Who Wrote the Bible?

by Richard Elliott Friedman

Book Overview

The contemporary classic the New York Times Book Review called "a thought-provoking and] perceptive guide," Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard E. Friedman is a fascinating, intellectual, yet highly readable analysis and investigation into the authorship of the Old Testament. The author of Commentary on the Torah, Friedman delves deeply into the history of the Bible in a scholarly work that is as exciting and surprising as a good detective novel. Who...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060630353
• ISBN13: 9780060630355
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Introduction to Biblical Scholarship

If you have any interest in the history of the near east, or the content of Old Testament's Pentateuch you owe it to yourself to read Richard Friedman's "Who Wrote the Bible". This book is a bit of a miracle in that it 1) grounds the reader in the history and scope of biblical scholarship, 2) logically builds the arguments for the documentary hypothesis from source material in a logically transparent way, 3) achieves the first two while being incredibly brief and compulsively easy to read. I'd venture to say that this book is a page turner. I had trouble putting it down (and no troubles picking it back up again). Lovers of the Bible will literally gasp as revelations of the text's origins are revealed and troublesome passages explained historically. You'll want to take a Bible and a fist full of different colored highlighters and then code the text for the different narrative voices (a handy appendix shows you exactly which passages are in which narrative). Then you'll want read the Bible again in a whole new way, with the originally compound confusing Biblical texts deconstructed and made clear by reading each narrative voice separately. Not only does Friedman's text tell you how to decode the Bible, but it also explains the historical context for each narrative voice - the motivations for their approach - and ideas about how, why, and by whom, the different voices were so artfully assembled into the Bible we know today. Whether you end up buying Friedman's hypotheses or not - this book will stimulate you and transform your understanding of the world of the Old Testament and the nature of the Bible itself. This is on my short list of books I'd consider "mandatory reading" for any educated person. The import of the Bible is so pervasive (not only to followers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam) - but also - culturally to places that are affected by followers of those faiths (i.e. the entire planet, except for certain interior areas of Asia). This book shines a big old searchlight down into the murky depths of the Torah.

Gulp...my paradigm of the Bible is disintigrating!

Considering the academic nature of the topic, Mr. Friedman does an incredible job at keeping the topic matter approachable and engaging. As a Christian raised with a conservative protestant background, I found the information Mr. Friedman presents to be both fascinating and very disturbing. Disturbing in the sense that he describes a `story' of the creation of the first 5 books of the old testament in a way that differs markedly from what I have been taught in church about the Bible. And yet, I am finding that there is freedom in this new (at least for me) way of seeing the Bible because, frankly, I don't think it held together very well the way it had been presented to me at church. That being said, it also has caused me to really question and search out what the Bible really has to offer. That has led me to reading The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman (Whoa! Not to be read by the faint of heart!) and An Introduction to the Old Testament by Walter Brueggmann (I hope he will help me figure out how to put the pieces of my disintegrated Bible paradigm back together in a new picture that still functions in some spiritual fashion). A worthwhile read for those exploring the part of the Bible and its origins.

Compilation by committee

Friedman keeps to a very narrow, but clearly defined, path in assessing biblical origins. He goes to some effort to restrict his thesis to identifying authors and their likely locations. The validity of events nor theology never enter the picture. Contention over inconsistencies in what has come down to us as "the" bible have raged for centuries. Scholars in the Middle Ages, he reminds us, readily noted how styles varied, accounts were duplicated and traditions conflicted. With a keen analytical eye enhanced by long experience and good scholarship, he teases a coherent picture from this confusing collection of tales. Although not all the material here is original - and how could it be? - Friedman's assemblage is soundly researched, very ably organised and presented. The fundamental issue rests on the division of the Hebrew-speaking peoples into the "dual kingdoms" of Israel and Judah. The result was the compilation of two "histories" with different styles and priorities. Each had a different focus and approach to what was meaningful. The later confusion resulted when this pair of accounts was amalgamated into a single document and promulgated as "the" book. Friedman strongly points out that this didn't invalidate the histories, it simply meant readers of it need to understand they are reading a parallel set of accounts. From the outset, Friedman dismisses the traditional view of Moses' authorship. There are too many implausibilities for that to have occurred - not the least of which is the description of Moses' death. Friedman contends the books are historical accounts recorded by scribes, probably court priests, of their respective kingdoms. Their style differences allow him to pin letter designations for identification - the now well-known E, J, D and P. The first two refer to how the deity was identified. The "D" is for "Deuteronomist", identified by stylistic traits, while the "P" relates to priestly genealogies. Friedman uses various highlighting techniques to demonstrate variances in the text style or content. This rather hotch-potch arrangement was later organised into the single volume by the "Redactor" [the "E" for "Editor" having already been assigned. Setting his thesis within a well-defined chronology, Friedman shows how the various authors had previously material to draw on producing their own accounts. With no possibility of retrieving the sequence, we have only the results passed down to us. This situation explains many of the inconsistencies, since Judaic scribes had different sources than those in Israel. They also, apparently, had different agendas to follow. Almost from the beginning, for example, there are differences in the roles of Moses and Aaron. Friedman lists other variations with their probable origins. Friedman's book is the best current example of what has become known as the "Documentary Hypothesis". This phrase stands in contrast with the idea of "divine origins" of the collection. As examples of histor

