When Was the Psalter Compiled?In recent research, some scholars have proposed extremely late dates for the final formation of the Hebrew Psalter, even as late as the 1st century CE. By amassing evidence from the manuscript tradition, ancient translations, secondary reception and reuse, as well as book history, I argue that the basic framework of the traditional, five-book Psalter is rather the product of the late Persian period (5th–4th centuries BCE).
See also Scribes and the Psalter: Situating Ancient Psalm Collections in Their Scribal Contexts (Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming in 2026).
By Drew Longacre
Research Fellow
University of Münster
September 2025
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