Dtr² earth Egypt evidence exile Exod Exodus Ezekiel Ezra Five Books flood story Genesis golden calf Hebrew Hezekiah high places Hilkiah historian Holy investigators Isaac Israelite Jacob Jeroboam Jerusalem Joshua Judah Judean King Hezekiah King Josiah kingdom of Israel Korah land language law code Levites Leviticus Manasseh narrative Noah northern Numbers person picture political priesthood Priestly Priestly source priests of Shiloh prophet redactor refers Rehoboam religion religious sacred sacrifice Samuel says scroll second Temple Shechem Shiloh Sinai snow-white Miriam Solomon someone sons sources Tabernacle tells Tent of Meeting thing throne tion torah tradition tribes verse Wellhausen wilderness words worship written wrote the Bible Yahweh