Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliott Friedman

Who was the king who smashed the Nehushtan? Hezekiah.”įriedman has also proposed that the prophet Jeremiah, working together with his scribe Baruch, was also the person that is the D-source, the Deuteronomist, who wrote/rewrote the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings.

It had the power to save people from snakebite. According to tradition, stated explicitly in E, Moses had made it. What was the most blatant reminder of Moses' power that was visible in Judah? The bronze serpent ' Nehushtan'.

( 2 Chronicles 31:2)”įriedman writes that the “Aaronid priesthood that produced P had opponents, Levites who saw Moses and not Aaron as their model. “Hezekiah assigned (Hebrew יעמד) the priests and Levites to divisions - each of them according to their duties as priests or Levites. Who was the king who formalized the divisions between priests and Levites? King Hezekiah.' Chronicles reports explicitly: Friedman then goes on to say “P always speaks of two distinct groups, the priests and the Levites. Only those descended from Aaron can be priests. They are the priests in authority at the central altar – not Moses, not Korah, nor any other Levites. Who was the king who began centralization? King Hezekiah.' Īccording to Friedman, and others who follow the theories of Julius Wellhausen regarding the formation of Israel's religion, P is the work of the Aaronid priesthood. P for instance “emphasizes centralization of religion: one center, one altar, one Tabernacle, one place of sacrifice. Origin of the P and the D source įriedman is of the view that the P Source of the Bible was composed during the time of Hezekiah. In his work Who Wrote the Bible?, he provides an updated analysis of the documentary hypothesis. He participated in the City of David Project archaeological excavations of biblical Jerusalem. He was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford and a Senior Fellow of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. He is a winner of numerous awards and honors, including American Council of Learned Societies Fellow. Friedman teaches courses in Hebrew, Bible, and Jewish Studies. He was the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization: Hebrew Bible Near Eastern Languages and Literature at the University of California, San Diego, from 1994 until 2006, whereupon he joined the faculty of the University of Georgia's Religion Department, where he is currently the Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies. in Hebrew Bible and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1978). He attended the University of Miami (BA, 1968), the Jewish Theological Seminary (MHL, 1971), and Harvard University (Th.M. Richard Elliott Friedman (born May 5, 1946) is an American biblical scholar, theologian, and translator who currently serves as the Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia.įriedman was born in Rochester, New York.

Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliott Friedman