Recently I had a friend ask me, “Who wrote the Bible? Jesus made it appear or something, right?”
He didn't have much of a religious background and was having a debate with one of his co-workers. Both of these men were confused because no author was listed on the title page.
I'm sure he thought the answer would be short and succinct, but the answer I gave was not. There is no “author” of the Bible because the Bible is not really one book.
The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word “ta biblia” which means “the books”. The Bible is more like a library than it is a singular book. It is a collection of religious texts that for many years were considered individual works on their own. The Bible as we know it today was the product of editors combining many religious texts together years after the final book of the Bible was written.
It can also be difficult to find out who authored each individual book contained in the Bible. Several books make no mention of who their author is. The first five books of the Bible have been traditionally thought to be authored by Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and Numbers. However, nowhere in those books does it say that Moses wrote them and many scholars doubt that he did. This makes it hard to ascribe an author to them.
Likewise, in the New Testament, the Book of Hebrews was traditionally ascribed to Paul. However, the book itself makes no mention of Paul being the author. Additionally, it is written in a completely different style compared to Paul’s other books. This makes finding a true author almost impossible.
The idea that we could put anyone's name or even a complete list of names as the true authors of the Bible is impossible. My friend at this point asked me, “So, is God the author?”
Even that is a bit of a stretch. The Bible is about God and inspired by God, but God doesn’t always direct the written words of the Bible. Occasionally God does dictate words that are written in the Bible. The clearest example of this is the Ten Commandments. They are God’s words told exactly from God’s mouth to Moses to us.
However, in many other places, we are told God’s words in summary through the interpretation of the prophets. An example of this would be in the messages from Isaiah.
Even further removed from the direct word of God, you have writings that are only inspired by God. The books of Psalms and Proverbs are an instance of this time of revelation. The authors of these sections did not hear the word of God but were instead inspired by God’s Spirit.
God is the driving force for the Bible but, in many cases, God is not the direct author.
In summary, we don't know who many of the people are that authored the books of the Bible and scholars spend a lot of time debating who the authors might be. What we do know is that the Bible itself is the inspired word of God. It is a wonderful book for us as Christians to find meaning in our lives and guidance when we need it. The more you know about the Bible, the more it reveals God’s Spirit.
Hopefully now if a friend asks you who authored the Bible you can give them a much longer answer than they expected too!