As I was working on another assignment for the class I was quite surprised to see the number of times uncertainty was declared concerning the authors of the Old Testament. I must say, as one often in the New Testament more than the Old, I found I was relatively ignorant to number of questionable authors in the book.
As I researched I was wondering what percentage of questions concerning authorship was just a result of scholarly rebellion against tradition. At first, I thought that could be an answer to at least some authorship issues, and it still may. But what I want to consider for this post was the number of legitimate authorship issues. As discussed in posts and lessons, these include Moses’ influence on the Pentateuch, Jeremiah’s relation to Baruch, and others many other example.
What I have concluded is that authorship issues can be more than just who wrote the book, it can also encompass background info about the author.
As I was reading the lesson on the Milieu I was thinking about how studying it could change our interpretations of texts. I am not sure if such a topic as follows falls within the normal definition of authorship issues, but it made me think.
Take for example the prophet Obadiah. Our book says “We know nothing about the author except his name [and] there is some uncertainty about the spelling of his name” (562). We do not know anything about Obadiah, and we cannot even spell his name, yet he is in our scriptures speaking on behalf of God.
Now, if the milieu is legitimately important, as I believe it is, than are we not at a disadvantage in interpreting Obadiah’s words from the moment we open his book. We know very little about him. All we can do is discern from his general lifetime information about the current political, economic, religious situation. Yet, all of those factors create a huge stumbling block for accurate interpretation if not factored correctly.
What I am concluding is even if our author is known, authorship issues could still be present.
-Brian
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