AI helped scientists understand who wrote the Old Testament of the Bible

Artificial Intelligence Revealed the Secret of the Old Testament Authorship: The Sacred Text Was Created by at Least Three Different Authors

As reported by TUT.AZ with reference to Gazeta.ru, a revolutionary study using artificial intelligence algorithms has called into question the centuries-old belief that the first five books of the Bible were written by the prophet Moses. The results of the scientific work, published in the prestigious journal PLOS One, indicate collective authorship of the sacred text.

Researchers applied the method of linguistic attribution, carefully analyzing sentence structure, word frequency, and syntactic constructions. As a result, three distinctly different literary styles were identified, indicating that the Old Testament was created by different authors in various historical periods. Artificial intelligence discovered that the writing styles of the text creators partially overlapped, which is especially noticeable in recurring plots, contradictory descriptions, and changes in the tone of the narrative.

Although the hypothesis of multiple authorship of the Bible has existed since the 18th century, previously it relied exclusively on philological and historical-cultural data. Modern technologies have for the first time allowed for an objective quantitative analysis, significantly strengthening the argument for collaborative work on biblical texts. Notably, stylistic differences were discovered even within individual books, indicating numerous editorial changes made in different eras.

Historians believe that the formation of the Old Testament took place over an entire millennium – approximately from 1400 to the 4th century BCE. During this impressive period, the texts were not only recorded but also repeatedly edited, rewritten, and adapted to changing historical conditions – from the nomadic lifestyle of the ancient Israelites to the dramatic Babylonian captivity and subsequent return from exile. The identities of most authors and editors remain unknown, and the sacred texts themselves represent the result of a collective intellectual tradition.

The scientists' discovery opens up exciting prospects for the study of other ancient documents. Experts believe that similar artificial intelligence methods can be successfully applied, for example, to the famous Qumran manuscripts to establish their origin and authorship. This approach is especially valuable in situations where traditional research methods are insufficient to resolve questions about the authenticity of ancient texts.