Outstanding Insights

Have you ever noticed that the story of the Creation is told twice in Genesis, in different ways? Or that at one point in Genesis Noah releases a dove from the ark, but just a few verses away, it says he released a raven? Scholars have found dozens of such "doublets," bits of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) that cover the same ground, often differing in the details or the words used.Richard Friedman, in Who Wrote the Bible?, unravels the major literary strands in the Pentateuch. By sorting out verses according to word usage and other markers in the original Hebrew, Friedman comes to the conclusion that today's Pentateuch was originally four different works. (Not all of this is original with Friedman, but he sums up previous research and advances the theory significantly.) One book originated in Israel before the Babylonian invasion, the other in Judah, the southern and longer surviving part of the Hebrew kingdom. Among the differences between them, God is always called Yahweh (Jehovah) in the book from Israel, and Elohim in the book from Judah. A third major strand that Friedman unravels is associated with the priestly class. Not surprisingly, it dwells mostly on various ritual requirements. Almost the entire book of Leviticus is from this source. The fourth source is the writer of Deuteronomy. Have you ever noticed how Deuteronomy repeats so much of Genesis and Exodus?Perhaps the most important insight of the book is how the God of the books from Israel and Judah is essentially forgiving and maintains a personal relationship with the central figures of the narrative - Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph, and Moses, for example. The God of the priestly source is characterized by high standards for human behavior and the imposition of consequences for going astray. Both of these aspects of God's nature are found in the New Testament as well. With ample documentation and convincing logic, Friedman develops the theory that a single editor wove these books together after the Babylonian exile, producing what we now know as the Pentateuch. This was a grand synthesis, in which no one original strand emerged dominant, and in which the several aspects of God are revealed. The result was a sum greater than the component parts (the kind of synergy one would expect from divine inspiration), and which ever since has been a central source for our understanding of God.Friedman does identify who he thinks wrote and edited most of the Pentateuch - names you will recognize. But I won't ruin the detective-like suspense of the book by telling you. If the book has a shortcoming, it's that it does not deal with the entire Old Testament. Beyond the Pentateuch, Friedman reaches forward briefly as far as Chronicles. I had hoped to read a treatment of Isaiah, with its prophecies of the Messiah, but it's not here.Altogether, an outstanding, insightful book. Highly recommended.

A Detective Story of the Highest Caliber

I had read several books that purported to explain the origins of the Old Testament, but they tended to make assertions without explanations. Perhaps they were too advanced for me. This book, however, explains in great detail how it arrives at its conclusions.It is great fun to read parts of the book and ask yourself: Whodunit? For example, there's one place where you are compelled to predict who wrote about the Golden Calf incident. I picked J, but the author picked E. After he explained his decision, I had to admit that he was probably right and I was probably wrong. Not so good for my ego, but an enjoyable puzzle nonetheless.The author is careful not to overstate his case. In situations where he lacks sufficient evidence, he points this out. This level of caution makes the whole work much more credible.I greatly enjoyed the way he explained how the political reality of the ancient Near East created pressures to write (or compile) a particular KIND of book. Prior to this, I knew that many Bible stories contained contradictions, but I didn't know why.What is interesting about this -- though this may be lost on literalists -- is that the analysis of the Bible in no way diminishes it. Indeed, by explaining the reasons for the contradictions (rather than simply explaining-away), this book greatly increases my respect for the Bible.I think everybody who claims to know the Bible should read this book. It's all very well to memorize chapter and verse, but if you don't know of the Bible's origins, you can hardly claim to understand all its implications.