How Old is the Bible?

[GratefulDad]

How Old is the Bible? Do we know how old the different books are of the Old and New Testaments?

 

[St_Aloysius]

We used to believe Moses was the literal author of the Torah, and thus the Old Testament was thought to date back to about 3500 years ago. Today, critical scholarship has dispelled this notion. It is from the post-exilic period, and thus about 2500 years old. The New Testament, given a conservative date, is about 1900 years old–1800 to be sure.

The Catholic Bible as it is today was recognized in around 400 AD. It was dogmatically closed in the 1500s.

 

[vern_humphrey]

How Old is the Bible? Do we know how old the different books are of the Old and New Testaments?

Good question – estimates range from 2.5 to 5 thousand years.

Certainly Genesis has Babylonian influences which may date to the Babylonian Captivity (6th Century BC.)

Clearly parts of Genesis were composed orally, so the Bablyonian influnence can have crept in long after the stories were composed.

However some authorities say the actual redaction was earlier, during the reign of Solomon, slightly after 1,000 BC.

And traditionally, the Jews believed Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Bible, the Torah or Pentateuch. This would put the writing around 1,500 BC or earlier.

 

[GratefulDad]

Vern and Aloysius, great info. Aloysius are you saying that the Old Testament was only written 500 yrs before Jesus?

 

[Verbum]

Hi Grateful,

These dates could certainly be challenged. What we must understand is that the Bible we have today came from various sources, some oral, some written that go back to different periods of Israel’s history. For example, some of the material in Genesis came from an oral tradition that may date back from before 4000 BC. Divine inspiration intervened at some point as each book “came together”, but that would very difficult, if at all possible, to determine.

One thing is sure.The Bible we have today is what the Catholic Church received from the apostles as the word of God.

Verbum

 

[jmcrae]

Vern and Aloysius, great info. Aloysius are you saying that the Old Testament was only written 500 yrs before Jesus?

There were parts of the Old Testament still being written/edited just a few decades before the birth of Christ.

We had a finished Bible (what you and I would recognize as a Bible, I mean) in about 405 AD.

The canon of the Old Testament was not in dispute until the time of the Protestant rebellion, so the Old Testament wasn’t actually closed until the Council of Trent. The New Testament was closed by Pope Innocent I in the very early 400s AD.

 

[joeybaggz]

And traditionally, the Jews believed Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Bible, the Torah or Pentateuch. This would put the writing around 1,500 BC or earlier.

Many believe that someone who “writes” a book is actually the generator of that text. In other words, the Gospel of Matthew is credited to Matthew, it isn’t saying that Matthew sat down with his trusty IBM Selectric in oh, 65 A.D. and wrote it. He may (or may not) have orally composed it and it was put to paper by scribes at a later date.

That’s the tricky part. From what I’ve been taught, yes Moses is credited with “writing” the Pentateuch and if that is your criteria, the first books were ‘written’ about 1200 to 1300 B.C., thus the Bible is approx. 3300 years old in that context.

If you are talking about the compilation of all the books, that was done by St Jerome about 400 A.D.

My two cents.

 

[GratefulDad]

Folks,

So is it accurate to say “the scholarly teachings of the Old Testament/Torah are some 4000 - 5000 years old”, when discussing subjects for example like God’s guidance, justice, marriage, the Ten Commandments, homosexuality, etc? Or is that too much of a stretch?

 

[vern_humphrey]

Folks,

So is it accurate to say “the scholarly teachings of the Old Testament/Torah are some 4000 - 5000 years old”, when discussing subjects for example like God’s guidance, justice, marriage, the Ten Commandments, homosexuality, etc? Or is that too much of a stretch?

If you follow Jewish tradition, and accept that Moses wrote the Torah (and there is good evidence that it was written more than 500 years after Moses’ time) then it is about 3-3,500 years old.

If you accept that it was written in Solomon’s time (and much of it may have been), then it is around 3,000 years old. If you take tihe evidence of Babylonian influences, then it is around 2,500 - 2,600 years old.

If you take the position that the oldest parts of the bible were oral stories, written down thousands of years later, it may well be 5,000 years old.

 

[GratefulDad]

Great info thanks guys.

 

[Ignatius]

How Old is the Bible? Do we know how old the different books are of the Old and New Testaments?

The oldest books of the Old Testament are thought to be to 4 thousand years old. The Teachings of the the New Testament were passes down by Sacred Tradition for many years. The earliest know writings of the New Testament are thought to be from about 60 or 70 A.D.

 

[thistle]

The oldest books of the Old Testament are thought to be to 4 thousand years old. The Teachings of the the New Testament were passes down by Sacred Tradition for many years. The earliest know writings of the New Testament are thought to be from about 60 or 70 A.D.

I thought that most of Paul’s letters were earlier than 60AD, in the 40’s or 50’s AD.

 

[Ignatius]

I thought that most of Paul’s letters were earlier than 60AD, in the 40’s or 50’s AD.

There is certainly no definitive answer on that question; and not likely to be in this world.

 

[vern_humphrey]

There is certainly no definitive answer on that question; and not likely to be in this world.

Paul was probably martyred around 64 AD, and his epistles cover about a dozen years or more of travel and work.

 

[NotWorthy]

Many of the Psalms (I think around half) are credited to King David which would place them around 3000 years old. The rest of the Psalms were written at a later date. Maccabees, however, would have been written about 200 years before Christ (give or take a century).

 

[GratefulDad]

Many of the Psalms (I think around half) are credited to King David which would place them around 3000 years old. The rest of the Psalms were written at a later date. Maccabees, however, would have been written about 200 years before Christ (give or take a century).

So from what you are saying here and what Vern said above, we can confidently reference the Bible as a scholarly and scriptural document, at least 3000 - 4000 years old.

 

[vern_humphrey]

So from what you are saying here and what Vern said above, we can confidently reference the Bible as a scholarly and scriptural document, at least 3000 - 4000 years old.

That would be correct. If it was all written down for the first time in the reigns of David and Solomon, it would be about 3,000 years old. If some of it was written in the time of Moses, then it would be a few hundred years older.

And of course, the oral stories in Genesis are older than that.

 

[GratefulDad]

That would be correct. If it was all written down for the first time in the reigns of David and Solomon, it would be about 3,000 years old. If some of it was written in the time of Moses, then it would be a few hundred years older.

And of course, the oral stories in Genesis are older than that.

Ok, so if I have this correct. We can confidently reference the Bible as a scholarly and scriptural document:

• who’s oral foundation is 4000 - 5000 yrs. old
• who’s documented writings are 3000 - 4000 yrs. old

 

[NotWorthy]

So from what you are saying here and what Vern said above, we can confidently reference the Bible as a scholarly and scriptural document, at least 3000 - 4000 years old.

Remember, only parts of it are that old. There are parts of the Old Testament that are only 200-300 years older than the New Testament.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Ok, so if I have this correct. We can confidently reference the Bible as a scholarly and scriptural document:

• who’s oral foundation is 4000 - 5000 yrs. old
• who’s documented writings are 3000 - 4000 yrs. old

That would be reasonable.

We have oral literature (non-biblical) that accurately describes things that happened a thousand years or so before it was written down – the Irish epic, Tain Bo Cualgne, first written down around 900 AD, accurately describes chariots and chariot-fighting as it was in the time of Julius Ceasar.