Commenting
on how “authorship” could be understood rather broadly, even with respect to
sacred scripture, one Church of Christ (not the former RLDS; the Campbellite movement,
so hardly a liberal) wrote:
Even though ancient Jews did not believe that
Moses prophetically wrote of his own death in the last chapter to Deuteronomy,
they still regarded all thirty-four chapters as canonical and thus
authoritative. According to the Babylonian Talmud (b. Baba Bathra 14b-15a), Joshua the successor to Moses, wrote the
last eight verses of Deuteronomy, describing Moses’s death. And Joshua’s sons
Eleazar and Phinehas completed the book of Joshua, after Joshua’s death (Josh
24:29-33). And Gad the seer and Nathan the prophet completed the two books of
Samuel after Samuel’s death (recorded early in 2 Sam 25:1). Even though someone
besides the original authors supplied the conclusions to these canonical books,
the Jews still attributed them to Moses, Joshua, and Samuel respectively.
(David H. Warren, “Foreword” in David W. Hester, Does Mark 16:9-20 Belong in the New Testament [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf
and Stock, 2015], ix).
As one who
holds that Luke wrote Hebrews (after being commissioned by Paul to use and
appropriate a sermon he gave, similar to the early Christian tradition about
Hebrews), and open to the thesis that Paul commissioned someone from Colossae
to “Colossian-ise” Ephesians (resulting in the letter to the Colossians), such
shows that, in antiquity, one could attribute authorship of a work to person “X”
even if “X” did not personally write/dictate the text itself (while they would
be commissioned by “X” to do such in some way, whether directly or indirectly
[in the case of Joshua, being the designated successor of Moses; in the case of
Luke, in my view, being directly commissioned by Paul himself]).
B. Baba Bathra 14b-15a itself reads as follows for those interested:
B. Baba Bathra 14b-15a itself reads as follows for those interested:
Who wrote the Scriptures? — Moses wrote his
own book and the portion of Balaam and
Job. Joshua wrote the book which bears his name and [the last] eight verses of
the Pentateuch. Samuel wrote the book
which bears his name and the Book of Judges and Ruth. David wrote the Book of
Psalms, including in it the work of the elders, namely, Adam, Melchizedek,
Abraham, Moses, Heman, Yeduthun, Asaph, and the three sons of Korah. Jeremiah wrote the book which bears his name,
the Book of Kings, and Lamentations. Hezekiah and his colleagues wrote
(Mnemonic YMSHK) Isaiah, Proverbs,
the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes. The Men of the Great Assembly wrote (Mnemonic
KNDG) Ezekiel, the Twelve Minor Prophets, Daniel and the Scroll of Esther. Ezra wrote
the book that bears his name and the
genealogies of the Book of Chronicles up to his own time. This confirms the
opinion of Rab, since Rab Judah has said in the name of Rab: Ezra did not leave
Babylon to go up to Eretz Yisrael until he had written his own genealogy. Who then
finished it [the Book of Chronicles]? — Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.
The Master has said: Joshua wrote the book
which bears his name and the last eight verses of the Pentateuch. This
statement is in agreement with the authority who says that eight verses in the
Torah were written by Joshua, as it has been taught: [It is written], So Moses
the servant of the Lord died there. Now
is it possible that Moses being dead could have written the words, 'Moses died
there'? The truth is, however, that up to this point Moses wrote, from this
point Joshua wrote. This is the opinion of R. Judah, or, according to others,
of R. Nehemiah. Said R. Simeon to him: Can [we imagine the] scroll of the Law
being short of one word, and is it not written, Take this book of the Law? No; what we must say is that up to this point
the Holy One, blessed be He, dictated and Moses repeated and wrote, and from
this point God dictated and Moses wrote with tears, as it says of another
occasion, Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words to me with
his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book. Which of these two authorities is followed in
the rule laid down by R. Joshua b. Abba which he said in the name of R. Giddal
who said it in the name of Rab: The last eight verses of the Torah must be read
[in the Synagogue service] by one person alone?
— It follows R. Judah and not R. Simeon. I may even say, however, that
it follows R. Simeon, [who would say that] since they differ [from the rest of
the Torah] in one way, they differ in another.
[You say that] Joshua wrote his book. But is
it not written, And Joshua son of Nun the servant of the Lord died? — It was completed by Eleazar. But it is also
written in it, And Eleazar the son of Aaron died? — Phineas finished it. [You say that] Samuel
wrote the book that bears his name. But is it not written in it, Now Samuel was
dead? — It was completed by Gad the seer
and Nathan the prophet. [You say that] David wrote the Psalms, including work
of the ten elders. Why is not Ethan the Ezrahite also reckoned with? — Ethan
the Ezrahite is Abraham. [The proof is that] it is written in the Psalms, Ethan
the Ezrahite, and it is written
elsewhere, Who hath raised up righteousness from the East.
[The passage above] reckons both Moses and
Heman. But has not Rab said that Moses is Heman, [the proof being] that the name
Heman is found here [in the Psalms] and it is written elsewhere [of Moses], In
all my house he is faithful? — There
were two Hemans.
You say that Moses wrote his book and the
section of Balaam and Job. This supports
the opinion of R. Joshua b. Levi b. Lahma who said that Job was contemporary
with Moses — [The proof is that] it is written here [in connection with Job], O
that my words were now [efo] written,
and it is written elsewhere [in connection with Moses], For wherein now
[efo] shall it be known. But on that
ground I might say that he was contemporary with Isaac, in connection with whom
it is written, Who now [efo] is he that took venison? Or I might say that he was contemporary with
Jacob, in connection with whom it is written, If so now [efo] do this? or with Joseph, in connection with whom it is
written, Where [efo] they are pasturing?
— This cannot be maintained; [The proof that Job was contemporary with
Moses is that] it is written [in continuation of the above words of Job], Would
that they were inscribed in a book, and it is Moses who is called 'inscriber',
as it is written, And he chose the first part for himself, for there was the
lawgiver's [mehokek, lit. 'inscriber's'] portion reserved. Raba said that Job was in the time of the spies.
[The proof is that] it is written here [in connection with Job], There was a
man in the land of Uz, Job was his name,
and it is written elsewhere [in connection with the spies], Whether
there be wood [ez] therein. Where is the
parallel? In one place it is Uz, in the other EZ? — What Moses said to Israel
was this: [See] if that man is there whose years are as the years of a tree and
who shelters his generation like a tree.
A certain Rabbi was sitting before R. Samuel
b. Nahmani and in the course of his expositions remarked, Job never was and
never existed, but is only a typical figure.
He replied: To confute such as you the text says, There was a man in the
land of Uz, Job was his name. But, he retorted, if that is so, what of the
verse, The poor man had nothing save one poor ewe lamb, which he had bought and
nourished up etc. Is that anything but a
parable? So this too is a parable. If so, said the other, why are his name and
the name of his town mentioned?
R. Johanan and R. Eleazar both stated that
Job was among those who returned from the [Babylonian] Exile, and that his
house of study was in Tiberias. An objection [to this view] was raised from the
following: 'The span of Job's life was from the time that Israel entered Egypt
till they left it. (source)
