Old Testament

[FaithT]

I was reading some news stories on my iPad and there was one that interested me but I can’t access it without buying a subscription. It’s about the author(s) of the Old Testament. I did some googling and from what I’ve found so far, scholars believe that the OT was written by a number of men, over a very long period of time.
I’d always heard it was written by Moses. What does the Church teach?

 

[Bob Crowley]

I'm not sure what the Catholic Church teaches to be precise, but it was assumed Moses wrote the "Torah" or the first five books of the Bible, not the entire OT. He was long dead by the time of the Judges, Prophets and Psalms (which allegedly were largely written by David).

Even the book of Genesis itself shows different writing styles.

I think a lot of the books were written or improved up during the Babylonian captivity when the Jews had time to reflect upon their history. After the Babylonian captivity for example, idol worship was finished in Israel. They finally figured out that was one of the things that caused God to send them into exile for 70 years.

The ins and outs of OT authorship are not straight forward as the attached Catholic link will show.

How We Got the Old Testament

Which books belong in the Old Testament canon? The subject is a little controversial today . . . and it was a lot more controversial 2,000 years ago.

www.catholic.com

 

[Michie]

Who Wrote the Books of Moses?

There are all sorts of crazy theories about who wrote the books of Moses. So what's the real story? Jimmy Akin cuts through all the confusion. Read more.

www.catholic.com