Who Asked: Matthew
NaNo-novel: Ghosts of the Mind
Answer: The Bible was written by around 40 men over the course of approximately 1,600 years (there is some debate about this, but for the sake of simplicity, we are going to go with what is in the traditional canon). Given the course of history —including the Jewish exile and the apostle’s missionary “tours”—these books were written in a number of different places.
According to a chart I found in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, the different books were written in the following locations:
- The Wilderness: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Job
- Plains of Moab:Deuteronomy
- Canaan: Joshua
- Israel: 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel
- Judah: Joel, Amos, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah
- Judah/Egypt:1 Kings, 2 Kings, Jeremiah
- Jerusalem: 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, James
- Near Jerusalem:Lamentations
- Shushan: Esther
- Babylon: Ezekiel, Daniel, 1 Peter, 2 Peter
- Samaria: Hosea
- Palestine: Matthew, Jude
- Rome: Mark, Acts, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 2 Timothy, Philemon, Hebrews
- Caesarea: Luke
- Ephesus: John, 1 Corinthians, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John
- Corinth: Romans, Galatians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians
- Macedonia: 2 Corinthians, 1 Timothy, Titus
- Patmos: Revelation
- Uncertain location: Obadiah, Jonah
This resource does note: “Names of writers of some books and of places where written are uncertain.”
Biblestudy.org has an online map of these locations, or more detailed information can be found in any Bible atlas, such as the one I looked through, the Oxford Bible Atlas.
As far as the Bible as a codex, the codex form was used soon after its invention in the first century for recording and easily finding scriptures.
So, how to relate this to your novel? As a young adult librarian, I have seen reviews of a number of books where the author took one person or place from the Bible and used his or her imagination to fill in the blanks. You could take a more novel approach and cover one of the true villains in the Bible . . .
Alternately, the above locations are all prime sites for your Indiana Jones style archeologist to go artifact hunting.
Hope the novel is coming along well!
Thank you for playing Stump the Librarian.
Amber
Web Resources
Print Resources
- New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
- Oxford Bible Atlas
