The question of who wrote the Bible - the Old and New Testaments - seems to be inappropriate for believers, because they unconditionally attribute their authorship to God, agreeing only that He carried out his great plan with the hands of specific people. Without daring to dispute this opinion, we only try to outline the circle of those chosen by God, thanks to whom mankind has received Holy Scripture in all the variety of religious writings included in it.
What is the Bible?
Before talking about who wrote the books of the New Testament and the Old, collectively referred to as their Bible, or otherwise (Holy Scripture), we define this term itself. According to a centuries-old tradition, the word “Bible”, which means “books” in the ancient Greek language, means a very large collection of religious texts recognized as sacred among Christians and partly among Jews (the New Testament is rejected by them).
Historical studies have shown that they were created over 1600 years (approximately 60 generations of people) and were the fruit of the work of at least 40 authors - those very elects of God who were discussed above. It is characteristic that they included representatives of various social strata, from ordinary fishermen to the highest state dignitaries and even kings.
We add also that the Old Testament (chronologically earlier than the New) includes 39 canonical books recognized as sacred, and a number of later writings, also recommended for reading due to their high spiritual value. The New Testament consists of 27 books, written after the completion of the Savior’s earthly path, and which are inspired by God, because they are created, as is commonly believed, by the inspiration of God.
"Father of the Old Testament"
It is known that the first works, which were then included in the Bible (among the Jews it is Tanah), began to be created by ancient Jews as early as the 13th century BC. e. This process was very active and generated a lot of controversy over which of them are considered sacred and which are not. To understand this, a high priest named Ezra, who lived in the 5th century BC, volunteered. e. and went down in history as the “father of Judaism,” since he managed not only to systematize the texts, but also to create a harmonious and clear concept of the very religious teachings of the ancient Jews. Subsequently, his works were continued by other theologians, and as a result, modern Judaism was formed, which is one of the main world religions.
With the advent of Christianity, the collected and systematized literary material, with only minor changes, made up that part of the Holy Scripture, which was called the Old Testament. Thus, adhering to a different creed, and sometimes engaging in confrontation with the Jews, Christians acknowledge the merits of the Hebrew high priest Ezra, considering him the "father of the Old Testament." Despite the fact that a number of texts appeared after his death.
Two components of the Old Testament
The earliest in chronology and the most extensive part of the Holy Scripture, called the Old Testament, includes books covering the period from the creation of the World to the era preceding the earthly incarnation of the Son of God - Jesus Christ. This is the history of the Jewish people, and the statement of the foundations of the moral Law received by the prophet Moses on Mount Horeb, and the prophecy about the appearance of the Messiah in the world.
The birth in the first century of Christianity replenished the Holy Scripture with its second section in the chronology of creation, called the New Testament. It included 27 books, on the pages of which God reveals to himself and his will to people. It is customary to divide them with a certain degree of conventionality into the following categories:
- Legislative, including the four Gospels - books containing the good news of the appearance in the world of the Son of God. The authors recognized the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
- Historical, describing the acts of the holy apostles - the closest disciples and associates of Jesus Christ.
- Teaching - based on the texts of the apostolic epistles to various early Christian communities and individuals.
- A prophetic book called the "Revelation of St. John the Evangelist," but also known as the "Apocalypse."
Who is considered the author of most texts of the New Testament?
Despite the fact that Christians of the whole world attribute authorship to this part of the Holy Scripture to God, assigning to people only the role of blind tools in His hands, the researchers, nevertheless, have certain questions about this, concerning primarily the Gospel texts.
The fact is that in none of them, with the exception of the "Gospel of John", is the name of the creator indicated. These works are completely anonymous, which gave reason to consider them some retelling of the apostolic stories, and not their personal creation. Doubts about the authorship of Matthew, Luke and Mark were first openly expressed at the beginning of the XVIII century, and since then they have been finding more and more supporters.
Defining a New Testament Writing Period
In the XX century, comprehensive research was conducted, the purpose of which was to obtain as much scientific data as possible about the authors of the New Testament. However, even the modern technical means at the disposal of scientists did not give an opportunity to answer the questions posed to them.
Nevertheless, the results of an in-depth linguistic analysis of the language in which the texts were composed made it possible to clearly state that the authors of the Gospels of the New Testament actually lived in the middle or in the second half of the 1st century, which is very important, since it excludes the possibility of later falsifications. Some stylistic features of writing works were also established, which also testify to the historical period of their creation.
