Scientists reveal who wrote the Bible – and say it probably WASN’T God

Around the world, millions of Christians see the Bible as the divine word of God. 

It tells an incredible story about the history of the world, from creation to redemption and God’s Last Judgement of the living and the dead. 

It includes famous stories such as Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, David and Goliath, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection. 

But who actually penned this masterpiece, variously amounting to more than 700,000 words?

Famously, the Bible is the word of God, but researchers generally agree it was written by multiple human authors. 

Professor Elizabeth Polczer, biblical scholar at Villanova University in Pennsylvania¸ said ‘dozens’ of people likely penned the Bible, probably more than 40.

However, identifying these people who wrote the Bible is ‘quite complicated’. 

‘Each book of the Bible needs to be treated on its own to decide who authored it,’ Professor Polczer told MailOnline. 

Of course, the Bible was not written in one go, but in fact is a collection of writings, the earliest dating back nearly 3,500 years. 

The Bible is made up of the Old Testament (otherwise known as the Hebrew Bible) and the more-recently-penned New Testament.

The Old Testament was written at different times in an approximately 900-year-period, started in about 1200 BC and completed in about the first century BC.

‘Some of the most ancient material may date as early as 1200 BC, but the books were likely edited into their present form in the 6th or 5th centuries BC,’  Professor Polczer said. 

Meanwhile, the New Testament was written during a much shorter period, during the last half of the first century AD, it’s believed. 

In certain cases it’s known who exactly wrote a book of the Bible, according to Professor Polczer, but in others it’s less clear. 

‘For example, scholars are agreed that Paul of Tarsus wrote the Letter to the Romans, and John of Patmos wrote Revelation,’ she told MailOnline. 

‘Although books like Genesis and Exodus have been traditionally attributed to Moses, due to contradictions and duplications in their material, they are now thought to have been authored by several sources over the course of centuries.’ 

Bible books like Genesis and Exodus have been traditionally attributed to Moses (right). Genesis includes Adam and Eve (left), the first man and woman

The Bible includes famous stories such as Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark (pictured), David and Goliath, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection – but who actually wrote them?

Famously in the New Testament, there are four Gospels, purported to be written by the Four Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – but the true authorship is debated. 

‘The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all technically anonymous, and were attributed in very early stages to these four evangelists by Church Fathers,’ Professor Polczer said. 

‘It’s difficult to know how much of that attribution is real history, and how much of it was legendary.

‘For example, attributing to Matthew and John is convenient and credible since they were Jesus’s direct disciples, but historical factors seem to undermine these attributions.’ 

Meanwhile, other books purport to have been written by a famous author – such as Solomon (‘Song of Solomon’) or Paul the Apostle (‘The First Epistle to Timothy’). 

But most scholars agree these attributions are falsely attributed or spurious, according to the academic. 

Lastly, there are books in the Bible whose traditional attribution may be partially correct – such as Psalms, the book of the Old Testament that is composed of sacred songs and sacred poems. 

‘Psalms are traditionally thought to have been authored by King David, and some of the psalms may well have been,’ Professor Polczer added. 

Depicted, Parting of the Red Sea, an episode in The Exodus: ‘Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided’ 

‘However, others were more likely to have come from other hymn-writers and they were later compiled together as one collection.’ 

Philip Almond, religious cultural historian at the University of Queensland in Australia, thinks the Bible’s authorship is ‘complex and problematic’.

‘This is partly because it’s hard to identify particular authors,’ he said in a prior article for The Conversation.

Around the 3rd century AD, Christianity was regarded as a steadily expanding cult, and those who practiced it were still subject to persecutions.

At the time, the predominant religions were Judaism and paganism, but it steadily spread throughout the Roman Empire, including Britain. 

The Bible was originally written in the ancient languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek – and the first English translation wasn’t until the 14th century, according to Professor Polczer. 

Known as Wycliffe’s Bible, it was translated by University of Oxford theologian John Wycliffe from Vulgate, a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. 

‘So Wycliffe’s Bible was a translation of a translation.’ 

John Wycliffe (left) translated the Bible from Latin to English in the 14th century, while William Tyndale translated it from the original Hebrew and Greek into English (early modern) in the 16th century 

Meanwhile, William Tyndale’s 1526 Bible was the first English version that was translated from the Bible’s original languages of Hebrew and Greek – although it was not a complete version. 

‘It did not include the Old Testament, portions of which he translated in later years,’ Professor Polczer said.  

In 1536, Gloucestershire-born Tyndale was declared a heretic and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake. 

After the Tyndale Bible, the King James Bible followed in 1611, still renowned today for its accessible portrayal of the Christian religion. 

However, there were several others in between, including the Coverdale Bible, the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible and the Bishops Bible.