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Richard Elliott Friedman

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Who Wrote the Bible? Kindle Edition

by Richard Elliott Friedman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 1,188 ratings

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A much anticipated reissue of Who Wrote the Bible?—the contemporary classic the New York Times Book Review called “a thought-provoking [and] perceptive guide” that identifies the individual writers of the Pentateuch and explains what they can teach us about the origins of the Bible.

For thousands of years, the prophet Moses was regarded as the sole author of the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch. According to tradition, Moses was divinely directed to write down foundational events in the history of the world: the creation of humans, the worldwide flood, the laws as they were handed down at Mt. Sinai, and the cycle of Israel’s enslavement and liberation from Egypt.

However, these stories—and their frequent discrepancies—provoke questions: why does the first chapter in Genesis say that man and woman were made in God’s image, while the second says that woman was made from man’s rib? Why does one account of the flood say it lasted forty days, while another records no less than one hundred? And why do some stories reflect the history of southern Judah, while others seem sourced from northern Israel?

Originally published in 1987, Richard Friedman’s Who Wrote the Bible? joins a host of modern scholars who show that the Pentateuch was written by at least four distinct voices—separated by borders, political alliances, and particular moments in history—then connected by brilliant editors. Rather than cast doubt onto the legitimacy of the Bible, Friedman uses these divergent accounts to illuminate a text that was written by real people. Friedman’s seminal and bestselling text is a comprehensive and authoritative answer to the question: just who exactly wrote the Bible?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliantly presented: There is no other book like this one. It may well be unique." -- --Los Angeles Times

A contemporary classic that is a "thought-provoking [and] perceptive guide [to the Bible's authorship]." -- --New York Times Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Friedman carefully sifts through clues available in the text of the Hebrew Bible and those provided by biblical archaeology searching for the writer(s) of, primarily, the Pentateuch. He does so with clarity and engaging style, turning a potentially dry scholarly inquiry into a lively detective story. The reader is guided through the historical circumstances that occasioned the writing of the sources underlying the Five Books of Moses and the combining of these diverse sources into the final literary product. According to Friedman, the most controversial part of his case is the identification of the writer and date of the Priestly source. This book is neither comprehensive nor unduly complex, making it a good introductory text for beginners and nonspecialists. Recommended for all academic libraries. Craig W. Beard, Harding Univ. Lib., Searcy, Ark.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Amazon.com Review

"J," "P," "E," and "D" are the names scholars have given to some authors of the Bible, and, as such, they are very important letters to a lot of people. Churches have died and been born, and millions of people have lost faith or found it, because of the last two centuries of debate about who, exactly, wrote the canonical texts of Christianity and Judaism. Richard Elliott Friedman's survey of this debate, in Who Wrote the Bible?, may be the best written popular book about this question. Without condescension or high-flown academic language, Friedman carefully describes the history of textual criticism of the Bible--a subject on which his authority is unparalleled (Friedman has contributed voluminously to the authoritative Anchor Bible Dictionary). But this book is not just smart. Perhaps even more impressive than Friedman's erudition is his sensitivity to the power of textual criticism to influence faith. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Richard Elliott Friedman is one of the premier bible scholars in the country. He is the Ann & Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia and the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization Emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Commentary on the Torah, The Disappearance of God, The Hidden Book in the Bible, The Bible with Sources Revealed, The Bible Now, The Exile and Biblical Narrative, the bestselling Who Wrote the Bible?, and his newest book, The Exodus. He was an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and was elected to membership in The Biblical Colloquium. His books have been translated into fourteen languages.

Julian Smith is an award-winning travel writer whose work has appeared in Outside, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, Wired, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. He is the author of guidebooks to El Salvador, Ecuador, Virginia, and the southwestern United States, and he has been honored by the Society of American Travel Writers for writing the best guidebook of the year. He lives with his wife and daughter in Portland, Oregon.

--This text refers to the audioCD edition.

From the Back Cover

"It is a strange fact that we have never known with certainty who produced the book that has played such a central role in our civilization," writes Friedman, a foremost Bible scholar. From this point he begins an investigation and analysis that reads as compellingly as a good detective story. Focusing on the central books of the Old Testament--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy--he draws upon biblical and archaeological evidence to make a convincing argument for the identities of their authors. In the process he paints a vivid picture of the world of the Bible--its politics, history, and personalities. The result is a marvel of scholarship that sheds a new and enriching light on our understanding of the Bible as literature, history, and sacred text. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07M7S79BT
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster (January 15, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 15, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 7779 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 308 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #35,573 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2 in Christian Old Testament Study
- #2 in Christian Old Testament Criticism
- #7 in Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer History

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Richard Elliott Friedman

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RICHARD ELLIOTT FRIEDMAN is one of the premier bible scholars in the country. He earned his doctorate at Harvard and was a visiting fellow at Oxford and Cambridge, a Senior Fellow of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Haifa. He is the Ann & Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia and the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization Emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Commentary on the Torah, The Disappearance of God, The Hidden Book in the Bible, The Bible with Sources Revealed, The Bible Now, The Exile and Biblical Narrative, the bestselling Who Wrote the Bible?, and his newest book, The Exodus. He was an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and was elected to membership in The Biblical Colloquium. His books have been translated into Hebrew, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish, Korean, and French. He was a consultant for the Dreamworks film "The Prince of Egypt," for Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers, and for NBC, A&E, PBS, and Nova.

