I’ll admit when I was a believer I used to repeat the lofty, yet thoughtless, claim about how the bible was some sort of divine work that could not have come together without a miracle or divine intervention.
The full claim goes like this “The Bible was written by about 40 authors – most of whom never met each other – over 1,500 years, in three languages and on three continents——yet it tells one unified story.”
Let’s break this all down.
The 40 Authors Were All Men – Or Were There 30?
I could not help but notice that in all the times the claim is repeated, the use of the word ‘authors’ is used. It’s never said that 40 men wrote the bible. We certainly know that every single writer was a man.
Scholars opinions on the amount of male writers of the bible there were and some say that 30 men might be more accurate.
Again the 30 – 40 male contributors should not be seen as a miracle.
What if these were men who used their writings to control the narrative. Thirty or 40 men who claimed the god like them best. He helped them win wars and gain real estate.
Certainly when you read about all of the misogyny, they clearly had control over women and maintained that control to this present day.
But what if they didn’t know each other? Gasp!
Most Writers Did Not Know Each Other
There is truth that some authors did live centuries apart, especially old testament writers, and therefore could not have met each other. There were other writers who were contemporaries and we don’t know if they knew each other or not.
Is this a miracle that they sometimes wrote similar things about the god? No, not a miracle at all, when we know they had access to the previous writings!
They literally quoted previous authors in their writings! The Jewish people not only guarded their books all throughout the time period that they were being written and beyond, but they also read the texts aloud in religious gatherings. It was merely authors piggy-backing of previous writers! No miracle!
If these men who didn’t know each other, wrote completely independently of each other, never knowing what previous authors had recorded, and if they wrote of similar traits of the god, this might be something to contemplate. However, this is not the case at all.
In fact, there are also contradictory accounts all through the bible. I fully realize the Christians are unable to see the contradictions in the bible but there is no miracle in the fact that many of these 30-40 men never met in person.
Many Old Testament Male Writers Were From The Ruling Class
Here is where the lofty claim of divine intervention really takes a downward spiral in the mind of the reasonable. Some scholars say as much as 33 percent of the old testament was written by rulers including Kings. Other writers were prophets, priests and temple scribes, court historians and royal scribes.
Among the 30-40 male writers of the old testament, it seems that only three were regular ‘working Joes’ including Amos, Mikah and Elisha.
The “Over 1500 Years Claim” examined
Let’s start with the old testament. The claim then becomes a writing span of 1000 years, not 1500 years.
To clarify, after the old testament writers were done, there was nothing written for a whopping 500 years. Yep, silence for 500 years. Later the new testament verses were written during a period of just 50 years.
Fact is, other religions can make similar claims. The broader Hindu textual tradition (Vedas, Upanishads, epics, commentaries) developed over 1500 years.
To conclude, the realistic statement would read “A span of a thousand years, followed by a 500 year of utter silence, followed by a 50 year span of writing”.
The “Miracle” Of The Three Languages Claim
The three languages the scriptures were written in were Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.
Generally speaking, it’s fair to say the biblical writers used the dominant or widely understood languages of their time and region.
Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, which was the national language of ancient Israel and Judah.
Later, when Aramaic became the major regional language under large empires like the Achaemenid Persian Empire, some sections of the old testament were written in Aramaic instead.
By the time the new testament writers came along, Hebrew was no longer the dominant language. Don’t forget there was also a 500 year span in between the old testament and the new, where bible writers did not exist at all.
So, no surprise, the new testament was written in Greek and Aramaic, again because these were the dominant languages at the time in that region.
I don’t see a miracle. Do you see a miracle?
The “Three Continents” Claim
While the claim is true, here is why historians do not see this as some kind of miracle.
The regions were closely connected. The Mediterranean world was heavily interconnected by trade routes, shipping lanes, and Roman roads.
Travel between places like Judea, Egypt, Greece, and Rome was common.
The “continents” are geographically close. Asia, Africa, and Europe meet around the eastern Mediterranean, so moving between them often meant traveling only a few hundred miles.
Many ancient writings came from multiple regions. Other traditions—historical, philosophical, and religious also involved authors from different parts of the Mediterranean. e itself.
The Unified Story?
This claim is a fail on so many levels. The bible is a book of confusion and contradictions. There is not much unified about it. The fact that are more than 40,000 different Christian denominations that disagree with each other on various topics within the same compilation gives us a clue.
Here is a list of more than 100 contradictions, laid out for you, if you’re wiling to see the truth.
I’ve covered some of these contradictions in detail in a couple of blog posts.
The Contradictory Accounts Of The Bible’s Empty Tomb Story
The Contradictory Accounts Of The Calling Of The First Disciples
Prophesy
Often the claim of divinity or the miraculous nature of the bible also includes prophesy.
However, when you closely examine the alleged prophecies, they tend to fall into two categories: either they don’t actually fit the events they are supposed to predict, or they appear to be constructed after the fact. In some cases, the New Testament writer who presents the prophecy is the very one declaring that it has been fulfilled, which raises the question of whether the connection is interpretive rather than predictive.
I’ve already done two posts on two very popular claims of apparent prophesy and will likely do more in the future. If you’d like to check them out.
Unless You’re Prepared To See Jesus As Worm-like, Psalm 22 Is Not A Prophesy About His Death On The Cross
Isaiah 53 Is Not Describing Jesus
The “Miracle” No One Ever Mentions
How about the fact that when the bible was finally compiled hundreds of years after Jesus, it was done so under the direction of the Roman Empire. Yes, those trustworthy Romans just have to be trusted.
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