Table I gives an overview of the periods and dates ascribed to the various books of the Bible. Tables II, III and IV outline the conclusions of the majority of contemporary scholars on the composition of the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. T ...
, the
deuterocanonical works (also called the Apocrypha), and the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
. Some books are considered
pseudepigrapha
Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Ps ...
- the person traditionally cited as the author is not the person who actually wrote the text; for some books there appear to have been multiple authors.
Table I: Chronological overview (Hebrew Bible / Old Testament)
This table summarises the chronology of the Hebrew Bible, which has the same books as the Protestant Old Testament; these date from between the 8th and 2nd centuries BCE. The additional books in the
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and
Orthodox bibles can be found in the table on the deuterocanonical works, and date from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE (see Table III); the New Testament writings from the 1st and 2nd centuries CE (see Table IV). Dates are approximate, and represent the opinions of the majority of current biblical scholars.
Table II: Hebrew Bible / Protestant Old Testament
The
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
; the same books, in a slightly different order, also make up the
Protestant version of the Old Testament. The order used here follows the divisions used in Jewish Bibles.
Table III: Deuterocanonical Old Testament
The
deuterocanonical books
The deuterocanonical books (from the Greek meaning "belonging to the second canon") are books and passages considered by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East to be ...
are works included in
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and
Orthodox but not in Jewish and Protestant Bibles.
Table IV: New Testament
See also
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Bible manuscript
*
Biblical canon
A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible.
The English word ''canon'' comes from the Greek , meaning "rule" or " measuring stick". The use ...
*
Dating the Bible
The oldest surviving Hebrew Bible manuscripts—including the Dead Sea Scrolls—date to about the 2nd century BCE ( fragmentary) and some are stored at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. The oldest extant complete text survives in a Greek t ...
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Authorship Of The Bible
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of ...
Documentary hypothesis