Who Wrote the Bible — Part 3
Holy Books have a reach beyond nearly all other works of literature. Unlike, say, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the Bible is a manuscript upon which hundreds of millions of people have grounded their lives.
Such enormous readership can be good or bad — and it’s often been both throughout the centuries that Jews have been reading the Torah and Christians have been reading the Bible.
But given the Bible’s significant influence on humanity, it’s surprising how little we know about its origins. In other words, who wrote the Bible? That may be one of the most perplexing mysteries surrounding this sacred religious document.
In two previous articles, I talked about the likely authors of the sections of the Bible leading up to the New Testament. Click here for those articles.
For this article, let’s explore The New Testament and Jesus of Nazareth.
The New Testament
With the Greeks still in power in the 2nd century BC, Hellenized kings were in control of Jerusalem and considered it their priority to erase Jewish identity through total assimilation.
Ultimately, Hellenistic rule fell apart in the area and was substituted by Roman rule. During this time, early in the first century AD, one of the Jews from Nazareth inspired a new religion that saw itself as a continuation of Jewish tradition but with its own scriptures.
The four Gospels of the New Testament — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — tell the story of Jesus Christ’s life and death (and what came after). These books are named after Jesus’ apostles. However, the actual authors of these books may have just been using those names to establish credibility and build a following.
There was a recent humorous cartoon by Glen Le Lievre depicting Jesus with his apostles at the ‘Last Supper’ and Jesus saying, “One of you will betray me. Four of you shall get book deals.”
Biblical scholars say Mark’s Gospel was written about 70 AD. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are thought to have been written after 80 AD, and the Gospel of John after 90 AD. This means that these Gospels were written 40 to 60 years after Jesus’s supposed crucifixion.
The fifth book of the New Testament is ‘Acts of the Apostles’ (Acts). It tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message through the Roman Empire. Acts, along with the Gospel of Luke, comprise a two-part work by the same anonymous author and dates to around 80–90 AD, although some scholars suggest 110–120 AD.
The Gospel of Luke is the first part and tells how God completed his plan for the salvation of the world through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Acts then continues the story of Christianity in the 1st century AD, beginning with Jesus’s ascension to Heaven.
The Epistles are a series of letters written to the fledgling churches and individual believers in the earliest days of Christianity. Supposedly, the Apostle Paul wrote the first 13 of these letters, each addressing a specific situation or problem. In terms of volume, Paul’s writings constitute about one-fourth of the entire New Testament.
The General Epistles, also known as the Catholic Epistles, are the seven New Testament letters supposedly written by James, Peter, John, and Jude.
The New Testament also contains the book of Revelation. This book has been attributed to the Apostle John, a converted Jew who wrote his vision of the End Times on the Greek island of Patmos about 100 years after Jesus’ death. However, such a date for writing the book puts into question the author’s claim of having known Jesus personally.
The writings of the New Testament are filled with mythical and non-historical information and have been heavily edited over the centuries. I have more to say about the severe editing of the Bible in upcoming articles.
The authors of the New Testament don’t identify themselves, describe their qualifications, or criticize in any way their foundational sources — which they also fail to identify. Furthermore, there are many inconsistencies in the Gospels, and many years are unrecorded and unaccounted for in the life of Jesus.
As with the other parts of the Bible, the New Testament presents a story wherein the issue of Biblical authorship remains complex, thorny, and contested.
Did Jesus of Nazareth Walk the Earth?
It would seem rational that for Christianity to exist, it would require a living and breathing man named Jesus to base the religious dogma. So, did a historical Jesus actually exist?
Many secular scholars have presented cases for the so-called “historical Jesus.” Most of those versions are academic embarrassments. Until we find reliable and tangible evidence for Jesus’s existence or non-existence, belief in him will continue — and he will remain a sacred icon.
When attempting to discover more about the historical Jesus, the first issue is the need for more reliable sources. The sources we do have present Jesus only as the ‘Christ of Faith.’ They were compiled decades after the supposed events occurred and stem from Christians eager to promote Christianity.
