Will Vaus

Author Today in our 66-week overview of the Bible we are looking at the book of Judges. Traditionally, Samuel is thought to be the author of the book of Judges. But even conservative scholars acknowledge that the authorship of the book of Judges is uncertain. It is certainly possible that Samuel assembled some of the accounts from the period of the judges and that prophets such as Nathan and Gad had a hand in shaping and editing the material later. (See 1 Chronicles 29:29.)   However, most modern Old Testament scholars view the book of Judges as the third book in the Deuteronomistic History which encompasses the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings.   Date   Even conservative Bible scholars acknowledge that the date of composition of the book of Judges is unknown. The frequent expression in Judges, “in those days Israel had no king”, suggests a date of composition after the monarchy was established. The observation that the Jebusites still c...

Today in our 66-week overview of the Bible we move to a new section of the Scriptures, in terms of how the Scriptures were traditionally defined. The first 5 books of the Bible are traditionally known as the Torah (Law) or Pentateuch (five books). Traditionally, the Old Testament is divided into three parts: Torah (Law), Nevi’im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings). With the book of Joshua, we are beginning to explore the Nevi’im (prophets). Traditionally, the Hebrew Bible is called by Jews the  TaNaKh, which is an abbreviation of the words Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim.   Author   Traditionally, Joshua, Moses’ successor, was considered to be not only the main character of this book but also the author. The earliest Jewish traditions contained in the Talmud claim that Joshua wrote this book except for the final section about his funeral, which was attributed to Eleazar, son of Aaron.    However, there are at least twelve places in the book of Joshua where the phrase...