When Was Old Testament Written?

Three Major Divisions

The Old Testament, as originally inspired, was divided into three major divisions. The first division was the Law, the second was the Prophets, and the third was the Writings (which included the Psalms and Proverbs). It was written from approximately the 1660s to the 400s B.C. The original canonized version contained twenty-two books, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

First Five Books

When the first five books of the Old Testament are carefully examined, they demonstrate that what was written by Moses were the actual words of the Lord God. He wrote nothing on his own initiative.

Moses, prior to his death, wrote the book of Deuteronomy. This finalized the Pentateuch or first five books listed in most Bibles. He then gave the original scrolls of the Law, also called autographs, to the priests to be placed in special sleeves attached to the side of the Ark of the Covenant.

Other Authors

Later, God used priests such as Samuel, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, descendants of Aaron, to pen other books of the Old Testament. What they had created was "laid up before the Lord." The writings of other men who were not priests, such as Kings David and Solomon, and many of the prophets, were also submitted to the priesthood.

Ultimately, all the writings collected over the years were officially made a permanent part of the Word of God by Ezra the priest. Ezra, assisted by the priests and Levites of the Great Assembly, completed the final editing and canonization of the Scriptures in the late fifth century B.C.

The below list is in chronological order. It lists the date or date range (B.C.) when a particular section of the Bible was written, the book(s) that were authored and who penned them.

Timeline of
Old Testament Books

1445 to 1405
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy
Moses

1067 to 1050
Joshua, Judges
Samuel

1060s?
Book of Ruth
Samuel

1010 to 970
Psalms 1 to 71,
107 to 119, 135 to 150
King David

1010 to 970
Psalms 73 to 88, 90 to 106
Davidic priests

970 to 930
Psalm 72, Proverbs 1 to 29 *
Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
King Solomon

Unknown
Proverbs 30
For Agur

Unknown
Proverbs 31
For King Lemuel

798
Book of Jonah
Jonah

c. 792 to 715
Book of Hosea
Hosea

c. 762
Book of Amos
Amos

740 to 686
1Samuel, 2Samuel,
1Kings, Isaiah,
2Kings (first part only)
Isaiah

740 to 711
Book of Micah
Micah

715 to 686
Psalms 120 to 134
Hezekiah

711
Book of Nahum
Nahum

627 to 585
Jeremiah, Psalm 89
2Kings (last part only)
Jeremiah

626
Book of Habakkuk
Habakkuk

c. 640 - 609
Book of Zephaniah
Zephaniah

608 to 586
Lamentations
Jeremiah

605 to 530
Book of Daniel
Daniel

597 to 570
Book of Ezekiel
Ezekiel

596 to 586
Book of Joel
Joel

590
Book of Obadiah
Obadiah

520
Book of Haggai
Haggai

520 to 518
Book of Zechariah
Zechariah

c. 473
Book of Esther
Esther, Mordecai

c. 455
1Chronicles
2Chronicles, Ezra
Ezra

c. 430
Book of Nehemiah
Nehemiah

c. 400
Book of Malachi
Malachi

* Chapters 1 to 29 of the book of Proverbs contain the sayings of King Solomon spoken between 970 and 930 B.C. During his reign, however, only the first twenty-four chapters were written and compiled by the king specifically for the book (Proverbs 1:1).

Years later, during the reign of Judah's King Hezekiah (715 to 686), men who had access to the royal archives discovered other proverbs by Solomon not included in his original work. They copied and sorted these sayings from other scrolls and including them as chapters 25 to 29 of the book of Proverbs (see Proverbs 25:1). The existence of such additional wise Old Testament sayings is entirely reasonable as Solomon was known to have spoke 3,000 of them (1Kings 4:32).