Who Wrote the Bible?

In short

John wrote John but Timothy did not write 1 or 2 Timothy. And aside from the authors, were there editors?

Why it is important to know this

Context. You’ll see.

Answer #1: God

Yes, for sure. I’m not big on religious creeds, but I will gladly make it clear that I believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, in the most traditional and conservative way.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2Tim 3:16-17).

I really, really believe that – that the Scriptures are all relevant to us today.

I believe that the Old Testament is something that is instructive today, but its literalness is limited to the time and culture of that day. (Because the New Testament says so.)
However, I believe that the New Testament is NOT limited to the local culture or first century, but with rare exception (where noted in Scripture), it is to be followed LITERALLY today (not just in some generic way).

I hope I’m making that clear, because you may doubt that in point #3….

Answer #2: Also, some people you have heard of

I’ll get into details in a minute (since, after that last sentence, you’ve skipped this paragraph, anyway). But we do know the names of many of the human Bible authors, like Matthew, James and Paul. And some books are forever anonymous, it seems, like Hebrews.

Answer #3: Also, people you have NEVER heard of

So, as we read earlier, 2Tim 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God….”

But does the Bible ever say or imply that:

The Bible books dropped out of heaven?
The human authors were in a trance and had no idea what they wrote?
The human authors wrote a single draft and never revised it?
No other people ever revised their works?
Books are never compiled from various sources?

I think you know the answer to all of those: No.

A & B are obvious enough (though we kind of think like that). C is also believable (that James or Jude wrote multiple drafts), but again, we kind of assume there was no editing ever.

D and E are harder to swallow, but Scripture actually screams at you that there was editing of the Bible books. For example:

There are 92 verses that contain the phrase “to this day.” Most of those are editor’s notes, written long after the original events happened.
Jeremiah had a scribe named Baruch who wrote “all the words of the LORD that he had spoken to” Jeremiah (Jer 36:4), and then rewrote “all the words of the scroll that… had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them” (Jer 36:32). More words of Jeremiah? Or words Baruch added? I don’t know, but it implies that the book of Jeremiah was edited over time.
Romans 1:1 says it is from Paul, but the end of the book mentions “I Tertius, who wrote this letter” (Rom 16:22). So, Tertius is very likely a scribe, but he also got to add to the content. (Also read Gal 6:11.) Paul also lists co-authors in other books (1Th 1:1, for example).
The book of Psalms contains poems from many people, like Moses, David and Solomon. Moses and David lived CENTURIES apart, so someone must have COMPILED the psalms, holding on to them for years.
Sections of 1 & 2 Chronicles are verbatim copies (or originals?) of other books, like Samuel, Kings, Ezra and the Psalms. It indicates that Chronicles also is a compiled work of centuries of material – plus some original research.
Deuteronomy is the last of the five “books of Moses,” yet it ends with the death and burial of Moses (34:5-6) and details like, “the people of Israel wept for Moses… thirty days” (Deut 34:8). Umm… Moses could not have written that.

These are the examples we have evidence for (that I know of). Of course, you have to figure that there is a very strong likelihood that the Bible had many other editors that we will never know of.

None of this for a minute challenges the idea that the Bible is the literal, inspired*, authoritative word of God. It just means that God used people to accomplish his will. And we knew that already (Rom 9:22-24).

I think that makes the Bible ever more impressive, that God accomplishes his will in so many ways.

The authors

The Old Testament authors are pretty hard to pin down.

Traditionally, Moses wrote the Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy)
Ezra probably wrote Ezra
Samuel dies in 1 Samuel, so he couldn’t be the author of 2 Samuel or much or 1 Samuel
The prophets are probably the most predictable
See the Wisdom lesson for a discussion on the poetry authors

The New Testament authors typically signed their names, or there are lots of sources to research from.

People tend to agree that Matthew, Mark and John wrote the books with their names
Luke wrote Luke AND Acts
Hebrews is anonymous (well, to us, anyway)
James, Peter, and Jude signed their names to their books
Revelation is written by “John,” which is probably the apostle
And everything else is written by Paul, either alone (well, you know) or with others like Timothy and Silvanus

Theology and doctrine

OK, great, lots of authors. But what do we do with this information?

I think that knowing who the author is can really add perspective to things. That’s especially true with the letters of the New Testament.

Paul was formerly a DEVOUT Jew who became a Christian. Jesus appointed him as “minister to the Gentiles,” but Paul desperately still loved his fellow Jews. But they largely rejected the gospel, and Paul has strong feelings both for the Jews and the Gentiles, and that’s probably the biggest overall theme of his 13 letters.
John, for whatever reason, really latched on to the idea of love, and it bleeds from the pages of his gospel and his three letters. His old age (and subsequent wisdom) when writing the letters shines through, as well.
Peter has a very mature voice as an elder in his letters – quite the journey from the young man who walked with Jesus

Footnote

* So, “inspired” literally means “to breathe in” (where “expire” means “to breathe OUT” – think of a “respirator”). That’s why 2Tim 3:16 can be translated either way. To say Scripture is “inspired” is literally to mean that God breathed it. Although… to be clinical, I would think it should be “All Scripture is EXpired by God.” But that sounds like it is about to go stale. Of course, the other problem with “inspired” is that today it has a lot of fluffy religiousness to it that tends to obscure the real meaning here.

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