| ToC | Reading the Old Testament |
. . . Part 1. Torah | ToC |
1. Authorship
Ancient practices of authorship and text production differ significantly from those of today. In biblical culture writers did not sign their works, though some clay tablets do record the name of the scribe. The shaping of what we today call biblical "books" probably came about through the collaboration of many parties, and may have taken a lengthy period of time from the earliest oral stories to the final written product.
In any case, none of the books of the Torah have unambiguous indications of authorship. Determinations of the authorship of these books, or parts of them, must be made inferentially from clues in the texts themselves. Issues of dating and authorship of the books of the Torah remain under discussion. There are many proposals in current scholarship but no concensus.
| ToC | Reading the Old Testament |
. . . Part 1. Torah | ToC |
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