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John J. Kim

Must read for all Jews and Christians.

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2024

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Mr. Friedman eloquently explains the first five books of the Bible. After reading this book, it opens your eyes and minds and helps you understand the hidden meaning behind many of the biblical stories. I highly recommend this book for anyone who was confused by some of the stories in the Bible.

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Dave_42

Excellent Exploration Of Key Question

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2012

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For those who are interested in a scholarly discussion of a question which most people (at least most have wondered at some point or another) "Who Wrote The Bible?" by Richard Elliott Friedman is a book you should read. Friedman uses history as well as uses the contact to first build the case for multiple authors of the Books of Moses, and then put forward a plausible hypothesis for the authorship for the different sections. Of course, he is not attempting to name specific authors, but rather focused on where the authors were from, and what their position was in the society.

The core of the book is less than 250 pages, but the appendices, bibliography and notes bring it closer to 300 pages. That being said, while Friedman does an excellent job of presenting his subject in a concise matter, it is his references that make "Who Wrote The Bible?" such a great work by itself, as well as be a tremendous reference to do further reading on the subject.

Friedman opens with a discussion of the traditional authors of the Bible and why those were clearly not accurate, and then moves into an overview of the world which produced the first books of the Bible. He then goes into the two different authors of the events and how their accounts are different, and how they are the same. The authors are given the names J and E based on the words they use to refer to God. Friedman then goes into more detail on who these writers were, i.e. where they were from, when did they live, and what were their roles in society. Note that Friedman doesn't rule out the possibility that J and E each have multiple writers, but rather than whether they do or not doesn't have an impact on the overall viewpoint of the texts.

Of course, the authorship doesn't end with J and E. Next up is D, the author of Deuteronomy and the next 6 books, and this is followed by a discussion of the author referred to as P. Friedman also discusses the importance of the redactor or editor who put all these works together and the obvious control this person had over the current work. While controversial in some respects, this book is certainly not a case of science and religion in conflict. The difficulties were not a scientific discovery, but rather this has been an area of religious debate and discussion. Certainly some of the evidence that Friedman presents is scientific, but this is not a book discussing the validity of the work, but rather the authorship, so unless one's faith is dependent on the specific author of these works, it should not be one which fans the flames between religion and reason.

12 people found this helpful

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Fredo

Fascinating and scholarly, but weak in one way

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2022

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***Updated 5/3/2023: In spite of what other reviewers are saying, the Documentary Hypothesis (JEPD) is alive and well though trimmed down to its bare minimum by Joel S. Baden, as described in his The Composition of the Pentateuch. Who Wrote the Bible? may be a good place to start learning about JEPD, but do go on and read Baden's book. Baden resurrects E as a single, continuous narrative, provides evidence that J and E may never have been combined into JE, and came to the same decision I did regarding P. P is an old tradition, like J and E.**

With Who Wrote the Bible? Richard Elliot Friedman summarizes what we know about who wrote the first parts of the Hebrew Bible and why. Who Wrote is well-written, it should be easy for the layman to understand, and yet it is eminently scholarly at the same time. Elliot does not hide his pedigree--he was Frank Moore Cross's student at Harvard--but he gives plenty of credit to his predecessors and colleagues. Who Wrote is based on the idea that the Hebrew Bible up through 1 and 2 Kings (and maybe through Chronicles) was written by four persons, E, J, D, and P. They were later interwoven by The Redactor to create something of a continuous narrative. This idea is an old one but Friedman staunchly stands by it. Here, Who Wrote may be a little weak. The E source is now considered by many to consist of separate stories that were never a continuous narrative and which were likely authored by multiple persons. In the epilogue that was added in 2019, Friedman emphasizes that the sources are continues when separated from each other, but more discussion of E in particular may have been warranted--except that an epilogue is meant to be short.

I have but two significant complaints. Friedman's analysis requires us to accept the Bible's description of the United Monarchy being divided and Shiloh's priesthood being disenfranchised as a result. A good historian would not touch that subject because there is nothing outside of the Bible to corroborate it. For example, many doubted David as a historical figure because there was no extrabiblical record of him. As Friedman states in the epilogue, that extrabiblical evidence is now in hand. The skeptics are thus forced to concede that David was real, but that is just an example of the importance of extrabiblical evidence. And yet Friedman asks us to accept what the Hebrew Bible says about Saul, David, Solomon, and others.

