Nathan Frerker
History 387
October 31, 2008
The Bible and It’s Influence
It is the best selling, most read book of all time, and at the same time there is still no definite answer as to who wrote the bible. There are theories on the subject, but we cannot place every word to a single author or specific group of authors. As of today we the authors are still anonymous, but that does not mean that people do not take the word of the bible seriously. As the most read book of all time, the bible has been influential to say the least. The answers to its mystery cannot be answered simply by knowing who its author is; it is equally important to understand who read the bible and put it’s teaching’s to use. Those who accepted and practiced the word of the bible are the influence behind it, and the belief that Moses wrote much of it played a major role in convincing the masses.
For a long time it was widely believed that the author of the Five Books of Moses were indeed written by Moses, and other books of the bible by prophets and kings.[1] Because of Moses’ presence throughout the Pentateuch, “early Jewish and Christian tradition held that Moses himself wrote them.”[2] After a while, individuals began to notice contradiction in the text that pointed to an author other than Moses at times. The Pentateuch contains numerous contradictions to the theory of Moses as sole author. In many parts there are statements that Moses would not have said, descriptions of places Moses had never been, and even an account of Moses’ death. Unless Moses actually transcribed the word of God and given details about his own death, someone else must have been involved.[3] As the number of people who read the bible grew, and as the population became ...