Mysterious "Source O"
Despite the fact that the question of who wrote the New Testament remains open, most modern bibliophile scholars believe that they were anonymous authors - contemporaries of the earthly life of Jesus Christ. It could be both the apostles themselves and those from their inner circle who heard stories about the Savior from them.
There is also a hypothesis according to which the authors of the New Testament, or at least the four Gospels included in it, could be people who did not have personal communication with the apostles, but who possessed some text that was later lost and received the modern name of the scholars - “Source O”. It is assumed that, not being a fully gospel story, it was a kind of collection of sayings of Jesus Christ recorded by one of the direct participants in the events.
Gospel Text Dating
If the question of who wrote the New Testament failed to get a comprehensive answer, then with the dating of the creation of its individual parts, things are much better. Thus, based on the results of the same linguistic examination, as well as on a number of other signs, it was possible to conclude that the earliest text included in it is not the Gospel of Matthew, usually coming first on their list, but of Mark. Scientists believe that the time of its writing was the 60s or 70s of the I century, that is, a period separated by three decades from the described events.
It was on the basis of this composition that the Gospels from Matthew (70 - 80s) and from Luke (late 90s) were subsequently written. The author of the latter, by all accounts, is the creator of the New Testament book, The Acts of the Apostles. Then, at the end of the 1st century from the birth of Christ, the Gospel of John appeared, the author of which, apparently, did not have fellowship with the first three evangelists and worked on his own.
The Bible is a repository of wisdom and knowledge
It is interesting to note that among the representatives of modern Catholicism, the recognition that there is no clear and unambiguous answer to the question of who wrote the New Testament is by no means considered sacrilege. Such a position was demonstrated by them during the Second Vatican Council, which lasted from 1962 to 1965. One of the articles of his final document was instructed henceforth instead of the names of the evangelists mentioned in the canon of holy books, to use a faceless wording - "holy authors".
Orthodox circles also acknowledge the existence of a problem with the identification of the authors of the Holy Scriptures. Eastern theologians, like their Western counterparts, unable to answer the question of who wrote the Old and New Testaments, however, argue that this does not question the sanctity and spiritual significance of the texts that entered them. One cannot disagree with them. The Bible has been and will forever remain the greatest repository of wisdom and historical knowledge, as a result of which people of the most diverse religious beliefs treat it with deep respect.
The language of contemporaries of Jesus Christ
It is extremely difficult to establish who wrote the New Testament because none of the original texts has survived to this day. Moreover, it is not even known in what language it was composed. In the era of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, the bulk of the population of the Holy Land spoke Aramaic, belonging to a very large family of Semitic dialects. One of the Greek forms, called “koine,” was also widespread. And only a few residents of the state communicated in that Jewish dialect, which formed the basis of Hebrew, revived after many centuries of oblivion and today is the official language of Israel.
The probability of errors and distortion of the text
The earliest New Testament texts that have come down to us in the Greek translation, which only in general terms give an idea of those linguistic and stylistic features that are inherent in the originals. The complexity is further aggravated by the fact that initially the works of early Christian authors were translated into Latin, as well as the Coptic and Syriac languages, and only after that they received a well-known interpretation.
In view of this, it is likely that errors and various kinds of distortions could have crept into them, both accidental and intentionally introduced by translators. All this makes us with some caution even relate to the names of the authors of the Epistles. In the New Testament they are indicated as apostles - the closest disciples of Jesus Christ, but researchers in this regard also have a number of doubts that do not detract, however, from the spiritual and historical value of the texts themselves.
Unanswered question
Part of the work of researchers is facilitated by the fact that the time interval between the creation of texts and their earliest lists that have reached us is relatively short. So, the oldest preserved manuscript is an excerpt from the Gospel of Matthew, dated 66, that is, created no more than 20-30 years after the original. For comparison, we can recall that the dating of the oldest manuscript with the text of the "Iliad" of Homer is behind the date of its creation by 1400 years.
True, in the above case, we are talking only about a small fragment of the Gospel, while the earliest full text, discovered in 1884 among the manuscripts of the Sinai monastery, dates from the 4th century, which is also a lot by the standards of historians. In general, the question of who wrote the Bible - the New Testament and the Old - remains open. Exciting the minds, he attracts new generations of researchers to work.