Who is the author of Sefer Shoftim (Judges)?

Question

According to Jewish tradition, who wrote Sefer Shoftim / Book of Judges?

I'd also be curious to know what secular scholars would answer to this question. However I am mainly concerned with what Jewish tradition believes. Was it one of the prophets? It must have been someone who was there all along. (Unless there were multiple authors - were there?)

Double AA · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-15T19:36:46.367

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The Babylonian Talmud (BB 14b) writes that the prophet Samuel wrote his eponymous book, the Book of Judges, and the Book of Ruth. For a likely Tiberian perspective, the Masorah in the back of the Leningrad Codex (here) concurs.

edited May 15 '17 at 19:36

answered May 15 '17 at 19:30

Double AA

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wow how did you find that in the Leningrad Codex? – CodyBugstein May 15 '17 at 21:20
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I read it. [15] – Double AA May 15 '17 at 21:21
what is a likely tiberian perspective? – Menachem May 15 '17 at 22:13
@Menachem a perspective which likely is tiberian (tiberian = of tiberias) – Double AA May 15 '17 at 22:14
@Menachem - What Double AA means is that the masorah of the Tiberian scribes agrees with the notion that the prophet Samuel authored the book. – ezra May 15 '17 at 23:42
It's not hard to imagine that Samuel used existing records of things and edited them together into a finished book, instead of composing the whole thing from scratch. cf https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/37199/759 – Double AA May 16 '17 at 17:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 16 '17 at 01:01

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For a text as old as Shoftim, 'secular scholars' do not, in general, maintain theories that some particular, named, individual wrote a text.

The books I have read point to ways in which there are coherent groups of stories which might have common origins, some dialectic evidence for northern versus southern origin, and some ideas about later edits.

These books are currently in boxes, so I cannot oblige requests for references.

answered May 16 '17 at 01:01

bimargulies

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This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. - From Review – Danny Schoemann May 16 '17 at 08:22
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Someone expressed specific curiosity about the views of secular scholars. Look, I usually don't write answers here, because of the general tendency to stick to traditional source and viewpoints. – bimargulies May 16 '17 at 14:48
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@DannySchoemann et al: https://judaism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/4332 – msh210 May 16 '17 at 15:58

Who is the author of Sefer Shoftim (Judges)?

2 Answers2