[Uucf-bible] Oldest Book

[Michael Ohlrogge]

 For the Tanakh (=Old
Testament) this is one of the trickiest questions in scholarship.  It's
very complicated because documents could be written at one point, then modified
later.  Furthermore, documents can record oral and other traditions that
predate the writing of the documents themselves.  Thus, even for a given
document, it's widely accepted that an absolute date is impossible to
give.  In place of this, scholars will sometimes attempt to pinpoint a
date of final redaction, when the book in the form we know it came to be. 
Alongside this, scholars will sometimes seek to find specific content and
strands within a book which may be older than the final version (an easy
example would be Chronicles, which contains material from Kings, sometimes quoted
directly, but also contains other material that is generally, though not
universally, thought to be later).  

               
People often seek to estimate the date of pieces of writing by trying to
understand and guess what historical conditions might have led people to create
the writing and in the way they did.  Thus, for example, different parts
of Isaiah can be pretty conclusively dated depending on whether they refer to a
world during the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, etc.  Another way
of dating texts is to try to analyze the religious content in them and gauge
where in the development of Israelite and Judahite religion such religious
views might have fit.  Thus, for example, passages mentioning YHWH sending
out Resheph(s) as agents of his wrath, such as Deut 32:24, Ps 76:4; Ps 78:48,
etc. (unfortunately, "Resheph" generally just shows up in the Hebrew
and has been removed from most English translations for ostensibly theological
reasons) are sometimes considered to preserve older strains of tradition, as
Resheph was a Canaanite god sent out in similar ways by other gods such as
Baal.  Another example along these lines would be Deut 32:8-9, which
assumes a pantheon of multiple gods, with “Elyon” (= “Most High” in most
English translations) at the top, and YHWH and other secondary gods like him,
receiving appointments of land from this top deity.  A final way of dating texts is to analyze
their language.  Certain forms of Hebrew are considered more archaic than
others and many poetic passages are often considered to preserve older strains
of writing.  Conclusions based on this though are often difficult to
substantially prove and remain pretty contested.

                 
Right now, there exists very little scholarly consensus on an overall chronological
framework for the writings of the Tanakh books.  What I see most often
asserted is that a lot of material in Psalms, as well as other poetic passages
such as the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:1-31) may contain the oldest fragments of
the Tanakh.  It's also common to see many of the prophetic books as
amongst the earliest written books, with other books of the Tanakh created /
compiled later to justify and expand upon the theology initiated by the
prophets.  Be very wary of anyone who tells you there's a simple, easy, unambiguous
answer about the dating of Tanakh texts.



The New Testament, however, is much simpler.  There's a pretty strong
consensus, amongst both religious and conservative scholars that 1st
Thessalonians was the first book written (c.50 CE), followed by the other
Pauline letters, then the gospels.  The standard and widely accepted order
for the writing of the Gospels is Mark, Matthew, Luke, then John.  Most
consider the Apocalypse of John and the epistles of John to be amongst the
latest documents in the New Testament (c.100-120 CE).



-Michael Ohlrogge

University of Michigan, senior undergraduate, Ancient
Civilizations and Biblical Studies


 


 

-----Original Message-----

From: adjaycent at tmail.com

To: uucf-bible at lists.uua.org

Sent: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 8:32 PM

Subject: [Uucf-bible] Oldest book


Does
anyone know what  the oldest book in the
bible is?


 


Peace
D.O.G ( Depend On God)


 


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