It is commonly accepted that Moses wrote the first five books called the ‘Torah,’ which means Law, but it is highly improbable that he wrote all of them; especially in the end of Numbers where it mentions how humble Moses was and in Deuteronomy, which mentions Moses' death. It is difficult to know who the author is in many cases because it is unknown and the title of a given book only refers to the individual as the main subject; in many cases. In Psalms 68: 11 it reads, “The Lord gave the word and great is the company of them that published it,” and so with this in mind an attempt will be made to search for the internal evidence of who the biographer is or what source(s) supply the material for much of the Old Testament Canon.
One name which stands out quite prominently is Zadok the priest, who first appears in I kings 1: 8, 39 and all the way to Ezra 7: 1-5. There is a Zadok mentioned in Nehemiah 3: 6 (“Zadok son of Baana”) and Nehemiah 3: 29 (“Zadok son of Immer).
I Chronicles 29: 29
The acts of David are written in the book of Samuel the seer, the book of Gad the seer, and in the book of Nathan the seer.
NOTE: The prophet Samuel anointed David King, replacing Saul and Nathan and Gad were seers of King David at one time or another.
II Chronicles 9: 29
The acts of Solomon are written in the book of Nathan the prophet, the prophesy of Ahijah the Shilohnite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer.
12: 15
The acts of Rehoboam are written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer concerning genealogies.
13: 22
The acts of Abijah and his sayings are written in the annals of Iddo the prophet.
20: 34
The acts of Jehoshaphat are written in the book of Jehu, the son of Hanani the seer (Cp. 19: 2).
26: 32
The acts of Uzziah, the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz wrote (Cp. Isaiah 1: 1).
32: 30
The acts of Hezekiah are written in the visions of Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz (Cp. Isaiah 1: 1)
33: 1a, 19b
The rest of the acts of Manasseh before he was humbled, indeed are they not written in the acts of the Hozai (“seers”).
36: 12-23
The prophet Jeremiah is the source for much regarding Zedekiah and the Babylonian captivity under King Nebuchadnezzar.
The seer Iddo is just as prominent a figure and perhaps more important than Zadok the priest; and he is mentioned in II Chronicles 13: 22b; Ezra 5: 1; 6: 14; 8: 17; Nehemiah 12: 14, 16. Iddo is one of the returning exiles (Cp. Nehemiah 12: 14) and the individual who keeps track of genealogies (Cp. II Chronicles 12: 15), which is crucial in maintaining the ritual purity of the Levites and priests, especially. Even some of the writings of Jeremiah the prophet were performed by Baruch the scribe (Cp. Jeremiah 36: 4, 17-18, 32: 45: 1). And lastly, Ezra was a scribe as well as a priest and wielded quite a lot of power among the people by the authority of Xerxes king of Persia (Cp. Ezra 7: 11-26) and doubtless influenced the religion of the returning captives, the native Jewish remnants, as well as the foreign immigrants in the cities throughout Judea.
Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
August 20, 2008
pbks@hotmail.com
