The Bible Author ...

[joko]

would you read his other works?

he seems to have been a pretty imaginative chap...

what kind of other books do you think he'd have written? -
what would his 'books by the same author' page at the start of the bible have said?

(i realise there was probably more than one contributor to it, but one man was probably ultimately responsible for its final content)

[VHG]

By the same author

"Fairy stories - Part 2"

"The Bible..how it helped man to live together in peace"

"Loaves and Fishes recipe book"

[Scylax]

Probably 'Noddy Goes to Hollywood' or 'Tales for Toddlers'.

[VHG]

More...

"Parting the Red Sea and other DIY projects"

"Build your own Ark"

"The Last Supper Recipe Book"

[naomi24]

Horror stories.

[Clanad]

As demonstrated by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls[i, it's well known that other than the [i]Penteteuch], the various books of the Old and New Covenants were written individually and over a very extended period of time. (Applicable more to the Old Testament than the New). The compilation into a 'book' is a very recent development, all were originally individual, named, scrolls.
The compilation of the Jewish 'Old Covenant" occrurred over a long period of time as referenced here (for example): "...Some suggest that Ezra and/or Nehemiah were responsible for the first true organization, with Judas Maccabeaus being the one who put an "official" deposit of the sacred writings in the Temple. [Mill.OrB, 128, 135; Leim.CHS, 27-9]

The earliest "hard" indication we have of any sort of classification or categorization of OT books - aside from internal OT references to the books of Moses, and assuming that the reference is not a late interpolation, as some do - comes from the Wisdom of Sirach, a book dated to approximately 130 BC and written by Sirach's grandson [Mill.OrB, 18; Beck.OTNT, 110-1]. The classifcation scheme refers to the law, the prophets, and the "other" ancestral books.

This does not reflect a "fixed" canon of books, merely a basic classification scheme, although it is known that most of what we call the OT today was indeed put into one of these three classes - indicating what Campenhausen calls, at this time, a "normative collection of sacred writings" [VonCamp.FCB, 2] as settled." (Source: Comfort, Philip Wesley, ed. The Origin of the Bible. Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1992. ).

Further, the clearest indication of cannoical development of a "Book" comes from "... Josephus' description of the Jewish holy books in Contra Apion 1.8, dated c. 93-95 AD. After clearly identifying the Pentateuch as the work of Moses [Rost.JOHC, 24; Leim.CHS, 32], Josephus writes:

From the death of Moses until Artaxerxes...the prophets who followed after Moses recorded their deeds in thirteen books. The remaining four comprise hymns to God and rules of ethical conduct for men." (Source: Leiman, Sid Z. The Canonization of Hebrew Scripture: The Talmudic and Midrashic Evidence. New Haven: Transactions, 1976.)


The same generally, holds true for the development of the collection we know as the New Covenant... except there's good evidence they all were written much closer together, time wise, than in the OT.

[chrisgel]

Where God went wrong
and
Some more of Gods mistakes

Thank you Douglas Adams

[atalanta]

By the way, VHG, the "Last Suppers" recipe book was written about 20 - 25 years ago. Most of the main courses consisted of lamb, by the way.
Sacrificial, do you suppose ?

[joggerjayne]

Customers who bought this also bought ...

[redman41]

The Bible was written by the same people who said the Earth was flat.

[Scylax]

'Gullible's Travels'

[modeller]

Aesops Fables

[Zeuhl]

nobody much ever said the earth was flat until Washington Irving dreamed up that notion in 1828

[Zeuhl]

Now That's What I Call Religion 3

Sometimes referred to as the Q'oran

[ll_billym]

I heard that the missing first page of the Bible reads:

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Not my joke but made me laugh!

[modeller]

Honest Bankers
.. Politicians
Celibate Priests

[Zeuhl]

lol billy

perhaps it should also have an Acknowledgements section?

'With grateful thanks to all the preceding religions whose ideas, myths and legends have been so shamelessly reworked into this version prior to us doing everything possible to denigrate them and erase them from history'

[Canary42]

Osborne's Economic Miracles

[naomi24]

//'Gullible's Travels' //

Haaaaaaaa! Very good! :o)

[joko]

thanks all, haha, some good ones there

and thanks clanad for the serious answer, interesting

[naomi24]

Joko, I shouldn’t take Clanad’s explanations as ‘gospel’ – not least because if they are, then Moses is the only man in history to have recorded his own death. Clever!