If you’ve ever asked your pastor or Sunday school teacher, “Who wrote the Bible?” you probably got one of two responses:
- “God wrote the Bible.” The Holy Spirit moved prophets like Moses and apostles like Paul to write about God’s relationship with the world (1 Ti 3:16; 2 Pe 1:20–21).
- “About 40 people wrote the Bible.” The individual books were written by many authors over many years in many places to many different people groups.
In a way, both of these answers are true, but by now you’re probably looking for a little more detail about the authors of the Bible. And rightly so: when you’re studying a book or passage of the Bible, it’s pretty important to know who wrote it.
But there’s a lot of nuance that goes into answering this question. The Bible didn’t fall out of heaven, and it was a long time in the making.
So, let’s take a closer look at the people whom tradition says wrote the Bible. Before we jump into the list of names, let me throw out a few disclaimers:
- This is a list of authors either identified in the Bible’s text itself or generally assumed by church/Jewish tradition. I’ve included a few candidates for anonymous works (like Moses, Ezra, and Matthew).
- There are more authors of the Bible than the 35 I’ve listed here. For example, somebody wrote Judges, but we don’t know who. There really were around 40 authors of the Bible, but the Bible and tradition only call out around 35 by name.
- Ancient attribution and modern attribution aren’t even really in the same ball park. For example, the book of Isaiah may have been partially composed and arranged by Isaiah’s disciples long after Isaiah’s death. But New Testament writers still refer to the words in the book as though they were Isaiah’s.
- I do not know who wrote Hebrews.
First, a chart for the visual learners:
In case you’re just here for the list of names, here you go!
Heads up: Next is a really long article. Keep on reading anyway .....
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