<Tr> <Td> Prayer of Manasseh </Td> <Td> Prayer of Manasseh </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Psalm of David when he slew Goliath (Psalm 151) </Td> <Td> Psalm 151 </Td> </Tr> <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> These history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament . Of the remainder, the books of the various prophets--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the twelve "minor prophets"--were written between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, with the exceptions of Jonah and Daniel, which were written much later . The "wisdom" books--Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Solomon--have various dates: Proverbs possibly was completed by the Hellenistic time (332 - 198 BC), though containing much older material as well; Job completed by the 6th Century BC; Ecclesiastes by the 3rd Century BC . </P>

Who wrote the first 4 books of the old testament