Also important are the sources we don’t have. There are no eyewitness or contemporary accounts from when Jesus was alive. All we have are descriptions of Jesus by non-eyewitnesses long after his life — and most of those accounts were from biased followers of the Christian faith.
Interestingly, it has been noted that if the ‘Christ of Faith’ had not been hyper-marketed by his so-called apostles in the years after his death, his followers would have remained merely a small sect within Judaism — rather than what turned out to be one of the largest religions ever conceived on planet Earth.
Non-Biblical historical records of a historical Jesus
Is there any evidence — outside of the Bible — that Jesus was a real, living human who actually walked the face of the Earth some two thousand years ago? If he were a real person, you would expect there to be records of him.
It’s important that any evidence of the existence of historical Jesus would have to be a verifiably contemporary eyewitness account by someone other than an avowed disciple or follower of Jesus.
And so, other than the Bible, one would expect the amazing story of historical Jesus to be mentioned in historical writings or records of his time or shortly thereafter — especially considering that Romans of that time did actually keep exacting records on many subjects — including crucifixions.
The most well-known non-biblical source relating to Jesus is from Jewish historian Josephus, in his 93 AD history of the Jewish people. Another non-biblical reference to Jesus was made by the Roman historian Tacitus around 116 AD. And yet another non-biblical reference to Christ was by Roman governor Pliny the Younger, who in 110 AD wrote letters to Emperor Trajan seeking advice on how to deal with the early Christian community.
Little is gleaned from any non-Biblical and non-Christian sources who wrote brief references to Christ at least a century after his alleged crucifixion. The fact that any such authors were born after the death of Jesus strongly suggests that they probably received their information from devout Christians. Therefore, even these sparse accounts are shrouded in controversy, with disagreements over legitimacy and accuracy.
Meanwhile, to the Christian faithful, historical sources outside the Bible present a comprehensive portrait of Jesus and confirm — with certainty — his existence as a historical figure.
Did the Authors of the New Testament plagiarize the stories of other Christ-like deities before Christ?
Before Christ, many ancient societies told tales of gods born to virgins (some on December 25) — and the prototype of gods rising from the dead is likewise older than Christianity.
These are uncomfortable historical storylines for many Christians to accept. However, such tales should be expected, given the power of human imagination and the long stretch of human history before the time of Christ.
In a previous article, I pointed out that many parts of the Bible’s first book (Genesis) were plagiarized from older works. Click here for that article.
Researchers and historians have argued that many aspects of Jesus’s story were also copied, this time from other ancient mythological stories about divine deities.
Here are some examples of ‘Jesus-like’ deities before Christ (all contested by Christian Scholars):
- Horus (Egyptian) — Existed 5000 years ago, was born of a virgin, three stars in the east, had 12 disciples, healed the sick, restored sight, walked on water, was dead for three days, and was resurrected.
- Mithra (Persian) — Existed 3200 years ago, was born of a virgin on December 25, star in the east announced his birth, was seen by shepherds and Magi who brought gifts, had 12 disciples, performed miracles, was dead for three days, and was resurrected.
- Krishna (Hindu) — Existed 2900 years ago, born of a virgin, star in the east, performed miracles, called the son of God, son of a carpenter, resurrected from death.
- Dionysus (Greek/Roman) — Existed 2500 years ago, born of a virgin, traveling teacher, turned water into wine, called the holy child, dead for three days, and resurrected.
Jesus isn’t God but was one of the great teachers.
The debate about whether Jesus is God focuses on differing Christian interpretations of the Bible and nuances between “historical Jesus” (the allegedly crucified peasant from Nazareth) and Jesus Christ as one of three parts of a Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).
Putting this debate aside, what if Jesus actually lived and was a great teacher like others in history, including Buddha, Muhammed, Confucius, and Lao Tzu? Consider that these, and many others, were the awakened, enlightened individuals who walked the Earth dispensing wisdom in ancient and prehistory times.
Next up: Accepting Jesus as a great teacher, even a prophet — but not necessarily the son of God.
