Fishing You Out 2013-09-26

[jwhouk]

Um, actually, the Jewish scriptures were already pretty much in place by about 440 BCE; the Septuagint (the Greek Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) was finalized around 250 BCE. Most scholars set the dates for the writing of the "Pentateuch" (which has the story of the Creation of the World and the Great Flood) at somewhere around 1,000 years prior. Those scriptures were around when Jerusalem fell in 586 BCE, despite being ignored for long chunks of time between Moses' original writings (supposedly) and the Septuagint.

[illiad]

technicalities... it is NOT about when the bible was put together.. DO READ the link...
quote:
"The Bible was written in 3 languages by approximately 40 men of diverse backgrounds over the course of 1500 years.
Here is a list of the books in order with the author and approximate date they were written."

- So may I ask, are you a major researcher into the history of the bible?? or just another big talker without proof?? quote your sources please!!...

there are hundred of archaeology researchers making it their whole vocation, go ask them about it!!

I know plenty of myths, Atlantis, abominable snowman, Aztec spacemen in 'Chariots of the gods' , etc, etc....

[Fairportfan]

People!

Getting a little testy there.

(And i know all about testy on line; i'm good at it.)

Can we dial it back a bit?

[Sidhekin]

"Most scholars" set the dates for the writing of the Pentateuch (aka Torah) at about 1250 BC? (By Moses himself, perhaps?) I'd be surprised.

When I first looked into this, the most common hypotheses were variations of the so called Documentary Hypothesis, which held that while some of the sources of the Torah may have existed in writing back to 950 BC, the actual composition took place about 500 BC. I had the distinct impression most scholars held to some of these hypotheses.

Later, I've been told that the sources I thought went back to 950 BC, were probably from the time of the Babylonian exile. I have not looked into it, but from what I was told, this was being accepted by most modern scholars. Also, I've been told that other hypotheses have been gaining traction, in which the Torah was not composed from several longer documents, but either from many fragments or incrementally. I get the impression they still place the completion of the work around 500 BC, though.

If I go to vatican.va, click "English", "Resource Library", "The Bible" (twice), and "The Pentateuch", I get to http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__P2.HTM ... which restates the essentials of the Documentary Hypothesis, and tells us: "all was brought together in writing, about the sixth century B.C., when the literary formation of the Pentateuch came to an end".

Sure, that's just the Vatican. It does not preclude "most scholars" setting the writing of the Torah at about 1250 BC. But I'd be surprised.

[Sidhekin]

technicalities... it is NOT about when the bible was put together..

That's just what it was, when I started this, stating that the myth in question existed LONG before the Bible.

DO READ the link...

I had. If only to be nice. Come on, it's Yahoo Answers. Just another forum of random users, with an answer chosen by other random users. It has no authority, no credentials, no credibility.