Richard Friedman's "Who Wrote the Bible?" - A Comprehensive Study of the Bible's Authorship

Amazon Customer: Raised a Christian told to believe for the sake of it, becoming an atheist for 6 years as an adult, and just now getting back into the research of Yahweh, this was exactly the perfect book to start with. It is now clear to me who wrote the Bible, and the next steps I will take in my research journey...Highly recommend to anyone!

United States on Oct 23, 2023

Fredo: ***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...

United States on Mar 02, 2022

Mr C McGlinchy: I am a nonbeliever who was raised Roman Catholic and as such I have an enduring interest in The Bible and in religion more generally. My professional training is in psychology, so I am merely a curious amateur.

I say all of this because it explains the criteria by which I evaluated this book. First of all, the content is fascinating, and the book deserves to be read by anyone seeking to better understand The Old Testament - a series of books that I think modern Catholics probably find puzzling and uncomfortable.

Next, the style is clear and coherent throughout. I can feel Friedman working hard to distil forests of literature and scholarship so that a curious amateur can engage with it. I am deeply grateful that he did.

I didn’t think this would be possible, but the tone is both mature and compassionate. As a nonbeliever, I find theological work frustrating because it often assumes the reader’s shared belief. On the other hand, explicitly anti-religious work is often callous and unfeeling, and given that the people I love the most are believers, this means that I cannot share in these books with them in a positive way. This book bridges the divide...

United Kingdom on Oct 23, 2021

Anthony D. Sueck: I know that this is going to be a very self-indulgent “product review”, but I’m going to start with my personal point of view in reading this book.

I don’t consider myself to be a disbeliever, per say, but at this stage in my life I’m also not a religious person or a churchgoer. However, I find the topic of biblical history to be incredibly fascinating. It seems to me that, even for those that don’t believe in God, there is a wealth to be learned from studying what Christians regard as the “Old Testament”.

I find that disbelievers or anti-religious persons (I know many personally) are too quickly dismissive of the contents of the Bible. If you strip away the mysticism of it, the books of the Torah should still be regarded as the oldest historical document of its kind. We know with certainty that historical figures like King David, or Solomon, were definitely real people whom existed. So to instantly cast the Bible as fiction without learning about it is a mistake. And, while the story may have evolved into a myth as it was passed down from antiquity through oral tradition, there probably was a great flood in the Middle East at some point which...

United States on Mar 19, 2019

hohlerzahn: It has been said about the book's subject matter, that this is the bit where students in seminaries and rabbinical schools literally lose their faith!!! Much is at stake here for all Abrahamic religions whose believers would (or wouldn't they?) expect independently verifiable evidence for the truthfulness of facts -both from Sriptures and academic research. Friedman delivers tradition-bursting critical scholarship scrutinizing the background, relative chronology of and polemical intent behind portions of the Five Books of Moses -that is the Pentateuch, only (the Torah that is, non-Jews might feel a bit short-changed/misled by the title). So who wrote the Torah then? Spoiler alert: Not who Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition made it to be, multiple author-editors instead. Stunning and almost criminal how rabbis, Christian commentators and Islamic scholars could overlook or selectively blank out (genea)logical impossibilities, hair-raising howlers and absurdly simplistic saint/sinner dichotomies (the saints obviously being the Jewish rulers of the day) which haunt this narrative (infidels.org makes for a good starting point for this sort of scrutiny).
That *Moses* (the...

United Kingdom on Jun 14, 2015

Mr. J. M. Ainsworth: This book is a fascinating insight into the authorship of the Bible. Friedman takes the reader on a journey into ancient Israel, and brings to life the religious and political world of the ancient Israelites and Judeans. He argues that the various political and religious perspective produced similar but often conflicting histories of the Hebrew speaking people, and eventually those contradicting stories were fused together into the tableau that is the modern Torah at a time when national unity took priority above all.

Friedman's work moves with pace and energy, and whilst its scholarly insight and intellectual brilliance should place this book pre-eminent among the theology or history section of your local book store, and whilst this is most definitely a work of non-fiction, it would not be too far from home sitting on the shelves of the thriller section.

In particular Friedman's search for and convincing identification of the true writer of Deuteronomy; and also his estimation of who compiled the first Torah as we know it today; are delightfully intriguing. Who were these people, according to Friedman? I won't spoil the mystery, but if you know your Bible, you...

United Kingdom on Mar 23, 2013

M. Cobb: To understand what the scholarly take on the bible is this is a must read. I shan't explain again what he says (other reviewers have already done a very good job doing that) but I felt I must add..

Firstly repeating what one reviewer said, it is not the Bible, it really is just mostly the Torah, or Pentateuch. Other OT scriptures are included as asides, but certainly no New Testament. I have to say this just in case the buyer is as surprised as I was when I came to the end of the book and felt it wasn't finished.

Secondly, it is now slightly out of date. I'm quite sure that Mr Friedman is friends with Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman , and in their more recent books The Bible Unearthed, and David And Solomon they moslty corrospond to this book's theories, except one big factor- the united Israel under David and Solomon did not happen.

It is an important point and seems central to WWTB, yet with new research in the Holy Land, I think this book could do with an updated edition that accounts for this major twist.

United Kingdom on Jan 10, 2010

James: Friedman is a notable scholar in Biblical studies. With this book he set himself the task of explaining what progress has been made in answering the question: who wrote the Bible? When we say bible, primarily we are talking here about the five books of Moses. Though, there is also a discussion of the books succeeding the Pentateuch too.

With such a vast and complex subject, Friedman has done an excellent job in creating a book the general reader could understand and enjoy. The book has the feel of a mystery adventure. You feel as if Friedman has let you into his world, and what an exciting world it is.

Friedman introduces the reader to the different hypotheses that have arisen ever since it was found that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch, due to some major inconsistencies. Who led the way in this study? Which theories have been discounted? Friedman has consolidated the work of these previous scholars, as well as his own, and is now giving us his view of who wrote the Bible.

The way he has structured the book shows great skill. He imparts his wisdom gradually. This means the reader isn't overwhelmed with information and can follow the story more...

United Kingdom on Mar 25, 2009