Who Wrote the Bible

Richard Elliott Friedman

In the last couple of years, I’ve been making a real effort to engage more deeply with Torah study, and particularly with the weekly parshas.* This year, after coming across what seemed like a contradiction in Genesis, I asked a rabbi friend what to make of it. “Do you want the historical answer or the Talmudic answer?” he responded. “Both” I said.  We dug into how to square the apparent contradiction bases on the guidance of the ancient scholars, but he also told me to read this book if I wanted to understand more about the how historically the five books of Moses were constructed.

In a nut shell Who Wrote the Bible makes the argument that Five Books of Moses were written by four different authors – J (for Jehovah), E (for Elohim) P (for Priest) D (for writer of Deuteronomy) and then constructed by another compiler. The various authors had differing perspectives and political goals in their drafting hence the contradictions and repetitions.

Friedman asserts that these authors were all individual people and my understanding is that now many scholars take issue with that and other conclusions Friedman draws here. But the general outline still holds. I’m relatively new to this subject myself, and found this to be a fascinating, if flawed, read. I’d be curious to hear from others out there who’ve read in this area about better works.

Recommended for the enthusiast.

*For non-Jewish readers, the “Torah” can be defined broadly as Jewish religious texts or my accurately as the five books of Moses. Jews read the five books of Moses on a set schedule ever year, breaking the books down into weekly sections called parshas.