Scientists have identified the real authors of the Bible texts: what new research has shown

Professor Elizabeth Polzer, a biblical scholar from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, is convinced that more than 40 people are likely to be the authors of the main text of the Christians. This was reported by the British edition of the Daily Mail, according to UNN.

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According to the scientist, it is “quite difficult” to identify the people who wrote the Bible for a number of reasons, from philological to historical. She is convinced that the Bible was not written in one go, but is actually a collection of writings, the oldest of which may be up to 3,500 years old.

Some of the earliest material may date back as far as 1200 B.C., but the books were probably edited to their present form in the 6th or 5th centuries B.C

She notes that in some cases it is known who wrote a book of the Bible, but in others it remains a debatable issue.

For example, scholars agree that the Apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans and the Apostle John wrote the Revelation. While books such as Genesis and Exodus were traditionally attributed to Moses, because of contradictions and overlaps in their material, they are now believed to have been written by multiple sources over the centuries,

The authorship of the four Gospels, which are traditionally attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is also in question.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are technically anonymous, and at a very early stage the church fathers attributed them to these four evangelists. It is difficult to know how much of this attribution is real history and how much is fictional. For example, the attribution of Matthew and John is convenient and credible because they were direct disciples of Jesus, but historical factors seem to undermine these attributions,

She points out that other books are less controversial, such as texts written by King Solomon (Song of Songs) or the Apostle Paul (First Letter to Timothy), but even here there are questions about the authenticity of authorship. At the same time, the texts of the Psalms attributed to David are probably his.

The psalms are traditionally believed to have been written by King David, and some of the psalms may well have been his songs. Others, however, most likely originated from other hymn writers and were later collected together as one collection,

Philip Almond, a historian of religious culture at the University of Queensland in Australia, believes that the authorship of the Bible is “complex and problematic.

“That's partly because it's hard to identify specific authors,” he said, adding that the Bible was originally written in ancient languages - Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

He is convinced that the issue of establishing authorship will remain a controversial topic, but it will definitely encourage authors to “continue their research.

Recall

In 2023, in the Vatican, scientists discovered a 1750-year-old biblical text, discovering a Syriac translation of the Gospel of Matthew using ultraviolet photography.