How Old Is the Hebrew Bible, Really?

Russell Gmirkin is an independent scholar known for his research on the origins of the Torah—also called the Pentateuch, which includes the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. He’s especially recognized for advocating the controversial view that the Pentateuch was composed in its entirety by a group of Jewish scholars at the Library of Alexandria around 273–272 BCE. According to this theory, the same scholars were also responsible for the early Greek translation of the Torah known as the Septuagint. While this proposed date is much later than the traditional timeline, a growing number of scholars now take the Hellenistic dating of the Pentateuch seriously.

We're currently producing a video series based on his book Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus, where Gmirkin explores the dating of the Pentateuch in depth. This is part 3 of the video series. As an Old Testament minimalist, Gmirkin challenges conventional assumptions about biblical history. In this particular episode, we focus on the creation and flood narratives, tracing their roots to earlier Mesopotamian and Greek mythologies.