The Bible is the Word of God. Christians believe that God inspired human beings to write the words that God wanted to be included in each of the books. So even though God is the author of the Bible, humans did the writing. So who did God choose to do such an important job and who wrote which books?
- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number and Deuteronomy - The first five books of the Bible were written by Moses. Moses was an Israelite who was raised as Egyptian royalty. His story is well known by people of all faiths.
- Joshua - Joshua was written by Joshua, an aide to Moses who eventually took over leadership of the Israelites from Moses.
- Judges - The authorship of some of the books of the Bible is unclear. It is thought that perhaps Samuel, a judge, wrote Judges.
- Ruth - The author of this love story is unknown.
- 1 Samuel - It is believed that the judge Samuel wrote most of this book. It may have been added to by the prophets Nathan and Gad.
- 2 Samuel - The authorship of the majority of the book is unknown. There is some evidence that the prophets Nathan and Gad contributed.
- 1 & 2 Kings - These books also have unknown authorship. Some believe the prophet Jeremiah or a group of prophets authored them.
- 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah - According to Jewish tradition Ezra, who was a priest, a scribe and a Jewish leader, is the author.
- Esther - Esther may have been written by Mordecai, one of the central figures in the book although it is not certain.
- Job - This famous story was possibly written by Job himself although the authorship has never been confirmed.
- Psalms -King David wrote 73 of the 150 poems in this book. Other authors include Solomon, Ethan and Moses. 51 of the Psalms are anonymous.
- Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs - These wisdom books were written by King Solomon, son of King David.
- Isaiah - Isaiah was written by the prophet Isaiah.
- Jeremiah and Lamentations - These books were written by the prophet Jeremiah.
- Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah - These prophetic books were all named after the prophets who authored them.
- Jonah - This story is attributed to the man who sat in the belly of the whale himself, Jonah.
- Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi - The final books of the Old Testament were prophetic books and were named after the men who were their authors.
- Mathew - This gospel was written by one of Jesus' disciples, Matthew.
- Mark - This gospel was written by John Mark. He was not one of the disciples but he was an early follower of Jesus Christ.
- Luke - Luke was a physician and a friend of the apostle Paul's.
- John - The final gospel was written by the disciple, John.
- Acts - The book of Acts was written by the same Luke who wrote the gospel Luke.
- Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon - These books were all written by the apostle Paul. Paul was a Jew who originally persecuted the Christians, but was converted to Christianity.
- Hebrews - The author of this book is unknown, but most likely it is Paul or someone close to Paul.
- James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John, and Jude - These letters were all named for the men who wrote them.
- Revelation - This last prophetic book of the Bible was written by the disciple John.
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Comments
Robin! what a fantastic run down! I need to save this list to memory, dear :) What a creative and also practical need you have given to your readers....bravo!
cheers, Joanna
I liked the thoroughness of this list as well, though from a scholar's point of view, I would have liked to see you mention that human authorship of some of these books is debated by scholars. Still, this is a very good starting point for those who want to know the books of the Bible, and the authors generally attributed to them. Good work!
Only one problem with your comments. You say God decided what should go into the Bible and used human beings to do the actual writing. Of course, this is a belief and not a fact since most of the authorship you mention is not supported by much historical or archeological evidence. Nevertheless, you and other Christians and Jews are certainly welcome to your beliefs. I wonder though how it is that several other gospels, written by others contemporary with the writers of the ones that made the cut, were stricken or barred from inclusion in the New Testament? We do have historical evidence that these decisions were made by officials of the early Church, men who were all too mortal and whose beliefs were colored by the times in which they lived. Did God tell them what to leave out?
I am not aware of any reputable biblical scholar who would agree with this list.
