Were the Biblical Authors “Elites”?Interesting question. The answer, of course, could vary from book to book, or even within a book. The prophet Isaiah is certainly presented as one of the elite. But much of his book is clearly not by him and we don't know who the other authors were or who originally circulated whatever he did write....Biblical texts are invariably anonymous, undated and unprovenanced. If we do not know who wrote the text, and if we are unable to compellingly demonstrate when or where the text was written, it follows that we can hardly expect to know very much at all about the social position the author occupied in the community within which he was embedded
See also The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal (Yale University Press, 2022).
By Yonatan Adler
Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology
Ariel University
July 2024
It's also true that we have very little evidence for knowledge of the laws of the Mosaic Torah before the Hasmonean period. But we have very little written evidence at all before that period. And what we do have does contain the odd hint, such as the apparent allusion to a Torah law in the late-seventh-century BCE Yavneh Yam (Mesad Hashavyahu) ostracon or the (reconstructed but arguable) reference to Passover observance in the fifth-century BCE "Passover papyrus" from Elephantine.
Ultimately, as Adler indicates, with our current evidence we just don't know when the biblical texts were written, let alone who wrote them.
For more on Alder's book, see the posts collected here.
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