Quote:What they are getting at in this 3+ page argument is that there really is no certainty who wrote a good portion of the Tanach
I quite agree with you, E, but the question really comes down to, is that even important? There is a legal maxim of "cui bono;" who benefits. Once one gets by the biblical horseshit of a great "Davidic Empire" the reality of first millenium Judah is of a poverty-stricken region of goat and sheep herders which attained some measure of prosperity and growth as part of the Assyrian economic system in the 8th century BC. They tried to rebel against Assyria, were crushed, regenerated under subsequent kings again as part of the Assyrian system only to get sucked into the political dealings between Egypt-Assyria on one side and Babylon on the other. The Babylonians won and Jerusalem was sacked and burned. Later in the 6th century the area fell to the Persians who ruled it from c 530 to 333 BC when they lost it to the Greeks. Greek rule lasted nearly as long until a successful rebellion ousted the Seleucids in 141 BC. It is only at that time that there is actually an independent, "Jewish," state and thus the only time that someone could benefit from a story or collection of stories such as those told in the OT.
The Persians, Greeks, Babylonians and Assyrians would not have tolerated such pretensions by a subject people. Religion then, as now, serves the needs of the ruling class.
