<P> The first five books -- Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , book of Numbers and Deuteronomy -- reached their present form in the Persian period ( 538 -- 332 BC ) , and their authors were the elite of exilic returnees who controlled the Temple at that time . The books of Joshua , Judges , Samuel and Kings follow , forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to the Siege of Jerusalem c. 587 BC . There is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work ( the so - called `` Deuteronomistic history '' ) during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC . The two Books of Chronicles cover much the same material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC . Chronicles , and Ezra -- Nehemiah , were probably finished during the 3rd century BC . Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two ( Catholic Old Testament ) to four ( Orthodox ) Books of Maccabees , written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC . </P>
<P> The first five books -- Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , book of Numbers and Deuteronomy -- reached their present form in the Persian period ( 538 -- 332 BC ) , and their authors were the elite of exilic returnees who controlled the Temple at that time . The books of Joshua , Judges , Samuel and Kings follow , forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to the Siege of Jerusalem c. 587 BC . There is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work ( the so - called `` Deuteronomistic history '' ) during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC . The two Books of Chronicles cover much the same material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC . Chronicles , and Ezra -- Nehemiah , were probably finished during the 3rd century BC . Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two ( Catholic Old Testament ) to four ( Orthodox ) Books of Maccabees , written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC . </P>
who wrote the first 4 books of the old testament
who wrote the first 4 books of the old testament
exilic returnees
exilic returnees