Quote:
Originally Posted by cyclone3483
agreed
We agree to disagree as I take the Bible to be the Word of God written by people who had the indwelling of the Spirit of the Most High.
|
The Straight Dope
Now to the first part of our story. Who wrote/compiled/edited (and when) the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah or the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses?
The traditional explanation is that the Five Books of Moses were written by Moses himself. There are several variants of this explanation:
- Traditional Judaism and fundamentalist Christianity believe that the text was dictated by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, letter for letter (or pretty much letter for letter).
- Other religious groups still ascribe authorship to Moses, but use words like "divinely inspired" rather than "dictated letter for letter."
- Still others say Moses was the sole author, but there's nothing "divine" about it except in the sense that all great works of literature and poetry are "inspired."
As time went on, however, scholars became increasingly skeptical of the idea of Moses as single author.
Who wrote the Bible?
This is just so we have both sides of the story for all to see.