Writing the Bible: Origins of the Old Testament

By: Martien Halvorson-Taylor, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Martien Halvorson-Taylor

Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Who wrote Great Expectations? That’s easy: Charles Dickens. Who’s the author of Beloved? Toni Morrison, of course. Now how about the Old Testament?

You’d think for a book as widely known, studied, and distributed as the Bible, the question of authorship would have been sorted out by now. But the question is more complex (and fascinating) than it seems. Why? Because asking it is to challenge everything we might assume about the Bible’s identity as a book, about what “writing” and “authorship” really mean, and about how a written text could become sacred to Jews and Christians, both in the ancient world and today.

In Writing the Bible: Origins of the Old Testament, work through these fascinating questions (and their related assumptions) in the company of biblical expert Martien A. Halvorson-Taylor of the University of Virginia. As you chase down answers, you’ll travel back in time to explore how oral traditions — ancient songs and stories — shaped the identity of an emerging nation, Israel, and how those traditions came to be written down, reinterpreted, and gathered into a collection of books that resonate with us even now.

The Old Testament reflects the profundity and timelessness of human experience. It has the power to shape our sense of our own lives, to frame our fears, and to inspire our ultimate hopes. What could be more interesting than finding out who, exactly, we should thank for that?

©2021 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.

Exceptional!!

Writing the Bible is a clear and lucid narrative of how the Bible came to be as we know it. Professor Halvorson-Taylor is an excellent narrator and is clearly a competent scholar with complete command of her materials. The book was a real pleasure to listen to--I hope it also comes out as a written book! One of the best books I've read or listened to on the subject!

The precision of her scholarship. Clarity

Ojectivity. Narration was good. Credible.
For first time, I got better understanding role of Septuagent in Scripture of Hebrew Bible
Presented, described, defined the processes involved in interpretation, translation, evaluation of sources.

Brilliant and comprehensive

This is an accessible and profound presentation of the complexities of biblical authorship and content. I am grateful to Prof. Halvorson-Taylor for this audio version of her scholarship and passion for this material. Enormously helpful.

A Must Listen

Five Stars! ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you want context, history, and a “how it was made account” this book is for you!

Well Done and Extraordinarily Insightful!!

In a word - Fascinating! A subject that many of us think we know well. I learned SO much new information from Professor Halverson-Taylor's insights. She explores the topic of, a. who inspired or dictated; b. who actually wrote/edited/copied/scribed; and most eye-opening - c. how we have determined the various sources and view-points of these important works. Just her timeline investigation and how & when we discovered new info that sent us scrambling back to unearth tidbits of the "why", "when", "who" of biblical authors is worth the price of admission.

If you're a bible scholar, a history buff, or even just interested from a research and "whodunnit" perspective, this course is laid out in a way that flows like a great novel, but is packed FULL of facts, dates, names, motivations, etc. Add to this, the layout of the course that has a semi-chronological flow, but with enough re-visits and "we'll discuss more on X-Y-Z in the next chapter" connections that it truly cements the information in a way that any student would dream to have presented to them.

VERY well done. I will be looking for more lectures and courses from Martien Halverson-Taylor.!

Looking behind the screen

Talk about food for thought and light... this book feeds and shines!
I plan to listen a second time.

Just as good as paid courses and books

I’ve listened and read a lot of apologetics and scholarly works on religion. This is as good as other paid Great Courses and summarized nicely the how and the why of the Bible we see before us. It is a living document passed down over centuries. It is inspired but certainly not to be taken literally at every single point. Not a single ancient Jew did so because they had no urgent need to classify things as facts in science or history but instead told stories to provide meaning to individuals and nations.

Very good

Very educational. Theories were presented I hadn’t heard before, and were plausibly supported. I liked the matter of fact presentation.

Interesting and compelling

I usually feel like most courses could have been much shorter. In this one I’m left with the opposite feeling, I wish the lecturer would have expanded on some of the examples rather than sending the listeners to her website. Otherwise, the course is very well organized and told at a very compelling way, really makes you think about the magnitude of these writers and the lasting historical impact they made which is still shaping our present day.

Great exegesis

This was a fascinating lecture series, with the author very clearly outlining how Hebrew Scripture came to be recorded. I appreciated her balanced explanations and that you don’t have to be a Bible scholar to understand. Excellent!!