My second complaint is that Friedman's contention that D's author was a member of Shiloh's priestly family 300 years after that family lost its power and "major religious center" is weak. He says, "This has happened with families, especially politically active families, in many countries at various times in history." I'd like more. Maybe that "more" is on p. 108 in which Jeremiah is quoted as "son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anaroth". The Hebrew Bible says that Solomon "banished" the dismissed priest Abiathor to Anaroth, which is how Solomon put Shiloh's priests out of work. But here again we are taking the Bible's word for it.

Nevertheless, if Shiloh's priests continued to think of themselves as priests it explains a lot--especially the golden calf story! The golden calf story appears to be a polemic about then-current events: Jeroboam established two cult sites with golden calves, and the Shiloh priesthood was left out of both. Friedman's case is utterly convincing.

A minor quibble is that Friedman says that the P document precedes the D document, but he discusses the latter first.

Minor quibble #2 is that the book's title implies the whole Christian bible but the book covers just Genesis through 1 and 2 Chronicles. Publishers like short, punchy titles that grab a person's attention.

We are left with a vision of rival priesthoods creating their own torahs to denigrate other priesthoods and their torahs. This should be no threat to anyone's religious beliefs. The final redaction created a whole that is more than the sum of J, E, D, and P. Friedman makes that point beautifully.

20 people found this helpful

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Nathan Ward

A liberating read

Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2018

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I grew up in a very conservative Christian home. Bible stories were more familiar to me than even Saturday morning cartoons. Friedman’s book rekindled my interest and dare I say love for the Bible. He in no way denigrates it.

Friedman shows that the writing of the Bible was very human with all of humanity’s glories and blemishes. There was nothing magical or inerrant in the writing of the Bible. Instead it’s a story of people seeking to be in relationship with God. It’s a story that has shaped us more than any other.

Friedman has enriched my belief in the Incarnation. The Word revealed in flesh. And what intriguing and messy flesh it is.

A must read for anyone wanting more than what they were taught in Sunday school or Bible College.

2 people found this helpful

Joseph M

Great presentation of the Importance of bible authourship

Reviewed in India on August 2, 2018

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the complete analysis, he tore it done and put it back beautifully

One person found this helpful

Ricardo Meneghelli

Coerente e compreensível

Reviewed in Brazil on December 22, 2016

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O livro apresenta uma abordagem coerente e compreensível quanto ao processo de formação da Bíblia Hebraica (Antigo Testamento), ajustando a tradicional e antiga Hipótese Documentária. O problema é que, atualmente, quase nenhum estudioso do tema considera a hipótese documentária um solução adequada para explicar a composição do pentateuco.

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678551742

Claridad y solidez académica

Reviewed in Spain on February 5, 2017

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Una obra seria desde el punto de vista académico, pero lo suficientemente clara para que pueda seguirlo cualquier persona con una base de cultura general. Explica la complicada historia del origen de los 11 primeros libros de la Biblia Hebrea -no toda la Biblia, como da a entender el título-. Por supuesto, como cualquier otra teoría sobre el origen de los textos bíblicos, está basada en una serie de hipótesis, pero lo que propone no sólo resulta creíble, es una de las mejores aproximaciones a uno de los grandes enigmas de la historia. Muy recomendable para cualquiera que quiera conocer la Biblia desde las investigaciones de la historia

One person found this helpful

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一領具足

このヤハウェの姿は、エホバにも、アッラーにも、共通して窺える姿

Reviewed in Japan on March 27, 2020

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　20世紀まで積み上げられた、聖書学の成果が切り拓いた「知的な旅路」をワクワクしながら、辿っていました。
　古代ユダヤ教を、宗教社会学を学ぶ題材とした、約半世紀前から、旧約聖書の読み難さの理由や、背景を知りたい、と思い続けてきました。
　この本のおかげで、その読み難さの由来を理解する様々な科学的方法論や、その研究成果に交わることが出来、序章から第14章まで、次々と疑問が解き明かされていく過程に、惹き込まれ、腑に落ちてくるものを味わい続けていました。
　信仰内容を一旦脇に置いて、聖書を、科学的な研究の対象に置き、理性や知性の問いかけてくる疑問に、科学的に答えていく作業には、中世の神学者たちの成果にまで遡る、長い先行研究の道程があることも、更に明らかになりました。
　第14章では、この旅路の末に辿り着いた高みから、ユダヤ教とキリスト教に共通するものを概観します。近寄ることを俊絶する絶対的な姿と、赦し慈しみ身近にいる姿と、相矛盾するヤハウェの姿が、浮かび上がって、改めてまた信仰内容の中身に戻る路が、啓けてくるかのようです。
　このヤハウェの姿は、エホバにも、アッラーにも、共通して窺える姿でもあり、一神教の生成過程に理解を進めることにもなります。
　21世紀に入って、仏教学の成果も一般に広く知られるようになり、例えば、NHKのEテレの「100分de名著」で、佐々木閑さんの「大乗仏教」の解説が聞かれるようになりました。（中村元先生に私淑するものとしても、嬉しく思います。）
　聖書学も仏教学も、その信仰内容を豊かにし、点検し、味わい直すうえで、疎かには出来ないなぁ、と再認識しています。

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