Where did the bible come from??

[kingcaboose]

I know the bible in and out and know what is said that it came from but I've read through various articles that the formation of the old testament was re written by Jewish preists about 1500 - 2000 BC. Now I wasn't convinced by these articles and looked quite extensively for information concerning the earilest time when the bible was formed and evidence to that belief but all the christian records only use the bible itself in its current form as proof.

Is there any information I can find about who wrote the basis of the book other than the bible record itself. I just wish to know because I know that people who do not believe it would like to know where it came from.

 

[jbarcher]

I personally am not going to attempt to answer this (not enough study, among other reasons), but I think it would help if you gave perhaps a short list of some of the articles and what names and sources you came up with in your extensive search--where they OT authorities coming from a conservative evangelical position? Or were they authors who had really no study except that they were "going on the work of Dr. X"? There are many groups who write on issues of history, and the biblical records, whatnot, who come from many different kinds of education and study. One book that stands out in my memory is the "Dead Sea Scrolls Deception", which in the preface, contained a marvelous, totally unsubstantiated assertion that, "The Gospels, as every scholar knows, are notoriously unreliable." (p.6? It is halfway through the preface.) And, as far as my skimming went (looking for appeals to authorities that these two writers had), they mainly appealed to one man.

And, one minor suggestion. I don't think that I'd agree with the assertion that "all the christian records only use the bible itself in its current form as proof." There are, to my memory, more than a few names of pagan kings recorded in the Bible, which were confirmed by archaeological finds. Certainly these assist in dating records--meaning, "the bible record" (which I am not sure what you mean by that) is not the sole source.

 

[CharlesYTK]

The Torah was written by Moshe and was made into several hand written copies. A copy was given to each of the 12 tribal patriarcs and a copy put into the arc of the covenant. This one copy we know made it to Solomons Temple. When Jerusalem was about to fall, the scrolls of Torah were hidden in a place in the wall. This was later found by Hezikiah when Israel returned fom Babylon. From that time on it was reproduced in many copies and spread to all the nations.

The maticulas form that the Torah reproduction was maintained in has preserved its accuracy. Every letter is hand copied, the spaces between the letters is maintained, and their is an error checksum at each line just as later used for computer language to insure its accuracy. The letters are also numbers and those letters are totalled at the end of each line and must add up to the number for the original. Any copy that was not perfect was destroyed. All good copies were treated with upmost respect even given burial when retired, placed in jars and buried. Some of those cashes have been found and provided some of the oldest Torah scrolls. And what is amazing is that the fragments that are found from all the Torah and Tanakh ane word for word to what we have today. In Judaism the words are so imprtant that nothing is to be hanged for it is accepted that God chose every word with a purpose. If you read the Talmud you can see great discussion about why a particular word was used by God and what that word means.

There are many copies of the NT however there is some variation from one manuscipt to another. Very few are exactly the same. So the manuscripts were compared and an average sort of concensus derived. The trent to retool the NT continues with many variations moden english, new age translations, and there is even one now I have been told, that is produced in hip hop rap format.

 

[LamorakDesGalis]

I know the bible in and out and know what is said that it came from but I've read through various articles that the formation of the old testament was re written by Jewish preists about 1500 - 2000 BC.

The date of 1500-2000 BC seems to off, that was the time of the patriarchs. None of the books would have even been written by then, with the possible exception of the book of Job.

The OT books were written individually over a long period of time - with the first 5 books in 1400-1200 BC, and the last OT book (Malachi) penned around 400 BC.

Is there any information I can find about who wrote the basis of the book other than the bible record itself. I just wish to know because I know that people who do not believe it would like to know where it came from.

If I understand what you are asking, then the answer is no. There aren't any ancient extra-Biblical texts which discuss the authors of the various books of the Bible. At the same time there are ancient extra-Biblical texts which show literary parallels or help illuminate the text. For example the Mari Tablets were letters written in Akkadian around 1800 BC, they show various customs very similar to those followed by the patriarchs in the book of Genesis.


Lamorak Des Galis