Dating the Bible

Hebrew Testament

The Hebrew Testament was written by several scores of people, and redacted by several hundred others. Dating the Hebrew Testament's two versions of Genesis and the creation of human beings, one finds several groups of authors, spanning many centuries. The oldest group are known as The Yahwists, dated at -950GC (Gregorian Calendar). The chief author, or instigator, of the Yahwist account is thought to be someone named Ebjathar. The account found in Genesis 2:22 (i.e. Eve from Adam's rib) is the Yahwist account, and is thus the oldest of the written sources of the creation accounts in Genesis. The Yahwists took the myth from Babylonian and Sumerian creation myths: this is a certainty because the later account in Genesis of "Noah's Flood" (Genesis 7) is Sumerian and / or Babylonian Uta-Napishtim is the hero with the ark, and Enlil is the angry God that sends the flood.

The Yahwist account of creation is considered "the most patriarchal." Following the Yahwists were the Elohist(s), who lived 200 years later in Northern Israel. They were in turn followed by the Deuteronomists around -620GC (at the time of King Josiah). In -440GC the Priestly Codex contributed to the creation myth. By the time of Ezra, the four sources, spanning roughly 500 years, was unified into what we know of as Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. The Priestly Codex yielded the creation account of male and female humans being created at the same time (Genesis 1:27).

Most Bible scholars concede to the opinion that Moses never existed.

Very few books of the Hebrew Testament were written by the people they are attributed to. Isaiah, for example, was written by at least two people, spanning over 100 years.

Much of the Hebrew Testament was falsely dated by the authors. For instance, the book of Daniel was written in the negative second century Gregorian Calendar, but claims to have been written three hundred years earlier. No one knows who wrote Daniel, just as no one knows who wrote most of the other books in the Hebrew Testament.

For another example, the account of the Abram (Abraham) sacrifice of Isaac was redacted after the original writer died. In the original account, Abram slew Isaac and was richly rewarded by YHWH for that sacrifice; a redactor later inserted the divine intervention preventing the sacrifice. Note that after the redacted part of the myth, no mention of Isaac is ever made: the redactor didn't bother inserting him elsewhere.

Christian Testament

As for the Christian Testament, very few of the authors are known by name. All of the "Four Gospels" are anonymous: no one knows who wrote them. The author of Luke also wrote Acts, and was probably a woman. The book of Matthew was appended by several authors.

Christian Testament Dates:

Gospel of Mark: +65-70 GC
Gospel of Matthew: +75 GC
Gospel of Luke: +80-90 GC
Gospel of John: +95-100 GC
Acts: +70-90 GC
James: +45-50 GC, disputes to last 1st - early 2nd century GC
Colossians: +60 GC+
Corinthians: +57 GC
Ephesians: +65 GC
Hebrews: +60-90 GC
Epistles of John: +90 GC
Jude: +65-100 GC
Epistles of Peter: +64 GC+
Philemon: +56 GC
Philippians: +57-62 GC
Romans: +57-58 GC
Galatians: +54-55 GC
Thessalonians: +50 GC
Timothy: +60-100 GC
Titus: +60-100 GC
Revelation: +81-96 GC

Saul of Tarsus ("Paul") certainly wrote some of the works attributed to him: several others are early Christian forgeries.

Papias (an early Christian) arbitrarily assigned the authorship of The Book of Mark to "Mark." Mark was the first written, and was used by "Q" and the other authors as the basis for their versions. Mark, Luke, and John are anti-Roman; the authors of Matthew later rewrote the myths to be anti-Jewish / anti-Hebrew. (I.e., all four are political works, not just theological).

The material in general was "finished" around +600 GC, when the Roman Catholic Church called what can only be called "a design freeze" where no new material would be added. The Hebrew and Christian Testaments, as we have them today, used to be vastly greater: more than half of the "original" books, scriptures, etc., were left out after the Catholic Church voted on what was to be included and what was to be left out.

There are nearly 50 different versions of the Christian Testament, many of them recent, based in general upon modern reinterpretations, theological disputes, and political bias.