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Title: Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliott Friedman ISBN: 0-671-63161-6 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 01 June, 1987 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.28 (53 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Friedman answers the big question
Comment: In his thought-provoking book, Friedman sets off an a journey back through time to uncover one of the greatest mysteries in history: the authorship of the Bible. To be more specific, Friedman focuses his attention on the Old Testament.
Friedman subscribes to the popular "Documentary Hypothesis" that espouses the following: The five books of Moses were composed using four different source documents into one continuous story. Friedman goes through a brief history of biblical scholarship in relation to the hypothesis and points out that many scholars were considered 'heretics' and 'wicked' for promoting such a theory. It is obvious that this theory was not widely accepted in the 19th century and still attracts opposition to this very day.
Friedman then continues by examining different periods in biblical history and uses documentary evidence along with archaeological support to lend credence to his hypothesis. Especially interesting are his examples that clearly illustrate the validity of the hypothesis. One such example examines the existence of two different versions of the Flood story merged into one within the text of Genesis. Upon reading each version separately, the reader can truly see two different stories that may be understood independant of each other. Friedman proceeds to point out many other examples in the Bible which offer similar evidence.
Overall, Friedman's book is well written and captivates the reader from beginning to end. Some may argue that a number of Friedman's conclusions are speculative. However, it is important to remind oneself that even though many of today's best hypotheses and theories are tentative they present the best explanation of natural events from the evidence available.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating!
Comment: Richard Elliot Friedman's "Who Wrote the Bible?" is a fascinating, page-turing account that offers a satisfying answer to the question of who wrote the The Five Books of Moses. For years, Friedman writes, it was believed that Moses had authored the first five books of the Bible. This theory had difficulty enduring due to several factors, including the fact that the books had many contradictions in language and story. Then there was the not insignificant fact that Moses had written of his own death (explained by theologians as a prophetic vision of the future).
It is interesting to note that church leaders had no problem accepting that the Four Gospels had different authors, but yet were resistant to the alternative theory about the Pentatuch's authorship. Friedman answers this contradiction by the rather obvious explanation that the Church was reluctant to have any changes or alterations made to their existing theory. Since the Moses myth had endured for hundreds of years, they were reluctant to part with it.
Friedman starts the book with a succinct, and fascinating, account of the history of Semitic people in the Middle East between the years 1200-722 BC. He then begins to offer proof about who actually wrote the Five Books of Moses. He takes the reader through a fascinating breakdown of the language contradictions in certain part of the Bible, and supplies support for these contradictions by pointing to four different source materials that were used to make up the OT. With this theory in place (helped by an excellent index identifier for which sources supplied which story, or part of a story) he ably makes the case for the Documentary Theory of authorship. The Five Books of Moses are made up of parts of four different manuscripts, written by different sources, and pieced together by a later editor.
"Who Wrote the Bible?" is fasinating -- intelligent, well written, and, above all, well supported by logic and source materials.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Important Book on An Important Topic
Comment: I am surprised that there have not been more books written on Biblical authorship. However, the term Bible in this book is used loosely, because almost the entire book is about only the Torah portion of the Bible (aka the Pentatuech or the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deutoronomy)
In this book, the author plays the role of Bible detective and tries to piece together a theory on who wrote (or edited or compiled) the various parts of the Torah, when they wrote it, where they wrote it, and why they wrote what they wrote.
He concludes that there are several distinct sources (from wither individuals or groups) that are pieced together to form the Torah. He identifies them and tries to desribe them.
However, keep in mind that we are dealing with some very old texts here, and it is very difficult to determine anyhting about their authorship. Don't get me wrong, the author does a fine job in his investigation, but still, these are more like educated guesses than they are near conclusive conclusions.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone who is interested in religion. The Torah directly or indirectly forms a major part of the foundation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is definitely worth knowing where the Torah comes from, and this book is clearly one of the best on this subject.
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Title: Who Wrote the New Testament? : The Making of the Christian Myth by Burton L. Mack ISBN: 0060655186 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 06 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Neil Asher Silberman, Israel Finkelstein ISBN: 0684869136 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 11 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Bible with Sources Revealed by Richard E. Friedman ISBN: 0060530693 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 25 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Hidden Book in the Bible by Richard E. Friedman ISBN: 0060630043 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: 101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History by Gary Greenberg ISBN: 1570718423 Publisher: Sourcebooks Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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