Copyright  2000 by Donald P. Ryan, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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Who Wrote the Book of Many Mysteries? Having seen how popular and influential the Bible is, one
might expect an easy answer to one of the most important questions: Who wrote it? Well, like much
of what you'll find in the Bible, it's not that simple. Some of the books have their authors identified
by name; the book of Isaiah, for example, is presumed to have been written by Isaiah, the book of
Luke by Luke, and so forth. Others have a traditional author; for example, Moses is traditionally
thought to be the writer of the Torah. For several books, the authors are decidedly unknown. But as
you'll see below, there are always more questions. First, let's look at some general issues regarding
the author or authors of the Bible. There are a number of possibilities across a broad spectrum,
including the following: ♦ The Bible was written by God and dictated to the likes of Moses, who
recorded it verbatim. ♦ The Bible is the inspired Word of God transmitted through human scribes
who, being human, aren't necessarily infallible and are capable of creating and perpetuating errors.
♦ The Bible was written by wise and pious people as a profound expression of their understanding of
their origins and God's will. ♦ The Bible was written by humans but nonetheless contains timeless
wisdom and items of historical and literary interest. ♦ The Bible was written by humans belonging to
particular cultures at a particular time and is not necessarily a universally relevant document. <
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