Is God an Author?

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

Simple question. Did God write, or, have others ghostwrite, books on his behalf? IE the Bible, Torrah, Quran, Vedic hindu books, whateverthehell?

(Atheists should answer no since it would be impossible for someone you do not think exists to write something)

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

Most people seem to agree with me on this one!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

No.

That should not be construed as me claiming that He isn't an author in a much broader and more important sense relative to His creation.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

It's not really a simple question, Teddy. What does it mean to be an author?
In religious tradition, people have visions from God. If that person writes down a description, an interpretation of the vision sent from God, is God the author? Or only the person who received the communication and wrote about it?
If Jesus is God, and a disciple hears him speak, and the disciple does his best to write it down a few decades later- and maybe doesn't get the words exactly right, or mixes up the order of events - is Jesus the author of those words, or is the disciple?

[anvi]

You mentioned the Vedas, Teddy, and that gives me license to bring up a curious debate that took place in the history of the Hindu philosophical tradition on this issue.

Everybody who did classical Hindu scholastic theology agreed that the Vedas were without error.  But two philosophical schools disagreed about why.  In the school of classical Nyaya (Hindu "Logic"), the familiar position was taken that the Vedas were without error because their author was God, and since God's knowledge is perfect and God never misleads people, the books he "wrote," the Vedas, could not contain error.  But another school, who were official orthodox "exegetes" of the Vedas, called the Mimamsikas, argued that the Vedas were free from error precisely because they didn't have an author!  Their main argument for this was that, whenever any text is found to be in error, the error must be accounted for as the mistake of the author.  Therefore, if there are texts that contain no error, this must be because they were authorless!    The Mimamsikas ultimately thought that the Vedas were written down by ancient sages who "heard" the resonance of divine being vibrating in the cosmos, and from that resonance, the perfect syllables, words and sentences of the Vedas sprang forth spontaneously, and the sages wrote them down.  That is why, for this school, the Vedas are called "sruti," a revelation of ultimate truth that was not overtly authored by anyone, but as the word "sruti" means, "heard."

It's a curious and, to me, amusing argument, but an interesting one nonetheless.

[Dr. Cynic]

If he is, then his books are boring.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Allah is certainly author of Koran. It's all his words delivered to a typer called Muhammad*

(* actually, what Allah said to Muhammad wasn't delivered on paper for next decades, but still)

[Joe Biden 2020]

Yes, he authored all 66 books of the Bible.  40 men and women wrote the Bible, but it was all inspiration from God.  That's why the Bible is completely infallible, because God authored it, and because God is perfect, the Bible is perfect.

God is also the Author of more than just written words on a page.  He is the Author of Salvation, the Author of Liberty, and the Author of all things good.

[Saxwsylvania]

40 men and women wrote the Bible

Interesting ...

[Joe Biden 2020]

40 men and women wrote the Bible

Interesting ...

Look at the book of Esther

[The Mikado]

40 men and women wrote the Bible

Interesting ...

Look at the book of Esther

I didn't realize that there was anyone that claimed that Esther (or Ruth) were written by Esther or Ruth.  If anyone in the story, it'd seem like it'd make sense that Mordecai was the author in Esther.

[Joe Biden 2020]

40 men and women wrote the Bible

Interesting ...

Look at the book of Esther

I didn't realize that there was anyone that claimed that Esther (or Ruth) were written by Esther or Ruth.  If anyone in the story, it'd seem like it'd make sense that Mordecai was the author in Esther.

I'll have to look again at Esther.  I believe Ruth was written by Samuel considering Ruth's great-grandson is King David.  I'll have to look at both books.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Yes

[Torie]

40 men and women wrote the Bible

Interesting ...

Look at the book of Esther

I didn't realize that there was anyone that claimed that Esther (or Ruth) were written by Esther or Ruth.  If anyone in the story, it'd seem like it'd make sense that Mordecai was the author in Esther.

I'll have to look again at Esther.  I believe Ruth was written by Samuel considering Ruth's great-grandson is King David.  I'll have to look at both books.

Upon review of the little crib sheet that recently came into my life: "Although some of the books in the Division of the Jewish scriptures called the Writings - Ruth, Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Jonah - seem to be by single authors, in no case do we know anything about the author."

[The Mikado]

40 men and women wrote the Bible

Interesting ...

Look at the book of Esther

I didn't realize that there was anyone that claimed that Esther (or Ruth) were written by Esther or Ruth.  If anyone in the story, it'd seem like it'd make sense that Mordecai was the author in Esther.

I'll have to look again at Esther.  I believe Ruth was written by Samuel considering Ruth's great-grandson is King David.  I'll have to look at both books.

Upon review of the little crib sheet that recently came into my life: "Although some of the books in the Division of the Jewish scriptures called the Writings - Ruth, Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Jonah - seem to be by single authors, in no case do we know anything about the author."

Well, yeah, from the Documentary Hypothesis academic point of view.  I was asking about the traditionalist point of view.  Though it's worth pointing out that you can figure out at least some things about where they're coming from: Ruth, if its traditional writing date as sometime around Ezra/Nehemiah is accurate, is clearly a response to Ezra's ruthless opposition to mixed marriages and a defense of same, by claiming that King David (and by extension the coming Messiah) was part Moabite.

[Joe Biden 2020]

40 men and women wrote the Bible

Interesting ...

Look at the book of Esther

I didn't realize that there was anyone that claimed that Esther (or Ruth) were written by Esther or Ruth.  If anyone in the story, it'd seem like it'd make sense that Mordecai was the author in Esther.

I'll have to look again at Esther.  I believe Ruth was written by Samuel considering Ruth's great-grandson is King David.  I'll have to look at both books.

Upon review of the little crib sheet that recently came into my life: "Although some of the books in the Division of the Jewish scriptures called the Writings - Ruth, Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Jonah - seem to be by single authors, in no case do we know anything about the author."

I just looked and no one knows who wrote Ruth or Esther.  Ruth may have been written by Samuel, but internal evidence says it was written after his death.  Esther was possibly written by Mordecai, but its possible that Ezra or Nehemiah wrote it.  Job was possibly written by Moses since it's time period was around the time of Abraham's father, Terah as it mentions Ur of the Chaldees where Terah and Abraham and Sarah lived until the latter two embarked on the calling of God to leave home.  Ecclesiastes was clearly Solomon because of the writing style, it's mostly a pessimistic book and he was lamenting that everything in life is "vanity" compared to knowing God.  Think about it, Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, a total of 1000 women, so no wonder he was depressed.  1 woman is enough, 1000 is 999 too many.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

The authorship of Job is interesting since it seems to take place on the edge or outside of the Hebrew world.  Then there's the question of whether it's by a single author, or an extended philosophical treatise set inside an old folk morality tale. 
The book of Hosea has a lot of emphasis on motherhood in it's imagery. Sometimes I wonder of it was written by a woman.

[Joe Biden 2020]

The book of Hosea has a lot of emphasis on motherhood in it's imagery. Sometimes I wonder of it was written by a woman.

The book of Hosea was written by the man himself, Hosea.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Alas, he's a hack writer of cheap paperbacks. Look around you, and you'll see my point.